Bill
Black is a North Carolinian who left the state when he
entered the Army. While a youngster in North Carolina,
he began performing magic at almost any place he could
find an audience. He continued this through all the other
things he has done over the years. Bill has performed
as a magician and MC for shows throughout the country.
He is a writer and creator of magic effects and has lectured
coast to coast in "Semi-Monumental Magic." He
was a portion of the "Magic of Success," a self-help
and motivational program presented along the West Coast.
He has written and edited scripts, newsletters, educational
programs and technical articles for limited circulation
use. He has lectured on aspects of public presentations
for performers and fundraisers.
His
poetry began as a way to develop smoother speech patterns
for public presentations and expanded to become another
channel for idea expression. During a portion of his
poetry writing, he, like many other Vietnam veterans,
found that it helped define some of the feelings bottled
up by and after the war. Some of these poems have been
shared with other veterans and their families. Bill began
writing a more Western style of poetry when he realized
in the mid 1990's that it seemed a more natural “voice” for
his type of writing.
Bill
recorded “Classic Western Poetry” and “The Changing
West” on Compact Disc. The Academy of Western Artists,
in their Eighth Annual Will Rogers Awards for Outstanding
Achievement of Contemporary Cowboy Skills chose “Classic
Western Poetry” as one of the selections in the Top Ten
voting for the Poetry Album / CD category for 2002.
His poetry may also be found on Omar West's Cowboy Poetry
site ( www.cowboypoetry.com )
under “Other Folks' Poems” and at Grunt.net – Home of U.S.
Military History, ( www.grunts.net )
in the poetry section. Bill's own website is www.billblackaz.com.
Click
here for an offline version of this text (MS Word doc)
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Bill Black acting as Master of Ceremonies
for the 2001 Stars of Magic Show at the Temple of Music
and Art in Tucson, Arizona.
He has performed the same task for numerous
other magic and variety shows in the Southwest.
His humor and easy style aided the show
producers in smoothly setting up their successive acts.
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