Steve Simbeck

Steve Simbeck is talented magician who is also a great actor, that is a ham actor. Of course that is because of the character he plays when performing magic. Steve is a magician playing the character of a hillbilly named Billy Hill. No, Billy Hill is not related to Benny Hill. The character is called Billy Hill as in hillbilly Billy Hill. Say that five times as fast as you can. No, No! Don't say "THAT," say "hillbilly Billy Hill" five time. Boy, someone would think you were related to Billy.

Billy Hill and three cups of moonshine

Now don't follow the stereotype and thing Billy is slow. In fact, he has a great deal of horse sense. Now if he could only get rid of the horse, he would have it made. Still the patriarch of the clan, Billy's grandfather is the true genius.

Billy showed how his grandfather would offer others in the family a drink of his famous moonshine. Yet only if they could guess which cup he put it in. His grandfather would take out three cups, and pour moonshine into one of them. He would then mix the cups up. Billy's crafty old grandfather would then distract the family member and then switch the cups. However, Billy caught onto this subterfuge. So when his grandfather challenged him he didn't let anything distract him from the correct cup. He was going to be the first person to win a drink of grandfather's moonshine. Still, when Billy grabs his cup he found it empty. In fact, all the cups were empty. Somehow the crafty old man had poured the moonshine back into the jug.

Great credit should be given to Steve Simbeck for his creation of the loveable character Billy Hill. His comic performance of the effect "Needle through the Arm" takes magic to new heights. This illusion could make most spectators queasy. Though Steve's comical slant to this effect makes it extremely entertaining. Instead of cringing most spectators end up laughing. Steve shows that the magician (in this case Billy Hill) should read all the instructions before performing an illusion. Because the needle was not supposed to go through the arm. It was only to look like it went through the arm. However, the instructions didn't make it apparent to Billy until after he had stuck the needle in his arm.

Billy Hill with a needle in the arm.

Night before Christmas
night.ram (3,564 KB)

Steve Simbeck (or his alter-ego Billy Hill) is an extremely entertaining magician. You can see him do many trick daily at Showplace Magic and Novelty in Salt Lake City, Utah. This isn't a surprise because he is also the owner of Showplace. To learn more about Showplace you can check out Showplace's Web Site at http://www.showplacemagic.com/. However, if you can't get to Utah check out the film clip of Billy Hill's rendition of the "Night before Christmas."