"They're trying to prove me a fake," I think, as the teenagers surround me. "They want to disbelieve - but they desperately want to believe. That's part of the pain of growing up, when they foolishly abandon faith in the impossible."

I speak in quiet tones, and they quieten themselves so they may hear me. The elastic tension grippers melt through each other and one girl is positive she caught me! "He switched his fingers!" she exclaims, so I agree with her. I can switch my fingers from one hand to the other; I can exchange my body parts from one place to another. I hand her the tension grippers and ask her to demonstrate. She is unsure, unclear, and visibly puzzled.

She almost bows to me.

"Isn't it interesting how it's the adolescents want to prove it wrong," I ponder, "and that the very young and the mature have no problems with enjoying the impossible?" The boy's card, impossibly, rises from the dead and appears at the top of the deck - again. We bury it anew, he and I. It returns from the grave anyway.

Some of them are thinking "It's not magic. It's trickery." Others think, "It's sleight." Still others: "It's skill."

The folly of youth. It's all, of course. It's real magic, and real magic requires movement, ritual, words. The movement is sleight and skill, the ritual is performance, and the words are patter.

It's not divine power. I know that, and I make sure they know that too. But I make sure that they know it -is- real magic. None of that voodoo spooky stuff. Chet-EL is here to entertain and edify them, and his heart is pure as a human's can be. No evil is involved, and there's nothing scary here.

It's magic, and it's wonderment.

Until you believe you are really doing magic - and that movement, ritual, and words are really what you are doing - you will not have entered into the world of fairie, of wonderment.

And once you do realize you are, indeed, performing real magic, you have taken the first step towards faith.

Is this religion? No (for religion is feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping the poor, the widowed, the orphaned) - but it's a hint.

Magic can and should uplift, and give hope. This is entertainment with more life.

Mormonyoyoman:

I read your submission...several times.

It is very well written and, I believe, from the heart.

Your piece should not be viewed as an outbreak of that dreaded disease named altruism but, rather, an example of a good reason that some magicians have stayed in magic.

Well done.

Excellent. Excellent post!

Only thing...you might think of creating an environement for your audeince where "how it's done" no longer becomes important...they can partake in the pleasure of "why".

As a teenager, having often performed for my age group (as well as many others), I can say that the way the audience looks at the magic ALMOST universally dependant on the performer, and how he goes about things.

At least you seem to have your goals in order...

Didn't mean to give the impression that the kids remained in a state of ruthlessness. Indeed, after the first few effects, they were converted to wide-eyed wonder. Yes, that ringleader kept following me around, but she actually hoped that she -couldn't- disprove the magic.

It's one of the more enjoyable portions of the job: turning cynics into happy people.