1. After 30 years, how do
you feel about being a magician?
Wow. No small answer. Generally I love
the work, and have realized it gets harder as you get older,
which is the opposite to what I thought when I was 16. But, I
also realize I am better at what I do as I get older. Having
the trust of people I respect has been a gratifying experience.
Seems artists I admire have mutual respect. One case in point
is the show I did with the Jazz Mandolin Project at BB King's
earlier this year. I love their music, and I told their leader
I had composed a piece of magic to his music. So, amidst waiters
carrying trays backstage I showed it to him and he OK'ed me right
then and there to join a song of theirs, to do magic while they
played. It was a big moment for me because the audience did not
expect to see a magician and they accepted me, even wrote on
the band's website message board that what I did was cool!
2. What has been your favorite
experience?
Probably making a clinically depressed
AIDS patient smile. I was engaged to do a Valentine's show for
the Center for Special Studies in New York. After the show the
doctors asked if I would join a conference to help them break
through to patients who were depressed, because I had
broken through.
3. Favorite magician?
Well, two actually, the man I originally
saw, Fred Kaps the only magician to ever win the Grand
Prix award three times successively. And then my good friend
Johnny Ace Palmer, who I consider to be the greatest sleight
of hand artist in the world. Johnny is also the first magician
to ever win the Grand Prix as a closeup magician.
4. Is there a world's greatest
magician?
It is kind of like asking who is the greatest
baseball player, Joe DiMaggio or Willie Mays? But I think when
you add it all up at the end of the day, John Calvert gets my
vote. He has performed in every country in the world except the
USSR and lived more than one life, film star, adventurer and
now he and his wife drive 1500 miles between one nighters in
their trailer. At 93 he blows men out of the water 60 years younger.
We will never see his kind again. Truly, not just a great talent
with charisma, but a very uncommon spirit. He once told me, "Don't
worry, I'm a tough old bird."
5. Favorite place you've been?
That's hard. Immediately Amsterdam comes
to mind because I have had so much fun there, one real vacation
after months and months of shows where I double dated with a
pal and with our girlfriends we toured the town and drank champagne
by a canal, that was great. I also like Seattle a lot.
6. Greatest performance?
That's easy. August 16, 2001 in Central
Park with Rebecca Moore's band. They played a song with their
nine players set in a horseshoe pattern around me while I made
things float, and changed the consistency of things while they
were air born. Fighting the wind, being in the sunset, playing
the band shell stage in front of 3000 people was very exciting.
It is one of the few experiences that I was conscious of while
I was doing it. I remember Rebecca kneeling down while the band
played and looking upstage at me and I just felt this rush of
warmth for her, what I was doing and appreciation that she had
trusted me to appear with her. When it was over, we were backstage
and she fell against a wall and said, "we just played Central
Park." For two New Yorkers, it was a special moment.
7. Favorite trick?
Yes, my ring trick. It represents almost my
entire career because I began my career learning what a routine
was through the prop this is based on.
8. Worst performance?
Well, there have been so many! Only kidding.
I don't know about 'worst' but I distinctly remember doing a
show in Stockbridge MA, and after we had hit reviews, I walked
backstage one night after the show, sort of slammed my fist down
on the table and said to the stage manager, "Sort of lost
them in the middle." And the stage manager, not wanting
to upset me further, just said, "Ah, don't worry, I once
saw George Harrison suck one night."
9. Favorite city?
It's a love-hate relationship, but nothing
matches New York, no matter how much it is overbuilt and the
taxes are out of sight.
10. Hardest thing you've ever
done?
Travel up a slope from Phaking to Namche Bazar
in the Himalaya. The ground was eroded and we were just going
above the tree line and there was not a solid trail sometimes.
I got very depressed because it was just day two of the trek
and I thought I was going to have to stay behind.
11. Most amazing thing you've
ever seen?
My parrot's face when we were reunited after
he flew away in New York City. I talked to Roy of Siegfried and
Roy about this and he confirmed my suspicions about the innate
talents of these incredible animals.
12. What's been the biggest
goal you set and accomplished?
When I was 14, I said to myself that I was
going to have my own fully produced magic show when I was 27
just like Doug Henning had when he was 27. I had met Doug Henning
on the first anniversary of The Magic Show on Broadway,
and he was really clear with me in the meeting about how I should
pursue a career as a magician. He also told me that he was a
close up magician by training, a student of Vernon's, and that
he was not really a large scale illusionist, but in fact his
career bore out his great talents as an illusionist. So, on July
5, 1988, at the age of 27 I opened in my show produced by the
Music-Theatre Group in their summer series. That became the foundation
of the hour-long show I do now.
13. How do you see your next
30 years?
I doubt I'll be around for another thirty,
but the one thing I can say is that we are in an interim period
with the digital revolution. In 1995 I saw a TV screen that was
just released on the world market a few months ago. At the same
time, 1995, I also told friends in New York I had seen a friend
attach a wireless phone to a laptop in the back of a car and
trade stocks on the Japanese market. He did this in Seattle.
