Inexplicable

When you talk about magicians, or more specifically conjurers, in relation to alchemical or magical archetypes, one talks about the Trickster, the Sorcerer, the Oracle and the Sage. Each has its own particular, unique traits that become apparent in a magician throughout his or her life in various stages, and each stage corresponds to a particular range in age.

Recently I have truly felt the innate and intrinsic change in my personal transition from the Trickster stage to the Sorcerer stage. It is hard to explain exactly what, when and how. I can only explain the ‘when’ in terms of realizing or recognizing a change in the way I think about my magic and the outcomes that I desire from it. There was a noticeable change in the way I view the work of others in the art.

In my next post, I will delve into a little more detail about this.

McBride Show Doctor Update

For those of you who have the SHOW DOCTOR book by Jeff McBride, or have ordered it, keep your eye out on the Show Doctor Extras section of www.magicalwisdom.com/showdoctor for an additional idea and routine that I have submitted. I am sure you will like it! Once it gets posted on that website, you will find a direct link from here.

As for my recent absenteeism, I apologize as I have been running ragged with gigs and shows lately – this is the start of my other busy season, the fall. It is also one of my favorites because it is the season of the festival of Samhain. Later this week, I will start updating here with more ideas, stories and inspirations related to Samhain, my bizarre magick work and other miscellaneous seasonal things.

For now, be safe and remember to keep the magic alive!

Titular Verbal Inspiration

From time to time, I probably have said or used some unusual words or word orders to describe or reference something that I am talking about or perhaps even reviewing; they may seem strange to your average person or reader, but they work.

I challenge the reader to think about the following three quotes from a certain movie of magic, witchcraft and wizardry in more ways than one, and how they can affect and/or inspire you. Magicians especially – think about them as a performer, then step outside of that mentality and think about them as an everyday persona that is not a performing magician.

“Help will always be given at Hogwarts, Harry, to those who ask for it. I have always prized myself on my ability to turn a phrase. Words are, in my not so humble opinion…our most inexhaustible source of magic…capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it”.

“…Do not pity the dead; pity the living. And, above all, all those who live without love”.

“Is this all real? Or is it just happening inside my head?” “Of course it is happening inside your head. Why should that mean that it is not real”?

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How so very true these statements are, especially the first one. Just for reference, the first two were spoken by Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter, and the third quote was an exchange between the two of them.

In Memoriam

Today, the world has suffered a great loss of a wonderful human being, science lost one of its modern forefathers and one of the men who started it all. Requiescat In Pacem, Mr. Neil Armstrong, died aged 82 years young.

http://news.yahoo.com/neil-armstrong-1st-man-moon-dies-193954975.html

Revisiting the Past

In the words of Dr. Lawrence Hass, Professor of Humanities at Austin College in Austin, Texas and Associate Dean of the McBride Magic and Mystery School, I recently decided that I had to “cut through the noise”.

I am currently in the process of re-working some of the effects and routines in a few of my acts, just to change them up a bit and keep them fresh. I was browsing the online shops that I normally buy magic from and I just could not see anything that really stood out to me, or at the very least, inspired me.

That was when I decided to delve into the past; you might say I decided to revisit history. I pulled out some of the old magic books in my library to browse through them, books I have read a countless number of times, to see if I could find anything “new”. I even went back to Hocvs Pocvs Jr. and Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scott. Some of the other titles and authors whose books I revisited were Magic and Illusion by Harry Blackstone, Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer, Drawing Room Deceptions by Guy Hollingworth, and a few titles from Howard Thurston, Arthur Buckley, Jean Hugard, Fred Kaps and Geoffrey Buckingham and a few other very obscure books.

From each of those books I found some effects and routines that I have used in the past and enjoyed and found many others that I have never attempted! I must admit that like all magicians past, present and future that I have been guilty of overlooking the simplicity of a piece, even though I knew better. I have found a few new things for coins, cups and balls, thimbles and even ropes that will give me plenty of fresh material.

As Larry would say, in doing this I have cut through the ‘noise’, the noise being all the new effects, DVDs and books that are all floating around out there, the ads that constantly bombard us promoting the newest, the best and the lastest and greatest and all things alike. By essentially ignoring them and taking a look through a plethora of old books from past masters, I have found what I was looking for and it was there all along. All of that material is so old, it is brand-spanking new.

The old adage used by some magicians that, “If you want to keep something a secret, put it in a book.” certainly holds true here – about 99% of the material I have read about in the old books and/or used myself I have never seen anyone else perform it.

Something To Think About

Here is something that, as a magician, I have found to be true through the use of magic:

“In allowing ourselves to heal, we become the healers of the world… we actualize the power within us to remedy the psychic and mental wounds of humanity.”

As Jeff McBride would say, “Magic is good medicine.” Indeed it is!

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Another quote that has recently come to light, and which I found to be true in many areas the world over:

“For 200 years we have been conquering Nature. Now we are beating her to death”. – Tom McMillan

Nature has provided many a pleasurable thing to me over the years of my life – Earth, Water, Fire and Air – all tools of the magician; well, at least for me they are!

Inspirational and Magical Photos

Recently I have come across some amazing photos that were both magical and inspirational to me. Here they are, courtesy of Lawrens Godon:

The simplicity of elements – Earth, Fire, Water and Air.

