| Full Name |
Anton Roskuszka |
| Race |
Human |
| Gender |
M |
| Age |
36 |
| Occupation |
Engineer |
About Anton Roskuszka
Art/Craft (Mentalist Performance) 31/15/6 5+26
Art/Craft (Technical Drawing) 22/11/4 5+17
Disguise 15/7/3 5+10
Fast Talk 22/11/4 5+17
Mechanical Repair 36/18/7 10+26
Science (Engineering) 52/26/10 1+51
Locksmith 34/17/6 1+33
Spot Hidden 35/17/7 25+10
Credit Rating 20
Personality Anton can be very stubborn and bitter over his failed career as a magician, but overall he is dedicated to providing for his family without complaint. As a bachelor he kept his apartment and workplace clean and orderly. He doesn’t like discussing politics. He’s curious about many subjects that he works into his tricks to entertain the audience.
Background] Anton Roskuszka’s great-grandparents came to France after Poland’s Third Partition in 1799. He was born in Paris in 1884 as a middle child to a fairly successful lawyer. He grew up attending the salons his parents held to bring together artists, musicians, investors, and scientists. He was eleven when he met a magician at these gatherings. He wanted to know not only how he could do the sleight of hand tricks, but also how the mind was fooled. He practiced for years, dedicated to the craft of magic. He performed for school friends with little success. His parents didn’t see the point. If not a lawyer, he should be a writer like Dumas or Hugo, or a poet like one of the Three Bards. Anton wanted to perform magic however. Instead of going to a university, Anton left for the opportunities of a new life in the USA.
Since coming to the USA at nineteen, he’s had many jobs: a janitor, a sewing machine repairman, telephone switch board installer, backstage hand, a bricklayer, a carpenter, a wheelwright, a wall paper hanger, a light rigger, a spirit medium at seances, and a prop maker. He lived mostly in New York City since coming to America, but he traveled to California for the Panama Canal expositions in San Francisco and San Diego. He returned to New York in late 1918.
In 1905, once he was able to afford a suit and equipment, he performed in clubs, theaters, and vaudeville halls. As a stage magician under the name “The Remarkable Roskuszka,” he was not successful. His passes were too clumsy. Plus his command of English wasn’t good at that point. Once he had sufficient knowledge of English, he was a mentalist (“The Amazing Anton”) for a number of years doing basic mentalism, muscle reading, and some repurposed parlor magic. Even in a freshly pressed shirt and a spotless suit, there’s something about his appearance that puts people slightly off. He finally gave up performing realizing that he’d make more money helping to create new tricks and devices for other magicians on stage. Since 1913 he’s worked with Charles the Conjurer, Peter the Great, The Mysterious Mozilinni, and Xander.
In 1915, he met Anthony Carmichael while working on the play “Moloch.” Mr. Carmichael was impressed with his creativity in solving some problems with the set design. They met again three months later as Roskuszka finished the prop weapons and books made of flash paper for the conflagration scene in “Not All Stars Shine.”
In 1917, he married Maria Kurek, a widow six years younger than him with two children. She is an actress. During the Spanish Flu, her youngest child died. Currently, she is four months pregnant.
Miscellaneous Facts He’s Roman Catholic. Also, he believes in ghosts and spirits, but thinks mediums are frauds; he was one after all.
