Updated MAY 26, 2008
New photo at bottom
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of Bob Moats |
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The story continues...
Meijer's hadn't changed much in the new year of 2003, Becky was still a pain, and corporate was still making really dumb moves. I was still trying to keep my "team" happy and productive but they would still goof off too much and complain about every little thing. After a while my supervisor, Gary, just up and quit one morning, he got an email from the store director that annoyed him so he packed it in. He did have some money from an inheritance and he also had a job offer from a drug store chain so he was planning to leave anyways, but the email moved him ahead. His leaving made my life more complicated since he was my buffer from the upper management. I just held on to my sanity and waited the storm out. One day I heard they needed someone in store detectives and talked to the store director about transfering but he asked me to wait till they replaced Gary so I said yes.
At home one morning I received an email from a person I had gone to school with and knew through my first marriage. Nancy was her name and she and her husband were friends of my first wife. Back when I had my magic shop her brother, John, who was about 16 at the time came in to my store and bought his first magic equipment and took my magic classes. Now Nancy tells me he is in Las Vegas performing at the Flamingo Hotel/Casino after Gladys Knight's show doing a comedy magic act under the name The Amazin-g J0hnathan. I wrote her back a few times then one day I got an email from John asking if I would be interested in a job in Vegas. Nancy sent him a copy of one of my emails and he was in need of a new production manager. I was interested and after a few more emails about the job, I went out to Vegas and looked the job over. The promised money was good and Las Vegas was a treat, a giant Disney Land for adults. I said I'd take the job and headed back to Michigan to tie up loose ends. It would be hard leaving my family but I had to take the offer. I let my son and his girlfriend live in my apartment to pack things for me, quit my job and headed back to Vegas.
My first month working for the Amazin-g J0hnathan was busy, mostly learning the job from the guy I was going to replace, Chris Ritter. Chris left out a few things about the job, mostly what kind of person Johnathan was like. My job entailed having to set his magic props up every night for his show, acting as stage manager during the show to make sure all the cues went off alright, keeping track of his finances and schedules for personal appearances, etc, basically doing everything he didn't want to do. My job became a six day a week 24 hour a day job, even my one day off was interupted by some little petty thing he would need. I found out that John was a rather arrogant, billigerent person, he tended to yell alot about things. I was still learning the ropes of my job and the constant pressure of handling everything made it hard to be perfect. In my second month I turned my notice to quit citing the fact that I didn't need to be treated like a moron for errors I made, and his lack of respect. He shot back an email digging at my wanting to give up so fast, and made me annoyed enough to stay. I basically stayed away from him as much as possible and did my job. I got to be friends with the stage crew that worked at the Flamingo and they were very understanding of the situation. Their biggest complaint was not so much with John, altho they didn't like his attitude, but with my predecessor, Chris. Chris had alienated the crew and they came out with a bad attitude also. I was a breath of fresh air to them but John was starting to bad mouth them. After a few months Halloween came up and I was never so glad to see a holiday go by. It was hell week as we were told (ordered) by John to do things for the show without any proper rehearsals and with shoddy equipment. We made it through that and I was closer to quiting every day but held on mostly for the money.
Around November my son decided to move to Arizona with his girlfriend to stay with her parents till they could find work. The town they went to didn't exactly have a big job market. They came out to visit me for a couple of weeks and liked it enough to want to move here. They went back to Arizona for a couple of weeks and then back to Vegas and moved into my modest little apartment. They applied at a local staffing company and my son eventually got into a training class for a good job with T-Mobile as a service rep.
All during the time I was working for him, John was in negotiations to move from the Flamingo to the Golden Nugget, but he was having too many problems with the contract. He was also putting down the Flamingo publically in local gossip columns which didn't settle too well with those who knew him. His contract with the Flamingo ended November 17th and he was supposed to start at the Golden Nugget in January, but the contract still hadn't been signed. One day on my only day off my son and I were at the Flamingo so I could talk to someone there about a job, my business cell phone rang and I was "ordered" by John to go to his house, no explaination, just "get out here". I dropped my son off and headed out there, preparing to have him explode about some crap and I would be ready to quit. I don't want to go into details but I did quit. I couldn't take it any more, I just couldn't stand him anymore.
So that brings me to today, January 9th, 2004, as I write this. I'm starting a job shortly working for the same people as my son, I'm relieved not having the tension of working for the Amazin-g J and I've gotten my magic equipment together so I'm going to see if I can become a big name performer in this town, hey stranger things have happened.
To see more about my magic go to http://magicbob.biz
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