by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
Jim Bentley’s magic has made him a better manager, but not in a tricky way.
The director of operations for Waste Management’s North Florida area has been performing magic tricks for more than 30 years. He says his ability to adapt his performance to any crowd has helped him both on and off stage.
“My entertainment skills have opened up a lot of doors for me,” he said. “And when you’re managing people, you have to have the ability to adapt your persona to match with theirs. You can’t manage everybody the same way.”
His Waste Management career has given him the stability and responsibility he’s wanted since his son was born in the early 90s, said Bentley. But when he has spare time, he always returns to his old tricks.
“Magic is a passion, it’s something I’ll never stop doing,” said Bentley, who performed fulltime for more than five years. “To have the ability to make people happy, to make them laugh, to make them cry: It’s a gift. If you can go into a senior citizens home and make them smile, it makes you feel like God almost.”
He said most of his tricks involve pretty typical props: cards, scarves, rabbits. The magic trade is extremely competitive, Bentley added, and achieving a David Copperfield-level of fame and income is rare.
“You have to continuously learn and change your repertoire,” he said. “It is so difficult to come up with something new or never been done before ... There are really so many magicians out there it’s not even funny, but most people cannot name five.”
To stand out from the crowd, Bentley said he focuses on a unique and personable presentation style. He likes “walkaround magic,” working a room or a restaurant and connecting with small groups.
“I believe it’s not about me, it’s more about the audience,” he said. “I like to tell stories. I like my magic to have emotion.”
Bentley just moved to Jacksonville several weeks ago, so he doesn’t have local gigs lined up for his weekends yet. He typically wears business casual attire and does “walkaround magic” for conventions or restaurants and dons a clown suit or tuxedo with top hat and cane for children’s shows.
Eventually, Bentley said, he’d like to start teaching magic “in order for the craft to continue to grow.” When asked for the methods behind some of his tricks, though – say, how he made a car disappear from a baseball field in Connecticut – Bentley remains secretive.
“If I told ‘ya,” he said, “I’d have to kill ‘ya.”