Tinley Park shines a little less bright in the wake of the death of Dirk Spence, a beloved resident known as “Mr. D” who entertained generations of people with his magic. Spence died March 20 in Arizona, surrounded by his family.
“I last talked to him on Tuesday (March 18) after doing a show in his place at Orland Park,” said Ken Mate, of Batavia, a magician and friend of Spence since 1983 when they met at a festival in downstate Oglesby. “He was doing his magic show with his truck – he had just gotten that going – and I was doing magic on a show for the Illinois State Lottery.”
Sadly, that recent conversation would be their last. “He went downhill really fast. The cancer that I thought he had beaten a while back came back with a vengeance,” Mate said. “And his older brother (Mark Spence) just died in March.”
He spoke on the phone with Lana Spence, Dirk’s wife, the day Spence died. “She was concerned because he stopped talking. But she could tell he could hear her. He would smile still at that point,” Mate said. “Within an hour of hanging up with her, that was the time he left and his family was with him. He was at peace and she said he smiled.”
Mate cherished his friend and their relationship. “We were just around each other for magic. I was the guy he trusted not to steal his acts,” he joked. “I don’t know anybody like him. There are people who work outside but not like that.”
A big part of Spence’s outside act was his iconic truck, a 1945 Chevrolet known as “the house on wheels” that likely will become a fixture at Goebbert’s Farm in Pingree Grove, west of Elgin.
“It’s a really popular place. Generations of people have watched Mr. D there. It looks like that will be the home of the truck, that it will go there and be memorialized there,” Mate said. “He would do like 50 shows there between September and October … for generations of people.”
The truck was an ever-evolving aspect of Spence’s act. “It always had things added on it. He would have his magic tricks set up on the grass in front,” Mate said. “If you were a magician and knew what the stuff was, you would think he was having a yard sale. But there was a charm about it, like an old-time show. But you’re going to see the tricks you expect to see a magician do. He’s going to make a rabbit appear. He’s going to saw a person in half.”
One of Mate’s favorite memories of his friend is meeting Spence after one of his pumpkin farm performances at a Denny’s off the highway. “He was waiting for me and standing up with a cloth. He started doing a self-levitation,” Mate said. “Next thing you know, his feet are in the air!”
Although his professional magic career spanned 40 years and came a little later in life after working at Panduit, Spence first performed magic when he was 8 in his neighborhood and at his church, his website notes. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and moved to Tinley Park when he was 5. He left magic behind as he grew up but found it again while restoring the 1945 Chevrolet truck a friend had given him in his 20s.
Magician Ron Centanni, of Tinley Park, a friend of more than 40 years, saw Spence do magic many times, including when Centanni served on Tinley Park’s community resources commission and booked him as a performer at the Discover Tinley Park expo. “He did our show there for years,” he said.
Centanni described Spence’s magic as stage magic, or “standup” magic. “He was big with kids. He did a lot of stuff with kids, kids’ shows and birthday party type stuff. He was at the Peotone County Fair for many years and did a kids’ show there.”
He called Spence very outgoing and “always into magic.”
“He was friends with everybody. He never met someone he didn’t like,” Centanni shared. “He’d come to the Tinley Park car show and park his car there. That was his main stage. … Everybody he talked to asked ‘How you doing, Dirk?’ He’d pull something out of a hat.”
Spence knew magicians all around the country, including Marshall Brodien, who portrayed Wizzo on the Bozo Circus Show, as well as TV icon Svengoolie and even Penn and Teller.
Bob Dietz, of Tinley Park, who met Spence in 1969 while playing basketball with him at Tinley Park High School, said he “got along with a lot of people. I admired him.”
He said Spence’s family lived in the city’s Park Side subdivision between Ridgeland and Oak Park Avenue and 171st and 167th streets. “They built that in 1953, I believe. I remember because they had the circus at 167th and Oak Park Avenue. That’s where the circus would set up, and then it became a shopping center.”
Dietz said Spence “orchestrated a lot of reunions” for the high school. “He would have it at the Viking Club or whatever it is now across from St. George Church. We had a lot of fun together.”
Part of that fun involved Dietz photographing Spence’s magic show and taking videos for him, including a show for the Tinley Park Historical Society. Another gig for Spence was performing magic at the Dairy Palace in Tinley Park, and he’d asked Dietz to come take photos of his show there last summer, but Dietz had other plans. Now he wishes he’d made the time.
Dietz’ favorite memory involves Spence’s vintage Chevrolet truck. “He called me up and said ‘Come on over’ when he first got his truck. We had a good time. He had it all fixed up. He wanted to do a promotion for his flyers. Whatever he needed, I would take pictures of it,” he said.
Spence’s magic was his “retirement job,” Dietz said. “He was very good at it, though. Very professional and the kids loved it. It made him happy.”
A funeral service for Spence is planned for 1 p.m. April 5 at Zion Lutheran Church, 17100 69th Ave., Tinley Park. A celebration of his life will take place from 4 to 10 p.m. that day at VFW Bremen Post 2791, 17147 Oak Park Ave. in Tinley Park.
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
