YaHooka Forums - View Single Post - Matthew Munari 1972-2008 R.I.P.

**AlteredStateGrl** · 08-11-2008, 01:17 PM

Matthew David Munari
July 31, 1972 - August 8, 2008
Rest in Peace

Quote:

Obituary for Matthew Munari

Matthew Munari, passed on to heaven August 8, 2008. He was born July 31, 1972 on his grandfather’s birthday. I was going to write a lot more about my dearest son, but when looking for a photo of him I discovered something he had written a few years back. It is from a lecture tour he and I did in Japan for magicians. I think this writing in his own words will tell you about him.

Introduction

Hello! Before I get started, let me tell you a little about myself... My name is Matthew Munari, I'm from Las Vegas, I'm 28 years old, and I have been performing magic professionally for about 7 years... Magic has been in my life since I was born...My father, Geno Munari, studied under one of the worlds top Close Up magicians, Jimmy Grippo for years in Las Vegas.. Jimmy was the resident close up magician at Casears Palace, performing in many of the 5 star restaurants that casino offers.... Mike Skinner, another top magician, of Lily Langtrees (also of the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas) was a regular dinner guest at our house as I was growing up. Allan Ackerman lived 2 streets away, and I was privileged to meet many many more top flight magicians as I was growing up. But you know what? I didn't care! I would have been happier sleeping, or playing video games on my Commodore 64 than mingling with these HALL OF FAME magicians.. I truly didn’t know the scope of the talent around me as a child and as I look back, it saddens me to think I could have learned a trick or to from some of these old timers... Jimmy Grippo is now dead, as well as Mike Skinner, and Dai Vernon, and Larry Jennings, and so many more not quite as famous, but just as skillful magicians of that era.
As I entered my late teens, early twenties I got a job working as a stagehand for Melinda at the Sahara hotel on the strip. As the cruel hand of fate would have it, I was bitten by the magic bug.... Not of the stage variety as you might assume, because I was now a prop man for one of magic’s best pair of legs, but of the Close up variety my father and his cronies had practiced all my life....
I don’t know when it happened exactly, but before I knew it I had a deck of cards in my right hand practicing one handed cuts, and the Charlier pass.... Shortly after my 21st birthday, my father let the final curtain drop on his stage show,(at the Hotel San Remo off the strip) and opened his first magic shop located behind the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in the MGM Grand theme park....
If you have ever been inside one of our shops, (We now have 10) you know that it is as if you have stepped back into time... Its a throwback to the days of mahogany shelves with tricks popping their heads out of every possible nook and cranny.. Tricks are piled up upon each other and it feels (from what my father and others have told me) like the "olden days", before magic was commercialized and shrink wrapped for the publics consumption. Between those 4 walls of the MGM theme park, I stumbled onto some of the greatest magic I have ever invented.
I have always had an inquisitive mind, and a thirst for knowledge. When I first started learning magic, I would practice a move over and over and over until I had it just right. They say that ignorance is bliss. I find a lot of truth in that statement, for when you think you know a lot about something, in this case slight of hand, you begin to second guess yourself, thinking "Maybe I could do it this way" or "Maybe it looks better from that angle". When your knowledge is limited however, you simply take something for what it is, as did I in my formative years behind the magic shop counter.
In the last seven years, I have gone from green to a seasoned pro working trade shows and exclusive Hollywood parties, but ya know what? I wouldn't change a thing about my first few (and sometimes awkward) years in magic... And now I present to you some of my favorite tricks, never taught to ANYONE, most of these moves/tricks/flourished were invented in that 1st little shop we had, and they STILL are some of my favorites and a regular part of my routine today. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful, as I have all these years, enjoy.....

Matthew Munari - Thursday, March 08, 2001

Matthew is survived by his son Mason, his sister Kayla, Brenda Gervais, Geno Munari, Penny Munari, his step brothers Jimmy Ciccarelli and John Batelle his grandmother Gretchen, his aunt Madeline Lee and many cousins: his mother Penelope Scales preceeded him in death.
Bye Matthew. I will miss you my son. God loves you. I will see you in heaven. Love, Dad.

Viewing Palm Mortuary 7600 S. Eastern, Thursday, August 14 from 10 AM until 6 PM, wake service at 6 PM. Funeral Mass Friday, August 15, 10:00 AM, St. Viators. (Flamingo and Eastern)

The family wishes that in lieu of flowers to send a donation to Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada - The Shelter. 1501 Las Vegas Blvd. North, Las Vegas, Nevada 89101

Thank you to Geno Munari, Matthews dad, for the picture...he asked me to put it somewhere his friends would see it.