On Friday, January 22, 2021, the Famous Fund “made the call” to Spencer Horsman, a second-generation entertainer (magician) and owner / featured performer at Illusions: Bar & Theater located in Baltimore, MD.
In his application, Mr. Horsman explained the challenges his business of 13 years has had amid the local and state COVID-19 restrictions. His dad and business partner performed as Ronald McDonald for 22 years before starting the theater. Sadly, the elder Horsman passed away in 2016. His son has kept the business going, but has faced some extremely challenging times over the past year.
On March 10th, 2020, Illusions celebrated 13 years in operation. However, due to the restrictions, they’ve been mostly shut down since March 13th. Since then they have been allowed to open for six weeks. Three weeks in June & three weeks in October. Due to social distancing measures and capacity limitations their seating capacity for the shows went from 100 guests to 18. They refunded thousands of dollars in pre-ticket sales at the start of the restrictions.
Mr. Horsman will use the additional funding to pay bills associated with keeping his business alive over the next couple of months in hopes that restrictions lift enough for him to begin in person shows again. For now, he is performing small shows on zoom.
Here’s the call:
If you would like to nominate a restaurant or be considered for funding, please follow this link to submit an application:
