week of wonders! with special guests!
Time is relative - and my relatives are Cornish and so whilst it is still mar 05 in some time zones - merry ye be on this St Piran's day come one cone all and through the stormy Sea where She be calming,
pull up on this fair cove and take your ease. There be no wreckers here.
What IS here?
Well, our continual cornucopia of hyperbole as we strain the boards virtual to bring you all a show beyond compare - and today indeed a veritable feast of delights we have in store - circus wonders, magicians young and bold, strange mechanisms musical and the wild raw power of art.
Watch out for pirates!
Come now and come again - come inside if looks rain.
And here beneath these tent of dreams, this lone marquee of madness, this gazebo of great excite we do present our guests!
(drum roll, music)
Ladies and Gentlemen, fast men and fleet, women bold and dangerous, children half asleep.
Be wakeful now, and entertained by this our present guest - Worldof-Wonders will hold forth now upon the mysteries of the left handed art and the joy of circustry.
"When I was a wee child my father had somehow become official photographer for the Association of Canadian Travellers, a society for travelling salesmen, who put on a circus every year! Hurrah! So I got to go down in the back and meet all the people and I fed straw to the elephant! Do elephants like straw? In retrospect it seems unlikely.
I once sang for the Moscow Circus. I had a folk duo at that time, and we sang labour songs. We couldn't afford to go see the circus when it came to our city, but due to amazing circumstances we got to go to the fantastic party with them afterwards. They spoke Russian, and communication was difficult, but they did remarkable personal things for us and gave us pins from the cities from which they came. We were sad not to have anything to give in return. But we sang all kinds of labour songs for them, and we all sang the Internationale, us in English and they in Russian (and admittedly, some in Spanish, German and Greek.)
The magic jamboree (convention? fair?) that we go to in Oregon is run by Stan Kramien who used to have a travelling circus, including an elephant who roller-skated. There are giant floats with two storey kinetic animals in his yard. I thought I could see them on Google Earth. They are circus people too - there are posters from those days up all over the fayre. Stan's parents were travelling vaudeville performers. His son is a millionaire plumber and set up this whole farm for the fair each year. And it is warm and so much fun! He is a gentleman and a grand host in the old sense.
I can do some merry circus things. I have been a clown (why do people dislike clowns? what? what? *shrugs*,) a mime (why do people dislike mimes? what? what? *shrugs*,) can ride a unicycle, do stilts, juggle (though not with the beautiful spheres and nothing fancy that is worth blogging about.) I've done face-painting and such things. Balloons. I've done puppetry.
I have seen circuses. classic circuses. I wish there were more, but there may be more yet, of course. I am ever-hopeful. There is a boy in the magic union who is just great. He works tremendously hard and does all the brilliant circus things.
He seems as fond or more of these than magic. I am all admiration."
this co-incidentally named poster leads to the marvellous czar of the bizarre....
Now, for myself as host I should divulge that. by fair fortune, I have been able myself to witness the marvels of the Moscow State Circus, also the touring Imperial Circus of China and the recent mighty melange that was the Monkey King.
Monkey Magicindeed!
Talking then of Magic, before our second guest is called I must explain. Fortunate I was to be able to interview that young and rising Magician Daniel Blakk whose Piratical demeanour suits our show so well - indeed a mix of Dan and Derren Brown and Captain Kidd shows both imagination and a shrewd eyes for the wanting mark, that is to say the rubes amongst you - by which we mean the favourite few, most generous in their affections, who welcome our show where ere it land.
Young as dangerous Daniel be, I asked our own Worldof Wonders what advice might one bestow - from Professional to promising Amateur. Most atmospherically was the answer given…
“the best I have to offer is what was said of Cardini: that when you knew how he did the trick you were more amazed than you had been before you knew. this is the best of magic - that it is not a puzzle or a trick, but real wonder. grace and an air of simplicity add to magic, as does the cloud of times past, the smell of the carnival and the perfume of ladies in the parlour. but in the end, it is skill, practice and vision. the sense of illusion draws people to an act, but it is the reality that is the magic."
And now welcome with a working pair of palms, with glad applause and sweet indulgence. Steady yourselves as we present the fearsome Magician of the seven seas and all them blue as the beard he one day hopes to grow - Daniel Blakk!!
The Interview:
How long have you been practising magic?
Six or Seven Years - some say but since the cradle says I!
And your favourite trick?
My favourite trick would likely be when a person picks a card, they sign it and then it is burnt. I vanish the ash, the person starts coughing when they open their mouth and stick out their tongue - their card is discovered inside their mouth and folded up.
What was your initial inspiration - if not natural inclination?
Setting my own ways aside - it was when I saw a man from the East vanish a tree. An effect most startling!
And you would say of your Magic, that it is…?
Close-up Magic, where you and the spectators are together, instead of using bulky machines, trapdoors, mirrors and wires. In close-up magic you use sleight of hand and subtle gimmicks, such as a folding coin.
It means pouncing upon strangers to show them a routine of magic tricks without being hired or shown at a party or whatever. Street Magic has got really popular in the last few years from Magicians such as David Blaine.
Do you prefer card tricks or other kinds of magic?
I think that card magic can be just as interesting and astonishing as other types, like rope magic. But card magic is full of bad parts, boring presentations and overused methods. I enjoy using the simplest of ways to show that the world is still special.
What was the hardest place you have performed?
An outdoor Festival called ‘FEAST’. It was hard as I’d actually become nervous of performing for large crowds and I was often surrounded which made sleight of hand hard to do. But it was a good experience and it improved my character style and crowd control skills. I am performing there again this year.
And after?
My ambition is to travel the world for a few years taking magic to places it doesn’t normally go - and hopefully finding magic I wouldn’t otherwise see.
Well Daniel, thank you - and good luck!
Ladies and Gentlemen a big hand for Daniel Blakk!!
Thank you Daniel!
Moving on - may we present, as we move towards our hurrah and finale, a brief mechanical musical diversement...
Click to view
And lastly, I am proud to conclude this time travelling circus with a cultural revelation of pataphysical artistry! Please give the stage a fitting final HURRAH and welcome onto it my beloved wife, who will guide you through a simple link into the complex chamber of the surreal!
Thank you, thank you all!
Take it away Chalissa please!
"Beautiful and unfortunate translucence!
Thank you, !Jardin Mécanisme. Follow me, ladles and fennelmen."
a big thanks to my guests, all icons here may taken as payment:)