Minggu, 15 Juli 2012

A Circus Priest - and what followed

The beauty of the Internet -

I found this picture on may all your days be circus days.

"Father Ed Sullivan was THE circus priest when I joined out. Loved my times with him; he knew everybody, great stories -- he liked an occasional Brandy Alexander, too. In January, 1970, Father Ed passed away while blessing the Ringling 100th Anniversary train as it left Venice. So sad. Or was it? Good night, my friends. (Showfolks of Sarasota Photo Archive.)"

I really like the idea of a Circus or Carnival Priest. A hint of Showmen with their own religion.
In my mind the Carnival world is such a fertile ground for imagery to understand the world. The religious metaphore would blend in with the smell of freshly baked bread from a wood-fire stove on the back of a truck half filled with broken carousel horses. For such is the way of my mind.

A friend, Samora Squid, then commented on the picture and added this to the mix. Another Showman Priest.


This is a truly awesome Act. I have laughed so much and quoted lines from this skit for what feels like my whole life.
Now some of you folks out there might not get the reference to the Paul Daniel punchline in the end. I grew up on Paul Daniels Magic Show on TV. We got reruns in Norway from the BBC and Paul Daniels was on TV for what feels like every Saturday until I went to University. What added to this fact was that the Great Santini, my father, had a VCR recorder and we taped every magic show that came on our 1 channel (NRK). We also borrowed another video player so that we could copy the tapes of other fellow magicians, which might have been lucky enough to capture the first episode of Penn and Teller's Birth of a Baby dove in the Ghetto. So for those of you who don't know him here is Paul Daniels. The Great Wizard of the North.


Paul Daniels, born Newton Edward Daniels on 6 April 1938, is a British magician and television performer.[1] He achieved international fame through his television series The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which ran on the BBC from 1979 to 1994.

Here is a link to his current blog. Enjoy the further exploration of this magicians illustrious career.