Vanish Magic Magazine VANISH MAGIC MAGAZINE 68 | Page 12

BELINDA The Urban Wizard I extend my warmest regards to all the readers of VANISH. I have recently been asked to introduce myself to you. After ruminating about it for a long while I thought I might begin sharing a bit of my journey, along with some views and opinions regarding the symbiotic relationship between art in theatre and it’s place in magic. A little about me: I grew up in Manhattan New York City, Studied theatre, film, medicine, psychology, theology, editing, code and found my passion with magic. I am fortunate enough to perform, produce and consult with wonderful and talented people and six years ago opened my library and journey to the public to share in the wonder of it all. It is not my intention to send magic to its death with an over abundance of theory, but I would like to share some values that I believe helped me most with my endeavors in magic, and helped achieve moments that are continuously changing my performing experience. For my pleasure, and hopefully you’ll enjoy bits of it as well, I chose to write about some topics and some exercises that encourage me. 12 MARCH | 2020 PSYCHOBABBLE “In my obscurity came forth a light that illuminated my soul” …. That was MAGIC. Magic challenges our basic concepts of reality and our natural order of things. It takes an incredible amount of courage to walk on stage and attempt to convince an audience that restrictions and boundaries are limit-less. We can show you what this looks like. We hold the secrets. We make miracles happen. We ride the fine line between reality and unreality of Illusion, dreams and fantasy. We create and recreate the impression that we are capable of stepping between imaginary lines, and on the other side there’s a world that brings joy and wonder. We know a secret. We have these colorful boxes and climb into secret compartments, step into imaginary dimensions and bring back miracles we want to share with you. This is a powerful place to stand and magic becomes a powerful tool that needs guidance and care. We’ve been subject of far too many clichés and I think we are quite responsible for them.