Wizard Works

In 1988, after two seasons of Laboratory shows, an accompanying magic shop opened in Hastings.  Wizard Works was located approximately halfway between the Hastings entryway and the Laboratory show building, and it sold show merchandise, magic tricks, toys and gags, and assorted mystical goods.

Tom Interval was hired by the Busch Gardens Live Entertainment Department in late 1987 to share up-close magic performances in and around the shop when it opened.

"Although I had a few different roles at the park, my main gig was to be the first 'resident magician' of Wizard Works," explains Tom, who performed as Sir Thomas of Interval, "a somewhat gregarious medieval conjurer based in Hastings, England, playing second fiddle to Nostramos the Magnificent."

"In that role I performed between six and eight sets per day and an occasional special corporate performance, doing my own material but tailored to my character."

"Sometimes I performed inside the magic shop on a countered platform made for that purpose, but I almost never demonstrated the magic products sold there ... Before the park opened in April or May [of 1988], Busch had me formally rate the difficulty level of every trick in the store and train all the demonstrators. Having worked in a magic shop and taught magic classes in prior years, that role was a perfect fit for me."