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We can hope that Jon and Charlotte resolve their financial issues in the dissolution of their illusions. Divorce almost always brings emotional upheaval as well as financial catastrophe. These past months have been tough on the illusion community. The Wyrick bankruptcy, The Franz Harary bankruptcy, the closing of the Lance Burton Show. I am hoping that soon we get brighter news.
With the Pendragon's marital discord, we have the makings of an unfortunate and entirely distasteful story of a pair of human beings stumbling badly in their efforts at being...well, human beings. So what else is new? Has your life gone entirely smoothly up to now? Today's dismal divorce rate among adults in North America is at a whopping thirty to fifty percent, with the high-end of the percentage dominating. Now I don't mean to imply that severe marital discord leading to separation and divorce can be in any way warranted due to solely its apparent commonality; rather, I'm talking about a matter of balance here, as we shall see...
That the Pendragons happened to also be successful professional magicians is beside the point. Divorce rates are every bit as high (if not higher) among people of all branches of the entertainment world. In marriage, two supposedly mature - if somewhat young - adults are expected to be able to find compatible mates (within a society arguably terminally dysfunctional) and come together and deal with an almost limitless variety of life's mundane and important challenges, not the least of them being the interactions between two often disparate and sometimes ego-driven personalities. As if that wasn't difficult enough for most people (like 99%), the surreal way of earning one's living -- as entertainers -- can only add to the strain. There is the constant public scrutiny of character, known under better circumstances as the highly coveted fame that so many people of show business require; in fact their very success depends upon it. But when the private lives of the famous take a turn for the worse, such public scrutiny, exacerbated as it always is by prurient media attention, can quickly degenerate into a nightmare.
The more "mainstream" famous can hardly keep from picking their noses without it being blown up in the tabloids and media, with the newest and most ubiquitous "staring eye" being the Internet. But were the Pendragons mainstream famous? For that matter, are any magicians as famous as most professional film actors, recording artists, or everyone else in show business that depend upon regular exposure both "live" and through technological means? Hardly...
Except for the occasional television special or radio interview or some such (most of which most people miss), the Pendragons and almost every other magician and duo of magic of their former stature, spend their working lives slogging it out in the "backwoods" of show business. By that, I mean, any kind of entertainment that is performed live before hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of people without benefit of the hugely vaster audiences they would be exposed to on consistent national television appearences or in the movies.
Consider for a moment, rock and roll bands. It is the difference between those who regularly record and merchandise their music verses those who do not. Everyone knows the Rolling Stones, but can the average person off the street, say, name even one song by the Gaping Thoracic Wounds ? Not a chance! The second band doesn't exist, but my point is simply that the Pendragons, for all their former limited "fame" as magicians (however hard-won though a lot of years of valiant, back-breaking work) were nevertheless perpetually relegated to the "Gaping Thoracic Wounds" of show business. As every intelligent magician (oxymoronic?) should know, that is the nature of magic; or rather, magic's "perception" today by the general public. As the cliché goes, almost no one could name more than three magicians if pressed to do so. And I'd bet my wife if not my life that the names they'd come up with would be Houdini (as ever), David Copperfield, and perhaps David Blaine. And here again, it might take two or more people as a group to think of that many names.
But here's the rub: Many thousands of magicians and magic fanatics around the world have become fixated on the continuing sad story of the fall of two of their most revered heros. Yes, of course, it was initially and understandably a negative shock to magicians. But as for the general public, those relative few who came across the story by purely serendipitous means and then took a few precious minutes out of their humdrum lives to actually read it -- due to their ingrained disdain for magic as little more than an oddball novelty form of entertainment, they promptly forgot about the marital travails of these illusionists three minutes later.
The lack of respect for magic is the very reason why late-night comedians like Jay Leno and David Letterman, et al, were able to get so much comic mileage out of the former alleged romantic dalliances of David Copperfield. To these late-night stars of the idiot box, even the most famous magicians are geeks to be laughed at, and their audiences were seen to share the same contempt with their knee-jerk laughter.
So ... a couple of strangely quixotic illusionists fell into marital discord? The typical person's response: " I never heard of them.
Perhaps it is time now for magicians everywhere, to move on to brighter thoughts; and leave these two people to work out the rest of their lives ... in peace.
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Now for some much needed humor:
There's an old tale told about a lousy young magician at the Magic Castle who kept screwing up his card tricks. Each time the guy flubbed a sleight, he would mumble apologetically, "I'm sorry, but the cards are a little sticky tonight." ...and... "The cards are bent." ...and... "You'll have to forgive me, I think there's some grit on these cards." Finally, an exasperated old magician watching on the sidelines shouted, "Okay, we've heard your side of the story -- now let's hear it from the cards!"
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A struggling professional magician finally reaches full adulthood...it does happen... and decides to gives up the grind on the road and the endless hassles of being an independent entertainer. He soon settles down to a daytime job and married life. He gets the mortgage and the kid. One day, his teenage son, after hearing endless tales of Dad's youthful adventures, decides that he too, will ignore the usual childhood distractions (like completing his education) and become a professional magician.
After much pleading to dissuade his son but failing to do so, the father finally gives in and says, "Okay, if you insist, but you must do this properly by taking lessons." Dad enrolls him in the Chavez Studio of Magic. Under pressure from the boy's dad to eschew the usual vigorous psychological counseling that is now mandated by the government for all prospective Chavez students, the head of this obscure institution cuts to the chase by asking the boy, "Okay then, what kind of magic do you want to do?"
Junior replies, "I want to be an illusionist!"
"Fine,” says studio head, "but first you have to learn the basics.”
Junior goes home at the end of the day and his Dad asks him how it is going.
"Great!" says the son, "I watched a lot of videos of top illusionists at work, and then I was given all the Paul Osborne plans to study."
"Terrific!" says his dad. "That's a good start."
At the end of the second day, the dad asks how it went again.
"Cool!" says Junior. "I got to go into a workshop and build stuff!"
"Good progress," smiles Dad
The third day Dad comes home early from work to find Junior in the living room wasting time on his iPad.
"Hey, I thought you had a magic class today!" says his father.
Junior looks up and says, "Yeah, but I blew it off. I'm going to quit. I've got a few gigs lined up."
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A magician is looking for a new female assistant for his magic act.
He puts and ad in the local newspaper and gets three applicants for the job.
As a test, he gives each small sum of cash and sends them to a magic shop to buy a suitable trick for his show.
The first girl comes back with the Brainwave Deck. The magician thinks, "Hmmm... she's likes mental effects with strong cognitive impact."
The second one comes back with a Zombie ball. The magician thinks, "Not bad. This girl prefers routines that are showy, elegant, and classic."
The third girl came back with the Vanishing Bird Cage. "Wow," thinks the magician, "This girl understands the importance of family-oriented routines that involve children up on stage, and that gets to the hearts of the parents.
So... who does he hire?
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Answer: The one with the biggest breast size.
I hope all of you have a happy Thanksgiving. I am hoping to be in Orlando the first week of December for a visit.
I was nominated to be the new Secretary for Ring #320 here in Virginia. Sheldon is doing a great job for you and I read his monthly Ring Reports.
Soon you will probably be reading mine from here.
Dennis
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