The 'Sinful' Magician
In the early 20th Century the seminal Blues singer Robert Johnson went to the crossroads and sold his soul to the Devil for his legendary guitar skills. So goes the story. At that time concerned parents and the clergy saw Blues music (and other popular forms of music) as the Devil’s music. It was viewed as sinful, seductive and destructive. Basically, a bad influence on children.
This week’s blog follows on from last week’s entry. The theme last week focused on magic as entertainment. As I mentioned last week, in my experience about 90% of people fully understand that my magic performances are just that…Performances, it’s purely entertainment. But there are always the other 10% of people who believe that what I do and indeed what all magicians do is inherently bad or even sinful.
The truth is that this is a second draft of this blog. The first one I wrote was filled with examples of strange things that have happened to me over the years; Concerned parents literally dragging their children away from my public show while shouting at me; Being turned away from a school that booked me because again, certain parents believed that a magician must be involved in ‘The Dark Arts’ (Maybe those darned colourful silk handkerchiefs appearing from my sleeve ARE evil?!) And other similar instances. I changed that draft because it read as an attack on people’s beliefs and I am not at all interested in doing that.
Having a strong belief system is great, It’s uniquely Human and I understand how powerful and even deceptive our own belief systems can be. But again, that’s delving in too deep for this particular blog.
What do I believe as a performing magician? I believe in wonder. I believe in being the best magician I can possibly be so that I can share that wonder with my audiences. When I perform a magic show my job is to project that sense of wonder. To do that I work hard at my craft and I work hard at being kind, polite and courteous with my audiences and clients. I perform magic at your event in order to make people happy.
Of course Robert Johnson never sold his soul to the Devil for his guitar skills. He worked his ass off and put in the necessary hours of dedicated practice to become as good as he was. That’s my goal too. Besides, I don’t know of any crossroads nearby.
-Caolan x