Mysterious Glow

Uri Geller is back in the news claiming two things. First he claims that he put his friend, Michael Jackson, under hypnosis and asked him if the unsavory allegations against him were true, and was satisfied that Michael was innocent of the charges. Secondly, he claims that he hid drugs from Michael. The two were very good friends, for a time, but Uri Geller is such a, what can be charitably called, exaggerator, that every thing he says should be taken with a grain of salt.

For those of us who grew up in the 1970s, Uri Geller was an incredible phenomenon. He was a magician who packaged the trick of bending spoons as proof of amazing mental powers. I remember trying to bend spoons, forks and keys with just the power of the mind. It didn’t work. Uri only recently has dropped the claim that he was using supernatural powers given to him by extraterrestrials to do this. I still think he is one of the greatest magicians of the 20th century, and it doesn’t matter to me if he was a con artist or not.

For my own act, I’m doing spoon and fork bending with fake mental powers, but I worry if that can be seen from the stage.

Here is a good interview of magician/mentalist Derren Brown.

A couple of hours later, Brown sounds a tiny bit croaky but looks anything but embarrassed as he performs the hell out of his latest mix of “magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship”. As with his three previous live shows, he reads audience member’s minds and even attempts to put us all into a trance. He ends, as ever, with a feat that makes you realise that even the most casual look and comment has been there for a reason. It’s so satisfyingly mind-melting that you come out of the theatre longing to shout about it — and then remember that you’ve all been sworn to secrecy. Well, fair enough. Take the surprises out of magic and what is left of it?

Hence, perhaps, Brown’s moments of self-doubt. He is, at 38, a magician so ingenious that he’s even persuaded us that he’s not a magician. He performs “psychological illusions” that emphasise the strange machinations of the human mind, not the nimbleness of his sleight-of-hand. He shows us the ways in which we get befuddled and duped, even as he befuddles and dupes us. It’s quite a trick. But is that all it is?

“One of the problems with magic,” Brown says a few days later, his voice medicated back to its normal easy clarity, “is that it’s such a fascinating thing to do, but all the things that are genuinely interesting about it are things you can’t really talk about. You have to hold so much back. So because people know they’re being fooled and it’s just a game, after a while the act begins to grate. Which is why most magicians are loved for a while and then become figures of fun.”

I’ve read his book, Absolute Magic, a few years ago. It is not something one can get in a bookstore, as it an insider’s book. Not really a listing of tricks and such. I felt like I was getting into the mind of the real Derren Brown. There was a biting snark to it, which kind of came across as mean-spirited. A lot of British people seem to have this. This is in stark contrast to the stage persona of Derren Brown who comes across as instantly likable. Anyway, it is one of the best books I’ve read on the performance of magic.

I wish that Derren Brown was the “face” of magic, rather than those who are more interested in endurance records and what-not. I suppose that endurance stunts have some kind of historical merit. Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly was a boxer of such non-talent, that he started the craze of flagpole sitting, which is the kind of act David Blaine is doing now. Not very magical, and there really is no point or story to it. Shipwreck Kelly died homeless and penniless. Just saying.

It is with a heavy heart that I report that one of my lifelong heroes, the legendary Dai Vernon, has passed away. I’m an amateur magician, and watching old films of Dai Vernon makes my jaw drop. Vernon once fooled escape artist, Harry Houdini, with his ambitious card routine. His influence on magic is enormous, and it is Vernon who thought up most of the great tricks of the 20th century. It is my understanding that he never had an agent, and perhaps his lack of fame was a choice.

I’m not ashamed to say my version of the classic trick, Cups and Balls, is inspired from his routine, as well as his protegé, Michael Ammar. I know it by heart but it still fools me when Vernon does it. His performance of linking rings has a quiet beauty and elegance to it.

Vernon also mentored other magicians throughout his life, including my favorite, Ricky Jay. Ricky Jay is more famous to most people for his appearances in the television series, Deadwood, and the film Boogie Nights, but he is really one of the top card magicians in the world, as that link shows.

Vernon died at the age of 98.