A bit of a diversion from the topic of animation, but not so much as you shall see :
One of my favorite blogs is Jenny Lerew's "The Blackwing Diaries" . A couple of days ago Jenny posted on "Animation & Magic" , with a recommendation of the new film "The Illusionist" and some good thoughts on the kindred spirits that unite two of my favorite things in this world: animation and theatrical magic.
Jenny writes:
"...And animation has a sort of bond with magic, stage magic. Some of the earliest forms of animation were put to use in magic acts of the last and previous centuries, via magic lanterns and other effects. And all magic depends upon--can't in fact work without--the audiences' suspension of disbelief, a delight in experiencing something that can't be and believing it to be real. That's a fair definition of film animation, too.
It's perhaps not so odd, then, to discover how many animation artists are interested in magic, or are magicians themselves."
She then goes on to share a memory of the wonderful Joe Ranft , one of the creative heads of Pixar Animation , who was lost to us much too young, just a little over a year ago. Joe was a magician, both as a storyteller through the art of animation and in his love for the art of conjuring . Remembering Joe put me in mind of another great artist who died recently (June 26, 2006) at a tragically young age (53) , the magician Tommy Wonder. To me , Tommy is the personification of what a magician should be : he was an artistic performer and a clever, innovative inventor and refiner of magical effects. His books , "The Books of Wonder , Vol. 1 and Vol. 2" are rightly considered to be among the greatest writings on the theory and practice of theatrical magic. Tommy was Dutch; his given name was Jacobus Maria ("Jos") Bemelman . There's something about Holland: they seem to nurture some of the best magicians there. Two of my other favorite magicians are Fred Kaps and Richard Ross , who were both countrymen of Tommy Wonder , and both of whom also died in their early 50's .
Someone was kind enough to post a video clip of Tommy Wonder performing a portion of his award- winning stage act at the World Magic Awards a few years ago. I hope those of you who read this blog will enjoy this as much as I do. The video cuts away to the audience reactions a little too much in my opinion , rather than staying focused on the performance , but it's not bad. No smoke, no prancing/dancing Vegas showgirls, or cheesy techno music . Just pure wonder .
