Bio-Vlog

It is finally time to hear the winners. In the back of the theater, I’m standing with Janalee, and I am listening to hear who will receive the bronze, silver and gold. My vision is fuzzy, but my ears are taking it all in. Then, due to my years as a fighter, I can sense…

I sit down and approximately 1,000 people sit up. Everyone goes quiet, and I can feel everybody is riveted. Despite the huge stakes and the thick tension, my karate and acting training enables me to give the impression that I am pretty calm, cool, and collected when, in fact, “the butterflies” in my stomach are…

I’m backstage, standing anxiously waiting to hear the announcer call my name. I’m listening carefully. Coming from the stage in a monotone voice the MC says, “Next we have Richard Turner.” “Whoa!” The butterflies in my stomach just did a triple summersault. It feels like Sensei Murphy calling me into the ring. I slowly start…

“Relaxing around my table is card-counter Bobby Singer, award winning magician Johnny Ace Palmer, and once again fighter John Douglas. Bobby, I understand your first meeting with Richard was worthy of a TV episode and Johnny, your comic book story….Well I’ll let you tell it.” “Yes, Jon,” Singer says, “I first had the privilege of…

I’ve decided to enter the highly combative Desert Magic Seminar Competition in Las Vegas, hosted by the Vegas headliners, Siegfried and Roy. It’s a downright cutthroat rivalry among the world’s most notable and talented magicians. The odds-makers are certainly not favoring a card mechanic. Vernon confides to me and I can hear the murmuring: they…

Many of my friends are skeptical about this radical arrangement, and many think it is a really bad idea to marry this woman. Others are blunt, opining, “Janalee is flat out bad news. Get out now, while you still can!”  But, when it comes to women, I am blind in more than one way. Even…

Out of the blue, Janalee proposes marriage to me. She says in a bold manor, “I think we should get married, and I should get rid of my apartment and permanently move in with you.  She tells me, I promise to stop drinking.”  As I think about Janalee’s marriage proposal I’m wondering if I’m becoming…

The longer she talks the better she seems to feel. As I hear her life unfold, I don’t feel that I have the right to judge her. I think, “There is enough culpability and guilt to go around. Besides, I know how it feels to be a victim, like when I was teased, kicked and…

“No family member wanted to take me in. She mumbles on with an overt tone of anger, “When I was thirteen, a pimp gave me some strong drugs that knocked me out. He raped me over and over again. Each time I regained consciousness he would be raping me somewhere else. I was put into…

Janalee looks over at me and blurts, not really a question, but more of a statement, “Who are you? Are you some kind of rescuing angel?” She turns away. I can tell that she has closed her eyes as she continues to mumble. She speaks with a voice that is void of emotion. “My father…

The next day Janalee has, not surprisingly, a wicked hangover. She slowly works her way to the deck at the back of my home, and finds a comfortable place on the deck with the sun shining down where she lays down to convalesce. As she basks in the sun, she begins talking, basically rambling on-and-on,…

Janalee has a few more drinks and watches a few more tricks. Then she shocks me when she boldly says, “Richard, is your place close by?” Wondering what she’s thinking, hesitantly, I reply, “Not too far.” She says, “Ready to get out of here?”  This time, I’m the sucker, “and a big one at that!…