Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bob Carroll. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Bob , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I was a professional magician and ventriloquist for over 55 years traveling all over the United States doing my act. When I retired to California to be near my grandchildren, I never would have thought that I would be doing a Facebook show about trivia. So it happened the day Covid 19 hit us hard. I remember that is around March 18th 2020 had us on lock down. I told my wife Deb that I was going to go crazy just sitting around and I said I bet a lot of other people was going to feel the same way. So I told her that I was going to do a trivia show on Facebook. So I got out a trivia book and went live about 3 PM in the afternoon waiting for people to show up. Now it wasn’t many people but I got the feeling that they really enjoyed it. It lasted about 20 minutes and I gave away a book at the end of the broadcast.
It was a fun show and I did it the next day and kept adding more to the show each week until it was an hour format. It wasn’t a lot of people coming to the show but they were loyal and some were my friends from the east coast. Soon I was learning how to use OBS system to add jingles, guest segments, jokes, games, puzzles and make it a real show. I did this seven days a week through Covid and beyond. The show did not have a large following but I felt what I was doing made people happy. It was something they looked forward to each day. I got to know each person as the show progressed. It wasn’t all happy times because some of the viewers passed away during Covid or lost spouses along the way. The viewers became a family that we called Triviamaniacs.
I did this show because I loved to bring some laughter into their lives. This was never about being paid or making money. It was about making people come together. The show changed over the years. I wanted it to be more than a trivia show so I added a character called Mrs. Cavendish so I would have somebody else to be onscreen besides me. It was fun to come up with comedy routines like the old Soupy Sales Show. Well, that dates me. Eventually, I started to do only five shows a week. I went down to three days.
After the 500th show, I decided to end the show with a grand finale. It was hard to stop but it was hard to come up with content. Most of the people who came to the show was there from the first broadcasts in 2020 and stayed til the last show. After about a month of quitting the program, I started up again but decided to do one show a week on Sunday. Today, I am heading to the 600th show into 2024. This is a labor of love and I tried to make it a positive experience for people. It was a safe haven for people to visit. We never discussed anything that would hurt people. We never brought up politics. We treated each person with respect and even love. So how many people watched this show? Thousands? Hundreds? No, under 50! What? Yes! They were there for most of the shows and some still come each week. I must say that in all my career of performing, this has been the most rewarding part of it all. Retired, doing a show at home and making people happy if only for a short time each week. Find something you love to do for a living. Find a passion!

Bob , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

What was the exact moment that I wanted to be a magician and ventriloquist? It was a series of things when I was a kid. I used to watch the Ed Sullivan show and each week it had variety artists on that did magic or puppets. I never thought I could ever do what some of those people did. One day, my grandfather showed me a trick when I was about seven years old. He showed me a penny and covered it up with a red block. When he lifted the block, the penny was gone and in its place was a dime. Now to a kid that was the most amazing thing I saw. All I could think of was if I did this enough, I would make nine cents every time I did the trick. Of course, once my grandfather showed me how to do it, I was a little disillusioned. However, that one simple trick set me on the path of performing. I read books in the library on magic, went to magic shops and bought a ton of tricks and puppets. One day, when I was about 10, I saw an ad for a magician named Tommy Atkins who was going to be appearing at a church. It was snowing in front of the church. As I was waiting outside, a car pulled up and a woman got out and asked if this was where the magic show was going to be. I had no idea that she was the magician named Tommy Atkins. I had assumed it was a man so right there I was fooled!
She asked me to help her carry her props. She had me onstage doing a trick. Later in the show, she performed ventriloquism. After the show, she let me play with her puppets. It began a friendship that would last until she passed away in her seventies. She taught me a lot over the years. I feel as if I had never worked a day in my life since I got to do what I loved to do. Not everybody can say that.
I worked as a radio announcer at my local stations from age 13 to 21. I started doing shows about the same time in my Albany, NY area. I worked clubs, discos, amusement parks, theaters and 25 years as a school show performer for elementary students in six states. I performed 3 or four shows a day doing magic/ventriloquism while teaching kids about safety issues and saying no to drugs. A very rewarding career.

The most rewarding career job I had was getting to work at Gaslight Village in Lake George, NY for 20 summers. It was an old time 1890’s theme park with a lot of performers working on an outdoor stage and in a theater called The Opera House. I got to see and perform with some of the people who were once on The Ed Sullivan show. It was really amazing. I got to sit and talk with some of the real life munchkins who were in the Wizard of Oz and the movie The Court Jester with Danny Kaye. I became friends with Joe Jackson Jr. Joe performed on Ed Sullivan almost 40 times doing a clown tramp act. It was a dream come true working with professional ice skaters, dancers, comedians, magicians, escape artists, wild animal acts, jugglers and acts from around the world. I went from being a kid who saw acts on TV to working with some of my idols. If I could give a piece of advice to any one who is talented, it would be to follow your dream. No matter what you want to do, live your best life!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This is the story of how not giving up can pay off in a big way. Charles Wood was a millionaire who owned several amusement parks in Lake George. It was Storytown, USA that he opened in 1954 and Gaslight Village in 1959. He was known as the real godfather of the Amusement Park Industry. He actually opened his park before Disneyland.

It was around 1969 when I went to apply for a job. I was 19 and just trying to get into show business full time. As a kid, I went to Gaslight Village the first year it was open in 1959.

