aspect of his shows that made him unique .
However , even though working at Abbot ’ s ultimately helped him with his career , he was paid less than $ 100 a week in his full time job . Mullica didn ’ t care , though , because working for the magic shop allowed him to completely immerse himself in the world of magic .
“ I couldn ’ t have been happier ,” Mullica told The Magic News Wire . “ I ’ d take home a different book every night from the showroom . I read almost every single book in the Abbot ’ s catalogue , because I had access to it , and I met all these magicians in person . I ’ m talking about people like Clarke Crandall and Jack Gwynne , and I met John Mulholland one time , he was in the showroom . These people aren ’ t around any longer , so it was an opportunity that was just priceless to me . My salary didn ’ t really matter , it was just a priceless teaching experience .”
Mullica stayed in Colon from 1971 to 1973 , before deciding to move to Atlanta on the request of magician Abb Dickson , where they did mall shows together . After two years of this , Mullica went to bartending school in Atlanta , hoping to become a professional bar magician .
He got a job in a French bar and restaurant called The Abbey , where he honed his skills and practised routines that he would go on to use for the rest of his career – such as a cups and balls routine , and the Mullica wallet .
He was so successful with bar work that he decided to open his own bar , which he had custom built for him . This bar , of course , was the “ Tom-foolery Magic Bar Theater .”
He opened the Tom-foolery in 1976 , and it stayed open for 11 years , closing in 1987 . During that time he enjoyed massive success , and ventured into the field of ventriloquism . Using a prop rabbit which he named Duke after the Vaudevillian Duke Stern , he performed comedic ventriloquist acts and bar magic . One of his most popular acts was where he would pretend to hypnotize Duke , and make him “ levitate ” off the bar .
He claimed that Duke became so popular that he became jealous of the puppet , and subsequently removed him from his shows , going back to traditional bar magic .
A unique staple of each show involved Mullica brushing his teeth in the bar sink before beginning the show , explaining that if he brushed his teeth before each show , he ’ d never miss a day of brushing his teeth , since he performed shows daily . It became a kind of running gag , and a signal that the show was about to start .
During his time running the bar , he employed a total of 22 bartenders and ( as he talked about in his 2015 I . B . M convention presentation entitled “ Naiveté ”) every single employee was stealing from him . He made hardly any profits because of this , and he only realized what had been happening when he finally hired a trustworthy employee – Stephen Holmes , the man who would later become his husband .
At the Tom-foolery , he invented his signature act : the cigarette trick . The act came about from when he was smoking one day and wanted to try throwing a cigarette at his mouth and catching it . After some successful attempts at this , one time he missed and the cigarette went inside his mouth . Even though he “ seared the hell of the inside of [ his ] mouth ”, he found it so funny that he made an act out of it .
The trick became hugely popular , earning him a guest spot on Late Night