In the magical world of Ca-Na-Da, where kids eat bacon with their maple syrup and dollar coins are bigger than 25-cent coins, they have a show called Just for Laughs. It's segments of the Montreal International Comedy festival, cut up into half-hour bites of several comics. It used to be on CBC, then was on the Comedy Network, just before Whose Line Is It Anyway.
It was on this weekly, then nightly bastion of rerun that I first saw Penn & Teller, stage magicians. This was far before my current interest in magic, which was reignited with Brian Brushwood's work on Scam School making it accessible (cutting through the curtain that made magic seem impressive, astounding, but overall difficult and the amount of effort put in inequal to the amount of interest given by those watching).
In the 3-minute sketch, Penn played bass and Teller moved through the motions of putting out a cigarette and lighting a new one. Thanks to the magic of Youtube, I don't have to explain it. Just watch:
You see? You see? My 14-year-old mind was blown. It was the mysterious and astounding being shown as ordinary, then it somehow, through critical thinking and explanation, tends to come back around to astounding. To imagine the amount of practice, brainstorming, stage design, rehearsal, and troubleshooting involved in making something look as absolutely ordinary as this... well, it's astonishing. And it's only once you know that you understand.
It may be bullshit, but hey, they tell you that it is. And once you know it's bullshit, it frees you to understand it.
I think I lost myself with that last sentence. But I think people understand.
You understand, right?
1 comment:
Totally, dude.
I heard once that the best way to appreciate a thing (say, music, chess, a video game or whatever) is to listen to someone who loves it simply talk about it.
I've spent the past two hours listening to Day[9] talking about why he loves Starcraft so much - as it is, I'm fanatical about it, but it's changed how I see what video gaming is in my life.
And now I see you waxing similarly (but with a great deal more brevity) upon the magics and illusiveness.
I've had an awesome night and I think I know what I'm doing with my spare time tomorrow.
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