Delmarva Public Media begins a new series "My Second Act" which explores the journeys of men and women who find a second calling. Delmarva Public Media's Jenny O'Connor has this portrait of radio talk show host Dan Gaffney who found it in magic.
Dan Gaffney is a well-known voice on the airwaves all across the Eastern Shore, but beyond the microphone, he might just have another trick up his sleeve. Turns out, this local personality has fascinating talents that go way beyond what you might expect. From commanding the radio, to mastering the art of illusion, this man has a gift for making magic happen. Dan Gaffney is the first of a new series called My Second Act, where we feature people who balance their profession with their passion. I'm Jenny O'Connor for Delmarva Public Media. Before Dan Gaffney was a well-known radio personality on the Eastern shore. he was an ambitious and creative high schooler in Ohio who knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life.
“Well, I wanted to be an actor actually, and go to New York and try and be an actor, but people talked me out of it. 'Too hard to get jobs!' and 'You'll be a waiter!', and I at the time, surmised that radio work was like acting, only it was more consistent. So I thought, well, I'll do that”, Gaffney recounted.
He graduated high school and went to the Ohio School of Broadcasting and followed that career all the way to the Eastern Shore.
“It was WGMD in Rehoboth Beach, and I had never heard of Rehoboth Beach, never heard of Delaware, but they needed a program director, and I was 23 and I got the job, and I took the job sight unseen. I had never even been here before. Two weekends later, I packed up a U-Haul and came on out”, he said.
Mind you, in his early twenties, he was double tasking and following another dream from his childhood.
“As a teenager, as a kid, I was like a kid magician doing shows at the YMCA and all that kind of stuff. I did these kind of shows till maybe my early twenties and then the radio career was taking off, so I just kind of put that on the back burner”, Gaffney explained.
And clearly his heart led him to the right place because he was doing exactly what he had dreamed, and he was doing it well. The Dan Gaffney Show has since won Delaware Today Awards like best shock jock against Howard Stern in the nineties, along with best talk show and best radio personality countless times. He credits his success with his history of performing and knowing how to get people involved.
“The editorial page and the letters to the editor in a newspaper, that was my favorite part. I like to read crazy letters from people who had weird ideas or whatever, and so I don't know, I just took that feeling of that interest to the radio, and I've always wanted the audience to be a part of the program, and that's why I became a talk show host instead of just playing music so I could talk to more people”, said Gaffney.
And although he can entertain the masses on the daily on the air, his toughest audience is in the comfort of his home with his eight kids.
“I don't know how entertaining I am to them”, he joked.
But even with balancing the kids and his radio career and entertaining left and right, he clearly wasn't busy enough because he couldn't help but reminisce on the olden days of card tricks and reading people's minds. I guess that trick doesn't work as well at home.
“Then, in recent years, that never leaves you. I really wanted to just create a whole new show and a show for adults and finally did it. I don't think I have any other marketable skills, so what else am I going to do?”
So he took his radio expertise and turned those skills of talking with people and sharing the stage and explored another unlikely career: as a professional magician and mind reader.
“I consider them both performing. The end goal is entertainment in both. So I've always seen myself, even though I dabble in the world of news, opinion journalism and editorial and everything, it's still at the end of the day has to be entertaining”, Gaffney said.
He spent a year crafting a show with the layers of an onion.
“Lots of audience interaction, group exercises, lie detector games, discerning people's cell phone numbers that we've never met, predictions, premonitions, a psychic comedy game show with men in the audience”, promised Gaffney.
But you won't believe it until you see it. So July 2nd and third, Dan is coming to the Dickens Parlor Theater in Oceanview, Delaware. For more info on his magician career, visit livementalmagic.com and go to dickensparlortheater.com for tickets. For Delmarva Public Media, I'm Jenny O'Connor.
