Fredrick Turner

Reflections

Reflections

  • 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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  • What Was The Question?

    Recently a question was posed on a magic forum about the contributions of Eugene Burger. Specifically the question was “What can we learn from Eugene Burger?” Having had the opportunity to get to know him over the last twenty years of his life, I was overwhelmed by potential answers to the question. I composed different Continue reading

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  • Learning Magic

    There’s an assumption in many areas of life but especially in magic. It’s that we know how to learn. We assume that since we attended school and graduated with a degree from high school or college that we learned how to learn. After a corporate education career, I would argue that perhaps some but not Continue reading

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  • Not For Me

    I always considered myself fortunate that I fell into a career that I enjoyed and found fulfilling. I hadn’t intended to pursue training and development as it just sort of happened. I did other jobs over my life. Some successfully and others not so much. I realized recently that there’s one job that I don’t Continue reading

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  • Monsters Abound

    Seattle area writer, Claire Dederer, wrote a piece for the Paris Review in 2017 entitled, What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men? She expanded this into the book, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma in 2023. It was on my library “for later” virtual shelf since it arrived. It was the recent revelations of Continue reading

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  • Toni Forster on Magic Books

    Until recently I had not heard of Dr. Forster. I purchased Ted Lesley’s Paramiracles published by Hermetic Press book from a second hand dealer. It had come out about 30 years ago and, for some reason, hadn’t shown up on my radar screen. Dr. Forster was a friend and confidant of Lesley’s and, for a Continue reading

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