LYNDHURST, Ohio -- Entertainer Rick Smith, Jr. is a busy man.
The card-thrower/magician recently completed taping of the television show "Stan Lee's Superhumans," and can be seen regularly performing at various community festivals throughout northeast Ohio. He also performs about 600 shows annually throughout the country, often as a corporate entertainer. He has won Cleveland Business Connects Magazine's Corporate Entertainer of the Year award two consecutive years.
Add to all of that Smith's ClevelandEntertainers.com web business in which he caters to the needs of those organizing festivals big and small, and the birthday parties at which he still performs, and you can see why he is always on the go.
In fact, while Smith spoke with Northeast Ohio Media Group he did so while driving to Progressive Field where the Cleveland Indians hired him to perform at 17 Rally Ally gameday shows this season.
Originally from Lyndhurst, the 1999 Brush High School graduate is perhaps looking forward most to the airing of "Stan Lee's Superhumans," which premieres at 10 p.m. Sept. 10 on the History Channel's H2 channel.
"Stan Lee called me and asked if I'd ever heard of Gambit, one of the X-Men," Smith said. "Of course I had. So he asked if I wanted to play the role of Gambit on 'Superhumans.'"
Lee is famed for bringing to the public's attention characters as Spiderman, the X-Men, Iron Man and The Avengers, all of whom have been made into box-office-gold movies. In Superhumans, Lee's characters take on real-life people with exceptional talents.
The character Gambit can mentally create, control and manipulate energy. He is also an expert card thrower.
Smith was perfect for the role as, in 2002, he set the Guinness world record for throwing a playing card farther than any human being, 216 feet, 4 inches.
This year, he became the world's most accurate card thrower having thrown 47 of 52 playing cards into a container with a 10-inch diameter in less than a minute. The old record had been six cards in a 12-inch diameter container.
On Lee's show, Smith is pitted against an NFL kicker to determine who could put a ball/card through the goal post from the longest distance (Smith made it from 70 yards); learning whether Smith's cards were faster than an archer's arrow; and finding out if Smith could be more accurate than a marksman.
Smith is prohibited before the show airs from stating who won the contests.
Smith was a pitcher from 2000-04 on the Cleveland State University's baseball team. "I threw hard, 90-92 miles-an-hour, but I wasn't accurate," he said. "I either walked, struck out or hit (batters). I'm more accurate now."
It was during this time that he began hurling cards as well as baseballs.
A resident of the Broadview Heights-Brecksville area, Smith said he began performing magic at age 7 after seeing his father, uncle and their friends perform some betting tricks. Smith practiced and then began putting on magic shows of his own.
"I used to charge my neighbors a nickel to see my show in my parent's basement," he said.
Smith has appeared on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and on season five of "America's Got Talent," where he was eliminated in the show's Las Vegas round.
His wife is Tiffany Marchak Smith, of Strongsville, who performed on season two of "American Idol," reaching the top 24.
The two met while performing at Cleveland's Pickwick & Frolic in 2003, and are expecting their first child.
On Aug. 20, the act Dom The Bomber's Triple Thereat, Smith's proteges, featuring young card thrower Dominic Evans, was eliminated from "America's Got Talent."
Smith met the boy's father, disc jockey Anthony Evans, while performing in Ashtabula and began showing Dominic card throwing tricks.
Of their final "America's Got Talent" performance, Smith said, "I thought they were fabulous.
Despite his busy schedule, Smith, 33, has more tricks up his sleeve. He recently teamed with Cleveland Heights' Motorcars Honda, Toyota General Manager Trevor Gile to create "Magic Gives Back."
Magic Gives Back see Smith and special guests perform actual Las Vegas magic shows for families at local schools. The shows, at the same time, help students raise funds for special projects or charities.
When asked about his ultimate goals, Smith said, "I would like to bring Magic Gives Back to a bigger scale to bring a Las Vegas magic show to more people, and I would like to end up in Las Vegas on a big stage doing my show."
Smith said money is the only thing holding him back from the big stage, confidently stating he could do such an entertaining show. With the hustle he has shown, it is probably not a good idea to bet against Smith hitting that big stage someday soon.