When it comes to wonder and believing in a thousand things you can’t explain, there’s nothing quite like ‘up close magic.’ Which is why when the opportunity to meet and interview a real, live, honest-to-goodness, Illusionist, came up, I couldn’t let the opportunity disappear…
Yes. Perhaps I should warn you now.
I’m writing this blog after a full day of birthday celebrations. It’s nuts late so the temptation to pepper this blog with outrageous magic puns will be irresistible…
Now. Watch me pull a blog out of this sleepy state. (I told you.)
Jack Daniels arrived on-set looking like he already had magic in his DNA. We’re talking an unmistakable air of calm, a tailored jacket (secret pockets, optional) and a super neat goatee. Not that fastidious attention to facial fur should predicate an Illusionist’s ability to make stuff disappear or levitate. And there’s the obvious L word, right?
Well, Jack – in true illusionist style – surprised and defied expectations here because Legerdemain was his word. And he said it with such a delightful French twang too.
Now, I gotta tell ya. I’m no slouch in the vocab department. I’ve made my living out of knowing more than my fair share of unexpected adjectives, nouns and the like. But this word came out of thin air. It was my personal Abracadabra moment – like an Oprah a-ha moment, only with more consonants.
So what does it mean? Well, it refers to the ‘sleight of hand’ a magic man (or woman) has to be rather adept at if they’re going to convince an audience that those red balls really did just disappear before your very eyes…
Ah yes. Them red balls. They were round, foamy and squishy. Your average tricks of the trade. But those suckers, no matter how hard I squeezed them (Jack’s instructions, not my fetish), they still managed to miraculously multiply in my right hand.
But here’s the best part of my conversation with Jack. It wasn’t the balls, the card tricks or even the table that floated above the ground.
It was Jack’s magical attitude to the miracles that unfold in our world, every day, without question, to serve, delight and inspire us.
Basically, real magic. No legerdemain required.
Learn more about Jack Daniels over at Magic to Believe.
