Lessons from the Way of the Showman - 60

Take control.
Without you they are all flailing.
They want someone to take the controls.
someone who knows the Way
and can steer sagely for a while
so that for a little moment they can
sit back and relax.
Together they can travel with you as a Guide.
Someone who knows the Way,
Because they have been there before.
Take control, that is what they want.

An Illuminated Showman's Manifesto

I am a Showman,

First and foremost it's a Showman I am.

The Illuminated Showman

Is one who Faces the Other Way

One who has walked with the Crowd

Then turned to Face the Others

A Showman Cries for attention

And has something to Show when he gets it.

When a Showman performs on a market square

He creates a Universe

where his Gravity Warps Time

and Warps Space

In this Warped Space he steals the Crowds time

but like a twisted Robin Hood he returns it refined as ShowTime

I am a Showman,

First and foremost it is a Showman I am!

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!

The most amazing card trick EVER! WOW 2.0. Visual transformation of a card into YOUR card.

I recently was hired to perform close-up magic at a corporate function. I have my close-up, sleight-of-hand case which is packed with all the stuff I need to entertain right under people's noses. A few packs of cards, some sponge balls, a pack of (very stale) cigarettes, a few cool close-up props. Grab the bag and I'm ready to go.

Since I don't often do close-up gigs anymore, I wanted to add something new and visual to my routine. A magician friend showed me WOW 2.0 My initial reaction was WOW!

A card is freely selected, signed and returned to the deck. A clear, see-through plastic sleeve is displayed. The magician then grabs any card, displays it and verifies that it isn't the selected card. Magician then slips the card he chose into the sleeve, where it is totally visible. The audience is told to watch the card in the sleeve and as they do it slowly, and unfreakinbelieveably transforms into the signed card which the spectator chose. The card is then removed, the sleeve is again empty and see-through and the chosen card can be examined.

No bullshit. If you're only going to purchase one trick this decade, make it WOW 2.0. You may just be as excited as your audience.

Check it out.

Private Sleight-of-Hand Magic Lessons via Skype with cards, coins, cigarettes, matches and more.

CarnyTube (5)

Some Cracking Carnival Clips for you all to ponder upon.

First up we have two clips from the dawn of Cinema filmed by Thomas Edison. This first performing beauty calls her self Princess Raja, it is unclear where she is princess, but i believe Rajah is the title for a prince or a king in India. The clip is from 1904 and she performes a strange dance ending in biting a chair...

Here is a little snippet of Sharpshooter legend Annie Oakley.

Annie Oakley’s heart target from a private collection in Los Angeles, California
Image courtesy of Annie Leibovitz via The New York Times.

Fantastic funambulists! The Feller Boys & Dodo live from the Hippodrome, London aroud 1965. Absolutely unbelievable skill. This is why we must always respect the Old School. They did it first, and often better than we can imagine.
Toss the Girl by the Saddri Dancers 1969 The Yong Brothers, Hand-to-Hand Balancing, in Thames Television's "Billy Smart's Christmas Circus" (1978)
A great clip from Seven fingers’ show PSY.
Les 7 Doigts de la Main - PSY from Ben Philippi on Vimeo.

The TV Card Frame - chosen card visually appears in clear frame - Magic Trick Review

This is really a classic platform, stage magic card trick which I used in my stand-up comedy magic show for many years. Now that I'm revisiting it, I'm gonna add it to some upcoming shows. 

The TV Card Frame is displayed to the audience. It consists of a wooden stand stand and two clear, plexiglass plates. A spectator selects a card, tears into pieces and retains one piece. Any spectator may examine the plexiglass plates and rubberband them together. They are then placed on a wooden stand in clear view at all times. The magician then vanishes the remaining card pieces and instructs the spectator to throw the rest of the deck of cards at the plexiglass plates. The cards all fall to the floor except one card has appeared IN BETWEEN THE PLEXIGLASS PLATES---WITH A PIECE MISSING.

Get yours today!

The spectator is handed the plexiglass plates, removes the rubber bands, removes the card and the retained piece perfectly matches the produced card.

Is that description an exaggeration? Nope. Which is why I've always loved this trick. It's pretty easy to set-up and perform and the climax is visually amazing. The plexiglass plates are totally see-through and are never covered or out of view of the audience. Sometimes, rather than have the cards thrown at the frame (because I'm lazy and don't want another mess to clean up after the show), I just tell the audience to focus on the frame, I count to three and the card VISIBLY APPEARS in frame right before their eyes.