I wanted to work there as a performer. So here is my story of how persistence paid off.

The parking lot at Storytown looked empty except for a few cars. It was around noon when I walked up to the office with my small scrapbook of clippings under my arm. The secretary wasn’t at her desk. There was no one around.”Hello?” I shouted down the hall. “Yes, down here.” A voice said. I walked in and saw a man wearing a yellow shirt, brown pants and work boots. It is funny how I can remember that. “Hello, my name is Bob and I am a ventriloquist and magician. Here is my scrapbook of my news clippings. I would love to work at Gaslight Village on the outdoor stage.” Notice, I didn’t ask who the man was. I was scared. I never did this before. I had no interview training. I just went in blindly. Oh, to be that naive again!

He invited me to sit down while he looked over my stuff. “Very nice” he said.”But we are all filled up with entertainers for this year. Try us again next year.” With that, he handed my scrapbook back and I thanked him and walked out the door. As I was going down the hall, another man stopped me and asked what I was doing in that room. I explained what I was doing there. “Do you know who you were talking to? Don’t you know that you shouldn’t be down this hall? Don’t you..etc..etc…” I apologized and said that I was trying to get a job at Gaslight Village. “Well, you were just talking to the boss, Mr. Wood.” “He told me that there were no openings.” I answered.

Rex Billings was the person who had me cornered now. He was the park manager and as it turns out an amateur magician.I think he saw the fear and hunger in my eyes. I really wanted to do my act at Gaslight.

Then he asked me something that I had hoped to avoid at all costs. “Have you ever done manual labor?” My whole nervous system shut down. I think I went deaf right there. Now mind you, I had done a lot of work when I was a kid. I shoveled snow, mowed grass, raked leaves and mopped floors but nothing like this job.

I think Rex saw me as a challenge. He knew that I wanted that job really bad so this is what he proposed. “Listen, I think I might be able to help you get that job at Gaslight. Here is what I will do. You come to work as a laborer and when I know Mr. Wood will be in a certain area, I will send you there before he gets there. That way he will see you all over the park” I guess it made sense to me. So I began my day with a walkie-talkie on my belt and went to work. I dug ditches, installed wires, mixed cement, cleaned up duck poop, washed windows, painted buildings and cleaned the park. Each day was exhausting. But true to his word, Rex called me on the walkie-talkie and told me to go somewhere and do some work. Five minutes later, Mr. Wood would show up to do something or give orders. He came up to me after the first few times and asked me if I was the kid who came to his office about the Gaslight job. I said that I still wanted the job if something came up. Every day for three weeks, I would bounce from job to job. I was the master of moving from job to job. Finally, one day Mr. Wood came up to me and said “Can I ask you a question? How many of there are you in the park? You seem to be everywhere! Can’t we find you a job you like?” I smiled and said,”I must be so good that I am needed everywhere!” Mr. Wood just shook his head.

Rex was always by Mr. Wood’s side when he toured the park so I could see him chuckle to himself when Mr. Wood asked me those questions. It was kind of his own private joke on the boss. I was the only one who knew about it. I was even feeling uneasy about popping up everywhere. After all, it was an 80 acre park.

It was the day before Storytown opened and there weren’t many employees around. I will say that Mr. Wood was one of the hardest working people I have ever met. He would work right next to his employees and do the same amount of work. There were about 6 of us in the park finishing up for the day when Mr. Wood decided to buy us dinner across the street. It was a well needed break. I was eating my sandwich at the table when I saw Mr. Wood getting ready to leave the restaurant. He came up to me and said, ” You know that job at Gaslight that you wanted on the outdoor stage..You start next Thursday!”

And so began my journey at Gaslight Village. I worked there over 20 summer seasons. It was the best training ground anyone could ever have. Gaslight was its own town all by itself. If you want to learn more about it, visit FaceBook and search for Gaslight Village. There are stories and pictures about the park and the amazing people who worked there.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I got in the Guinness Book of Records in the 1970’s for telling jokes non stop for 24 hours straight in a nightclub. It helped me get shows in the Albany NY area. I was very successful in my local area performing but I thought that Las Vegas would be the place for me to be. My wife, son and I moved out there to work. We did find some work at an amusement park called Old Vegas. I did some work in the lounges and performed in just about every venue in Las Vegas. It was really hard to break into the market but the lounges had entertainment 24 hours a day so there was always a place to work until…Howard Hughes! That’s right, he bought some casinos and decided to do away with a lot of things Vegas was known for. He started closing the free shows or the two drink minimum places. It put a lot of performers out of work. Bands, novelty acts and even semi-famous people were going to be out of work.
George Burns once said “there isn’t a place for performers to have a training ground anymore” He was right. So we packed up our stuff and moved back to New York State. It was the best plan of action. We only lived in Las Vegas for a few short years and it was a great experience. Once I went back to my own area, I got a job offer from a private company doing school shows teaching children Stranger Danger,  safety and Saying No to Drugs. It was a salary job with insurance, a company car, meals on the road and hotels paid for. Plus, 6 weeks paid vacation! What could be better? I worked for them for 25 years. I got to entertain millions of children in 6 states for 180 school days a year. It was the perfect job for a performer.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobcarroll.trivia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheTriviaKing
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT8tpKSR8tiJ-KaFmAClzaQ