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The only thing I have never gotten used to as an artist is the flow of activity. Sometimes people ask me where I work -- where does the world find a place for a magician? My answer is that since magic is largely a visual art, with little spoken language needed, I can conjure almost anywhere, and have! From March 21 to 23, 2003 I did 5 shows and was the subject of a small documentary made by a student at Montclair State University (NJ). 3 performances were for a Japanese eye wear company at their trade show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The other two shows took place in the evening. I had the honor of being asked by my good friends, the band members of the recording group October Project, if I would open their concert in So Ho celebrating the release of their new CD, "Different Eyes." |
During these three days I was followed by a small camera crew that recorded the answer to the question I am most frequently asked. |
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All three representations of my work (the trade show, opening act and documentary) were different from one another. At the trade show I was the sorcerer salesman letting the audience know the virtues of the company and its products. In the evening, doing the act I am known for ("Magic Out Of Order") my job was to warm up and relax the audience for the stars of the show. As the subject of a small film I let people know who I am and why I do what I do. It never occurred to me as a child -- when I originally became interested in magic -- that the profession of magic would not be all fun and games. |
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| The factors of money, negotiation, travel, political alliance, and sheer grit to get through 72 hours of close up and stage magic and TV work is not something a book can teach you. One reward of my professional practice has been to give back. A paradox: you receive by giving. Like my teacher in magic -- Milbourne Christopher -- I have endeavored to further the art by recording the successes and failures I've experienced. One learns as a magician that to be its master, you must become its slave. Magic is not well represented by those that lived it, though there are a considerable amount of autobiographies of master magicians. | |||
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The differences between me and other professionals, perhaps, is that I genuinely believe in a transcendental component of Being. If you're hip to Hinduism, this might also be referred to as the Atman-Brahmin principle. If your Hindu studies fail you, then consider this. All actions began as thoughts. If you think of something -- it has come into being by the nature of that thought. Simple? 
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When I was 14, I stood on the corner of 48th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. It was about 10pm. I was standing there with my boyhood idol, Doug Henning. And under that street lamp of the southwest corner, we had just finished a 20 minute discussion. The topic: the pursuit of a career as a professional magician. Doug was being very generous. On that particular night, he had just given a full year of his life doing 8 shows a week at the Cort Theater in his celebrated hit, The Magic Show. Doug gave me his phone number on a piece of an envelope he tore off. I still have it! He said, "Call anytime" and then he caught a cab uptown to the show's first birthday party. I looked up at the street lamp and vowed that if Doug Henning would have his own magic show on Broadway at the age of 27, I would too someday also have my own show at the same age. 
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13 years later, in 1987, I was asked by the brilliant theater director Martha Clarke if I could add some surreal sideshow illusions to her Off B'way show "The Hunger Artist." I did. Later, at a benefit performance for the show I emceed the entertainment and hired the band that I had worked with in Germany the summer before. The event was held at the lovely So Ho restaurant called "Greene Street." I was familiar with the place as it was right across the street from a place I had been the House Magician for 18 months called The Triplex at the corner of Prince and Wooster. I stood outside in the February cold jumping up and down before my slot to do my act. "I'm gonna kill that audience" I said as I warmed up "The producer is going to want to do a whole show with me." I took the stage shortly after my psych-up session and I nailed the short show like a diver hitting all their turns and swirls en route to the water. Such hubris, right? |
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| Well, I can honestly say it worked. If there was ever a night that was mine, this was it. The celebrated Ms. Austin, the producer of Martha's show, approached me through the crowd and came up to me and said "I want you to call me in the morning. I want to discuss doing a whole show based on what I just saw you do." Aghast at my good fortune, thinking I might be hallucinating, I replied, "Are you kidding?" | |||
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Lyn's tone changed to steely politeness and declared "I don't make invitations lightly young man" and abruptly turned her back on me and walked away. 18 months later, my show Out Of Order was produced (with music by Mark Bennett) in the Music-Theater Group's 1988 summer season following Julie Taymore's colossal hit Juan Darien. Mine is apparently the only one-man show Lyn ever produced in 50 years in the theater. Now remember that I mentioned that I believe in a transcendental component to Being? I hope that the brief story illustrates my point. |
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