This effect is strongly recommended for anyone looking for a visual addition to a stage or platform show. If you purchase the TV Card Frame, shoot me an email afterward and I'll respond with some details on my handling of the effect and a couple of cool methods for vanishing the card pieces.

Private Sleight-of-Hand Magic Lessons via Skype with cards, coins, cigarettes, matches and more.

"The Royal Road to Card Magic" review - takes you from novice to pro in one read

If I go and search my dusty library of card magic books from my youth, I know there are quite a few written by Jean Hugard. The first card magic book that I ever devoured cover to cover (which is really the only way to use this book) is "Royal Road to Card Magic" by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue.

As is suggested by the authors, if you want to become a competent card conjurer, read and practice the methods in this book in the order presented and by the final chapter I guarantee you that you'll be pretty damned good. And the really beauty of the book and the teaching method of these to magic literary giants is that you don't have to first learn all of the moves and sleights and

then, finally, at the end of the book, learn some tricks. Hugard and Braue teach you a manipulation and then a practical and pretty amazing application of that move.

Many years ago, when I was performing close-up, table-hopping, sleight-of-hand magic in restaurants, I would also teach sleight-of-hand magic a couple of evenings per week. In many cases I was starting from scratch with the student just wanting to learn, and having spent no time mastering even the most rudimentary tricks. They just knew that they wanted to take up a new "hobby."

I learned very quickly, that if I spent the full session just teaching them how to do the mechanics of sleight-of-hand and not actually teaching them "a trick," that they'd probably get bored and not want to come back (or pay me). Plus, if they didn't quickly master the sleight, they'd get frustrated and decide that this magic crap isn't for them.

So, what I would do every week was first demonstrate what I considered to be a really cool close-up magic trick or routine, and tell the student that they were going to learn to do it at the end of the lesson. There are literally thousands of essentially simple to perform tricks (remember, it's usually all in the presentation), and once you become proficient at the more difficult ones you can throw in the really easy ones (which often are more astonishing that the ones you spent countless hours mastering).

So, before I would force them two learn two or three double-lift methods, I'd show them the something like the penetrating match trick and then show them how to do it at the end of session.

That's essentially what Hugard and Braue do with "The Royal Road to Card Magic." You learn a method of performing a specific sleight, then you learn an effect using that sleight. Next you move to the next technique or method which also utilized the first sleight you learned, then again another effect, and so on.

I strongly recommend purchasing this book (it's also available for your Kindle or Kindle app for your Smartphone) and reading and practicing EVERYTHING in the book in order. Once you're done, I guarantee you will be a pretty damned good card manipulator.

So do it, or screw it.



Private Sleight-of-Hand Magic Lessons via Skype with cards, coins, cigarettes, matches and more.

Lessons from the Way of the Showman - 59

When creating an act aim to transcend the skills. Doing just tricks becomes like abstract art, but all the while, consciously or otherwise the Crowd look at you for story. Even when you try to say nothing, much is told. Consider the story you tell, and make it a good one.

Consider story.

Skills are an integral part of the act, in many ways they are the justification of getting time in the spotlight of audience attention, but to really connect with the Crowd there needs to be another level of content and development in your act. This can be thought of as aspects of narrative.
The tricks are the skeleton of the act. They belong in a certain order to optimize the strength. Their order is also a form of narrative.
In its simplest form narrative can be: Beginning, Middle and End. But there are many aspects that can further story, in a loose sense.
Character transformation or change, a development from the beginning to the end. How you feel about the tricks throughout the act, which are difficult, which are fun? Your handling of them, mimicry, gesticulation, words spoken all tell the audience how to react to what they see. You give your material meaning, Show them emotion and they more involved.
Your relationship with the Crowd can also change and add to the story. Some tricks are easy and fun and they get a lot of attention, others are so difficult you become introspective, it all reads as story.
Be conscious of the story aspects of your act. Why not seek inspiration from one of your favorite stories.

Near the Egress

Gorgeous and mesmerizing circus art film.  

Antonio Martinez created this video to serve as a desired childhood memory of the circus, but through the mind of an adult.
Over 800 modern dryplate tintypes, (a photograph taken as a positive on a thin tin plate,) were made from b&w film to produce this experimental stop-motion video of a circus.
The project began in 2005 and was fully completed in early 2010 with the help of sound designer, Ramah (Malebranche) Jihan, and assistant, Sarah (Lathrop) Midkiff. The video has been successfully exhibited in over 23 video art and film festivals.

