For once, Spencer Horsman cannot escape. It doesn’t matter how much oxygen he stores in his lungs. It doesn’t matter how many keys he tries. Even the tiny one that dangles from the black lanyard hanging around his neck—a bittersweet souvenir from the childhood home he just sold— won’t free him. Not from these shackles.
It’s just after 6 p.m. on an overcast Friday in August, and Horsman has been holding his breath for 3,688 hours, four minutes, and 17 seconds. That’s how long it’s been since COVID first shut down Illusions Magic Bar in Federal Hill back in mid-March, preventing its owner/head liner from playing to a packed house every Friday and Saturday night, and from riding the tidal wave of momentum he’d gained as a result of his spectacular January appearance on America’s Got Talent: The Champions. That’s how long he’s been waiting for life as he knows it to resume.
In the meantime, just like the other seven billion people on the planet, he continues to fake it ’til he makes it.
“I’m flexible like Gumby,” says Horsman, repeating the words of his late father. A professional clown who joined Ringling Brothers straight out of high school and then spent two decades crisscrossing the Mid-Atlantic in a Ronald McDonald costume, Ken Horsman died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 58, but not before leaving his son a lasting legacy.
Bu hikaye Baltimore magazine dergisinin November 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Baltimore magazine dergisinin November 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Man With a Plan
The eternal optimism of Thibault Manekin.
SHOWER POWER
Locals let rain gardens soak up the storm.
THE SOFA QUEEN
Stuffed & Tufted’s Samantha Kuczynski relishes being the new face of upholstery.
The Starting Gate
At long last, plans are underway for a new “Home of the Preakness.”
CLEANING UP CITY HALL
Baltimore is the second most corrupt federal jurisdiction in the country. Can a city with our history be reformed?
THE HOMECOMING
For one family, it was time to start living in their house, not just existing there.
SUGAR RUSH
Baltimore gets a fresh batch of home-grown bakeries——and the line forms here.
GAMECHANGER SANDRA GIBSON
Executive Director, SNF Parkway Theatre & Maryland Film Festival
FROM THE GROUND UP
A new build gives a couple a house that finally feels like them.
AFTER GLOW
KEY HIGHWAY