Hello everyone!
Today’s topics are: On Effect, Method & Presentation – The Jar of Life Story; The missing link: The Rastelli Clowns (Italy)
These are The Magic Memories 148, gone online Sunday, October 29th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.
All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020, can be found HERE.
Absence for Escorial Card Conference
As you are reading this I’m at the Card Conference in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, near Madrid, Spain.
Just in case you are reading this at 0:07, when this blog invariably goes online, we just came back from dinner (hey, it’s Spain!), and we’re starting our next session on talks (original trick cards; cards & dice; Nick Trost; card magic before Robert-Houdin) which will go until about 4 am. After that quite a few will continue with private sessions, still others might go to bed… next day’s sessions start only late afternoon.
In the photo below, taken at one of my very first attendances at the Card Conference (ca. 1982), you can see, from left to right: Joan Font, Arturo Ascanio, Aurelio Paviato, Toni Cachadiña, and guess who…
On Effect, Method & Presentation – The Jar of Life Story
As the recipient of the FISM Award for Theory and Philosophy (2015) I’m entitled to a little philosophy from time to time, agree?
So, below is a little story that has been circulating on Internet for a while: You may have read it, but forgot it, or you may read it here for the first time. Anyway, you’ll like it, and at the end I’ll make a suggestion how it relates to our magic.
The Jar of Life
A philosophy professor stood before his class, in front of him a large and empty jar.
He then proceeded to fill the jar with golf balls.
“Is the jar full?” he asked his students. “Yes,” everyone responded.
The professor then picked up a box of small pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly; the pebbles rolled into the areas between the golf balls.
“Is the jar full?” he asked again. The students responded with an unanimous: “Yes.”
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course the sand filled up all the space left.
He asked once more: “Is the jar full?”. “Yes, of course,” everyone responded.
The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire content into the jar, filling the empty space between the sand.
Everyone laughed.
“Now,” the professor said as the laughter subsided. “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things. Your family, your children, health, friends and favorite passions. If everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house or car.
The sand is everything else, the small stuff.
If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things critical to your happiness.
Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit your grandparents. Take your spouse out for dinner. Go out with your friends. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.
Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said: “I am glad you asked. The beer just shows that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.”
End of the story.
Now for the the transfer to magic: Replace the golf balls with “The Effect”, the pebbles with “The Method”, the sand with “The Presentation”. I find this a quite fitting analogy for good magic.
Oh, what about the beer, you ask? Well, that’s a little humor, not comedy, just a bit of humor (humor = intelligent comedy).
Agree with this or not, it will make you think, and that’s what philosophy is about…
The Missing Link
This week’s “Missing Link” takes us back in time (a little) to remind us of one of the most famous clown families in circus history, The Rastelli Clowns (Italy), with many “special effects”, several of them outright “magical”.
See some photos of the Rastellis HERE.
When have you last seen a clown act with so many wonderfully original ideas?
To watch the Rastellis CLICK HERE.
Wish you all an excellent week!
Roberto Giobbi
