Fredrick Turner

Reflections

Reflections

  • Cataracts

    One of the “features” of getting older is cataracts. It’s a condition where the lens of the eye becomes cloudy. It’s a slow process so like many slow building things, you don’t notice the change readily. My optometrist told me a few years ago that I was developing cataracts but it wasn’t time for the… Continue reading

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  • Cotton or China

    Today marks the two year anniversary of this blog. One hundred and twenty two posts in total. Not too bad; although it could be better. As I said in my first post, this is the resurrection of the blog, Magic and Conjuring, I ran for a few years on Blogger. I drifted away from Blogger… Continue reading

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  • AI in Magic Advertising

    I don’t know if this story had much traction in social media as I’m not a participant. There’s been no discussion on the Genii or Magician’s Forums. Erik Tait and Nick Locapo discussed it briefly on the Penguin podcast and UK magician, Caven Booth, posted a YouTube video. It’s strange that there hasn’t been more… Continue reading

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  • Question to Ponder

    I was rereading Issue Two of the Neat Review recently. It’s the issue that focuses on the New York City magic scene in 2019. The second essay, What Do We Want to Say, was written by magician and bar owner, Eric Hu. He poses this question: When we perform magic, what are we creating exactly?… Continue reading

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  • Remembering Rick Johnsson

    The number of creative, funny, engaging people in magic is enormous – far greater than the number of magic-famous or famous-famous individuals. One of these people was Rick Johnsson. He was a long time columnist for the Linking Ring magazine. For over thirteen years he wrote the monthly column, “Come a Little Closer”. It was… Continue reading

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  • A Fine Line

    A recent magic podcast featured a two part interview with a comedian talking about the similarities and differences between magic and stand-up. A significant portion of the second episode was on the comedian’s approach to working with the audience or as it’s called, crowd work. Crowd work is hard and requires empathy and respect as… Continue reading

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  • To Speak or Not?

    A rhetorical question: if you see someone performing and they behave badly, treat others horribly or make people uncomfortable, should you say something? I’ve taken both approaches and I really don’t know. On one hand, no one wants unsolicited advice. On the other, I don’t believe that people want to look like insensitive jerks. I… Continue reading

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