Near the Egress from antonio martinez on Vimeo.

Mark Ryden's Magic Circus

The Magic Circus, Oil on Canvas, 2001. Painting Size: 40" x 60" Framed Size: 57" x 74"

A preparatory sketch.

A little detail expanded.

Inspiration. Joan Miro's Harlequin's Carnival. 1924-25.

Naive, but somehow reminds me of the same theme.

More Ryden Circus.

The Ringmaster. Oil on Canvas, 2001. Painting Size: 20" x 28" Framed Size: 32" x 31"

An enlarged detail.

the master himself

Mark Ryden in his studio.

More on Mark Ryden's possible inspirations for his Patron Saint of Clowns.

Carnytube (4)

Roll up for further fine films of the Carny tradition.

Tom Mullica and his bizarre cigarette eating act from FISM 1988.

A tragically beautiful marionette act by Philippe Genty. I remember seeing this as the 'novelty' act on the Paul Daniels show as a kid and being strangely affected.

And now for a completely different kind of puppetry; Raymond Crowe the Unusualist and his fine hand shadows. This is from the Royal Variety Show.

 As old as it gets - A girl disrobes on a trapeze in 1901. One of Edison's first films. 

“Hm, what to capture with this new invention, lets see what the carnies have to offer."

Something current. A french circus company called Ieto. Beautiful, skilled and ingenious.

 

A great clown double act. Perfect straightman funnyman done by the two fine fools Jogalow and Csaba.

And finaly... 

Sometimes the most unaware makes for the most freaky performance. Don’t watch this unless you are prepared to be offended. Feel the power of the Freakshow work you - as you take in this bizarre act involving hedgehogs...

 

Lessons from the Way of the Showman - 58

The more special you make the audience feel the more special they will think you are.

Philipino Carnival

A tiny traveling carnival in the Philipines, beautifully captured by Jason Magbanua from Manila.

Perya (Town Fair) - a Canon 7D Short from Jason Magbanua on Vimeo.

The Wall of Death

Here comes a exceptionally beautiful look at the art of Wall Riding. Following the Fox'es and their awesome motorcycle carnival attraction. Benedict Campbell's cinematography is gorgeous, capturing a candid and artful look at a rarely seen Carnival Art.

THE WALL OF DEATH from benedict campbell on Vimeo.

Thanks to Carny Trash Aristocracy for posting this video.

Carnytube (3)

Yet again it is opening time in the midway of moving pictures. Clips and things from the world of carny cinema.

Roll on in to the virtual carnival of splendid attractions.

Starting right off with the most chaotic and full on Sideshow you ever saw. From the cradle of yoga and snake charming, its the Warriors of Goja!

For something more sweet and sophisticated take a look at Cardini the Suave Deceiver. This is the only film clip of this master manipulator of cards and cigarettes. Note that he is wearing gloves for most of it...

 The renowned Kehayovi Teeterboard Troupe from Bulgaria accomplished the impossible "SEVEN MAN HIGH".The Kehayovi Troupe's leader George Kehayov, is the bottom man carrying the weight of all the people stacked above him.

The Ringmaster introducing the Kehayovi troupe is Great Britain's Grand Veteran Ringmaster the Honorable Norman Barret. He worked for the Blackpool Tower circus, which is where the Guinness Book of Records breaking teeterboard stunt took place. Here is the Ring Master himself with his sweet trained Budgie act.

Skill and patience...

Amateur magic goes wrong... Thanks to Brett Phister for putting me onto this one.

And finally to top it off, a contortion break dancing hybrid.

 That's all for now folks. Enjoy.

Ray Bradbury and the Carnival

Ray Bradbury is one of the all time great science fiction writers, although he does not particularly like this label.
“I've only done one science fiction book and that's Farenheit 451, based on reality,”  "And his best known outer space work, the Martian Chronicles, has about as much about the Red Planet as a Mars chocolate bar." (Conceptual Fiction.) Nobody likes to be pigeon holed, apart from pigeons of course, particularly not someone who is the author of more than five hundred published works. All this aside, here on the pages of the Illuminated Showman we search for the Carnivalesque origins of things and yet again we have found what we were looking for. Thanks to Hey Rube Circus for drawing our attention to this.