 

Flamb’eau – This is a play on a French word, and in this case it describes what you see – a Water Flame. Very pretty!

 

The Magician spreading the stars for your quiet night…

 

More photos to come later, but in the meantime, enjoy those above!

Have You Seen…

I have recently come across some effects that were new to me, and others that I was already familiar with but had forgotten.

The first effect which was new to me is called MIND CAST. If you are familiar with Destination Unknown, you already have a grasp on the principle used, but this uses it in a different way, as well as in multiple ways. This effect was shared with me by my friend Paul Rathbun of Michigan. It is a set of six cards, each with different symbols on them. The audience participant is asked to choose one of the symbols mentally, then the cards are turned over, where each of the symbols is seen to be repeated again over the six cards, none being on the same card. The performer is then able to divine, in any number of ways, which symbol was merely mentally selected.

This is a simple and direct effect,  but the possibilities with the presentation and the reveal are limited only by your imagination. The instructions that come with the PDF are clear, but there are a few things that could have been made less confusing, but overall, they were still discernable.

The second effect that I recently came across was the Atomic Bill. It is similar in effect to a bill change called Beswitched, but the method I think is a bit cleaner. Essentially, you use an American $1 and an American $5 and fold them up into 8ths. Both are placed into the fist of your participant and one is removed, we will assume it is the $1 note. The bill is then visually changed into the $5 in your hand, and when the participant opens theirs, they find the $1! This is a great effect and it can be done with other currencies, but you would have to make up your own set of banks notes to do it.

Speaking of effects with paper money: A couple of months ago I became acquainted with the Skullkracker, produced by Bob Kohler and taught by Bob Sheets. It is a visual bill change similar in effect to the bill change from Lonnie Chevrie called Grandpa’s Dollar, which is a change of a bill that is fully opened. The Skullkracker is done with the bill folded in half the short way, and it is just as effective. There are some very interesting things you can do with this particular method; an example would be using an Indian 5 Rupee note (a small note in size with a picture of Ghandi on it) and not only causing the bill to change to a 50 Rupee note, but the head of Ghandi expands in size too! It is almost a 2-in-1 effect. I really like this one and its possibilities. This DVD can be found at www.bobkohlermagic.com – the site is worthy of a look anyways because Bob Kohler does some great work with many magicians out there!

Some few weeks ago I had started thinking about some of the effects I had as a young mage and I remembered this effect with a piece of stiff paper that folded into a triangular tube, which was then placed on the table. A card was selected by an audience participant, then they were invited to pour a small amount of salt into the top of the tube. After a bit of byplay, the tube is lifted to show that the salt inside the tube has formed into the shape of their card.  I had long since forgotten the creator and name of this effect, though I used it for a long time. My friend Paul during a recent Skype session mentioned an effect by Ben Harris called Haunted, and proceeded to describe it – the very one I had been thinking of a few weeks before and could not remember the name/creator of! This is not an effect for everyone, and it is very, very simple in method. The problem with this effect is its rather lackluster personality, as it were. Ben apparently considered it a throwaway effect, but as with so many magic effects out there, this simple “throwaway” can be elevated to great theatre with the correct pace, setting and presentation. In short, you must put work into this to get anything out of it, regardless of its simplicity and status as a “throwaway”.

Haunted is no longer being made, but for those of you that are familiar with it, I hope this may serve to rejuvenate the possibilities with it.

That is the list for now, and I hope there are either some memories in it for you, or something to look forward to trying when you are not looking for the “Latest and Greatest” effects out there (this sounds like Dr. Hass on Cutting Through the Noise…).

New Review

I was recently asked by M. Lawrens Godon to review his DVD, Moneypulation Vol. 1. I was more than happy to oblige – the material on the DVD is top-notch and first-rate. Here you will find a link to the My Lovely Assistant website, where you can read the full review.

http://www.mylovelyassistant.com/reviews/view/3186

Volume 2 is sure to be a fantastic hit, and I am eagerly awaiting its release in 2013!

Silentium et reditum (The Silence and the return)

I have been lagging in my posts for the last few weeks, to say the very least. I have been quite busy!

The other day I was watching some old videos of my mime instructor Marcel Marceau. I was lucky enough to have been a student of his for 8 years and I learned a lot. Speaking of silence: The other day I was working on a new show and a line that he spoke often popped into my head, as it often does when I am working on my silent acts. It serves to be an inspiration, something to make you think about what you are doing as a silent performer, and why. He said, “Celui qui ne sait pas comment de garder le silence ne sais pas comment parler. Une fois qu’un mot est prononça, il ne peut pas être repris”.  “He who does not know how to keep quiet does not know how to speak. Once a word is uttered, it cannot be recaptured”.

It sounds like two quotes in Latin which say the same thing, but alas, he did not speak Latin so he said it in French, in his own way! Nevertheless, wise words. If you think about it, silence can be even more powerful than a scream. There are many different ways to provoke thoughtful silence, regardless of the intention with which it is done. For example, Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story that is thought to have been a challenge or something of a way of settling a bar bet, but it goes like this: “Baby shoes. For sale. Never worn.”

It makes you think of many different scenarios, and it is a powerful short story, straight and to the point. Only six words long!