New Years Thoughts — Let’s Be a BrotherhoodInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Around this time of year, we?re supposed to do two things: look back on the year that was and make resolutions for the year that will be. The look back is kind of trite and the resolutions for the New Year are usually broken almost immediately.

Maybe we should think about the way things have been and what we have learned to help us in the coming year.

There?s no sense chronicling the things that happened. Some of them are so sad that there is nothing pithy or profound to be offered.

There is no humor or lesson to be learned in the tiger attack that robbed Siegfried and Roy of a final show on their own terms. Would the lesson be that Roy shouldn?t have worked with tigers and lions? PETA thought so but that is to be expected.

What was not expected, however, was that some magicians took the same position and voiced their condemning observation of hindsight at the same moment Roy was fighting for his life. These are brothers in Magic (I used the term ?brother? generically). The brethren made these statements about Roy after the tragic accident but are not on record anywhere before October 3,…

Maybe we should think about the way things have been and what we have learned to help us in the coming year.

There?s no sense chronicling the things that happened. Some of them are so sad that there is nothing pithy or profound to be offered.

Kirby VanBurch’s comments to ABC News were typical of this ignorant second-guessing. He described how ? even though he was not present during the last show ? he knew what the tiger was thinking and how Roy lost control of the animal.

To be brutally honest, I think that those magicians that jumped on the anti-Siegfried and Roy bandwagon and made comments as uninformed as Mr. Van Burch, were looking to enhance their own fame as fleeting and as diminutive as it will be. We need to remember these brothers and tell them that we are disappointed in their actions. Maybe that?s the positive we can take with us into the New Year.

One last thought on the Siegfried and Roy story before we move on.

Who cares what their relationship is?

Why should you or I care? Tim, are you condoning homosexuality? Isn?t that a sin? First, no one knows what they did or what their preferences are. Second, assuming that their relationship ? that has lasted more than 40 years ? is something you would consider improper, have you committed no sin? Last time I checked, St. Paul puts drunkenness right up there with homosexuality and lust.

More importantly, have you shown the love and compassion towards your husband or wife or best friend similar to that shown by Siegfried for Roy? If you want a reason to hate or marginalize someone, don?t look to the Vegas home of Siegfried and Roy. If you want to see how important dedication and loyalty is in this short run we call life, that?s a different story.

What other lessons have we learned from the past year? For me, at least, I?ve learned to hold as tightly as I can to my friends and make my acquaintances more like friends.

The world of Magic, someone wrote, is a small world. Not many of us are David Copperfield, David Blaine, Criss Angel, Mark Wilson, Lance Burton or Siegfried and Roy. Most of us are guys and gals that work hard at some job that gives us the spare cash to buy tricks that we hope won?t end up in a drawer somewhere.

We do our shows ? often for not much more than free ? and try to make it better each time. We all have effects or routines of which we are rightfully proud. But we don?t have the time, resources or number of well-polished routines to make it in Vegas or to tour the United States lecturing other magicians. And that is fine and right. But we shouldn?t, I don?t think, tear down those who do.

So many of the magic forums are filled with the backbiting and accusations we normally associate with school children. Perhaps it is the anonymous nature of the forums that allows us to drop to the lowest level of communication but given that there is so much to be gained by meeting and talking with a fellow magician, it seems counter-productive.

Do you hate Magician X? But you love Magician Y? How about propping up Magician Y and keep secret your loathing of Magician X? No one is edified by tearing down a brother magician. But we are all helped by you brining to our attention that a magician you?ve seen has great potential.

Remember that this column is not preaching to you ? it really is preaching to me. I am guilty too.

We who are still working our way through the Tarbell Course should be the least likely to throw stones. We need to look at our own acts. As bad as the professionals are reported to be, we who perform on weekends are often so bad that we don?t just fail to entertain, we actually expose secrets.

That?s pretty bad.

Why not resolve to show only what we?ve really practiced, save the criticism for ourselves and offer constructive advice and encouragement to our fellow club members. This insistence on a minimum level of competency will not only keep our secrets secret but encourage others to learn about our fine Art.

This memory and resolution is for me in particular. I have to remember that there are magicians that exist outside the borders of the United States. Not just magicians with accents, but really great magicians. I think we (maybe just me) make the assumption that if you are not from the U.S. or from a country where English is the native language, you are still in the Magic Dark Ages.

We assume that while we?re doing the Faro Shuffle to perfection to keep a Si Stebbins Stack, the rest of the world is doing variations on the Ball and Vase or the Drawer Box. Our brother and sister magicians all over the world ? including places where they dress differently, eat different kinds of food and talk in a language we didn?t even hear about in high school ? really know their stuff.

When I first saw Gaetan Bloom, I figured he must be good or they wouldn?t have paid for him to appear at the Abbott?s Get-Together. But still, he was not a U.S. Magician. (Ironically, I consider Jay Sankey an American Magician even though he?s from Canada). He blew me away. How about that? Someone from another country can do great magic, imaginative magic, and significant magic. Maybe I should let go of my prejudices and jingoism and enjoy and learn. I will. I?ve learned the error of my ways.

