Magic Prescriptions
by Joel A. Moskowitz M.D.
Willard - A Life Under Canvas & Is Life an Illusion - Jerry Andrus

A family of magicians and their Real Life Experiences -  Not a Dime Store Novel. Why do magicians buy books about other magicians?  A generic biography of most conjurers might read like this:  At age 7 - 12, a young boy (more recently also girls) was enchanted by an uncle or grandfather who pulled a coin out of his or her ear.  Or, said youth received a magic set or became the proud possessor of a Svengali deck etc ... Mesmerized and addicted, the next several years is a see-saw of attention to matters legerdemain.  Interrupted by concerns relating to education, the opposite sex, and limited finances, the story of many magicians finds the compulsion to magic waxes and wanes.(read more)

At times, it disappears for decades only to emerge after necessary life concerns e.g. job, marriage, children no longer demand one's time.  For a few, a lucky(?) few, their GPS (not global positioning system but Grand Professional Sequence) directs them to a life in magic.

Everyone's life is a novel.  Reading a good book which tells how an admired personage experienced life's adventures  may provide lessons.  But as with reading a description of the method of doing a magic effect,  "time and date" biographies are sadly similar to books which may be called  ‘mathematics of manipulation'. There is no spice.

Why is "Willard - A Life Under Canvas" distinctive and worth your eye sight? As with an enjoyable theatrical performance a books entertainment derives from an interaction between performer and the reader/audience.  Excitement, awe, fear, identification with the actors are some of the vital ingredients in pleasing the crowd.  Many biographies are written many years after the person is no longer available to be interviewed.   They are merely chronologies. The writer can't inquire about motivation, or explanations for behavior.  Such biographic tales are like a travelogue of Paris or Rome.... from 30,000 feet. 

David Charvet's book is different.  A proven masterful biographer, he offers the saga of the Willards, masters of the tent magic show.  In "Willard A Life Under Canvas", published by Mike Caveney's Magic Words, 2008, the author (also of The Great Virgil, Jack Gwynne and Alexander - The Man Who Knows) strives to reveal the humanity of a family of master magicians'  personal, sometimes tragic, always dramatic history.   The story of the Willard dynasty dates back to the Civil War with Henry Willard maestro of the traveling tent magic show.  Descendent, Francis Willard (the popular mentalist - not the suffragist) continues the legacy of Harry Willard, the most recent Wizard of that name.  Curiously, her act (with husband Glenn Falkenstein) is performed behind what appears to be a curtained ?canvas cabinet. 

Charvet's weighty tomb ($85 plus shipping or $17 per pound)  Three hundred seventy pages illuminated with sepia style antique portraits of the Willards, the show, the stage, the tents, the animals, the assistants, the family and topped with color plates of apparatus and the performer in action.  The adventurous lives of the Willards, their ups and downs; their acquaintance with contemporaries and competitors; spiritualism, suicides, and slayings;  publicity and obscurity and tragedy and joy.  Covering about 15 months of history, the story of a legendary family makes for exciting reading.  News clippings (1913) report that Robert Maloney, a magician, who registered....under his stage name of J.R. Willard.... shot and killed his wife and daughter.  While his defense attorney asserted that he could have proven him insane, the prisoners 40 foot dive onto the stone floor of his cell block ended further legal action.  To avoid the consequent negative publicity, James Willard elected to prefer the name, Frederik the Great -  a name of a failed magician.  He obtained the right to use  it in only  the Southern states.  The pseudonym was licensed to Harry Bouton to be used in the Northern States.  Anti-German sentiment in WWI induced Bouton to abandon "Frederik" and switch to Harry Blackstone!  Interesting historical anecdotes are sure to delight readers.

Bev Bergeron (1978 Lake Cane Publications) wrote of his experience working with Harry Willard.  Bergeron and H.W.'s three daughters guided Charvet in helping him create this coffee table size book. 

Prescription: If the price is too much or the subject not yet demanding, experience the narration of the author where he generously offers a pictorial sample of the Willards.

Alternatively, you can order a personal hard bound copy from Mike Caveney's Magic Words, 572 Prospect Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91103,( Click here ). You won't be disappointed.

Is Life an Illusion, Ponderings of
a Renaissance Man, Jerry Andrus, The DVD

Many contemporary magic enthusiasts may never have heard of Jerry Andrus.  Those who knew him revere his memory and strive to keep alive his unique approach to life. An eccentric? A lone thinker?  Inclined to isolation?  Shunning the conventional? Creator of optical illusions?  Revering life, he might have said, "Life is the greatest illusion".  Jerry Andrus was prone to penning philosophic poetry.  Searching in what he named the Castle of Chaos - a home which he occupied from youth till 88, the locale  for his  inventions he was the ulitmate scientist of magic.   Mysterious and accomplished and respected  but yet humble.  James Randi, The Amazing Randi, and Bob Hyman, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, and many others who are known to the magic community sing praises to Jerry Andrus in the DVD prepared by devoted accolade Robert Neary  entitled "Jerry Andrus". 

In a website devoted to Jerry Andrus, Neary admires his friend:  "Jerry Andrus is many things - poet, philosopher, inventor, humanist, agnostic, magician; all these things and more. A quiet and gentle man, at 88 years old he lives next door to his brother, George, in the same home they grew up in as boys in Albany. Jerry has traveled the world as a teacher, lecturer and performer. However he first traveled to Europe as a solder in the US Army during WWII. Jerry loathes war but understands it is a "necessary evil".  See "www.jerryandrus.org"  (a memorial)

Sadly, the Neary DVD "Andrus: The Man, The Mind and The Magic"  is mostly a eulogy.  Perhaps some Andrus apostle will collect and make available to the magic community the novel effects of this stimulating mind. An anecdote from the DVD describes how fixed in ethics Jerry was that even when visiting New York City and when the light indicated ‘red' he would not attempt to cross (New Yorkers know that the light is merely a suggestion).  His self imposed ethics demanded that he be a purist:  a magician is a deceiver but speaks truth to his audience indicating that they are about to be deceived, in contrast to a charleton.  (There is ongoing debate amongst mentalists whether they should announce that their art is simply trickery).  Jerry, separated from mainstream theory, would perform wonderous effects that relied solely on concepts originated by him.  Thereby he would amaze especially those whose professions were to amaze the lay folk.  In the DVD, Jerry would be heard to refer to fooling audiences.  It seems to me that this was a slip of the tongue.  At the core of Andrus' beliefs was a wide ethical stripe which would eschew "fooling" anyone.  Rather, he seemed ever to want to stimulate those who were lucky enough to know him and to see him think and to watch him perform that humans must learn to appreciate the wonders of life, to marvel at the uncanny, to see things which defied logic.  Jerry Andrus lives in the many magicians who knew him and seek to keep him "alive".   The Neary DVD is a loving testimonial to a fine original human being and worth seeing.

Prescription: This DVD is for those who were not fortunate enough to know/see this Renaissance Man of Magic.

Until your next office visit, I am Joel A. Moskowitz M.D.
Feel free to leave me a comment below.