Truth and The Magician--Soapbox Special

I lie. That’s okay considering my chosen life. I am a magician and all magic tricks are based on lies. Overt lies and lies by omission. Also, I am a writer. In non-fiction, sometimes a writer lies as an expedient way to the truth. In fiction, it is the little lies that become truth. I excel at lying.

Some magicians I know have a problem with this lying thing. Not that they cannot do it, it is that they are uncomfortable with the term when performing magic. As if telling someone that the coin is in one hand when it is really in the other, isn’t a lie. Lies do not have to be malicious to be lies. Let’s face it; deception is at the heart of magic, without it, magic cannot exist. We must lie and lie well.

No, not a glorious way to put it, but it is the truth. No lie.

It does keep me humble. One of the temptations of a magician is to believe that we are somewhat better than the average person. Smarter. Cleverer. The rush of pulling one over on some feels great. When I can do it with the simplest of means, even better. Foolish mortals.

Lying seduces. Any action performed often enough becomes a habit. Any habit can become an addiction. I lie, often. Far more often than the average person. If I am not careful, it can become a habit.

Does this lead to a "chicken and egg" kind of argument? Yes. Do people that have a propensity to lie become drawn to magic? In some cases, yes. Do people find they cannot draw the line between performance lying and real-life lying? YES.

Applause rewards our lies. It starts out just for performance and then we fudge the amount we really received for a gig. The little lies begin to pile up. We lie to ourselves about how great we are and how much audiences love us. Habit becomes addiction. Little lies beget bigger lies.

Soon, we steal other’s material and justify it. Or, we knock off a product and sell it. Copy something and resell the original on ebay. Down the rabbit hole we gooooooo.

The magic world itself lives as its own worst enemy. We revere the some of the worst offenders. What Harry Kellar couldn’t buy, he stole. Our hero. Frank Garcia once lifted all of Fred Kaps’ promotional material, not even changing the Danish newspaper quotes to American newspapers. The list of magic luminaries that are douche bags does not end.

My friend Tim owns one of the best magic shops in the world. He does not over-charge, even when he can. He contains a several lifetimes of valuable knowledge. He will give magicians, people he knows and people he has known for many years, wide access in his store. How is he rewarded for this? They steal. A DVD here, a book there, a trick or two, it adds up to real money. These are “brother” magicians.

Another brother magician, a lecturer, conned Tim out of an extra $40 by lying about his hotel bill. Tim will tell you who it is. I wonder if that lie will be worth it in the end. Some magicians just cannot stop lying.

Magic dealers, especially manufacturers and wholesalers, continue to offend at an even greater pace. The second dealers ever in business ripped off the first. We give lip service to ethics and the buy from the con artists we decry. One of the things we should look at is the power of our dollar to make a difference. Don’t buy copies. Don’t buy knock offs. Don’t buy anything, even the real stuff, from someone who abets the knock off artists. Strangle them to death. It is better to do without.

My advice is to clean your own house. Remember, lies and deceits are for the stage, not for life. As a child, you may not know the boundaries of right and wrong, but as an adult, it is time. If we do that then the magic world will come along for the ride.

Convention Lecture

I just finalized an agreement with Gabe Fajuri to give a talk at the Magic Collector’s Association. The convention returns to Chicago after some years. Nice to see a convention in Chicago for a change. I find it a shame and personal embarrassment that there is no annual or even semi-annual convention in Chicago. If any of you attend, please stop me and say, “Hello.”

This is a basic synopsis of my talk:

Harry Kellar and the Tribune Spook Case

Less than two years ago, I introduced a previously undiscovered event in the life of magician Harry Kellar at the L.A. Conference on Magic History. In dramatic fashion, police and Chicago Tribune reporters crash Medium Carrie Sawyer’s séance room exposing a far ranging financial fraud. Harry Kellar, coincidentally in Chicago, is called to testify in front of the grand jury about Carrie’s spiritual hi-jinks. Something of which he is personally familiar.

Now, I’m returning with more untold details of spirit medium/con woman Carrie M. Sawyer and Harry Kellar including; their jailhouse meeting 20 years after the original events, Sawyer’s missed chance at stardom, her shady mentor, and her surprising connection to Anna Eva Fay. Along the way, you will meet a cast of fraudulent mediums, their gullible supporters, and the Chicago that made it all possible.

Ralph Pierce

He is dead now. His stories are only second hand, but Ralph Pierce wanted to do magic. It was a dream he achieved, spending most of his life as a tall grass magician. A tall grass magician worked the great breadbasket of America’s Middle West, moving from small town to small town.

