2007-01 Dennis' Deliberations

Well, my opinion piece on the Franz Harary part of the Daytona magic convention completely polarized my readers. Actually, by a wide margin, most of you agreed with what I said. I received several E-Mails that said, "Finally! an honest review of a magic convention!" and "Its about time someone starts telling the truth". And then I got a few that said things such as : I have no "right" to criticize Franz and I did a hatchet-job on Franz because I was jealous of his success and I am an angry, unfulfilled. bitter old man living in the 1950s! This criticism of me is a common technique that is used when someone has no valid point so they resort to attacks on the personality and character of the critic. I do appreciate this free psychoanalysis of my motivations and consider it worth what it cost me: nothing. Our past Ring president, MJ Emigh, disagreed with my view of Franz but he wrote a civil and well-crafted rebuttal. Stefan will print it and I am thankful for MJ expressing his feelings. <>

Speaking of psychoanalysis, magic is a compulsive hobby for some people. To them is like a cult religion where they loose all objectivity. Jeff McBride may as well be David Koresh to some. They will follow him to mystical compounds and do who knows what. I guess some people just don't have a real life or their life is so devoid of meaning that they have to cloister themselves in front of a mirror and dream they are wonderful while they practice their Erdnase underhanded double-lift glide pass with an Elmsley Flustration-shuffle full-pack cull. Or they lock themselves in their warehouse spending hours folding and unfolding their Origami Box long after their gorgeous female assistant has gotten bored and left with the sound man. So, ANY type of public personal opinion is not usually appreciated in other magic publications. This is why you get mostly rave reviews for acts that stink. Anyway, you can be certain that I won't mince words here. This job doesn't pay anything so I am free to tell it like I see it. I don't want this Ring to get too fond of Rev. Jim Jones' formula for Grape Kool-Aid.

During the past few weeks the Michael Richards heckling incident has filled the media. I have been on E-Mail chatting with other magicians about it. Larry Thornton from Calgary, Canada sent me some comments from Wayne N. Kawamoto and those comments follow. First of all, racist hurtful language is never acceptable. I used to wince when Don Rickles used his ethnic humor back in the days when we were not so politically correct.

Yet I feel some sadness for Richards. After all he was heckled. He did not start the process! He was attacked first with crude and inappropriate remarks. Rude members of his audience attack him from the audience and were disturbing other paid ticket holders. If you open your mouth from the audience and get blasted, you can be upset by inappropriate language that is said back to you but you bear some of the blame for disturbing the performer. My second point is that all performances , such as Richard's, are copyrighted and no one has the right to record and distribute any part of it. I realize that cell phone cameras and small recording devices have made this possible but it is still illegal. If Richard's rant had not been recorded, the incident would have not had national coverage.

If Richards is "sued" ( and that seems to be the answer to everything!) then the hecklers should be sued for the damages they caused to the value received or not received from the performance as well as the loss to Richards for inciting his actions. The person recording the performance must also be sued by Richards for violating copyright and illegal distribution. Kawamoto says:

"Aside from the despicable language and behavior, the recent incident with comedian Michael Richards brings to light the problem of heckling, something that all entertainers and especially magicians have to deal with.

It is interesting that Richards was even being heckled. When his fellow Seinfeld alumni Jason Alexander performed at the Magic Castle earlier this year, his show was an adoration-filled love fest. The audience practically worshiped Alexander-hanging on his every word and laughing, clapping and cheering generously in the right places.

After the show, there were people, even long-time Castle members, who said that Alexander's show was one of the best that they had ever seen. The show was good, but not among the Magic Castle's absolute finest. But hey, that's star power.

In the same vein, one would have expected a crowd in a comedy club to be equally in awe of Richards, the television star. But obviously, this was not the case. Understand that comedy clubs are edgier environments than that at the Magic Castle.

The incident brings to light the fact that as entertainers, we are all going to receive our share of rude feedback and, at times, heckling. I used to think that if you kept improving my magic and polishing your presentations, you would be able to one day rise above heckling. But the fact is, no performer is immune from it.

And the more I talk with other magicians, even well respected performers-the best in our field-the more I realize that every magician has horror stories and 'memorable' incidents.

Perhaps magicians are among the entertainers who are most likely to be heckled. After all, we encourage reactions from crowds, and it's natural for some to view a magic show as a challenge to catch us and figure out secrets.

Personally, during performances, I've dealt with my share of smart alecks and hecklers. It's usually loud, negative or boorish comments, typically, before I've even started a set.

If it's a small crowd in a strolling situation, I try to diffuse the situation with a semi-humorous comment that acknowledges but doesn't insult the person, and doesn't give-up any ground. And then I do my job with my magic. In a larger crowd, I usually continue on until the loudmouth gives up. I have the microphone so I have the advantage.

These strategies have worked for me thus far, but I'm sure that I've got many interesting audience situations in my future. When it comes to performing magic, I'm a glass half-empty kind of guy. I always say that I haven't yet met my worst crowd.

I think that the best thing we can do as performers is to polish our presentations to a high level, make our routines as entertaining as possible and execute the finest magic that we can. As entertainers, we have to take interruptions and rudeness in stride and keep our cool, something that Richards didn't do. Our jobs can be trying. It's indeed part of the game.

And even if I receive some smart aleck remarks as I arrive at a table or begin a show, I think it's better than the other negative alternative, being ignored. With the audience's attention, even if that pain in the neck in the third row can't keep his mouth shut, I still have the opportunity to entertain with magic, connect with the crowd and potentially turn the culprit."

I hope that 2007 is a good year for all of you. Skull Kingdom est mort -thus another rare venue for Orlando magicians to work , disappears.

Finally, the late Gerald Ford was the only sitting President with whom I ever talked. In the late 80s I got to talk with out-of-office Jimmy Carter at a religious function for Habitat for Humanity. In the late 60s, when I lived in the D.C. area, I did a couple of kids magic shows at the White House Easter Egg hunts on the south lawn and only saw Pat Nixon at a distance.

President Ford came to Freedom Park in Charlotte in 1975 to celebrate and give a speech at what is called "The first shots of the American Revolution in 1775". English King, George the 3rd , called Mecklenberg County, the "Hornet's Nest" of anti-British feelings. That is where the present day names of the Charlotte sports teams (Hornets) come from!

Anyway, I was in charge of the technical aspects of TV pool coverage (they sub-contracted with Jefferson Productions for our mobile units) and I worked with the Secret Service and White House. Ron Nessen , Ford's Press Secretary and my old friend from NBC , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Nessen was there as we met with Ford for a few minutes.The Secret Service and John Belk (mayor of Charlotte) was in the meeting before we all arrived at the Freedom Park speech site from Douglas Airport. Close by Ford were several aides and a very serious looking Military General with a black large briefcase. It contained radios and the codes to unleash American Nuclear weapons.

I briefly went over parts of Ford's speech and lighting and camera angles with an aide and the Secret Service. Ford was a pro, asking me to explain the local pronunciation of everything! I explained that the town of Monroe, North Carolina was pronounced , "Mun-Row" and not "Mahn-roe".... Lancaster, South Carolina was pronounced, "Lank-est-er" and not "Lang-caster"..... Nessen and another aide made notes for the teleprompt glass projectors and Ford never fluffed a word.

Ford was one of the last of the decent President-Statesmen. Following his term of office, political opponents began again the practice of personal attacks. Ford once said about Nixon's extensive "enemies list", "If you can't keep the whole list in your head, you have too many enemies!".

Congratulations to all the new officers in our Ring...We have a lot of great activities planned for 2007. Be with us all the way!

Dennis Phillips