Magic. I believe magic is real.
I know, I know. I’ve written about magic before, but I can’t help it. As I said, I believe in magic. I think it is what makes this human life…. well…. magical.
If you consult the dictionary, you will find this about magic: “The power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.”
And Wiki says this: “Magic is an ancient practice rooted in rituals, spiritual divinations, and/or cultural lineage—with an intention to invoke, manipulate, or otherwise manifest supernatural forces, beings, or entities in the natural world.”
Ancient, supernatural forces. That refers to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.
Have you ever seen those videos on YouTube where some bus crashes into a building, and the person standing there moves (or gets moved) out of the way, missing death by a thread of an inch? Or those stories where a woman’s wedding ring shows up in some shark’s belly a decade after she lost it on vacation?
Magic. Magic.
Or how about time, each Spring, when the tulips come up on their very own, just two weeks after the daffodils did the same exact thing? They poke up from under the surface of the dirt and start making flowers on the end of their stems.
Magic. Magic.
Oh, but be warned. You can’t trust everything you see. Some people call themselves “Magicians,” and what they really are is actors. Performers. Tricksters.
A true magician has magical powers.
A stage magician pretends to have magical powers.
I just read an article about eight famous magicians who died during their performances.
Whoops. These were false tricks gone wrong.
The first guy was magician Chung Ling Soo. That the stage name of this American magician was William Ellsworth Robinson. This guy performed in yellowface. Back then, it wasn’t considered racist, him pretending to be of the Eastern culture and speaking fake Chinese. Anyway, he was known best for his bullet-catching trick. He used a trick gun with two barrels – one took the real bullet he showed the audience for effect, the other held a blank.
On March 23, 1918, during a routine performance, Robinson shot himself for real. It happened mostly because he had been lazy. The thing is, you have to clean your gun if you want it to work properly. Robison supposedly never cleaned his trick gun, and gunpowder built up in the chamber. On the day of the accident, the blank fired and lit the gunked-up powder, which exploded. That explosion fired the real bullet in the second chamber. Whoops.
Robison shot himself in the chest. For the first time in his professional career, he spoke in English on stage. And he said, “Oh my God. Something’s happened. Lower the curtain!”
And the others.
§ Royden Joseph Gilbert Raison de la Genesta locked himself in a milk can filled with milk. He couldn’t escape and drowned in 1908.
§ “Karr the Magician,” a South African escape artist named Charles Rowan lost his life during a daredevil escape attempt in 1930. He put himself in a straight jacket in front of a speeding car. He didn’t slip out of the thing on one performance. And he was obliterated.
§ Black Herman, AKA Benjamin Rucker, died of natural causes on stage. He was a mystic. Everyone thought it was part of the act, but no. He died.
§ Washington Irving Bishop was an American mentalist and spiritualist best known for his ability to read people’s minds. He had two seizures on stage. After the second “fit,” they pronounced him dead. An autopsy was performed a few hours later. His wife claimed he was just in a trance and that he was truly killed by the autopsy. Charges were filed against the doctors, but they were not convicted.
§ Tommy Cooper was an English comedian and magician known for being terrible at magic. Slapstick terrible. One night, on Live From Her Majesty’s at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, he suffered a heart attack on stage and died in front of millions of TV viewers. In 1984.
§ The DeLinskys were a well-known Polish husband and wife magic duo who toured Europe. They did a trick where Madame DeLinsky faced a firing squad and would walk away unscathed after “catching” all the bullets. Well, one time, in 1820, one of the “soldiers” used a real bullet in his gun. Shot her. She died. Her husband went mad with grief in the years to follow.
§ Joseph W. Burrus was enamored with Harry Houdini. He frequently talked about wanting to be greater than his idol. On Halloween night, 1990, the 64th anniversary of Houdini’s death, the 32-year-old magician performed an escape trick. He was buried alive in a plastic coffin at an amusement park before a crowd of onlookers, including his own children. He got crushed to death and died.
Trick magic, gone wrong. So sad.
I’m heading outside now, to sit with some wild squirrels and rabbits and be with some real magic. It always makes me a little nutty, but more than anything, it makes me hoppy.
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“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl
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“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
― W.B. Yeats
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“I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett
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Not hocus pocus. But accidents will happen.
