Shuffling on the Shoulders of Giants - Part 2

 I was cursed to be both too young and too old to be a Flower Child.  My Aunt and Uncle were, my children were in their teen years, but I... I was fated to be a polyester-clad, blow-dried, disco kid (brrrrr!).  I won't lie, I once had a horrible case of hippy-envy.  

My elementary years were spent looking up to the "Peace & Love" generation, however the magicians I admired were mired deep in the traditional style developed in the 30's & 40's... tux, cape, hop hat, white gloves, pencil-thin mustache.   In fact, when I was considering performing, I was sure I wouldn't look right without at least a cape and top hat.  Yeah, squaresville style for a 10-year-old.  Luckily, one man was about to literally change the face of magic and teach me that what you wear doesn't make you a magician... however, being a hippy magician is cool.

Style & talent-wise, Doug Henning was like nothing magic had ever seen.  A razor-thin, denim-clad, long-haired hippy (my Grandfather's words), with a perpetual smile, and an infectious personality, you couldn't help being caught up in his mind-blowing magic and sense of wonder.

When  I discovered Doug, he had already starred on Broadway in The Magic Show and was hosting his own TV special on NBC.  I still remember the opening of that first special, as the camera zoomed in on his obviously empty hand... one slow turn, and there was a silver dollar!  What was endearing was the fact that he genuinely seemed as surprised as I was that it appeared.  This was real magic, at it's highest level, performed unlike anything the world had seen.

Through the 70's and early 80's, Doug Henning would host many TV specials, amaze the hosts of every talk show, and go on to produce two more Broadway shows.  When I was 17, I discovered that he was going to give a talk at the University of Minnesota, and I once again drove my parents crazy to go.   A family friend was a student there, and he was the one who ended up taking me to see the seminar. At that time, Doug was fully invested in Transcendental Meditation, and the majority of the talk revolved around that, but in the second half he performed several tricks.  I loved it all, but he really, truly stunned me with his torn and restored newspaper trick.  Now, at the time, I had been doing a lot of reading, and I knew the technique he was using to make the magic happen, but when the moment arrived... BOOM!!  I was totally stumped!  I knew what he was doing and he still fried me!

For my part, I still didn't really "get it," but I was learning.  The top hat remained, but blue jeans and a t-shirt replaced the cape (at least at the end of the show).  My magic (and sense of style) might not have been getting much better, but I was allowing myself to be "me" more, and I owe all of that to Doug Henning.

As the years went on, Doug retired from public performance to focus more on TM and health concerns. My own path had wandered from magic long before 2000, but I still remember being stunned when I heard that he had passed away from liver cancer.  The man always had so much life and energy; it just didn't seem possible that anything could bring him down.

Today, as I try to bring back the magic in my life, I often think of that amazing man and his unique gift for making people believe that there is real magic in the world.  I wasn't destined to be the flower child performer he was, but I hope I'll be able to share even a fraction of that wonder.