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  Crane, Loch David
CANDIDATE DETAILS
AffiliationNonpartisan  
 
NameLoch David Crane
Address
San Diego, California , United States
EmailNone
WebsiteNone
Born November 28, 1948
DiedApril 25, 2018 (69 years)
ContributorUser 13
Last ModifedJuan Croniqueur
Dec 18, 2023 12:16pm
Tags
InfoLoch David Crane was born in San Diego, CA in 1948. His magical career began in the 1960s when he was a teenager. Developing hobbies such as marionettes, a Chinese Magic act, and a hypnosis act, he discovered that Magic Tricks could fool adults and bring him to a more equal intellectual footing. He immediately joined the Junior Magicians of San Diego and his first President was Bob Sheets, who is still working on the east coast as a Magician.

As a Gifted child Crane's schooling included academically challenging courses and a healthy dose of individuality in shops and mechanical classes which allowed his expression into an eclectic variety of hobbies and intricate projects–including building vehicles rom scratch! Crane graduated from San Diego State University in 1971 with a Bachelor’s degree in Education.

Crane practiced stage Magic during his college years and then briefly gave up entertainment to pursue a secondary teaching career: he needed a "real job." One of his first parlor illusions, called the Professor's Nightmare, changes 3 uneven ropes into the same length--and then back again. After 20 years' practice he eventually learned to do this 18th Century trick with steel dog chains, and it was the hit of his audition at the world-renowned Magic Castle in Hollywood, California.

But during his first full time teaching job in Los Angeles his spine was broken from breaking up a fight. He eventually left the secondary level and returned to San Diego State University to earn a Master's degree in Special Education of the Gifted in 1977. He has worked on the college level since then and has taught at several of San Diego’s Universities.

He has since retired from National University, where he taught Written Business Communication to career-track adults, using a textbook he wrote himself: Executive English. And yes, he performed Magic Effects in the classroom to illustrate important points in English grammar. He held that position for 14 years, during which he became slightly handicapped from multiple auto accidents.

During the 1980s he created an onstage characterization of Mistoffelees the Magical Cat for a San Diego production of "Cats." He developed a gimmicked whip to beat Quasimodo onstage in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and beat him nightly without injury. The whip had a turkey baster handle which produced its own blood as the actor cried realistically and the audience felt the liquid stage blood splash.

He performed in several other theatrical productions and then moved backstage to create various special effects for "Dracula" and "The Phantom of the Opera" while still teaching college level writing courses. The Phantom for example was afraid of the gunpowder gimmick but he needed to shoot fireballs across the stage. We blocked him to move to the wings of the theater, and hold up his cape with one hand and point at the opposite wing. I hid behind him and fired and launched the fireball along his arm, arching gracefully over the stage as he read the lines.

Learning from his 1980 trips to Japan he developed a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle act featuring knife, sword, and chains--which he safely handled for the children's terrified enjoyment. As the Turtles' influence declined he created a popular “Merlin-ye-Mage” medieval character to take advantage of the Harry Potter books. In the 1990s he developed his most popular character: THE MAGIC SANTA CLAUS.

Crane also travels the world widely and since 1999 has visited Europe several times and donated dozens of troop shows to enlisted men and women and their families. In 1994 he performed Magic Santa at sea aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, an aircraft carrier with an onstage audience of several thousand. On this occasion he Sawed in Half the ship's Executive Officer--and returned him to duty! Crane now grows a real beard each year for these holiday shows, which require less makeup each time he grows the beard.

His most frequently chosen comedy character is called "Bafflin' Bill Cody" and during this act he uses audience participation in every effect--people are up onstage shuffling the deck, picking a card, examining the props. He builds most of his own props and made the costume, a replica of Buffalo Bill's western outfit. He wears a double handful of Native American-made turquoise nugget jewelry, antique bracelet, and a wing-design watchband he designed himself.

Crane is polite and respectful onstage to volunteers and frequently uses honored VIPs who receive a round of applause for "volunteering" to help entertain onstage. As a closeup entertainer he stands right in front of you while the audience is in small groups; then he moves from one area to another with repeating fifteen minute shows. Onstage he has a clean comedy act in 20, 30 and 45-minute segments; his highlight is sawing someone in half (the easy part) and then restoring them to duty (the Magical part). In a series of two 1990 shows he sawed a police officer in half after vanishing his Harley in a huge replica TV he built for the benefit shows.

Loch David Crane has performed three times for the Super Bowl--entertaining thousands of San Diegans and rabid fans in the huge street parties in 1988 and 1998 held in downtown San Diego. He also donated shows to the 1984 Olympics, entertaining athletes from other countries--like the Australian basketball team, who towered over him and had to stoop down to pick cards. In 1999 he started donating a five-year series of troop shows, visiting European and American bases for the Arny and U.S. Air Force. A dozen or more shows were done in English and a few were also done in German, which Crane had learned to speak in high school. Since 2000 he now donates Magic Shows to Marine and Air Force bases as he travels around California and Nevada.

His style was so old-fashioned that the Germans had to rewrite the script for him! His most popular tricks were the rubber band effects and the card stab, always using a borrowed knife from a big guy in the audience.

In 1975 Mr. Crane designed and constructed a parade vehicle called the Star Trike, a stainless steel scale replica of the Starship "Enterprise"

from the 1960s TV show driven by a huge V8 engine. He rides it thousands of miles yearly and appears in two dozen parades a year. This amazing vehicle took six years to build and managed to live through a garage fire to emerge with a stainless steel body in the 1980s. The Star Trike was chosen to visit Essen, Germany in 1993 with Big Daddy Rat’s Custom Car show after it won awards in Sturgis, South Dakota's famous Black Hills Motor Classic.

In the summer of 1998 he visited and brought his Cody act to half a dozen Indian reservations between San Diego and South Dakota, donating shows toward Native American fund-raising efforts and supporting needy students. In the summer of 1999 he sent the Star Trike for five years to tour through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, England, and other areas in Northern Europe.


A second camping group, the venerable and respected Clampers of E Clampus Vitus fraternity. They initiated Crane to help with their historical group’s activity of identifying California’s historical sites or people and then raising large stone monuments to honor these achievements. . .in preparation for drinking beer. As of 2008 he has retired from teaching, still performs Magic (at 59 years old) and tutors youngsters interested in learning the craft of theatrical entertainment.

Mr. Crane is unmarried but optimistic, and hopes to find an adventurous, educated woman who can enhance his various careers and share his unfolding dreams of travel and excitement.

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  03/07/2000 San Diego Mayor - Open Primary Lost 1.24% (-24.48%)
  03/26/1996 San Diego Mayor Lost 3.85% (-74.45%)
  06/15/1992 San Diego Mayor - Open Primary Lost 2.79% (-35.41%)
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  09/15/1987 San Diego City Council - District 2 - Primary Lost 2.38% (-30.79%)
  02/25/1986 San Diego Mayor - Special Primary Lost 0.49% (-45.46%)
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