Clarity After the Fog Lifts

I had a strange experience recently. For about a day and a half I walked around totally in what felt like a daze. I was completely confused as to what I should be doing. And no, before you jump to conclusions, I wasn't high. But it was one of the most disturbing experiences I've had in quite some time. You see I like to be in control. I like to feel as though I am working hard and making things happen for my career and in my life. A couple of months ago I realized that I needed to take a good look at the direction my career was going and make sure I was putting my time and attention into the right things. After some reflection I decided to change direction of where I was taking my business in order to obtain my long term goals a bit quicker. That required me changing part of my marketing plan, promotional materials, and the like. That meant that I needed to hire someone to help me redesign that material which, in turn, meant that I was going to be giving up control.

Now I'm the type of guy that would be more than happy to do every little thing completely on my own. The problem with that is that there are unbelievably talented people that can do that type of specialized work so much better than I can. So I've learned to give up control to these talented people and let them do a much better job than I ever could. Unfortunately that means I have to wait on them to get these things done. Waiting is not my strong suit. I like things to be done well and be done quickly. Now, in all fairness the guy doing my design work is doing it on a timetable that we both felt was fair and that we both agreed to, I just wanted this stuff done immediately. Not exactly reasonable, but hey…that's just me. I mention all this to give you the background to why I was in such a funk.

I had been moping around trying to find other things I could be doing for about a week and then one day…BAM! Confusion hit. I just walked around totally in a confused, dazed state. After awhile of this, it started driving me crazy and I decided to focus my energies on something. Ultimately what pulled me out of that trancelike state I was in was refocusing and reapplying myself to the advancement of what I want to be doing in front of who I want to be doing it for. I know…it's not rocket science. I do think though that we often get thrown off course and we need to refocus ourselves on what we are supposed to be doing with our lives. The cool part is that the design work is almost done and I can now start charging forward again towards my goals. The work my design guy is doing looks fantastic and I'm excited to be able to reveal it within the next week or so. I'll keep you posted.

Razor Blades

In my show I sometimes mention that I believe magic is more than just about tricks. I believe that magic should do the same things that a great movie, or piece of art, or song can do. It should stretch the audience's boundaries by sharing the artist's view of the world. This is the way I approach the creative process when working on my shows. I want some pieces to just be fun and I want some pieces to push my audience a little.

I initially developed my razor blade swallowing routine about six years ago after being inspired years earlier by a very little known book by Austin Brooks called Magic as Art. Some of the ideas Austin put forth in that book were very different and controversial. He thought about magic as more than just a variety art. He treated it with serious artistic depth. I was stretched by his book and am very pleased I spent time pondering his thoughts. I was subsequently inspired to create my version of the famous razor blade swallowing illusion from some of Austin's ideas.

With this piece I wanted to do more than just do a trick. I wanted to tell a story. Fortunately when it came time to stage this piece I found an excellent cut of music that helped tell the exact story I wanted my audience to feel. When I made this illusion sequence a part of my show I was very pleased with the response from my audiences. It really was a piece that everyone talked about afterwards. Some of the toughest guys I know told me that as they watched the story unfold it brought them to tears. Others said they just couldn't take their eyes off what was going on onstage.

I have since taken this piece out of my show because I want to share a different message with it. Hopefully the new story will touch people as effectively as the original did. I sometimes wonder if I'm crazy to change something that was as powerful as this piece was, but I feel as though I'm being called to share a stronger, more hopeful message with it. I hope you enjoy the original version below.