No Such Thing as a Free Launch

Hi. Okay, this is my first entry that is officially for my website. This is so exciting. So... Well, the pilot I wrote for ABC is not going to be made and the NBC script is pushed to mid-season so there is more time to work on it. In the meantime I am working on... my WEBSITE. I hope you enjoy it. I am also reading this amazing book that is blowing my mind. It's called "Shattering Illusions" by Jamy Ian Swiss. I met him the weekend before last at the Amazing Randi Conference in Las Vegas.

Jamy Ian Swiss is a magician and he is mind-bogglingly talented. He turns out to be a delightfully good writer as well.

Weirdly, now that I know so much more about science and the laws of nature, I find magic to be, well... much more magical. I'm just figuring out why as I read this book. Watching someone as talented as Jamy manipulate cards in proximity, knowing he is merely a mortal being who must conform to known physical laws, and then appear to defy them is intoxicating. And maddening. And exciting. And confusing.

On one hand, it makes me just appreciate what humans can accomplish, the finger work, their dexterity, etc. On the other hand, it's very unnerving to realize that my sight is such an unreliable witness.

So, I got this book and I can't stop reading it. It's written for magicians, but it's about so much more. It's about deception and ethics in general. It's about how to deceive, honestly and with integrity. And what the nature of deception truly is.

There's one chapter that is so beautiful -- about Jamy when he was 12 and infatuated with a girl his same age. He entrances her with a magic trick and she demands to know how he did it. He finally relents and tells her and she is delighted. And then she is not delighted. He watches the light in her eyes turn cold and detached. Revealing the secret had ruined everything. Wow. Powerful. It's hard not to stop my whole life and just read this book over and over again. I can't stop thinking about when its musings and lessons apply to regular civilian life and when it doesn't. When it applies to theatre and film and general human interaction. What are our assumptions in the world? When are we being misdirected, at what point does knowing the mechanics of something enhance or detract from the experience? It's all so compelling.

Okay. So... my blog. Wherein I write about my life but not the most intimate or embarrassing parts. Hmmm... That leaves me little to talk about at the moment.