Just out of his teens and with adventure in his heart, Ralph answered an ad for a magician’s assistant. It could have been in Variety or Billboard or some other trade paper whose name is lost to history. This was some 70 years ago. The ad asked for a male magician’s assistant for a world traveling professional magician and his full stage show.

Answering the ad Ralph expected to find an old master of the art, a Thurston or his like, instead he interviewed with a man only a couple of years older than himself. The globetrotting magician? His name was John Calvert. And Ralph joined his show.

During the tour, John decided he needed a publicity stunt to boost ticket sales. He chose a buried alive stunt. First, they formed a box from rough unvarnished wood, slightly larger than a coffin. Then, they found a place in or out of town where they could dig a deep hole. And as Calvert put it, “We nail you into the box.”

“What?” Ralph thought.

“Then we bury the box, in about six hours we’ll dig you up.”

Ralph thinking, “There’s that pesky word again, you.”

“An ambulance, all lights and sirens, will speed the box to the theater. Roll it down the center aisle. We’ll stand the box up center stage and open it up right in front of the audience.”

“Um...John,” Ralph asked, “why do I have to be in the box?”

“Well, I have to up top to talk it up. Sell it to the papers.”

“Is this safe?”

“Oh sure, safe, no problem, you have at least eight hours of air in there, maybe ten or twelve.”

Ralph said he was never more afraid than when the first shovel full of dirt landed on the coffin.

There are two postscripts. Ralph said, in time, he did get used of the stunt and mostly napped while confined. He also said more than once the box was set on stage upside down and when the top was removed he was dumped on his head.


I’d like to thank my employee, Markus Clegg for this story. When Markus worked at Andy Dallas’ magic shop in Champaign, IL., he heard it first hand from Ralph.

Quote Me

The Magician’s Vulnerability

“It is human nature to want to believe in the wizardry of the magician,

but also to turn against him and to scorn him the moment

he commits the slightest error that reveals his trickery.

Those in the audience are embarrassed to be so easily astonished

and they blame the performer for their gullibility.”

--Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas, Random House 2003

The Poacher’s Pocket

I never intended this blog to be a confessional. Personally, I'm not a fan of those blogs that relate every sordid detail about a blogger's life. Frankly, I don’t feel particularly guilty at the moment, anyway. This is not about baring my soul. Even though, twice before, I wrote about a darker side to my personality. (See the label: me, if you want to catch up)

This was all Patrick Page’s fault. Sure, he is a fine, funny fellow, but my third successful liaison with larceny I blame on him. And, he doesn’t know me.

From age 11 to age 18, I worked at my neighborhood costume and magic shop, Izzy Rizzy’s House of Tricks. It was there I discovered a product produced by Patrick Page known as The Poacher’s Pocket. For the magic types out there, the pocket was early version of the topit.

Patrick purloined the Poacher’s Pocket from the world of crime, specifically shoplifting. The pocket is a small fabric bag. The thief pins one side of the bag to the inside of their coat and the other side to his pants forming a pocket. A small lift of the arm opens the pocket and creates space to toss in a desired object. A whole Internet away and I can still see the wheels turning in your heads.

While my other previously described moral violations are rare, especially at the ages I committed them, about every kid I knew, at one time or another, shoplifted. It may have been a pack of gum, a toy, or a magazine. Most got caught, I didn’t. Thanks, Patrick.

My thefts were no larger or smaller than any other kid’s. They were not committed to have that object. I did it to learn how to to it, how to make it work. I did it better because of my magic knowledge. Most of the time I did not have my specially made pocket with me. However, when I buttoned the bottom of my jean jacket if fit snugly around my waist; the rest “poofing” out enough to facilitate my moves.

Second, I knew misdirection. For example: Say I wanted to steal a pack of gum. I would reach into the display box and grab two packs, one on top of the other. Then, in a larger circular action, I would throw a pack into my jacket while replacing the other pack. The action was invisible.

I stopped being a thief many, many years ago. It was the right thing to do. My time surely would have run out. Although, the year I spent cheating at cards may nullify that statement, but that is another story.

Next, I hope to explore Honesty and the Magician. I believe that my magic and my felonious side are connected. I also believe this is true for many magicians, but many don’t ever realize right from wrong or the time and place for it. The worlds of crime and magic have a long association and continue to overlap. The second magician, ever, ripped off the first one. We, magicians, revere the criminal while decrying the same behavior in modern magicians. Worse, we are complicit, with a romantic wink and a nostalgic nod.

Oh, those lovable rogues.