07/12/2025
One of the best magicians you’ve never heard of.
I got the news today that Ed Keska passed away. He was a terrific magician but didn’t work much and that was by design. Ed had performance anxiety. He was part of the Little Bit O’Magic legacy. He also had a straight job working for the Illinois Department of Transportation.
When I worked with Ed at Bit O’Magic, he would only work Fridays because he worked all day and rushed from work to the lounge. He didn’t have time to think of performing. He hated working Saturdays because he would be thinking about performing for the entire day, getting more and more anxious. But once he started performing, he was the best of us.
He was easily likable, friendly, quiet, and a killer when performing. I saw him surprise some of the best magicians in the world with his production of a glass of water with a goldfish in it.
Hearing some exciting news . . . Ed, Bill Weimer, and I took the long ride from the Southwest side of Chicago to Schulien’s Restaurant because Heba Haba Al was working the bar. Bill knew Heba from his days working the New York Lounge, but Ed and I were seeing Heba for the first time. It was everything we hoped it would be. The bar was PACKED and we got to see Heba do all the stuff he was famous for.
It ended up to be Heba’s last. He would die days later.
As I think about Ed, it reminds me that it is the “work” that is important. He was a real Chicago Style magician, and the audience was left baffled and happy. For them it was “Fun to be fooled.”
