![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Aug. 23rd, 2007 08:30 amSo Shati encouraged me to write up a reaction to the SPN "Women's Work" vid.
This . . . is not that reaction post. But that'll come!
This is a reaction post to last night's orientation entertainer: a mentalist.
Okay, some of you may or may not know this, but I was a magician for, oh, three-four years. I was pretty good at it -- good enough to be on TV (long, different story). And even though I don't perform magic any more, except for the odd trick that I can carry around in my pocket, I like magic. I like watching someone fool me and trying to figure out how they did it.
I also like Harry Houdini, Penn & Teller, and James Randi.
All four of those magicians dedicate or dedicated significant portions of their lives to debunking mentalists and mediums and so-called psychics. I don't have the years of experience or training that they do, but I've read and watched enough of their stuff that if I wasn't a skeptic before, you can be damn sure I am one now.
So I sat and watched the mentalist, and enjoyed myself thoroughly -- he was a very good performer, teasing the audience, involving them, doing impressive tricks -- and not believing in him for a second. There were a few minutes where I started to be really impressed by what he was doing, and then he started doing spoon bending, invoking Uri Gellerthe damn shuckster and I lost all faith, but that doesn't change the fact that he was a very good entertainer.
He even came right out and said that word at the end: "entertainer." He said that he "enhanced" what he did on stage, because he is an entertainer, and that you could buy his books for explanations to the demonstrations he'd done. Which also made me mutter "Bullshit," and wonder if I could afford one. He also added a nice bit about that "people use only 10% of their brains" and how we should use the next four years to realize our potentials.
When I left the tent, I heard a couple guys talking behind me as we all walked back towards the dorms.
"That was all bullshit, right?"
"Yeah."
And the guy proceeded to rant, all the way back to the dorms, that the guy was lame, it was clear he was using stooges, and the only thing to admire about him was his memory.
Which made me want to turn around and yell at the kid that regardless of how he did it, he did it well, and it takes a whole hell of a lot more than a good memory to perform a good mentalist act, it requires charisma and an understanding of psychology and ingenuity, and that at least the guy was honest and even halfway inspiring.
I restrained myself.
When I got up to the dorm, I went into the bathroom and ran into someone from my floor, who proceeded to squee so much and so frustratingly about the mentalist and how he must be real that every bit of my crotchety skepticism returned. I pulled out a magic trick for her and did it, and she said "Yeah, but that's something with your prop, isn't it?"
"Of course it is."
"But what he did -- he has to be magic." She said that she truly believes in the whole realizing your potential thing he talked about (no, she didn't use those words, but I'm fond of them).
And, well, to a certain extent, so do I. I want to believe in that, and I don't find it beyond the realms of possibility. My skeptical side when it comes to the supernatural and paranormal is always overridden by my sense of caution -- maybe there are things bigger than us out there, and why tempt fate? -- but the skeptical side will always be there. Always.
Especially if you're up on stage in front of me.
This . . . is not that reaction post. But that'll come!
This is a reaction post to last night's orientation entertainer: a mentalist.
Okay, some of you may or may not know this, but I was a magician for, oh, three-four years. I was pretty good at it -- good enough to be on TV (long, different story). And even though I don't perform magic any more, except for the odd trick that I can carry around in my pocket, I like magic. I like watching someone fool me and trying to figure out how they did it.
I also like Harry Houdini, Penn & Teller, and James Randi.
All four of those magicians dedicate or dedicated significant portions of their lives to debunking mentalists and mediums and so-called psychics. I don't have the years of experience or training that they do, but I've read and watched enough of their stuff that if I wasn't a skeptic before, you can be damn sure I am one now.
So I sat and watched the mentalist, and enjoyed myself thoroughly -- he was a very good performer, teasing the audience, involving them, doing impressive tricks -- and not believing in him for a second. There were a few minutes where I started to be really impressed by what he was doing, and then he started doing spoon bending, invoking Uri Geller
He even came right out and said that word at the end: "entertainer." He said that he "enhanced" what he did on stage, because he is an entertainer, and that you could buy his books for explanations to the demonstrations he'd done. Which also made me mutter "Bullshit," and wonder if I could afford one. He also added a nice bit about that "people use only 10% of their brains" and how we should use the next four years to realize our potentials.
When I left the tent, I heard a couple guys talking behind me as we all walked back towards the dorms.
"That was all bullshit, right?"
"Yeah."
And the guy proceeded to rant, all the way back to the dorms, that the guy was lame, it was clear he was using stooges, and the only thing to admire about him was his memory.
Which made me want to turn around and yell at the kid that regardless of how he did it, he did it well, and it takes a whole hell of a lot more than a good memory to perform a good mentalist act, it requires charisma and an understanding of psychology and ingenuity, and that at least the guy was honest and even halfway inspiring.
I restrained myself.
When I got up to the dorm, I went into the bathroom and ran into someone from my floor, who proceeded to squee so much and so frustratingly about the mentalist and how he must be real that every bit of my crotchety skepticism returned. I pulled out a magic trick for her and did it, and she said "Yeah, but that's something with your prop, isn't it?"
"Of course it is."
"But what he did -- he has to be magic." She said that she truly believes in the whole realizing your potential thing he talked about (no, she didn't use those words, but I'm fond of them).
And, well, to a certain extent, so do I. I want to believe in that, and I don't find it beyond the realms of possibility. My skeptical side when it comes to the supernatural and paranormal is always overridden by my sense of caution -- maybe there are things bigger than us out there, and why tempt fate? -- but the skeptical side will always be there. Always.
Especially if you're up on stage in front of me.
