Andre Kole is to Magic as a Diamond is to CoalInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Andre Kole

Andre Kole’s peripatetic tour takes him to Belchertown, Massachusetts, this Tuesday at 7:00 pm. We read The Republican of Springfield this morning and learned all about it. The proceeds from this award-winning show will go to the Bethesday Leprosy Hospital in Narsapur, India. Dwight Chapel is sponsoring both the leprosy hospital and Mr. Kole’s performance.

Assistant Pastor Robert L. Hewes is understandably proud of his invited guest. He told the local paper, “Mr. Kole has collaborated with David Copperfield for more than 100 different stage and television show illusions. Andre makes people mysteriously appear, disappear, dematerialize and levitate. He will also put on a unique stage presentation relating to the spiritual dimension of life that will leave the audience inspired.”

The tickets are a mere $5.00 and are available in advance and at the door.

Go figure, $5.00 to see one of the top three magicians in the entire world. So let’s go into the Way-Back Machine and analyze this. In 1945, that same ticket would have cost you the equivalent of 75 cents. Still pretty cheap even then. So let’s go back to 1926, if Mr. Kole were performing the same show for the equivalent of $5.00 in today’s dollar, it would cost you 45 cents.

So if we have our math correct — which is doubtful but we had to include that statement in case we are audited based on the tax returns we are filing today — to see Mr. Kole’s show in 1926 and then again in 1945, you’d be paying some amount of money equal to the value of some other amounts that were either divided or multiplied or something. (We’re more into the conceptual math as opposed to the “results-oriented” system they teach today). Regardless, it would have cost you not much.

So here is the more important analysis. Leprosy has been a plague on this planet for thousands of years. The modern skin disease we call Leprosy today is not the same as the skin affliction in Biblical times but would be a subset of the illness. Regardless of its name, the disfiguring effects are not only dangerous but also usually handled by excluding the victim from healthy society.

What can $5.00 do to assist in the arrest and cure of Hansen’s disease or modern-day leprosy in India? Also, why should we care? After all, we don’t have leprosy.

We would probably all concede regardless of our understanding of advanced conceptual math that spending $5.00 Tuesday night isn’t likely to cure or significantly ease the suffering of men, women, and children living the lives of outcasts in India.

Oh, sure, there is the psychic benefit of dropping a couple of bucks or loose change into a poor box. We’re not preaching to anyone but us. Dropping the money we would otherwise lose in the narrow cracks of our newly upholstered couch mollifies — we feel like we’re helping with the noble fight. But beyond making us feel better for our de minimis contribution to people we don’t know, what good is…

Andre Kole

The tickets are a mere $5.00 and are available in advance and at the door.

What can $5.00 do to assist in the arrest and cure of Hansen’s disease or modern-day leprosy in India? Also, why should we care? After all, we don’t have leprosy.

Hey, we get to see a magic show and a darn good one too.

So, maybe the religious leaders of this well-intentioned but horribly misguided church have it all wrong. Maybe Mr. Kole has lost his mind. $5.00 a show? Please. Even we can make that kind of money and we’re terrible. He has been on the road a lot over the last 30 plus years. Maybe his life on the road, performing for small churches, on college campuses, in lesser-theaters has some how caused Mr. Kole to lose sight of the important things in life.

$5.00 a ticket? Plus, get this, they’re so ignorant they don’t even know they can slap on an extra fee if you buy your tickets at the door. Well, you know what it says in the Bible. “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”

We have recounted often our first encounter with Mr. Kole. It was a long time ago. Way back when President Nixon resigned and India announced they had successfully detonated an atomic bomb.

Mr. Kole performed for the Campus Crusade for Christ at New Mexico State University and was outstanding. His illusions were crisp, new, exciting, and inspiring. He invited folks to stay for the second-half of the presentation for a talk on Biblical principles explained through some more magic. We stayed, we watched, we were moved and we believed.

The irony of this recollection: Mr. Kole didn’t even charge $5.00. It was free. You could contribute something to the local Campus Crusade for Christ — but it wasn’t required. You could sign-up to receive more information — it was your choice.

Therefore, ipso facto, the man was nuts thirty years ago.

One of the messages from that warm New Mexico night still resonates for us. We are not alone in any sense of the word. We are responsible for those around us and to our God and to ourselves. There is no private sin. There is no “little act.” In fact, no where in the Bible does it say “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”

So, maybe, just maybe, the host church for Tuesday’s show is looking beyond the $5.00 ticket price and hoping to receive something more. That “something more” may be additional donations, of course; but it could also be the mission’s chance to bring us the same messages Mr. Kole, and leaders of all faiths have taught: God truly loves us, God forgives us, and God expects us to love one another.

We were on a plane with a woman in her late 50’s. She was on her way back to California after spending three or four months in a leper colony in India.

“Isn’t that already cured?” we asked as we tried to un-wedge a peanut from our incisor-bicuspid gap.

This kind woman explained the plight of the people she just left as well as those who may not have the same illness but because of the social structure and economy have the title of untouchables.

She provided literature video materials assembled for media outlets.

“So, you’re trying to raise money, then?” The peanut freed itself from our sensitive teeth.

We were ready for her. If she was so ready to raise money, why was she flying first class?

She could either read our mind, or she was ready for this accusation.

“I pay my own way to and from India. I have enough frequent flyer points to keep me up here so I can sleep. We’re not looking for money as much as we’re looking to bring the issue to the attention of the kind of people who normally travel in first class.”

We accepted the tape, the brochures, and a small booklet. Even though she didn’t ask, we gave her some money, went our separate ways upon arrival a LA.

Her message came through strongly two days later, after watching the video in a hotel room. She said she was “trying to bring the issue to the attention of the kind of people who normally travel in first class.”

Oh, wait! That’s us.

Raising awareness is not usually sufficient to accomplish anything. Even Mr. Kole’s persistent efforts to bring his message of forgiveness and love to the kind of people who would see a free magic show on a college campus, doesn’t amount to much by itself. But it is a numbers game, really. Like door-to-door sales. We knew we’d have the door slammed on our puss about fifteen times for every sale but we also knew that sale made the fifteen rude welcomes worthwhile.

Maybe the woman on the plane, the church in Massachusetts, and Mr. Kole are not wasting their time. They change the thinking of those they encounter — some for good, some for not so good, and some have their thinking altered so dramatically that action ensues. Even if it means we no longer look at the lepers or Untouchables of India as “disposable” or as “the kind of people” unworthy of our concern, the effect is incalculable.

Someone actually put it better than we can:

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous 16 will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’