Nice little piece from Wired on illusionists, particularly Penn and Teller: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_neuroscienceofmagic?currentPage=all. I'm a sucker for magic acts. I recall an assembly back at Bane Elementary, a repository for ignorant redneck children, where we had a husband and wife magic act billed as "John and Sheree" that was introduced as having been on the Ed Sullivan Show. I always wondered if that was bullshit or not, but they were nevertheless entertaining as every magic act I've ever seen has been (can you imagine the horror of having seen the lights of Broadway and then to later find yourself performing tricks at a 10AM assembly in some prairie hell hole? I've thought of them often through the years, wondering if they decided to ditch the magic deal and wander back to Toledo or wherever to sell Buicks or something, but I digress mightily). That's the thing that illusionists (and pickpockets) live by: the inability of people to comprehend or process what they just witnessed.
Next time I'm in Vegas, I'm going to see Penn and Teller or some magic act just to sit slack jawed and stupid while enjoying a cocktail. That's an easy trick for me.
6 comments:
The missus and I had front row seats in Vegas for David Copperfield. I highly recommend it.
As I recall (a task of relentlessly increasing complexity), I was invited onto the stage as a prop to validate the impossibility of an illusion which was, I think, walking through a wall. I believe there was a abundance of Orange County housewives present, although we did not know them as such at the time.
I've watched part of those "housewives" shows, both of the bunch in Orange County and the ones in New York. These are truly some of the most awful people on the planet. Hideous individuals with the souls of demons. I see some of the same ocassionally when working out at the gym. They're the ones that "save" a machine for a "friend" or who stay on way past the time limit because they don't give a flying fuck about anyone else but themselves. Horrible people.
My nemesis at the gym is one particular person: Hugh Jass. I am not certain of the gender. Hugh seems to always be one step in front of me whether I am on the indoor track, the treadmill, the elliptical, or the weights.
Life seems too often only an ordeal of mistaken identity.
I do an early morning workout on Saturdays at a gym not far from my house (the JCC doesn't open until 12:30 on Saturdays). There is always this early 60ish guy there at the same time who just wanders aimlessly around between sets, forcing people who know what they're doing to weave around him. He will ALWAYS position himself at some point directly where I need to be, staring into space somewhere. Someday, I'm going to shoot him.
Is circumcision a requirement for entering this facility?
Yes. They have an elderly man, named Sol Schwartz who takes a look at every pecker that walks in. Sol also works as a Wal-Mart greeter but sometimes becomes confused and gropes unsuspecting Wal-Mart shoppers, demanding to see their "schwanz."
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