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| I Reflect |
Sometimes, late at night, when I am all alone, I become reflective. I do not mean I become shiny; although I do sweat sometimes but not so much as to make me shine. It is more of a cold sweat that soaks my poncho and knee-high socks that I like to wear when I reflect. I digress. Tonight, as I reflect on all that magic is and has been one word comes to mind: The Professor’s Nightmare. This rope trick is, to quote an anonymous source, ”cunning, baffling and powerful.” It is inscrutable. I have tried to scruit it but I cannot.
Remember the first time? If you are like me, you were probably standing on the customer-side of a glass case filled with tricks, covered with a light patina of dust. (Light Patina was, ironically, Lulu Hurst’s real name. She changed it to become the Georgia Magnet ? the woman who could not be lifted. Her sister, Thin Patina could be picked up by anyone with a good story and a beer.) You watched as the three unequal ropes became the same length and then returned to their original unequal lengths. I know there was a story to it but the imagery alone was sufficient to sell the trick. How upset were you when you learned the ropes were un-gimmicked and nothing was added or removed from the props? I was never one to read instructions, I would look at the trick, view the gimmick and figure it out. I regretted for years that I tossed aside the instructions to The Professor’s Nightmare. In fact, I still don’t know how it is done and I am too proud to ask. I assume it has something to do with the sweat of one’s hands causing the rope to elongate and then immediately shrink but despite my sweating and tugging, I have been unable to do anything but soil the ropes and offend my fellow bus passengers with my grunts of discouragement.
The Gene Anderson Newspaper Tear was another one of those effects that just looked too magical to be true. I tried to make my own for years but failed miserably. I assumed that as in the case of The Professor’s Nightmare, there were no gimmicks added or removed. I tore newspapers just as Doug Henning performed it but no matter how hard I flicked them, they never returned to a restored state.
And that is the point of this little meandering through the reflective recesses of my skull: just because it looks like magic, doesn’t mean that…
Continue reading Reflections of a Crazed Magician
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