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A Rhapsody Upon The Death Of Siegfried Fischbacher
And a time not so long ago, when the world was filled with joy and the internet itself was magic…
If you missed it, Siegfried Fischbacher passed away last week. His partner, Roy Horn, died last year.
One of my best friends ever first took me to see the Siegfried and Roy show at the Mirage in Las Vegas. It was cheesy and great, and seeing how much my friend was into it made it even more satisfying. He had an “in” with the producer, so we had really good seats. Just a few feet from tigers — with no cages — I never felt menace.
We were co-workers also, and we did some great work together. One story we did, however, led to me getting death threats in the mail. It was about the penny stock industry. Anybody who’s watched season two of The Sopranos knows it was pretty mobbed up in the day. But I was young, so I was thrilled. My boss called the F.B.I.
We were in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. I’m not big on trade shows. I really have no memory of what was hot that year, or which “hospitality suites” we were invited to, or which we went to, or how much we drank, or what drugs we may have done.
My only vivid memory from a trade show, now that I’m trying to recall the many I presented at…