Ray Bradbury, the Showman, accounts for his habit of writing every day originating in a tale that easily could be believed to be spawned by the man's prodigious imagination. But then again as Edward Gant says with the knowledge of a Guild's man, "The Truths of Life lies least of all in the Facts." So perhaps these Seeds of inspiration for the young Bradbury is as close to truth that is possible.

Lon Chaney Jr as the Hunchback

"Bradbury attributes his lifelong habit of writing every day to two incidents. The first, which occurred when he was three years old when his mother took him to Lon Chaney's performance of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the second, which occurred in 1932 when a carnival entertainer, Mr. Electrico,
touched him on the nose with an electrified sword, made his hair stand on end, and shouted, "Live forever!" It was from then that Bradbury wanted to live forever and decided on his career as an author in order to do what he was told: live forever. It was at that age that Bradbury first started to do Magic. Magic was his first great love. If he had not discovered writing, he would have become a magician." (Wikipedia)
And lo and behold on the glorious interweb we find the Master himself recount the incident of meeting Mr Electrico and the Illustrated man.

Mr Electro, sculpture by Christopher Slatof

In his work, this Carnival truth is supported by his first published collection of short stories being titled: Dark Carnival, and his second The Illustrated Man. The pinnacle of the prodigious writers flirtation with the fairground is found in his 1962 novel 'Something Wicked this Way Comes.' Which title is lifted straight from Shakespeare's Macbeth: 'by the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.'

'The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare.' (Amazon) 

The tale is of two boys on their way to adulthood. Together they tread paths through the forest of Good and Evil, shrouded in shadows of the looming mountain of Ageing. All this clad in the guise of a sinister carnival that comes to town. Their meeting with Coogar and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show push the boys to men during one memorable night.

The story is described as a horror or dark fantasy novel, and that may be, but it is also deeply poetic. Bradbury digs deeply into his themes in beautifully crafted sentences and descriptions. Here is an example from a monologue delivered by Charles Halloway, father of Will, one of the story's two boy-protagonists.

"First things first. Let’s bone up on history. If men had wanted to stay
bad forever they could have, agreed?...Somewhere we turned in our
carnivore’s teeth and started chewing blades of grass. We been
working mulch as much as blood, into our philosophy, for a quite a
few lifetimes. Since then we measure ourselves up the scale from
apes, but not half so high as angels…. I suppose one night hundreds of
thousands of years ago in a cave by a night fire when one of those
shaggy men wakened to gaze over the banked coals at his woman, his
children, and thought of their being cold, dead, gone forever. Then he
must have wept. And he put out his hand in the night to the woman
who must die some day and to the children who must follow her. And
for a little bit next morning, he treated them somewhat better, for he
saw that they, like himself, had the seed of night in them…."

In 1983 Disney made a movie based on the book which is surprisingly interesting, in a nostalgic, fairy tale kind of way. I still have fond memories of some of Disney's films from my own childhood, perhaps most notably 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea. But as always when a project is undertaken by the media giant a disneyfication happens. The examples are many and nefarious enough, like how they make Charles Halloway a librarian rather than the janitor at the library.

Although receiving mediocre reviews the movie is not terrible. Here is the trailer and a link to the whole thing, so you can choose how long you would like to dwell on this tale by how interested you are in its themes, and execution. Ray Bradbury served as screen writer for the film and later said it was one of the better adaptions of his work.

Here comes the link to the first in a series of 7 links to the whole movie.

Lessons from the Way of the Showman - 57

Reporter: What do you consider yourself? How would you classify yourself?
Bob Dylan: Well, I like to think of myself in terms of a trapeze artist.
Reporter: Speaking of trapeze artists, I've noticed in some of your recent albums a carnival-type sound. Could you tell me a little about that?
Bob Dylan: That isn't a carnival sound, that's religious. That's very real, you can see that anywhere. 

A Showman Facing the Other Way

From the 'Austin interview,' 22nd of September, 1966. 

The carnivalesque and the religious are sometimes too similar to be told apart...

Carnytube

It's weekend and here are some a fine selection of Carnival clips for all you faithful readers of the Illuminated Showman.

Don't you just love the good old days and their weird dancing pig puppet acts. This is strange and creepy.

Here follows two clips of physical comedy and clown Luminaries, true Master Showmen.

The first is Larry Griswold, on a trampoline and a diving board. The clip is from the Frank Sinatra show in 1951. 

