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.