An Open Letter To Magicians
Dear Magicians,
Recently, I saw a magic trick that blew my mind. I won't get into particulars, but it involved props, ashes in my closed hand, trickery, surprise and a very audible "how did you do that!" Basically, he lit a cigarette and the ashes appeared in my hand. My closed hand. I opened my hand and the ashes were there, inside my fist, and I don't remember for sure, but I think they were still a little warm.
Now this was quite a trick. (Magicians, I know you prefer the term effect, but in the interest of everyone else who may be reading this, I'm just gonna stick to layman's terms.) While I can't do any magic, I'd like to think of myself as a bit of a fan, a connoisseur if you will. I can't do any tricks, but I can recognize a good one. And the one I saw was not a learn it overnight on the internet kind of trick. It was the type of trick it takes a while to master. The type of trick that takes a master to master. A trick you need to practice over and over to get right. But what's more, it's the type of trick that would never be the first and only trick in a magician's repertoire. If you can make warm ashes appear in a closed fist (pause) then you have a whole stable of tricks and you've known these tricks for quite some time.
And therein lays the problem. I love magic. I thought that if there was anyone who my friends knew loved magic, it was me. I picture my friends at a David Copperfield show sitting in amazement and the whole time thinking, "man, Adam should be here, he would really love this more than us because he is the one that we know who really loves magic more than other people we know." When I confronted my friend, who I've known for ten plus years, as to why he never showed me magic before, he made two points:
1) I didn't know you liked magic.
2) You never asked.
Believe it or not, I find the first point more absurd. I had a magician at my twenty-fourth birthday party, and even if my friend wasn't there (but certainly invited) it's been a few years and it's a relatively well known thing that I had a magician perform at my birthday party. Furthermore, said magician who I had at my birthday party (who now is making billions of dollars selling tricks in Vegas, selling em, he doesn't even have to do them!) got his start doing magic opening up for the band Cake. Why is this significant? Only because the first thing me and my magician friend who didn't know I liked magic did ever was go see Cake play in Chicago. Please, let's not dwell on that point though, it will only get us off track.
The fact that I never asked to see magic is just lunacy. I put that on par with not telling a phenomenal story because your friend "never asked." I really don't want to get into this never asked business. I want to address both of these points head on by solving them so there can never be any more arguments.
So to any of my undercover magician friends, let's make the following things clear:
1) I love magic. I will shout it from the highest mountaintops. Magic is amazing, it keeps me guessing because I don't know what's gonna happen nor how it will happen. That's only one of the myriad reasons why I love magic.
2) I'M RIGHT NOW OFFICIALLY ASKING YOU TO SHOW ME ALL THE MAGIC YOU KNOW AT WHATEVER TIME OR PLACE YOU DEEM IT APPROPRIATE TO SHOW ME.
I hope this puts any confusion to rest.
Love,
Adam
Recently, I saw a magic trick that blew my mind. I won't get into particulars, but it involved props, ashes in my closed hand, trickery, surprise and a very audible "how did you do that!" Basically, he lit a cigarette and the ashes appeared in my hand. My closed hand. I opened my hand and the ashes were there, inside my fist, and I don't remember for sure, but I think they were still a little warm.
Now this was quite a trick. (Magicians, I know you prefer the term effect, but in the interest of everyone else who may be reading this, I'm just gonna stick to layman's terms.) While I can't do any magic, I'd like to think of myself as a bit of a fan, a connoisseur if you will. I can't do any tricks, but I can recognize a good one. And the one I saw was not a learn it overnight on the internet kind of trick. It was the type of trick it takes a while to master. The type of trick that takes a master to master. A trick you need to practice over and over to get right. But what's more, it's the type of trick that would never be the first and only trick in a magician's repertoire. If you can make warm ashes appear in a closed fist (pause) then you have a whole stable of tricks and you've known these tricks for quite some time.
And therein lays the problem. I love magic. I thought that if there was anyone who my friends knew loved magic, it was me. I picture my friends at a David Copperfield show sitting in amazement and the whole time thinking, "man, Adam should be here, he would really love this more than us because he is the one that we know who really loves magic more than other people we know." When I confronted my friend, who I've known for ten plus years, as to why he never showed me magic before, he made two points:
1) I didn't know you liked magic.
2) You never asked.
Believe it or not, I find the first point more absurd. I had a magician at my twenty-fourth birthday party, and even if my friend wasn't there (but certainly invited) it's been a few years and it's a relatively well known thing that I had a magician perform at my birthday party. Furthermore, said magician who I had at my birthday party (who now is making billions of dollars selling tricks in Vegas, selling em, he doesn't even have to do them!) got his start doing magic opening up for the band Cake. Why is this significant? Only because the first thing me and my magician friend who didn't know I liked magic did ever was go see Cake play in Chicago. Please, let's not dwell on that point though, it will only get us off track.
The fact that I never asked to see magic is just lunacy. I put that on par with not telling a phenomenal story because your friend "never asked." I really don't want to get into this never asked business. I want to address both of these points head on by solving them so there can never be any more arguments.
So to any of my undercover magician friends, let's make the following things clear:
1) I love magic. I will shout it from the highest mountaintops. Magic is amazing, it keeps me guessing because I don't know what's gonna happen nor how it will happen. That's only one of the myriad reasons why I love magic.
2) I'M RIGHT NOW OFFICIALLY ASKING YOU TO SHOW ME ALL THE MAGIC YOU KNOW AT WHATEVER TIME OR PLACE YOU DEEM IT APPROPRIATE TO SHOW ME.
I hope this puts any confusion to rest.
Love,
Adam
posted by mayor at
12:08 PM
8 Comments:
Adam, I hope and demand that you write more open letters to sectors of the public...I like to LOL.
dude, it is CRAZY that you posted this, because I JUST finished talking to ben seidman, who is the resident magician at the Mandalay Bay. Please, please look at his website:
www.magicben.com
NO WAY. the same ben seidman, with the mini curly mom, who was on my bus in third grade?
my mind is over. canceled. blown beyond repair.
literally it's outside of my body. it has left my head. it is not behind my face.
dude. he has a testimonial from carrot top and a nose ring. coma.
Adam. I will show you a magic trick the next time I see you.
i can't believe that magicben wasn't taken by a magician long ago.
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