Next up the king of sticky hands and microphone slapstick, a man which inspired me in my own work. Here he is, the winner of the very first Golden Clown in Monte Carlo in 1974 Mr George Carl.

 

Some sweet skills!

Selyna Bogino juggling five basket balls with her feet.

 A short clown film from Carnival Cinema

And finally a short edit of a long clown film starring Lon Chaney, 'the man of a thousand faces', in one of his many roles as a clown. This is from the Man who gets Slapped and it is set to music by the paramount circus band Circus Contraption.

Hope you enjoy it.

Lessons from the Way of the Showman - 56 B

The latest Lessons have been talking of Magic. This is because I have returned to Norway where I have again gained access to my father, the Great Santini's Library of Magic. One thing to remember for those of you that does not dabble in the arts of the Conjurer is that creating magic does not have to be taken literally as actually performing magic tricks.

“When you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill, take it and push it as far as it has ever been pushed before, push it into the wildest edge of edges, then you force it into the realm of real magic.”

- Tom Robbins

 

Every time a Showman graces a stage, be it on a pavement, in a theater, or a tent, magic can happen. With the right mindset, with the right presentation a technical juggling or acrobatic display can transport the Crowd away from their mundane reality to a place where the Showman creates the rules.
A magic experience happens when a Showman creates the feeling of astonishment in a Crowd. When they forget about where they are, their problems, fears and worries and for a brief moment have a clear, primal experience they associate with a child's state of mind: pure wonder or a Zen insight.

"Astonishment is not an emotion that is created. It is an existing state that is revealed. Tricks are simply our tools to help unleash the moment." Paul Harris.

Truth in Reality and Deception

(Shaman Showman - part 4)

"Dancing Sorcerer" After Henri Breuil's drawing.

“The oldest religion of which we have any secure knowledge is the shamanism of the late Old Stone Age (Paleolithic) as we have seen it depicted in the caves of southern France and northern Spain.” (Weston LaBarre.) Further, “Nothing justifies the supposition that, during the hundreds and thousands of years that precedes the earliest Stone Age, humanity did not have a religious life as intense and various as in the succeeding periods.” (Mircea Eliade.) 
Research and deepened understanding of early religious practices reveals the riches of the religious experience of these ancient human systems. They were in no way inferior in their ability to supply answers to big philosophical questions, to control the dangerously random processes of nature, to strengthen community bonds, or providing real healing powers in times of sickness.                        

12000 yo cave painting, Trois Freres, France

From the furthest recesses of time our ancestors put their trust in shamans with spiritual and bodily needs. For the shaman was not only priest but also medicine man. Today this seems very strange indeed, since doctor and priest are two very separate occupations. Each belonging to fundamentally different ideological systems, namely science and religion. In these ancient times though, such distinctions were yet to be made. It is interesting here to note that, at root level, these sprung from a similar source.

“In a mysterious world full of unknown dangers like death, disease and other disasters, the shaman is the man who claims knowledge and power over these frightening mysteries that the ordinary man manifestly does not have. Clinically, we might view the shaman as a paranoiac, in his claims to omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence. And yet, since these are what his clientele demand of him, these are what the medicine man must purport to provide.” (LaBarre)

All this was the shaman's obligation. Since early man placed their faith in shamans we must ask: What did shamans do to deserve this trust? What powers did they wield? And how well did it work?

Shamanism was practiced worldwide, from Europe to America, Africa to Mongolia, and Brazil to Japan. This enormous distribution might certainly be taken as an indication of its efficacy. It did what it set out to do effectively enough for the practice to be almost universal. 

What powers did they wield?

According to Melbourne Christopher, one of the oldest and most performed Native American mysteries was a ritual know as the shaking tent. It was an important and often performed shamanistic ritual amongst the North American Cree Culture. It played an important role in the yearly cycle of harvest and other ritual activities of the Innu people of Quebec and Labrador.

“It was not only an important method of direct communication with the caribou and other animal masters, as well as with Mishtapeu and cannibal spirits, it was also a source of amusement. The shaman used the tent to look into the hidden world of animal spirits, and to make contact with Innu in distant groups.” United Cherokee Nation. 

The Shaking Tent ritual

Shaking tent ritual in progress.

