A Serious Plea
I am a Myrtle Beach area magician and I specialize in family and children’s entertainment. A very serious trend has happened in my local area, and while I am very uncomfortable to even discuss it I feel compelled to make anyone aware that I can reach. Please pass this information along and use it anyway you see fit to protect our children. I knew I could not hesitate to get this info out because it could save a child from endangerment and also a business from a lawsuit. If this happened once maybe it wouldn’t be a trend, but twice in the same community? I feel this must be brought to light. So while it pains me to bring up this topic I feel it needs to be said. In our area alone two entertainers have arrest records for inappropriate behavior and one was with a minor.
One of these was a performer at a restaurant, and even gained trust with the parents of a child to lure the child away from the parents and take advantage. In this instance he was arrested sent to jail and the restaurant where the instance happens there was a lawsuit brought against them for not doing an appropriate background check. This performer was a registered sex offender prior to working in this restaurant! This same performer was in the myrtle beach are performing under an alias. The latest restaurant did not do any background check because he wasn’t an employee! As soon as I found this out, (in the magic community this type news can get around) I reacted quickly to get this person out of the restaurant by letting the manager know this mans past.
Another performer that still calls our area his home was involved in many instances of abuse in college and was able to get the cases thrown out of court and plea bargained down. He is still performing under an alias right now. While I have never met him I can only hope he doesn’t do children’s birthday parties! I do not believe he is a registered sex offender.
I only ask anyone reading this article to consider that one bad apple does not spoil the bunch. We have many great magicians, balloon artists and face painters in our community. Just know that perverts and sex offenders will always try and find jobs where they can be near our children. It is our job as parents and business owners to at least run a background check and also Google their name. To make sure you know the person’s real identity and that they are not operating under any alias. After the manager of the restaurant was made aware of this performer’s past, he got rid of this performer. Later I went back and asked him if he would ever hire another magician, his answer was “probably not” I urged him to reconsider, because this is why no other entertainer would let him know, they are afraid of losing work. For me I can’t stand for this.
I believe if we are great at what we do the work comes, and I have seen this happen time after time. I encourage you to seek out and hire quality entertainment for your various events and parties, just do a little digging first!
BTW my full name is Thomas Gerrald Thompson, nickname is Gerry Thompson, and I perform as “Gerry The great” and my friends just call me “Great.” Google me please!