Posts
Editorial and Comment
By Dennis Phillips
June 2013
If Global Warming gets any worse, “Ice” McDonald, may be forced to change his act to “Steam” McDonald!
Carl Ballantine used to have a very funny line in his act. He would freeze his movement as we walked on and with a arrogant swagger say, “Every move a picture!” Few realize that his phrase is taught as the key to all performance dance and stage movement….the “position”, the “transition”, the “pose”…It is all created to make a pretty picture. When my wife and I taught ballroom dance, most pictures taken at dance recitals were always greeting with horror by the students. They would complain about their body, leg and arm positions as well as the look on their faces. I would always say, “Make every move a picture!”
Every serious student of stagecraft, show production and stage shows should recognize Italian, French and Russian ballet and the differences in them. (French style) pays more attention to elegance and precision. Cecchetti (Italian style) pays more attention to technique. Vaganova (Russian style) is very precise and focuses on flexibility. I prefer Vaganova. In terms of a dance style for illusionists it is similar to the very physical and dynamic Gene Kelly as opposed to the more French Fred Astaire. James Dinmare is an example of the Fred Astaire style.
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The magic magazines, make it sound so easy to get on the road with a show and pack out houses. They imply that IF you are no able to, then you must not be spending enough money on gear, props, music, promotion or not have a hot enough assistant working your boxes…
There is almost never a frank and clear statement that it is tough as nails to get and keep going. They cannot afford too! Readership would collapse. Luck, location and who-you-know have the most to do with “success”. It has very little to do with outstanding talent and production values, otherwise George Goble ( of Baltimore) and many others would have been the household magic names in the 60s to 80s.
Magic publishing is a BUSINESS. They print what grabs readers and then sell ads to the readers. The stories are not about the whole TRUTH, they are a magical fantasy for wannabees who are clinging to the hope that they can be like the heroes in the pages. This myth theme is common in every part of human existence. Stage mothers push their kids into theater, dance, beauty contests to play out their own shattered fantasies.
There is a MYTH, an insidious MYTH that pervades the American psyche and is what drives us. I suggest you read “Death of a Salesman”. Arthur Miller captured the essence of the phony myth in the character of Willie Loman…(The MYTH is that “anyone can make it if they only believe and try hard enough and if you fail, it is because you are lazy and stupid. Thus, you need to learn more, spend more money and be more aggressive and stomp over everyone as you are pretending to be a nice guy) In our society, which lacks an acknowledged landed-gentry or hereditary class with peerage, everyone supposedly has a chance at fame and fortune.
Willie: What’s the mystery? The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he’s rich! The world is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress! (Act 1)
Charley’s speech about Willie: He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine . . . A salesman is got to dream, boy.(Act II)
Critics who saw the first performance in 1949, with Lee J. Cobb as Willy, said that when the curtain closed, they only heard silence. Then, sobbing.
"It's the only play I know that sends men weeping into the men's room," said director Robert Falls.
1949 America was far more realistic about success. Today ( 2013) after a generation of phony printed money, political finger-pointing, contrived class warfare and the bifurcation of wealth, our hopes are pinned on the Lottery and whatever money-grab we can make. We have lost our humanity. We have lost the ability to understand our personal identity. We all must become salesmen or we are labeled as leeches and parasites. We all know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
What is ticking me off about our magazines is their obvious self-serving hype. But then again, no one wants to hear realism. They want to hear baloney and anything that only bolsters their dreams. Its why Paula White ( a preacher), Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, Richard DeVos and Glenn W. Turner made MILLIONS. It is the same classic American Myth:
“I always had a dream but I was nothin’ but a loser, a failure, livin’ a life of shame AND THEN I saw the light! I got up off my lazy backside and said, “I gotta think smart”. See, I was ignorant, dumb and stupid ,but I got smart. You are special and have smarts. You just don’t know it and for cash, I will sell you the secrets of getting’ smart! Send your money to me, buy the stuff that I sell, get addicted to my “Get Smart” message and you WILL BE just like me…and if you do all that and you still fail then it is because you are lazy, and ignorant and deserve to be a loser and a failure”.
Listen to any of these con-artists: You get so much sunshine pumped up your back-side, you don’t need flashlights for the next 6 months – you just open your mouth.
THIS is the essence of the American Success “Dream”…. It is actually a universal theme in human cultures, as Joseph Campbell points out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
It is an incomplete retelling and appropriation of the Mary and Christ story… (Every human culture has a similar tale) “out of humble beginnings, comes shame and failure. But obedience and perseverance and self-awareness are the path to glory”.
If you personally want to GET RICH… forget “Magic”. Become a baloney artist! Sell dreams. Pump sunshine up sucker’s back-side.
In many ways David Blaine and Cyril latched onto the
Universal Christ-image ( for Cyril, the Buddha-image) which is deep in the psyche of humans.
Watch the visuals and the audience on their specials.
Blaine walks among the poor, brings pigeons back to live, creates a cup of coins for a poor beggar. In most specials he cheats death and is brought back.
Houdini was successful by capitalizing on the myth of the triumphant underdog. He was a poor immigrant, an underdog who cast off the chains of the establishment.
Copperfield was the young kid who went on to rearrange national landmarks, get the hot women, beat the law ( Alcatraz) and death (Niagara Falls and building explosion) and “rise again”. Their success was all accomplished by using myth along with Big Business connections.
How many wannabees read the magic magazines and are clueless about the psychological truth behind all the success stories?
Dennis Phillips
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