Hi, good to hear from both of you, and a Very Merry Christmas to one and all ...
And yes, 'Conjuring' in the topic helps everyone, American and British English speakers alike, to know what the topic is about, without having to contrive a convoluted topic title -- which is what you would have got from me before I found out I was an aspie. I write much better now that the hole in my mind has been plugged; the happiness kept leaking out of it before.
It was Christmas, I was probably 5 -7 years old. My best friend, son of my parents best friends, had a Gilbert Mysto-Magic set, and I had asked for the same set for Christmas. However, as so often happens at that age, our desire for that top-quality set got frustrated when we recieved a third-rate "Mandrake the Magician" set, with the plastic ball & vase, a cheap set of 4 small flat sponge rabbits that ripped when you attempted to remove them from the cardboard backing to which they had been glued, a cardboard illusion, a cheap wooden wand, and a plastic cups and balls (the best item), and other basic not-really magic tricks but puzzles and the like.
How I envied my BF's Gilbert set; they were costly, just like that top of the line Gilbert Erector set that you could build the parachute jump, 3 feet tall, with 4 parachute men, a high-torque gearbox attached to an electric motor, and it really worked, and which was also on my Christmas list. I recieved the cheaper middle set instead, which had the motor, but you couldn't build anything really exciting, too few parts.
But I digress ...
My dad, seeing I was really interested.in magic, took me to a magic shop for a lesson; well, that was the beginning of many years of spending my Saturdays going into town for a movie or visit to the museum, followed by the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the magic shop, watching the magician demonstrate effects, and purchasing "tricks".
Then, when I was twelve, I received a loan of Vol. 1 of the Tarbell Course in Magic, then published by Lou Tannen's.. This was the book set, of 5 volumes then, and vol. 6 came out a few years later just before Tarbell passed over. By that time I had all six, and began to notice that I like his philosophy, and understanding the principals underlying the art of magic and illusion more than actually performing magic. Eventually, I gave my 6 volumes to a Library, along with my hardbound copy of Hoffman's 'More Magic'
Tarbell was a magician's magician. And, he was a Naprapathic physician, and I'm sure he was an aspie, from the way he wrote, the way he reasoned, and his ability to do things as I would, improvise, think in imaginative, out of the box ways . I loved his books, which not only were a carefully programmed course of instruction, but had philosophical content, such as his history of magic, chapter 1, in which he begins with the three wise men in the Bible and talked about their background and philosophy, and the fine beginnings of the art.
He used to do publicity stunts, like drive through the loop in Chicago blindfolded, and he once brought joy to a group of grieving women when booked to entertain at their club meeting. Just before he was to go on, the secretary came to him and told him that their president had just died, and the women out front were still in mourning, as her funeral had been the day before, and maybe she shouldn't have asked him to go on.
Here was a 'think outside the box' aspie situation, he loved people, and they looked upon him not only as an entertainer, but as a mystic who understood life's problems, and he had become aware of this throughout his life experience. He said to her "I can appreciate the delicate situation, but I believe I can handle the situation for the good of all. Perhaps the magician is just the person you need right now; please do go on with the show"
He shared that he knew his opening remarks had to be right -- here was an audience thinking about death; how to get them thinking about life? So he got a candlestick and candle, and some silks, and opened with a polite introduction, then started speaking about the Magi -- the 3 wise men -- who taught the power of light over darkness, life over death -- "Out of the light, things are Born!" He had lit the candle just before speaking, and started materializing brightly colored silks from the flame while telling the story.
Soon, the women were becoming happy, and started seeing their president as still with them, they still had her love and the memory of her in their hearts, and soon were laughing and enjoying the show.
'Doc' Tarbell received a copy of a thank-you note his agent had received that read "We are so thankful for your sending the Doctor to us -- we will certainly believe in the power of a Magician from now on, for today, he worked a miracle".
This was the kind of stuff he wrote, and he talked about famous philosopher Elbert Hubbard, and his Roycrofters, and about Will Rogers, and about art, color, psychology, topics too numerous to mention. I found his philosophical writing inspiring, and it helped me to survive growing up and living unknowingly aspie in an NT world.
Houdini was reputed to have bought several sets of Tarbell's course, when it was just a simple, paper printed softbound set of lessons, to have one for the road, and others for his various libraries.'Doc' was the inspiriation for many of today's popular young magicians, and although I was crap at learning sleight of hand, I was not too bad as I got older and more mature , at simple stage magic, which anyone can learn or be trained to do. You don't even need anything but a good personality to become a stage magician; it's the close-up work with sleight of hand, that's the challenge.
I had the very good fortune to know the late John Merlin, whose business card was a blank-back playing card, a face card whose back side was imprinted "If you need me, I'll call you", with the name Merlin in the form of a characature of his face. We did some work for a new magic theater on the west coast, and got to see the opening shows for free, including Slydini, whom we took out to dinner afterward at an old, popular, and now long gone hamburger restaurant.
I sat across the cafe table from Slydini, and had read some of his books so knew "how it is done", but he was so smooth, so polished, a magician's magician, I couldn't actually see how it was done. I was like 18 inches from him.
I used to have stuff both used and new in stage magic, lots of props, square circle production box, Petrie & Lewis chrome cups and balls, something I wish I still owned, even though I haven't been interested in anything but doing a few simple effects at parties in 40 years. I have a few selected copies of Genii, a recently purchased copy of 'Houdini on Magic, by Walter Gibson', a 1992 copy of 'My Life As A Magician' by Harry Blackstone (Jr.), two or Martin Lewis's Lecture note series, Garcia & Schindler's 'Magic With Cards' and my old copy of the 36 TRICKS WITH FA-KO CARDS by Ronald Haines. All my old apparatus is long gone.
Oh, yes, a couple years back I did build a scaled-down French Guillotine illusion, something I had tried to do in my youth, and once I retired and got some power tools I could start making all kinds of stuff I wanted.
I did once perform a quick change illusion, a simple one from Tarbell involving 2 assistants and a bedspread, in several performances at a Grange fair. And I once performed a children's birthday party, and one adult hiking club party, and that was the last of my performing, back in my late teens.
I'm interested to see how kids today take up the art; they have instructional videos to see the best performers show how to do it. Oh, I did pick up a copy of the Self-Levitation video, ("As performed on TV by David Blaine"), but my ankles are too weak and my sense of balance isn't quite good enough; I can almost do it sometimes, at least well enough to fool my four year old grand-daughter!
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He who sees all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings, hates none -- Isha Upanishad
Bom Shankar Bholenath! I do not "have a syndrome", nor do I "have a disorder," I am a "Natural Born Scholar!"
24 Dec 2007, 3:58 am