“Sheshatshiu Innu who have seen the shaking tent say that it was a small, conically-shaped tent, with caribou hide covering and four, six, or eight poles depending on the spiritual power (manitushiun) of the shaman (the shaman is called the Kakushapatak, officient, in the context of the ritual). It would be set up inside another tent on a floor of freshly picked fir boughs. Younger men would act as assistants (apprentices?) to the Kakushapatak in setting up the tent.

“As soon as the Kakushapatak stuck his head in the tent, it would start to shake violently, indicating that the officient had been joined by a spirit, usually Mishtapeu who helped him communicate with the other spirits."

in his book "Magic and Meaning," magician Eugene Burger gives an interesting description of this ritual performed in an unusual setting:

“At Leech Lake, Minnesota, in the 1850’s, an Ojibwa shaman was offered a hundred dollars if he could successfully demonstrate this talent. He was securely tied, observed by a committee of twelve, including an Episcopal clergyman, and placed in his tent, which began to sway violently. Strange sounds were heard. The shaman shouted that the rope could be found in a nearby house. When one of the group was sent to the house, the knotted rope was found. In the tent, the shaman was found peacefully smoking a pipe.” According to Christopher “The committee – now eleven, the clergyman having fled, crying that this was the work of the devil – agreed unanimously that the hundred dollars should be paid at once.”

This challenge was no ordinary setting for shamanistic activities, but nonetheless, the demonstration must have been formidable. Despite their intention of discovering the trickery involved in the shaking tent ritual, the critically minded gathering of men found no evidence of deception. A crowd of firm believers would then be even less likely to do so. From a magician's point of view, this would be described as a successful performance by a master of his craft.

We have information from ethnologists and anthropologists about the attitudes of both the audience and the performers of these events. Not surprisingly, it is described both as magic and as trickery. Some of the audience believed wholeheartedly it was magic, whilst others could see how the shaman had used certain hidden techniques to shake the tent. Again, the ritual’s wide distribution and popularity is a testament to its efficacy. Regardless of one's attitude towards the mechanics, the ritual had real value for communities across the globe. Real magic or not, the power was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. Indeed, the ritual was banned by law for 70 years.

“In the 1880s, missionaries and Indian agents helped ban and suppress religious practices of First Nations across Canada, including the shaking tent Ceremony practiced by the Blackfoot, Cree, Innu, and Ojibwa, as well as the sun dance. The bans weren't lifted until 1951. Some native people risked jail to preserve their spiritual beliefs. Because of their efforts many of these ceremonies are practiced today.” (CBC.)

  

Davenport brothers by their spirit cabinet.

The description of the shaman's performance of the shaking tent seems to me to be virtually indistinguishable from the activities of the magicians that brought on the Spiritist movement of the late eighteen hundreds. The Spirit cabinet was a staple of magicians, or mediums, as they called themselves. In this presentation the medium was tied up inside a cabinet or behind a curtain, and musical instruments were placed with them, but out of reach. Once the cabinet or curtains were closed, spirits were called upon and music would be produced. When the curtains again opened the medium was still tied up.  
This escape act, for that is what it was, served as proof of the performer's ability to summon and communicate with spirits. 
As with the Native Americans, the attitudes amongst magicians, mediums, spectators and believers varied greatly. Both these examples garnered believers and skeptics. Whilst people like Harry Houdini exposed spiritualists and mediums as fraudsters, countless others found peace through messages rapped out on tables and tambourines played behind curtains. Whatever the techniques used, the effect on believers was real.

Another shamanistic practice described by Mircea Eliade in "Rites and Symbols of Initiation" (1965) is an initiation into manhood of a tribe of Australian Aboriginals.

Central Australian bull roarer.

The boy on the cusp of manhood is instructed about a bad spirit who likes to eat little boys and then tries to revive them. With this in mind, the boy is taken out into the desert where a roaring unearthly sound appears in the distance and the boy is told it is the very bad anthropophagic spirit that at any moment will eat him. 
The men place the boy under a blanket as the sound comes closer. When the sound is right on top of the boy an elder reaches under the blanket and uses a hammer and chisel to knock out one of the boys teeth. On the last day of the rite a fire is lit and the boy is put under the blanket again as the strange sound appears from the dark. It gets louder and louder as it comes closer. When the boy has become suitably terrified, the blanket is removed by the elder and the boy is initiated into the secret knowledge of the ritual. They reveal that the true source of the sound was a bull roarer, a carved flat wooden stick on a string which is spun around over head and in the process it creates a very peculiar sound. The stick whirls around on the end of the string not unlike a propeller of a plane and the sound of it tearing the air is surprisingly formidable. Once the boy is shown the bull roarer it is burnt in the fire and with this the boy is a man.
 I find it quite interesting that the completion of the ritual is the revelation of the deception. Revealed in the correct manner, this does not appear mundane and deflated, but a necessary tool, instilling a very particular and powerful state of mind in the boy.  


