--- In [email protected], "curtisdeltablues" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I am a big fan of closeup with natural objects. I think the problem > is that so much of magic is really lame compared to special effects. > It takes a personality to sell it, and that seems to be lacking in > most big name magicians. David Blane actually has anti- charisma.
When I lived in L.A., my roommate, an airbrush artist of some reknown, did costumes for Doug Henning. So Doug would come over to the house every so often to see how things were progressing. On those visits he would often perform closeup magic for us, and lemme tell you, that was *far* more impressive than anything he ever did on TV. The man was *amazing*. Just watching him perform his finger exercises was jaw-dropping. He could fully flex every joint of every finger. He took us to the Magic Castle in L.A. a few times, which was a kind of private club for magicians. Until they opened it to the public for reserved dinners, at the time we were going there entrance was still reserved to members (that is, actively performing magicians) and their guests. What a trip. This is where Doug studied for years with Dai Vernon, the person other than Maharishi he considered his greatest teacher. Dai was a legend in the magic world. He had given up perform- ing for the public because there was no challenge in it any more. He only performed at the Magic Castle, for other magicians. And most of *them* in the audience couldn't figure out how he did half his tricks. Fun memories you triggered. The Magic Castle was a wonderful place, and Doug -- offstage, not in front of an audience or Maharishi -- was a truly sweet guy, very natural and unassuming. He had practiced his closeup magic for something like eight hours a day for twenty years at the time I got to be around him, and it really showed. I have memories of him sitting crosslegged on the run two feet away from me, in a short-sleeve shirt, his hands resting on his knees as if in meditation...no more motion than simply turning his hands over from palms up to palms down...and doing things with six gold coins that he made appear and disappear and jump from hand to hand that just took my breath away. He allowed me to move around anywhere I wanted -- from front to back, putting my face down on the rug to watch his hands from that angle, moving around to the back of him and watching from there -- and I *still* couldn't see how he did some of the thing he did with those coins.
