Great Magicians
I experienced quite a treat last weekend. At Denny Haney’s magic shop, I got to see performances by Tommy Wonder and Fred Kaps on DVD. I knew both names of course, and even have Tommy Wonder’s books. But nothing had prepared me for what I saw. Pure entertainment, absolutely thrilling magic, and I was completely captivated. Usually, as a magician, I watch a magician perform and I’m aware that I’m watching a magician perform. But with these legends, I was just entertained.
Sadly, neither Wonder nor Kaps is still with us, but I hope that the work they each left behind inspires other magicians to be great entertainers. There are some magicians today whose work is just as entertaining, but there are a great many more whose minds are more on the magic than the entertainment. May we all aspire to be like Kaps and Wonder — not an imitation, but performers in the truest sense.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:24 am
You should dig around on Youtube, there are some great clips up there from Wonder, Kaps and others. I completely agree, by the way - they were amazingly skilled and entertaining. They took pleasure in performing and their joy brough joy to the audience.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Matt,
I have been listening to your TV show podcast for a little while, but I hadn’t started listening to the “Non Prophets” until today, and I learned that you are a fellow magician. Cool.
You’re right about the YouTube videos — I saw the same great performances on YouTube the following day because I had to show my wife, but I will be ordering the DVDs. I didn’t mention YouTube earlier because I was worried that there may be exposure videos for those performers as well, although I didn’t see any.