JJ Confesses...
Having just spent a couple of weeks putting large piles of magic magazines in order and listing both the missing ones and the duplicates, I feel a little depressed at discovering how little I know about the history of magic.
Of course my excuse has always been (and still is) that I am only really interested in the performance of magic but I do realise that is a bit of a cop out.
Working through the first hundred volumes of Abracadabra magazine I found myself dipping into various issues really to see if there is anything in there about me or my friends but often finding myself drawn into the discussions and arguments of the day.
I was amused to find Ali Bongo referring to a young John Fisher as a “magical leech” at the height of an “exposure” argument and reading all the letters from magicians condemning Mr Fisher for his programme(s). I don’t recall any of the letter writers appearing on the Paul Daniels Magic Show many years later!
It is also pretty embarrassing to discover my ignorance runs into my opinion of performers as well.
While at Magic Live this July I had the great pleasure of watching Antony Owen present a lecture.
Now up until then, apart from meeting Antony many times socially, I had always judged his performance of magic on the short bits I had seen him do many years ago. Keen and competent but young and a little loud. I mean, he was a demonstrator at Hamleys toy shop for goodness sake…
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since those days and at Las Vegas, after his ingenious and excellently presented lecture/performance, it gave me great pleasure to apologise to him for my ignorant, inappropriate opinion of his performing ability formed so many years ago. (Even though I am not aware of him knowing anything about it.)
Bearing this in mind, when I saw an article about him in the Magic Circular, I took time out to read it.
I was/am impressed (and not just because of the sale of Objective Productions!!!)
Now I will check him out again as he lectures at the up and coming International Weekend. I will be watching through a different set of spectacles.
Of course I also realise that, having been forced to review my opinion of Antony, there must be a whole load of other people I must check out again…
Incidentally, once I have got permission from Opus partner and art director Chris Power, I will be posting up all the magazines we are looking for to complete the collection and also a list of our duplicates in case they are of use to you…
Of course my excuse has always been (and still is) that I am only really interested in the performance of magic but I do realise that is a bit of a cop out.
Working through the first hundred volumes of Abracadabra magazine I found myself dipping into various issues really to see if there is anything in there about me or my friends but often finding myself drawn into the discussions and arguments of the day.
I was amused to find Ali Bongo referring to a young John Fisher as a “magical leech” at the height of an “exposure” argument and reading all the letters from magicians condemning Mr Fisher for his programme(s). I don’t recall any of the letter writers appearing on the Paul Daniels Magic Show many years later!
It is also pretty embarrassing to discover my ignorance runs into my opinion of performers as well.
While at Magic Live this July I had the great pleasure of watching Antony Owen present a lecture.
Now up until then, apart from meeting Antony many times socially, I had always judged his performance of magic on the short bits I had seen him do many years ago. Keen and competent but young and a little loud. I mean, he was a demonstrator at Hamleys toy shop for goodness sake…
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since those days and at Las Vegas, after his ingenious and excellently presented lecture/performance, it gave me great pleasure to apologise to him for my ignorant, inappropriate opinion of his performing ability formed so many years ago. (Even though I am not aware of him knowing anything about it.)
Bearing this in mind, when I saw an article about him in the Magic Circular, I took time out to read it.
I was/am impressed (and not just because of the sale of Objective Productions!!!)
Now I will check him out again as he lectures at the up and coming International Weekend. I will be watching through a different set of spectacles.
Of course I also realise that, having been forced to review my opinion of Antony, there must be a whole load of other people I must check out again…
Incidentally, once I have got permission from Opus partner and art director Chris Power, I will be posting up all the magazines we are looking for to complete the collection and also a list of our duplicates in case they are of use to you…
posted by JJ at 6:38 PM
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