Acts of Violet(39)
This time, I go with the ten of hearts. She has me cut the deck and puts her other hand over it. Moments later, she hisses.
“I can’t, it’s too painful.” Setting aside the cards, she holds up an apologetic hand. On her palm is what appears to be a brand, of the number ten outlined with a heart.
These feats make it tough to focus on interviewing her, which is likely the point, but I press on, urge her to share more about those early days at Dirty Lou’s.
“For the first couple of months, it was great. I got so much better at passing and palming, false shuffles and cuts, all kinds of knacky sleights … The older guys didn’t hit on me as much, but a couple of them … they would get handsy in that booth. Two old-timers there were pretty much worshipped by the magic community and the unspoken rule was that you never interrupted them in the middle of a routine. So one day, one of them was showing off this complicated shuffle, and I felt a hand on my thigh. On my bare skin, ’cause I was wearing a short skirt that day. I tried to scoot away and muttered to the sleaze to get his hand off, but I was shushed by everyone around me. I couldn’t do anything but sit there. It got worse. The hand went up my skirt. The trick seemed to take hours. Finally, it was over, and I got the hell out of there. I threw up right on the sidewalk and never set foot in Dirty Lou’s again.”
Between Violet’s poise and bravado, the bold clothes and makeup, it can be easy to forget how young she is, that for all the time she spent in bars years ago, she’s barely above the legal drinking age today. When she shares this harrowing experience, there’s a moment where all I see in front of me is a vulnerable young girl searching out a place for herself as larger forces try to control her.
But a moment later, the smirk returns to her sparkling mouth and her eyes flash with mischief.
“I think you’ll like this one,” she says, reaching for my empty glass.
She removes the drinking straw, folds it in half, places it in her mouth, and transforms it into a cigarette.
“Got a light? Never mind, I got one right here.” She fishes a milky ice cube out of my glass and holds it flat in her palm at chest level. With her other hand, she snaps her finger, and the cube ignites like a lighter being flicked on. It slowly levitates upward and lights her cigarette.
Violet takes a few drags off the cigarette, then throws it over my head. I turn to see where it landed, but the cigarette has seemingly vanished. And when I turn back around, Violet is also gone, leaving traces of smoke in her wake.
Strange Exits
Episode 4: “Benjamin Martinez”
CAMERON FRANK [STUDIO]: While Violet Volk never spoke publicly about her love life, media coverage indicated a complex history of paramours and romantic encounters. Then there was her marriage to Benjamin Martinez. That’s who we’re talking to today.
The first thing you should know about him is, he doesn’t do nicknames—nobody calls him Ben or Benji, only Benjamin. Now in his early forties, he’s been working in the entertainment industry for twenty-five years. A former skateboarder and break dancer, Benjamin quickly parlayed his agility and charm into a career as a performer, choreographer, and television personality, known best for being one of the original judges on the hit reality dance competition You Got Da Moves. These days, he lives with his wife and three children in Saratoga, California, where he runs his own dance studio.
CAMERON FRANK: Thank you for joining me on the show, Benjamin. Tell me about how you met Violet.
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: We’re going back to the mid-nineties here. I was doing choreography for a Riley Price music video—the one with all the scorpions and Plexiglas scaffolding, though now it’s known as the one where Violet set Riley Price on fire. Anyway, I first saw Violet on the set, but I didn’t know who she was.
CAMERON FRANK: Wasn’t she pretty famous at that point?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: Yeah, but she wasn’t all done up, so I thought she was some random nerdy goth girl.
Anyway, it was the first day of the shoot and everyone on the set was rushing around, except for her. She was sitting on the floor in front of this giant stack of folding chairs, painting her Docs with red nail polish. When I walked by, I made a wisecrack about her being too lazy to unfold one of the thousand chairs behind her. At first, she looked at me like she recognized me, but then her face went blank, totally unimpressed, and she went from painting her combat boots to painting the nail on her middle finger, which she held up for me.
CAMERON FRANK: How did you react to that?
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: For some reason, I said the first thing that popped into my head, which was, “So that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?” Then I took the nail polish, drew a red circle on the tip of her nose, and handed it back to her. She laughed and said she’d get me back for that. A couple hours later, I was introduced to Violet Volk. She was in full costume and makeup, so I still didn’t make the connection. Not until she pointed to her nose, then made a motion like she was slitting her throat.
CAMERON FRANK: So the practical jokes between you started early on.
BENJAMIN MARTINEZ: Yeah, and I almost got fired from the shoot for it. A few hours into that first day, my watch went missing. Turns out Violet swiped it off my wrist and hid it in the scorpion tank. I waited until the next day to retaliate. Riley and Violet were about to film a scene where they got into a laser gun fight. The guns were actually empty water pistols, and when I saw Riley’s lying around, I thought it would be funny to fill it up—with any luck Violet would get a face full of water. Only the director had Violet and Riley swap guns at the last minute, and the Evian bottle I used to fill it up was actually somebody’s secret vodka stash, and the scaffolding was covered in candles, so …