One of the Greatest Magicians of the 20th Century Was a Marianist Brother..
By Angelo Stagnaro.
Image Credit: Hashir Milhan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons..
Of all the performing arts, very few people actively dislike stage magic.
It’s the principle reason I remain gainfully employed.
That, and my incredible humility.
You’ll regularly find people who are bored with opera and flummoxed by modern dance, but what kind of misanthrope doesn’t like a good card trick? Who doesn’t want to see a bunny pulled out of a hat? Who doesn’t gape at magicians, or magiciennes, who flagrantly disregard the very laws of physics and stunningly do the impossible?
But what about if you’re already a magician, or magicienne, and are already privy to all of the arcane secrets of legerdemain? How can magic be entertaining? There are only so many ways to produce a bunny out of a hat. (There are exactly 32.)
Being a professional stage magician, I can assure everyone that it’s exceedingly difficult to create magic tricks and still more difficult to find ones that confound other stage performers.
What do you do when you’ve already witnessed and figured out all the regular magicians’ acts?
You seek out a Magician’s Magician…..
A Magician’s Magician is a magus so skillful that his legerdemain remains a mystery even to the otherwise most experienced of stage performers. These people regularly amaze even the most jaded magician hoi polloi who’ve already “seen it all.” It’s the highest honor the magic community can bestow on one of its own.After all, even we need to entertained.When magicians are asked as to who qualifies as a Magician’s Magician, the first name that comes up is Br. Hamman.
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