Monthly Archives: April 2019
My Doctor, Tom Baker
Received a wonderful gift today from my friend in the UK, magician David Diamond, an autographed 8×10 of Tom Baker and a package of Jelly Babies!
Tom Baker was my Doctor.
Jelly Babies are much better than I anticipated.
Actually, Dr Who was a big influence on my creation of Pop Haydn.
He and the character of Professor Marvel from Wizard of Oz helped me to envision the character of Pop as a fantastic, magical being engaging with people in the real world as if he just walked out of a story or off the screen.
What would it be like to get to have a drink and trade jests with Falstaff? Try to match wits with the Flim Flim Man? Get in an argument with Indiana Jones?
The idea of Pop Haydn was to create a believable but fantastic character who interacts with the audience members and engages them in sophisticated play.
This character helps the audience to suspend disbelief and open their imaginations, while at the same time getting them to critically consider the argument for the impossible–the Magic.
The Magic entangles this memory of play and fantasy with the memory of a direct experience of the impossible.
The entanglement of fantasy and the “real” world is the soul of magic.
Chalet Magic Show
A George Kimery built Zig Zag Girl with my first wife, Debra, and Kelly Hill.
1978, Tombstone Junction at Cumberland Falls, Kentucky.
I worked for George Kimery of Chalet Magic in Kentucky for a while as an unskilled assistant at building magic props. I was a big fan of George’s work. My first stage show was like a Chalet Magic “magic kit.”
I had his Zig Zag, Metamorphosis Packing Crate, Radio-controlled Balloon to Dove table and Infrared activated Gloves to Dove table. The electronics to these last two were built by Dick Christian. I also had George’s Doves to Rabbit blammo-style box.
Everything in the act was color coordinated with George’s signature blue, black and silver designs.
Kelly Hill was a wonderful actor and juggler who worked with me in a theater company called the Road Co. out of Johnson City, Tennessee before I sold this magic show to Rick Stephens for Tombstone Junction.
Here is some video from the show:
Nancy Magill
Pop Haydn
Pop's Soapbox 