Johnny Ace Palmer

Johnny Ace Palmer is an award-winning American close-up magician. He is famous within the worldwide magical community for his prodigious sleight-of-hand abilities.

Palmer was born in Warren, Ohio, in the late 1950s and attended Lakeview High School in Ohio until his graduation. Following high school, Palmer attended Kent State University in Ohio in the late 1970s and early '80s. He came to magic early in life, and as a teenager, performed a stage act with his sister, Peggy. Palmer likes to say that he was "put on this Earth to do magic." In college, he majored in both theater arts and psychology stating he wanted to prepare himself for his future career as a magician.

Palmer started performing magic in the early 1970s, many times performing at churches and giving a Christian message with his magic. His mother, Ann Aanne, help get him bookings and was one time asked what he could do that was really amazing to which she replied, "He can pull an eight ball from a thimble." This was not a skill that Palmer had even tried but, because he was very creative, figured out a way to do it for the performance and has been one of his signature skills ever since. Palmer was able to get a job as Bingo the Clown at The Ground Round Restaurant in Niles, Ohio in the late 1970s on the weekends and incorporated his magic to entertain customers before and after their meal. He used Ground Round tokens instead of coins to perform his coin magic and prided himself on being able to do sleights without using gaffed(trick) coins. Working on the weekends afforded Palmer the opportunity to hone his skill with sleight-of-hand and practice his cups and balls routine to help make it the classic it is today.

Throughout the 1980s, Palmer entered and competed in a large number of American magic competitions, culminating in his first-place wins at the annual convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the annual convention of the Society of American Magicians.

Then he set his sights on international goals, entering the world-championship of magic, a competition called FISM, in 1988. He presented a 10-minute act which was one of the first competition acts to utilize stage techniques in a closeup setting. One routine for which he became known was a version of the Cups & Balls in which the final load was three live baby chicks.

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