Fredrick Turner

Reflections

Magic

  • Nealist Questions to Wonder About

    When I see performances of magic, my questions to the magicians are two: Who are you?What do you care about? Sometimes I am asking because I have received no clues other than that they watch Jeff McBride and read magic catalogs or magazines. And sometimes they find the questions difficult to answer. I do not Continue reading

  • Art and Magic

    The discussion – some may say argument – of whether magic is art is evergreen. It pops up in the online forums as regular as dandelions in the spring. I don’t believe it will ever be settled to the satisfaction of either side of the fence. If you can find it, magician and filmmaker, R. Continue reading

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  • Practice and Performance

    Think of the time spent practicing sleight of hand and the improvements that can be achieved, well this applies to performance in exactly the same way… it’s a skill. When performing you are integrating many challenging and complex elements. You are also making discoveries about yourself, them and magic itself—the key is to do lots Continue reading

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  • What is Magic?

    THREE Eugene was much wiser. From my point of view, this entire enterprise of setting forth acceptable (or even correct) definitions for words is fairly successful with labels such as “cat,” “sky,” and “tree.” One merely has to point. When it comes to heavily-loaded concept words, however, such as “love,” “justice,” “energy,” or “magic,” things Continue reading

  • Impermanence

    In the essay, The Architect, found in Volume One of the Books of Wonder, Tommy Wonder states: …magic is not a material thing, it can only exist in performance. Magic exists only in relationship between self and other – even if that other is oneself. It exists only in the space that is co-created between Continue reading

  • Book Notes: Reality Is Magic

    Anson Chen’s Reality Is Magic is one of the year’s end releases from the UK-based publisher, Ultra Neat Ltd. Ultra Neat appeared on the magic scene in the spring of 2019 with the publication of The Neat Review: London. It was followed up with New York City in the summer of 2019 and Tokyo in Continue reading

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  • Book Notes: Stage By Stage

    I remember when John Graham’s Stage by Stage was released (Vanishing Inc., 2021). However 2020-2021 was a challenging time for all of us. I’ll use that as my excuse for putting it on the back burner. The premise – building a stand-up/platform show from where you are with your existing material – was intriguing to Continue reading

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