You can ask anyone, what does Inside Magic like?
Those in the know will say, usually with a chirpy tone, cool magic stuff from magic history and corn dogs.
Taking the list in order, we look constantly for cool magic stuff from magic history. We have a key to the city given to Harry Blackstone Jr. given by the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan. We have posters and pictures of great magicians through the years. Some of our fondest memories have been eating corn dogs.
Other great memories have been talking to older magicians about the magicians they have seen or with whom they worked.
We recalled a wonderful conversation about Harry Blackstone, Jr. (the impetus for our mention of my souvenir) and how compassionate he was for his staff and assistants. He certainly did not need to be – he was the star and his show was a hit. But he was.
We have a multi-page letter handwritten by Doug Henning in response to our question, “how can a magician who is only 12 make it as a professional.”
Not surprisingly, he did not tell us to get an agent, make posters, berate theater managers; but to practice the art, learn the rules of being a magician and have fun.
We work in a wonderful art. People genuinely love to be entertained and fooled and corn dogs.
We provide two out of the three and the more we do it, the more entertaining it becomes for us and our audience.
We wonder how the younger generation learns about our grand history. Perhaps there are still meetings over an occasional corn dog where mustard-stained young performers can hear stories of Willard the Wizard, Thurston, Houdini, Kellar, Dante and our favorite, Harry Blackstone, Jr.
Although the image is not of Harry Blackstone, Jr. or any deep-fried hot dog, we think the poster used by Kellar displaying his “latest” illusion of “self-decapitation” is illustrative of our wonderful history. No one – at least no one we have seen in the last 20-years has performed “self-decapitation” and even decapitation of others has fallen into disfavor (correctly in our humble opinion) due to world events. But his poster was drawn in sketch form, colored in, placed on lithographic machinery and literally inked with several different passes – one for each color – leaving a space to make the poster applicable to the town or setting where Kellar would soon perform. How wonderful.
You can find wonderful posters of magicians and non-magicians throughout history at the Library of Congress for your viewing and enjoyment. We hope you do.
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