The global village and the instant gratification of the internet
has created people with real power at a very young age, I'm talking
about 25 year olds. Problem is, these 25 year olds don't have
any manners or experience, just unbridled ego from early mastery
of a temporary technology. This is new. As far as the art of
magic, it will always be around, but it will take twenty years
of magicians working honestly in representative media to correct
the distrust built by those who used TV editing to create illusions
in the past. I really don't believe magic works in any other
medium than being done live.
14. What's the biggest thing
holding you back?
My health. In January 2002 I woke feeling
like my legs were on fire. 9 months later an incompetent surgeon
told me he had performed a standard operation on my herniated
disk. The operation made the situation worse. In May of 2003
I thought I was turning a corner with physical therapy and then
I had a heart attack. So, "rebuilding Ben" has been
my major task for quite some time, though I am completely functional
I just have to make sure I get my rest. Otherwise I'm ready
to rock. I gave over 200 performances in 2004. Didn't miss a
show.
|
Kate Milliken interviews Ben
Robinson |
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15. What's wrong with
the world?
Well, it's hardly for a magician to answer.
But I think that attacking Iraq was a mistake. It depresses me
to think about war and soldiers dying needlessly. W has a lot
of blood on his hands that he doesn't seem to care about. He
clearly doesn't care about New York City and all those that were
affected by the toxic dust cloud from 9/11. One friend I helped
who lived downtown has really had problems because of what she
breathed that day. Overall, ethics have had the heel of greed
ground into it. It's not survival of the fittest, it is survival,
period. Very wealthy people I know were greatly inconvenienced
on 9/11 and all their money did not help them one bit, while
I was able to get free groceries for performing in the store.
16. Who has been your greatest
love?
Besides my mother, obviously my wife. But
truth be told, I have had real relationships with several women,
and even though I am now married, I still have good relationships
with these former girlfriends and that's a good feeling. Sometimes
they email me and title their message with a line from our times
together. It's nice to have parted amicably. I'm proud of that.
17. Do you have a best friend?
Yes, my wife.
18. What's the greatest tragedy
of your life?
Probably the death of my dog. She was so simple
and funny, taught me everything I know about humor. When she
got ill, she looked at me helplessly and I wept telling her the
pain would soon end, and then we put her to sleep. Part of me
also died that day. I'll never love anything like I loved her.
19. Do you think magic will
ever be considered an art?
Probably not. Except by magicians and magic
fans. Because secrecy is inherent to the craft and that separates
audiences understanding, which is necessary. But people who love
what some magicians do say, "magic is an art." So,
since the modern art of magic is only 150 years old, there is
still a lot of time for development of the audience.
20. Do you play sports?
I used to play a pretty good game of tennis
every now and then. I have very good hand-eye coordination. My
health doesn't allow that anymore.
21. Favorite color?
To wear, black. To design with, blood red.
22. Why do you live in New
York City?
I moved here when my mom moved here while
I was still in high school. She lived in Manhattan while I finished
public school outside of New York. After college, because she
was in Manhattan, I moved home to figure out how to seek my fortune.
But, Manhattan has changed. I've changed. I don't want to live
here much longer, so we'll visit from where we'll move to.
23. Is there a magic effect
that still blows you away?
Yes. There is a very brilliant performer in
England named David Berglas. He has something called The Berglas
Effect. Basically you name a card and a number and the card named
winds up at that number instantly. I have seen him do this on
three continents and each time it left me truly wondering. Once
in Canada I stayed up a good portion of the evening working with
another magician to duplicate this. We came up with a mathematical
theorem to dissect it and the next day Berglas scoffed at us
and did his best to put us off the scent, so to speak. I like
being amazed, it is one of the reasons I do what I do. However,
the method behind illusion is always secondary to the entertainment
value and "essence of performance" that is what makes
a great magic illusion. They say, it's not what you do, but how
you do it that counts.
24. Is there a place you want
to go?
Yes, I'd like to go to what is left of Tibet
and I'd also like to tour the USSR.
25. What interested you about
the bullet caching stunt?
I read an article about Orville Meyer, the
man who invented Annemann's method, and that was the spark. 26
months later I held the hard back book I'd written in my hands.
26. Favorite author?
Daniel Stashower.
27. Favorite movie?
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
28. Favorite book?
Harpo Speaks.
29. What's your most humiliating
moment?
Once on stage during college someone shouted
out, "Why don't you just make yourself disappear?"
I walked off, and the audience shuddered. A classmate of mine
whose now a big league producer and was once a very prowerful
agent told me at the time that my actions were too classy for
the audience and that he would enjoy watching me turn from craftsman
to showman. He was right. Thank you Chris Wright.
30. Do magicians have a lot
of partners?
Partners? You mean lovers? I can only speak
for myself. I have had 4 or 5 very meaningful relationships in
my life and I am grateful for all of them. My wife understands
this, which is why she is my wife. I carry the initial of one
woman I loved on my right leg and even though we parted, I upheld
my promise that I would not have it removed. I'll tell you one
thing. I have a very close friend. A woman. I've known her since
I was 14 and she was 15. I had a mad crush on her throughout
high school which was no secret to anyone. Though we were never
"involved." Well, she and I still know each other and
even though she has had boyfriends and two husbands, I think
I know her better than any other guy. So in the end, I got what
no other man has, a thirty plus year relationship with this woman.
It's not sexual. It is real friendship, something to trust. As
the Beatles said, "real love."
