Saturday, May 12, 2012

Happy Mother's Day

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. My mother passed on a number of years ago and my ex-Mother In Law is the last mother I have. I wish both my ex-wife and her mother a happy Mother's Day. While we may no longer be married, we will always be parents to our children, whether they like it or not.

I had a good mother, she was intelligent, giving and loving. She could also be very dictatorial on occasion. We get the parents we get and we are all a mixed bag of emotions and thoughts and actions. Nobody is perfect. Still, my mother was pretty much the 1950s style mother, she managed the house (incredibly well I might add, when my father retired, she had paid off the house and all of their debt), prepared us three meals a day (she was an excellent cook) and did everything she could to keep us out of trouble. She also strongly promoted seeing me graduate college and law school. They gave up a lot for me to get my education. I worked during college but only had to take out some loans for law school, my parents paid the majority for my education.

So in honor of all Mothers, may they have a great day of love and appreciation.

Penn and Teller and My Dad

When I was a kid I used to perform magic tricks. I loved Harry Houdini and knew a friend of Harry Blackstone Jr. I practiced close up magic, card tricks and slight of hand (my favorite slight of hand magician was Slydini - he inspired me). I bought books on Hoodini and learned the tricks including escape tricks. I have been to Las Vegas and been on the stage with Penn and Teller. In fact, I have seen most of the magicians including David Copperfield and the very nice Mr. Lance Burton (after each show he would sit outside until every kid got an autograph if they wanted it).

Magicians are just geeks. It is a very special type of geekiness. I was one of those. I have met Penn and Teller twice and enjoyed both experiences. The first time I was called on stage for a card trick. I will not explain the trick in case you see them; but, it is a card trick. Three of us were chosen and each given a deck of cards, we were told to count the cards and I had 51 whereas everyone else had 52. I counted them three times knowing that if there were 52 and I miscounted there would be a problem for the act. I didn't miscount, I had 51. To not give away anything, after Penn asked me to count again there were 52 and he told a joke which told me why the number of cards had changed. There are two ways to do the trick and one of them involves forcing a card in my hand (the other does not; but, I do not believe the other method was used). To force a card into someone's hand without them knowing it is a good trick; but, to force it into someone's hand that knows what you are going to do is even better and let me tell you, he is very good.

The second time that I met Penn and Teller was at a reception at the Rio for certain guests. I am not tall, I am average height. Penn is a very big man. I got to shake their hands and get a booklet of the show signed by them. Penn is a very loud and intense person on television or on the stage. In fact, I am a Christian and he would consider me a fool for that, so I don't agree with him on a lot of things. In person, he was one of the most gentle people I have ever met. He was amazingly considerate and calm. I have seen them a number of times and know their act and how it is done; but, I love the jokes and set up. I have enjoyed their act since the late 80s.

Tonight I was watching some videos and ended up seeing some magic ones. One of the videos that popped up was of some show in England that they did called "Fool Us". I don't watch television anyways; but, I never even heard of this show so I believe it may have only played in Europe. As I went through the different videos there were three videos that really got my attention. Two of them were of kids doing magic. It brought memories back of doing a routine with my father. The last video was of two magicians who did fool Penn and Teller (they didn't know how the trick was done). My father and I did the same trick; but, we did it to a degree that had not been done before. It took months of training. It is why you don't see the trick being done properly. Nobody ever figured it out and to this day I have not told anyone. It was an old time Vegas trick and it worked best with a young boy and his father and my dad could sell. Even better, I did the trick blindfolded and I have never seen that done. I have only seen two duos perform the trick and the other was in the 1970s and I pulled it off better than the kid in that duo.

Penn and Teller should have know the trick; but, I have only seen two duos (other than me and my dad because I didn't see us - I was blindfolded) do it in 50 years. I wanted to teach the trick to one of my kids; but, none ever seem interested in learning them. They did enjoy watching me perform tricks growing up; but, not everyone wants to be a magician. My father was a very special man with some very unique experiences and knowledge and I was blessed that he taught me some of that. I have to mention something about the videos, one of them was of Penn and Teller performing a trick. It begins with a variation of an old Slydini trick where an audience member is on stage, doesn't know what is going on and the audience sees her get tricked.

We live in a world where many of us live illusions; but, that is self delusion. We confuse ourselves with out assumptions and biases. Then their is magic, if I give the trick away, the illusion is lost and the point of the game is to enjoy the mystery. It is not about misdirection, it is about direction. Forcing where someone looks. The best tricks are not hidden, they are done where you can see everything, except me, remember, I couldn't see because I was in a blindfold.

Well, I do believe I am rambling. No, the whole thing just got me thinking about magic and memories. I remember loving the first time I saw the movie about Hoodini's life. I remember seeing "The Sting" for the first time and watching "Switch" on television and learning tricks from my father. My father told my mother once that he never really understood me; but, the man taught me quite a lot of what I know. I performed a physical feet once that was worthy of Guiness Book of World Records honor (though it was not reported) and because he had taught me the trick I mentioned earlier, I was able to sustain the rigorous training that it took to perform the physical feet. In order to learn the magic trick, I had to learn extreme focus and composure under strain. It was a trough trick and there is a reason you don't see it anymore. In our version, you didn't use a deck, you used the universe, everything was game. Nobody had ever done that before, my dad was brilliant and I miss him and that is what I thought about while I watched these videos, way too late into the morning.