This year also saw the disbanding of the World Alliance of Magicians. There are those in our small world that found great joy in tearing down the efforts of Walter Blaney, Abb Dickson and others. They saw WAM as a band-aid on a gunshot wound of a patient that had already died. They?re wrong. WAM was not only correct but the leaders that took on the project for five grueling years should be thanked and not ridiculed in the magic media.

I?ve asked Mr. Blaney if he would object to Inside Magic taking on the mission of WAM and establishing a new website to promote knowledge and seek a dogma we can all agree to enforce. Mr. Blaney was kind enough to say that he would be happy to let me do it. I have no illusions that this will be an easy project or that it will be inexpensive. I know from the work of WAM that the efforts are costly and that resources from the Magic community have not been forthcoming.

So other than no money and the labor-intensive nature of the project, it should be a snap. Please look for further information about this transition later in January. I?ll be looking for magicians who can dedicate some of their time or some of their money or some of both to help keep the spirit of WAM alive.

I am very excited about this development and I hope you?ll join in.

What about the good things, Timbo? What have we experienced that can allow for positive resolutions?

Okay, here we go. Don?t hate me for this. I hated coin work. I hated gimmicked coins and I am too inept to do coin tricks without gimmicks. I can do a matrix if I use six coins but two of them have to be magnetic.

This year I met someone who took me back to basics ? we?re talking pre-Bobo basics ? and taught me the palming methods I need to do coin work. It turns out that coins aren?t evil. Coin tricks can be entertaining. Coin magic can be fun to do. I work on my muscle pass every chance I get and have a half dollar leaping millimeters from my palm. It?s coming, just a little slowly. The good thing is that because I swallowed my pride and went to the basics, I learned the good habits that make the tricks possible. I?m a very prideful guy so this was an enormous leap for me.

So the resolution is? The resolution is that I will foreclose no area of Magic. I will consider that all kinds of magic can be learned and performed with joy if I swallow my pride and get the correct training and patient teacher. I will seek out the people that can teach me. I?m a difficult case but perhaps the difficulty is made even worse because I am so prideful. I assume I know it all and it would be ridiculous to seek the teaching of someone in my Magic club. After all, I go to the great lecturers. What can Joe Invisible Coin Purse teach me? The answer is: plenty.

2004 starts with our caution alert at Magenta or some color that means it could get bad. Some of the people we all know right now, could be gone if the terrorists have their way. Heck, the exposure of Magic secrets could be the least of our worries if our borders are breached or if our friends in foreign countries are victimized.

But we have hope. Why? Because we know that deep down, right will prevail. It doesn?t matter if it is ?the right? as taught by Christianity, Judaism or Muslim thought, it will prevail.

But right doesn?t prevail by itself: just like evil, it works through the actions of human beings. Someone has to drive the suicide truck or pilot the hijacked plane just as someone has to defend against those attacks or to provide aid to someone who is injured or starving.

But we have little control over the direction of hatred or evil. We can only do the things that bring us together with those people we meet and those with whom we are associated. We are first and foremost a brotherhood of Magicians. We?re in this Art because we enjoy it and we enjoy the effect it has on others when we present our Magic. To keep the associations strong only helps to beat back the evil in the world. It provides accountability and removes the anonymous nature of ?others.?

This year we will lose people we?ve met at conventions or seen in lectures or shows. They?ll be gone forever and we?ll never see them again on this mortal coil. This year we lost Del Ray. I can remember seeing the finest close-up act ever performed by Del Ray and I never considered that there would be a time when he would no longer be available to watch.

But he is gone from us.

Someone in my club, your club, our extended family will no longer be with us at the same time next year. Let?s resolve to be fully engaged with our brothers and sisters in this Art. Let?s make the brotherhood of Magic one that others envy because of how we care for our own and support our own.

In my real world life as a lawyer, I knew a secretary who was going through very difficult marital problems. One night, as I was rushing to get a brief out, she asked if she could ?just talk with me for a while.? I promised I would talk to her as soon as I could. She eventually left before I finished my brief and I didn?t have the chance. The next morning, she started her Ford Mustang in the garage and left it running as she allowed the carbon monoxide to take her life. Her husband was devastated and her friends wondered how or why someone so ?happy? or who had it all together would take her life at 22.

I won?t be able to take back my failure to talk with her that night. I can?t say how the conversation would have gone but perhaps I would have inquired how she was doing emotionally and perhaps there could have been something in the conversation that would have convinced her to reject suicide. She made the decision to kill herself on apparently short notice and left no note of explanation.

I won?t embrace people because I fear they may take their lives but because it is our primary responsibility as part of this society. Our brotherhood means more than just attending meetings and showing tricks. We need to be available for each other. There are people we meet every day that can be changed for the positive by our input and, when we need it, we can be helped by them as well.

We can do it because as Magicians, we can do anything. The ?how? of what we do is a secret.