Real Magic

My father is a magician and when I was in school a kid in my class asked if my father did Real Magic. This puzzled me deeply.
The kid wanted to know whether Dad performed Miracles or if he had supernatural powers, which he didn't. But I also knew that the type of Magic Dad did was the only type of Magic you'd actually see anywhere. So it struck me as strange that the other type of Magic, the one you only read about in fairy tales, the Bible or on the Internet somehow had gotten the prefix real. When I finally answered the kid I said: "Yes, my Dad does Real Magic." In hindsight I think it that was at this moment I became a Showman.
What stumped me was not so much the answer but the question. It was the wrong question for the answer he wanted. Within the perimeter fences of the Carnival there is no separation between Fact and Art. Asking the wrong questions; how did you do it? is it real? is it a man or a woman? does not make sense. It is a space where both answers are true. (Schrodinger's cat...) A space where walking through the red velvet curtains is walking through a slit in the fabric of reality itself. Like in wrestling rings, churches, synagogues, and cinemas we can safely suspend our disbelief and experience Magical Reality, and be enriched as humans from the experience. It is a space where things does not need to be scrutinized, and taken apart. If we try, we become like the clown pulling apart an onion. Peeling away layer after layer he searches for the kernel of truth, but in the end nothing is left but the tears on his cheeks and the burning in his eyes.

Real Magic is
Something people experience. A human emotion. An innate state of mind which one human can bring forth in others.
If magic happens and no human is around to experience it, is it still Magic?
The apostle Mathew said: "Whenever two or more of you gather, I am amongst you," that is Jesus speaking on behalf of the Holy Ghost, I think. Magic happens when we gather. Religious experiences are amplified when there is more of us. Like rituals of the old shamans going into trance surrounded by his tribe.
Do horses enjoy card tricks? Does a dog distinguish between telepathy and texting on a mobile phone? If Asimov's third law, "Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic", holds true, i would presume the canine experiences Magic ALL the TIME.

Magic is defined as: the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.
Mysterious is defined as: difficult or impossible to understand, explain, or identify.
Supernatural is defined as: (of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.

I believe Real Magic is Mysterious but not supernatural. I don't believe there is anything supernatural. How can there be anything but the natural? If it exists it is natural to me. The artificial is also fundamentally natural, distinguished only by being made by man. I believe the Supernatural, what isn't complete humbug, is what lies beyond the current understanding of science but not outside the laws of nature. Nothing lies beyond the laws of nature. If it actually exists - it obeys the laws of nature.
You can choose to obey the laws of Gods but there is no choice in obeying the laws of Nature.

Super comes from Latin and means above or beyond. Super Natural, Beyond or Above nature. What lies above and beyond nature does not exist, but still I think there might be another world out there beyond Nature. That is the world of Imagination. A human realm. Limbo, a world between, where what does not exist can be brought into existence. Because we can make our imagination real. We can materialize our ideas. When we make an act, when we write a song, when we draw a plan and build something. It is artificial but intrinsically interwoven with the natural world through us. Through our Will and our hands we manifest ideas, hopes and dreams through inventions, illusions, rides, thrills, chills, architecture, culture and art. That, surely, is Real Magic.

To me
Real magic is created walking
hand in hand with a child,
through a pine forest at night,
carrying a flickering latern to
fight off the shadows.

In a dog eat dog world
where survival of the fittest makes
the origins of altruism difficult to understand
Real Magic is random acts of kindness to strangers.

A seemingly random group of people
Gathered in a darkened room
Rubbing crystallized rosin from a tree
onto hairs from the tail of a horse
And then stroking the tail against tightly wound catgut strings
Following directions and diagrams imagined by a man that
Died more than five hundred years ago.
The fact that the results of the music they create
Still conjurs up thoughts of
Love, hope and truth in us today.
That’s real magic.

For what is magic if its not to be able to produce change in people
Make them think, want and feel beautiful emotions and inspirational desires.
Real magic is created by people
Real magic happens in people

My Dad is a magician,
he does Real Magic.
and now I want to do Real Magic too.

Natural History Museum, London

Two of my passions in one place. A carousel in front of London's Natural History Museum.

Carnytube (6)

 

A wall of Death with Cars in India. They really got it all, and more full on over there.

 

Johnny and the Clits. A great mime piece. I saw this guy live in 1996 and it was truly awesome. 

 

 Magic?

A 1976 collaboration between the Russian Ice Ballet and the Moscow circus. Soviet Children's TV. When I grew up in Norway the showed this every Christmas. Starring amongst others Oleg Popov.

Oleg Popov the Russian Clown Legend.

And finally: Three generation of Chaplin 
James Thiérée.

Victoria Chaplin

And Charlie.

 Chaplin for Dictator NOW!