 “The shaman’s deception may in this sense be the ‘necessary lie’ that brings others to trust in healing powers – and, thereby contributes toward bringing about the healing experience,” notes Eugene Burger.

“Initiation into adulthood can be equally an initiation into spiritual deception. What is being worked over in the boy is their belief about spiritual reality.” (Robert Neal) The elders introduce the boy to a means of creating a religious experience through a very particular form of deception not meant to further the shaman's interest, but aimed to benefit others, to give them a very particular insight.

If one is to keep an open mind and not harbour foregone conclusions, we can't know for sure whether all shamans practiced deception. Descriptions and studies of rituals and shamanistic demonstrations of supernatural powers certainly do appear to have been steeped in tricks and illusions. Even without such things, the reasoning of showmen versed in the magical arts points in the same direction. Let's ask a conjurer before we re-write the laws of nature. I am not claiming deception in rituals is a negative thing, rather to the contrary. This is, in fact, the point I am trying to make. Slight of hand and illusions are perfect tools to amplify emotional states in crowds. Real or not, the effects are powerful, and their impact on those participating in the rituals are real enough.
The fact that deception has been involved might bring the modern reader disappointment, we can’t seem to see any validity in something known to be fake. This is perhaps the foundations for much of religion and society's obsession with literalism. How can I believe anything, or take anything good from the bible, if its claims that the bat is a bird, or that evolution never happened, are false?

“The seemingly alien conjunction of belief and disbelief may well be quite standard human behavior. It happens most frequently in situations of make-belive. All the arts – performing, liteary, visual – offer the state of make-believe that transcends the opposition of belief and disbelief. Religion has always done it very well indeed.” Robert E Neale.

A whole lot of our world's quarrels and disputes today, and throughout all time, has come from confusing levels of reality. Human beings are symbolic creatures. We engage emotionally in stories and find them fascinating and moving even if we know they are untrue. Whether something is factual or not, whether or not it happened to someone at sometime, does not lessen our experience of a story well-told, or the deep emotional changes it creates in us. A fable told, a fairy tale enjoyed, or a myth recounted to cast light upon a difficult question, can indeed enlighten the listener regardless of whether the animals in the stories actually formed a band, or the Pied Pieper of Hamlin actually drowned an entire town's children. The importance and value of such stories does not lie in their exact wording. It does not matter that each telling differs, for a literal interpretation of the stories are not their real wisdom. The truth lies in their symbolic meaning.

Confusion of the symbolic level of reality with the literal or factual always brings negative consequences. Think only of money. A famous anecdotal Cree Indian saying reminds us:

“Only after the last tree has been cut down.
Only after the last river has been poisoned.
Only after the last fish has been caught.
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."

It is important to be able to distinguish what’s real from what isn’t. Knowing what belongs in the literal/factual world, and what belongs in the symbolic world, has been a necessary skill at all times. Important for survival both literally and socially. Failing to do so is frowned upon as deception, lie or madness. 

In the shadow lands between real or not, with one foot firmly planted in each world, we find religion, superstition, art and showmanship. 

We have spaces designated for suspension of disbelief. Spaces that Mircea Eliade calls sacred, as opposed to profane, or ordinary, spaces. Sacred spaces are places whit their own sets of rules and where a different . Normal logic and precaution can be left behind, for inside these spaces it is safe to take a leap of faith into the absurd.

Is it real or not?

The carnival is a place where whether something is real or not simply doesn't matter. Here the truth of life is lies least of all in facts. Within the carnival’s perimeter fences leaps of faith are expected and safe. 
This is signified by the carnival high diver atop a thousand foot ladder swaying in the warm summer night. Perched precariously on a little platform far above the carnival lights he stands, and as we see him we know that everything we have learnt about the outside world tells us; if this man jumps, it will end in certain death. Yet still he jumps, and as he crashes into the shallow wooden pool below and triumphantly, death-defiantly, and dripping wet re-emerges, we understand with our hearts and our minds that the Carnival is a symbolic place where different rules apply.