I Could Vanish The Silk Better Than

I Was Teaching Magic At Nyu When I Was 16.

There Was A Guy Named Ed Mishell. He Was This Grandfatherly Guy Who Did All The Illustrations For The Catalogs And Reviewed Magic Effects For The Magic Magazines, So All Of The Magic Dealers Would Send Him Magic Effects For Free-it Was A Great Deal. His Basement Was Full Of This Stuff. He Took Me Under His Wing, And He Would Sneak Me Into The Society Of American Magicians Meetings In New York. It's The World's Oldest Magic Organization.

I Was 16 At The Time, And I Came Backstage And Started Hanging Out With Them. I Said, "well, Maybe You Can 'vanish' The Silk This Way." The Opening Was A Black Stage While The "magic To Do" Song Started Playing. All You Saw Were Hands, Lit By Jules Fisher, And Then Ben Vereen Would Appear Beyond The Hands, And At The End Of The Scene He Would Vanish A Silk. The Spotlight Would Hit A Red Spot On The Floor Where You'd See The Silk On The Floor. He'd Pull The Silk Out Of The Floor And It Became The Entire Set Coming Out Of The Floor.

All Of The [bob] Fosse-esque Movements And Point Of View Informed Years And Years Of What I Would Do.

The Audience Likes To Be Taken On New Journeys.