Suzanne’s successful career as a magician is no illusion
After starting her career as a computer programmer, a performing artist known professionally as
Suzanne the Magician, transformed her life…with magic. Suzanne recently celebrated 33 years as a professional magician, and now says she realizes that “if there is a destiny, I was destined to do this.”
It was puzzles and not magic tricks, which first attracted Suzanne’s attention. “I always loved solving puzzles when I was a kid. I’d get those Mensa books and spend time trying to figure out the puzzles,” she said.
In college, Suzanne was drawn to computer programming (“That’s a puzzle, too, isn’t it?”) but in the mid-1980s, she took an informal magic class for a few months from a local magician. In 1985, her then-boyfriend (now husband) was playing in a band on the weekends, so Suzanne started working magic gigs at two Ground Round restaurants in the Twin Cities.
“I would perform for four hours on Friday night at one location, and four hours on Saturday night at the other,” she said. “Eight hours a week of practice for a magician is a lot, especially for someone just starting out.”
Still working as a computer programmer, Suzanne expanded her schedule to include regular appearances at the American Café, now The Metropolitan. In just a matter of a couple of years, she was in high demand with corporate clients and had accumulated enough regular gigs to quit her day job and do magic fulltime.
Brush with Fame
In both his professional and personal life, HR Coordinator John Fournelle has a fondness for stories. As he prepares to celebrate his two-year work anniversary at Vail Place in November, John said one of his favorite parts of the job is the opportunity he has to interact with Clubhouse members and learn their stories. “It’s not an ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ kind of environment here at all,” said John. “We are all part of Vail Place, we are all members, and I value the fact that I get to know so many people here.”
In his role as HR coordinator, John has “16 mega areas” for which he’s responsible including payroll, benefits, training, onboarding and more. Across the agency, John said Vail Place is on target to have 70 employees by year’s end, so managing data is a major task. John has also been instrumental in new initiatives at Vail Place, like the current Tobacco Free program and the organization’s Diversity Council.
John spends most of his time at Vail Place’s administrative offices in Hopkins, as well as at the Hopkins Clubhouse, but he also frequently travels to the Uptown Clubhouse and Vail House in Dinkytown, a 23-bed residential group housing facility formerly known as Cabrini Transitional Housing. “It’s really important for me as HR Coordinator to not only meet with managers onsite regularly but for the people there to know who I am and how they can work with me as needed,” he said.
When Char Chmielewski first became involved with Vail Place seven years ago, she anticipated coming at the experience solely from a business perspective. What she didn’t expect was how deeply her heart would be touched by the courage and resilience of Vail Place members, or the huge impact the organization would have on her personally.
“I have so much compassion for the members at Vail Place,” Char says “Although it’s heartbreaking how hard it can be for them sometimes just to live life on a daily basis, at the same time I feel so proud that they are taking their lives back, diving into the programs and just doing the work. Plus their attitudes are incredible. They are so grateful for the community they’ve found at Vail Place.” 