Comic, magician and ventriloquist Andy Gross is rarely bored. See his one-man live show, and you’ll see why. He may be best known on the internet for his Split Man act — spooking strangers on the street by appearing to have cut himself in half, carrying around his own head in his hands like a ba sketball. “I might be doing the same routine, same act, night after night,” Gross says during a phone interview in advance of his performance on Feb. 21 at the Lorain Palace Theatre, “but it’s different for me every night because I’m using different volunteers, and they react differently. They say different things, so that keeps me kind of sharp, too.” “I don’t get bored because, you know, I never know what’s going to happen.” His shows also include a slew of other shenanigans he taught himself as a kid, including throwing his voice, reading minds, some non-traditional magic tricks and his first love, ventriloquism. As for crowd participation, volunteers may be levitated or turned into human puppets. If that stresses you out, Gross all but promises a good time. “It’s really not your typical magic show where I come out and (act) really serious and produce birds and candles and things like that. It’s more about having fun, comedy and messing with the audience,” he says. Find out what's in the cards for the audience when Andy Gross performs his blend of magic and comedy on Feb. 21 at the Lorain Palace Theater. (Courtesy of Andy Gross) Comedy was one of the last elements the entertainer says he had to teach himself when he started taking his tricks on the road about 25 years ago. “So here I am in Los Angeles and finding myself, you know, knocking on doors, going to open-mic nights. They said, ‘Hey, that’s pretty good, it’s a cool magic trick, but for a comedy club, it has to be funnier. Can you make it funnier and come back?’ I said, ‘OK.’ I kept coming back and coming back until, finally, I never looked back.” Gross fell in love with magic and ventriloquism when he saw 1978’s horror film “Magic,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret, at just 9 years old. Here was the problem: The internet wasn’t a thing yet. Today, you can YouTube your way into honing any skills, but back in the day, you had to actually visit your local library. (Imagine that.) Learning card tricks from a book was anything but easy, he says. “The book would slam shut. And I was left-handed. So most of this stuff was written for right-handed people. So everything was reversed, even in the diagrams they had. So it was a lot harder to learn this stuff.” When he wasn’t teaching himself magic in the library, he was doing it by mail. As a child, Gross enrolled in a mail-order ventriloquism course advertised in the back of a comic book, using birthday money he’d stashed away. Gross recorded himself throwing his voice and sent the tape back in the mail for feedback. Learning via snail mail may have taken a while, but the course ultimately proved to be very helpful. Gross’ fascination turned into a skillful hobby, but it was never supposed to turn into a career. Ventriloquism is among the many talents of Andy Gross. (Deidhra Fahey) In fact, Gross laughs and says his first career started at 15 years old — as a professional racquetball player. “Racquetball was like (as big as) pickleball today. It was huge. It was like the fastest-growing sport in the country.” The pro-racquetballer-to-magician pipeline is not one you hear about every day. “I’m proud to say I’m probably the only guy who never had a real job. I went from professional racquetball to ventriloquism, which is awfully weird.” Weird as it may be, he’s become proficient at both crafts. Gross, a St. Louis native, was inducted into Missouri’s Racquetball Hall of Fame, and his comedy-magic-hybrid videos have more than 700 million views online. His latest special, “Are You Kidding Me?,” is available to stream via Prime Video. With Gross’ signature shock-value style in mind, it’s fair to wonder if the Lorain show will be a family-friendly event. “It’s not a kiddie magic show by any means,” he says. “But all ages are welcome. I don’t think anything would offend or upset anyone. But it’s probably best for (ages) 12, 13 and up.” Andy Gross Where: Lorain Palace Theatre, 617 Broadway. When: 7 p.m. Feb. 21. Tickets: $44 to $56. Info: lorainpalace.org or 440-245-2323. ...read more read less