Michael Jackson's Magic Man
Still awaiting a verdict in his child-molestation
trial, Michael Jackson presumably is enduring the deliberations the same way he got through the four months of court proceedings--with the help of his family, his friends and his personal magician.His personal magician?
"I know you can't believe it, but it's true--it's me, the magnificent one," intones the outgoing voice-mail message for Majestik Magnificent.
In recent months, Magnificent has accompanied the pop star to the Santa Maria, California, courthouse, defended the entertainer to the press, and appeared at a prosecution-bashing fan rally.
If the man himself is not exactly a mysterious figure--that was him on the Fox News Channel Tuesday night--his supposed title is a head-scratcher: Is there such a thing as a personal magician? What kind of name is Majestik Magnificent? And can he make a 10-count
indictment disappear?According to Jackson's spokeswoman, the answer to the first part is no--there is no such thing as a personal magician, at least where Jackson and Magnificent are concerned. While the press routinely describes Magnificent as the singer's "personal magician," Raymone Bain says the man is a "longtime family friend."
As to the name, Majestik Magnificent apparently is the legal moniker of the 49-year-old Las Vegas-based, well...what?
John Moehring, editor of MAGIC: The Magazine for Magicians, says he's "never" heard of Magnificent. "And I went and looked," he says after combing through the magazine's subscriber rolls made up almost exclusively of those in the magic trade.
Magnificent himself did not return a call seeking comment. But Reva Renee Renz, who like many upstanding Californians
ran for governor in 2003, can attest to the man's stagecraft. Renz says she assisted Magnificent with a routine years ago after being plucked from the audience at Los Angeles' old Sunset Strip haunt Carlos 'n Charlie's.Magnificent was a nice guy, Renz says, and "a completely normal magician." Apparently, though, he just didn't have a David Copperfield showstopper in the act. Says Renz: "I honestly cannot recall any of the exact tricks."
To be sure, Jackson
jurors appeared beyond anybody's spell Tuesday, proceeding deliberately, and, for the third straight day, producing no verdict.On Monday's Larry King Live,
former Jackson attorney Mark Geragos said he expected jurors to reach a final decision this week. Being that he is still bound by the case's gag order, Geragos didn't say what he thought that final decision would be.Jackson, 46, is
accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy, plying the child with alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family against their will. The entertainer has pleaded innocent to all charges.In another courthouse press conference Tuesday, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the pop star's so-called spiritual advisor, insisted that his friend is not faking the ailments that sent him to the
hospital at least twice in the last week."The jury has the fate," the reverend said, "and Michael must have the faith."
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