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| Seth Grabel |
We don’t know what it is about Vegas, but those folks love magic. They love
talking, writing, showing, seeing, and buying magic. That’s good for us when the
usual oasis of magic news, the UK’s The Scotsman is covering some
allegedly important topic like . . . whatever would be more important than
Magic. We’re stumped but that’s not the point.
So you put together, Vegas, Magic, and Grabel and you’re thinking Lee Grabel.
But then we read further and further.
We started reading The Rebel Yell – the Official Newspaper of the
University of Nevada Las Vegas back when we were fans of head coach Jerry
Tarkanian and his incredible run towards the NCAA Tournament. So, that’s quite a
while ago.
Today’s edition has a great profile on a 23-year-old senior, Seth Grabel.
The magician meets reporter theme is one of the classics in magic reporting.
There are few moves in this prosaic dance: either the reporter is a skeptic
or an enthusiastic lover of all things magic; or, the reporter is enthusiastic
lover of the particular magician in front of him or her.
Last week, we featured a
story about a young cub reporter who attended the Jim Karol show with
skepticism and disdain for what she considered “lame jokes” and “predictable
magic.” She left the show to hurry her glowing, almost cult-like hagiographic
work for the next day’s paper. She had not only sipped the proverbial (and
frankly over-used) Kool-Aid, she brought mixers and tried to keep the moment
going like the hostess of a otherwise lifeless At-Home Crack Party.
We had the other end of the extreme in reporter cum fan continuum.
Remember the glowing awe in which the New York Times reporter
described every nuance of Derren Brown’s “mischievous grin” “his cool charm”?
We’re still unable to eat and read newspapers after that.
The point is not that Jim Karol or Derren Brown are unworthy of the praise
they ultimately receive as a result of the trite technique, just that it is
trite and technique-like.
[By the way, we received several emails complaining about the Jim Karol
article. We made a point of quoting the cub reporter's fears that the show would
be "lame" and that John Edwards performed "stupid tricks." We weren't trying to
pick on Mr. Karol or, for that matter, the young reporter.
Her entire world
was converted by the show -- she became a Karol-Follower after watching his
incredible work.
Unfortunately, her ability to convey that transformation and Mr. Karol's
ability to cause the transformation far out-performed our ability to write about
it. We did a poor job and are sorry for the confusion.]
Okay, with that in mind, let’s consider how a professional, hardened reporter
would approach the interview with a young magician; a fellow student. The
article begins with the following stanza:
“Seth Grabel is a magician, so I’m focused on his movements. My eyes
follow his eyes, his hands and his body…
Continue reading Seth Grabel Profiled
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