LOS ANGELES - Christmas was two months past, but there was still a pair of withering Christmas wreaths on the front gate and the grounds beyond were poorly tended.
The plants needed watering and this Holmby Hills mansion was itself falling into disrepair - not at all what the magician Rob Zabrecky expected from having seen photos of Michael Jackson's previous residences, the Neverland Ranch and the family compound in Encino, Calif.
"Disheartening," Zabrecky recalled. "We have this grand picture of how this person lives on this grand scale, always surrounding himself by things he loved."
As Zabrecky would later recount to L.A. Weekly and then to the Daily News, security guards took him to a side room. He waited with the three other acts hired for the show, a Double Dutch team, a juggler and a Hula-Hooper.
Zabrecky went second. He stepped into the backyard and noticed a toy pirate ship bobbing in the swimming pool, right out of Peter Pan and Neverland, yet battered, the sails broken.
"Lost at sea and in a storm, but still floating," he recalled.
Zabrecky did not see the crowd of kids or the balloons or the cake he anticipated when he was hired to perform at a birthday party for the youngest of Jackson's three children, Prince Michael Jackson 2nd, known as Blanket.
Zabrecky saw only the birthday boy, his siblings and their father on a row of patio chairs. The father was at the end, not surprising in black pajamas, wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses.
The children sat beside him in ascending order of age. What was immediately remarkable about them was how much they dressed and looked like children.
"Normal," Zabrecky later noted.
The biggest and best surprise regarding all four Jacksons was made only more so by the disrepair of the house and the grounds.
"They seemed like a really happy family and to see that was beautiful," Zabrecky said. "They just kept smiling."
Unlike some children he has encountered, the Jackson kids remained attentive and appreciative through the whole performance.
"These kids were focused. They were going to see a show," Zabrecky remembered. "Spoiled children won't give you their attention."
The show was interrupted when a helicopter clattered overhead. The children had each brought some Indian print fabric, and they covered themselves with accustomed ease to guard against paparazzi shots from above.
"It just seemed, 'This is the part [when] we have to cover ourselves because of a helicopter. ... This is what we do,'" Zabrecky said.
The helicopter flew on and the children uncovered. The show proceeded to the finale, a shrinking card trick that seemed to be their favorite.
The father joined in applauding and thanking the magician at the end.
"A great audience member," Zabrecky said of the star who had thrilled millions from the stage.
Then it was over, and Zabrecky walked back out through the disrepair that made what was manifestly intact only more remarkable. Here was true magic that involved no tricks.
"I left with a really warm sense that these were four peas in a pod," Zabrecky said.
Four months after that Feb. 21 party, tragedy struck. Grieving fans were still piling fresh flowers in front of the gates yesterday.
Someone had replaced the withering wreaths with fresh ones, complete with red ribbons and oversize pine cones, perhaps because Christmas was always such an important holiday for Jackson and his kids.
"Big time," a former head of security noted.
They will never have another Christmas together, nor a Fourth of July weekend such as so many happy families are now enjoying.
The stark fact that three kids have lost their father is what should be foremost in everybody's mind as we proceed to Tuesday and what is neither a show nor a spectacle, but a memorial.
For the sake of the three forever bereft of a fourth, let's hope there is portent in that toy pirate ship right out of Peter Pan and Neverland, battered and broken as if by a storm, but still afloat.
The plants needed watering and this Holmby Hills mansion was itself falling into disrepair - not at all what the magician Rob Zabrecky expected from having seen photos of Michael Jackson's previous residences, the Neverland Ranch and the family compound in Encino, Calif.
"Disheartening," Zabrecky recalled. "We have this grand picture of how this person lives on this grand scale, always surrounding himself by things he loved."
As Zabrecky would later recount to L.A. Weekly and then to the Daily News, security guards took him to a side room. He waited with the three other acts hired for the show, a Double Dutch team, a juggler and a Hula-Hooper.
Zabrecky went second. He stepped into the backyard and noticed a toy pirate ship bobbing in the swimming pool, right out of Peter Pan and Neverland, yet battered, the sails broken.
"Lost at sea and in a storm, but still floating," he recalled.
Zabrecky did not see the crowd of kids or the balloons or the cake he anticipated when he was hired to perform at a birthday party for the youngest of Jackson's three children, Prince Michael Jackson 2nd, known as Blanket.
Zabrecky saw only the birthday boy, his siblings and their father on a row of patio chairs. The father was at the end, not surprising in black pajamas, wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses.
The children sat beside him in ascending order of age. What was immediately remarkable about them was how much they dressed and looked like children.
"Normal," Zabrecky later noted.
The biggest and best surprise regarding all four Jacksons was made only more so by the disrepair of the house and the grounds.
"They seemed like a really happy family and to see that was beautiful," Zabrecky said. "They just kept smiling."
Unlike some children he has encountered, the Jackson kids remained attentive and appreciative through the whole performance.
"These kids were focused. They were going to see a show," Zabrecky remembered. "Spoiled children won't give you their attention."
The show was interrupted when a helicopter clattered overhead. The children had each brought some Indian print fabric, and they covered themselves with accustomed ease to guard against paparazzi shots from above.
"It just seemed, 'This is the part [when] we have to cover ourselves because of a helicopter. ... This is what we do,'" Zabrecky said.
The helicopter flew on and the children uncovered. The show proceeded to the finale, a shrinking card trick that seemed to be their favorite.
The father joined in applauding and thanking the magician at the end.
"A great audience member," Zabrecky said of the star who had thrilled millions from the stage.
Then it was over, and Zabrecky walked back out through the disrepair that made what was manifestly intact only more remarkable. Here was true magic that involved no tricks.
"I left with a really warm sense that these were four peas in a pod," Zabrecky said.
Four months after that Feb. 21 party, tragedy struck. Grieving fans were still piling fresh flowers in front of the gates yesterday.
Someone had replaced the withering wreaths with fresh ones, complete with red ribbons and oversize pine cones, perhaps because Christmas was always such an important holiday for Jackson and his kids.
"Big time," a former head of security noted.
They will never have another Christmas together, nor a Fourth of July weekend such as so many happy families are now enjoying.
The stark fact that three kids have lost their father is what should be foremost in everybody's mind as we proceed to Tuesday and what is neither a show nor a spectacle, but a memorial.
For the sake of the three forever bereft of a fourth, let's hope there is portent in that toy pirate ship right out of Peter Pan and Neverland, battered and broken as if by a storm, but still afloat.
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