That's one of my favorite parts of the film. Ray Liotta DOESN'T step out of character when he breaks the fourth wall. Keep in mind that he narrates the entire picture talking directly to the audience. So there's really nothing to snap the audience out of. He's been telling you his story since the very beginning.

Well I don’t like it, as I like it when it could be real and it’s like he stops the realness of it. Despite that I do however agree with your point Bob.

I think that it is indeed jarring. But it serves to illustrate that the story IS real- that it really happened pretty much the way it was shown in the film. (In fact, much of the narration comes directly from Nicholas Pileggi's Wise Guy, the non-fiction book upon which the film was based.}











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What you're saying does not contradict what I'm saying. It's possible to achieve both at the same time. For example, Max Howard's structuring of The War Wizard, where he starts out as (a version of) himself, and then steps into a character who would have been a rough contemporary of Pop.

That is a little different. Pop is always Pop. He doesn't "become" Pop. Pop is actually here, in the 21st Century. Max Howard's character remains in the 1800's. Pop Haydn has been in the 21st Century for 10 years, and is culturally and intellectually acclimated to the 21st Century. He loves it here. Max's audience has to "accompany" him back in time.

Pop isn't performing for an audience "back in time," the audience doesn't need to pretend they are an audience from the 1800's. They don't have to work to imagine anything. This is a show completely present in the 21st Century, not a theatrical reenactment or a tribute.

Max Howard takes us "back in time" through theater. The audience suspends disbelief.

With Pop, the backstory is never mentioned. It isn't any more important than my actual history--normally performers don't tell their biography to the audience.

I very much appreciate you going into depth on this, and I have no doubt you're describing the approach that is best for you.

That said, perhaps I was reading you wrong, but you did say something that I believe I disagree with. Part of the magic of The War Wizard is that the audience knows Gus is not real, and yet they still miss him once he is gone from their lives. So the magic is elevated by the impermanence of the character, whereas you seemed to be saying that it is better for the character to be permanent.

This might sound bizarre, but I see the core of The War Wizard to be very similar to the core of Derren Brown's Absolute Power. Brown recommends a magician who is a conduit for, or presenter of, a magical realm, connecting it to the people of the normal realm. Sort of like how Carl Sagan or Neil DeGrasse Tyson are not the cosmos, but they can reveal a small glimmer of the cosmos to the rest of us. The Actor in The War Wizard reveals a small glimmer of the country post-Civil War.

My longwinded point being: the magic of the magician survives the end of the character, because the power of the magician lies in opening a portal to the magical world, not in being a permanent inhabitant of it.

There are indeed many ways to approach this--my Pop Haydn character is just one. But it is one that I think has been very rarely attempted. There is a difference from a theatrical presentation of a magical character, and a magic performance, and the theatrical experience of each is different.

Hamlet can step out of the play and speak to the audience directly in soliloquy. But the audience "knows" that it is an actor playing the part of Hamlet, and not the real Hamlet. In a magic show, it can be as if Hamlet were to step off stage and try to prove he was in fact the Prince of Denmark.

The Great Blackstone was a magic detective on the radio and in comic books. When kids went to see Blackstone on stage, they were going to see a larger than life fantasy person LIVE on STAGE.

Gus is a stage magician, and what Max Howard has brought to life is someone real and believable--a performer from the 1860's. Pop Haydn is not real. He is a totally fantasy character from Dime Novels. I want to bring him to life in a totally fantasy backstory. I want to extend the character both from the backstory onto the stage and from the stage into the fantasy adventures of the character.

What I am attempting is to create a larger than life fantasy character with a history and life outside of the performance. I want to blur the line between the fantastic and reality--between the onstage character and the fantasy character, between my real history and the backstory of the character.

My approach to Pop Haydn came from a question: What would it be like if you met someone who claimed to be from another world, or another time. What if you were to meet a wild and amazing character like Dr. Who or Professor Marvel?

If you were suddenly actually relating and talking to this strange and other worldly person. Would you think they were nuts? Would you think it was a prank? What if you met this guy as a member of his audience? What if he was really believable, and he did things that seemed completely inexplicable unless he was who he claimed to be? What if he had a Sonic Screwdriver that worked, and a Tardis that was bigger inside that outside?

I wanted to create a show that embodied all this fun sort of story into a magical experience of the impossible. The idea is not to convince people the story is real, but to get them to remember having been part of a story for a short time. But the story is a remembrance of something real, and the magic that is unsolved creates a strange sort of opening in the imagination.

An nerd was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The nerd took the frog out of his pocket, smiled and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want." Again the nerd took the frog out , smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The nerd said, "Look, I'm an nerd. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool!"

Does anyone care how the princess turned into frog and If one can do magic, then isn't one already out of this world even if one don’t look it?

A couple of years ago I was part of a "Magic, Mirth and Meaning" show as part of the Vanishing Wheelchair Project.

I served as narrator, MC and between sets entertainment in the character of "The Oracle of Dis" with robes, staff, pouch and scoll.

This enabled me to weave disability issues, magic and stories into a background theme for the individual performances of magic, juggling, song and storytelling.

I was not on stage but out in the audience. Two kids began arguing over "tricks vs magic" and disturbing other spectators.

I motioned them to one side and coached them in what to expect and watch to better understand the magic -- completely out of my Oracle self.

My 90 year old dad in a wheel chair was also in the crowd. When he had to go to the men's room I set aside my staff, tossed the folds of my robe over my shoulder and wheeled him out.

When we returned with minimal disturbance of the show, I again assumed my role of the Oracle.

No one in the audience was put off by my breaking the 4th wall, or shifting persona or being human. Many complimented me for bringing my dad out.

The show was a great success -- and the goal of getting persons with disabilities involved in performing arts a reality. Some into magic.

So, as to the original question -- there is a place for character today in magic performance,

and, no -- the persona does not have to be congruous or even make sense.

The magic story begins when the magician is introduced, and ends when he concludes the show. This is the story the audience will tell: "I saw this magician, and he was really amazing." Who was this guy? What was he like? What did he do? What do you think about him?

You are always a character whether you intentionally create one or not. How interesting a character, and what kind of impression he makes is up to you. In my mind, the more remarkable and interesting the character, the easier it is and the more pressing it is for the audience members to tell the story.

Here is an interview that discusses all of this in detail:

https://www.artofmagic.com/blogs/podcast......isode-57