Thanks to the San Francisco International Film Festival for joining forces with us last Monday! Special thanks to Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Almendras who joined the bill at the last minute with his story about his trusty, Rain Man-esque soundman.
05/02/2012
01/22/2012
01/17/2012
Magic, Unpacked
Hello and thank you! to everyone who showed up for Thursday night's magical extravaganza: the sorcery was hot. And, on that note, I'd like to say something to 'all those people out there' who think that magic is just a bunch of well-practiced, stylistically-honed sleight of hand; magic is enchantment, not a spectacle. In the last post I threw out a line about how I felt like Thursday night was not going to be so much about the spectacle of magic and illusion, as it would be about the spectacle of our own experience in reaction to the unknown. Okay, might have been. But what I'd like to add here, having learned a little bit by having actually seen the show, is that the spectacle of our own psychological experience is magic, that magic is the weird sense of being enchanted, and that that sort of enchantment extends beyond the self as it rises from the stage, the stage of concentrated consciousness. Magic is that viscous space (or, viscous space-time, anyone?) between what the actor knows and what we have, just, not even any idea about, mediated by the act of performance and sustained by trust. It is for this reason that I consider a magic trick (or 'an illusion!') to be no more magical than a totally captivating story; they both derive their power and psychological import from their capacity to enchant.
From stage left and down in the pit, the theatre was massive. One after the other, faces steeped in the half-light, bodies backlit in stunning profile, four men shared their insights from the industry of magic. From Aspen, Colorado, magician and mentalist, speaker, comedian and corporate consultant - Eric Mead was the first to open the floodgates of entertainment wizardry. With his easy, conversational style and as a shout-out to the man of mythical proportions, famed escape-artist and inspiration for the night's theme, Houdini, Eric swallowed needles and a magnetic thread. That, in my opinion, was wild enough. But then, as if electrified with the audience's anticipation, he proceeded to withdraw the thread, with needles affixed, shimmering and slanting, from his mouth. As Arline put it, "elegant."
Joe Pon and James "The Amazing" Randi followed next, respectively, both drawing from the magic that is enthralling story, both borrowing from the realm of autobiographical anecdote. With theatrical gestures, Joe told the story - his story - of growing up, obsessed with magic, learning and dedicated to technical mastery. "Magic," as he said, "is not easy." I would say that neither is inspirational and mentored teaching, and yet that is exactly what Joe does, every day, with the magic he learned. Fourteen years ago, Joe created his own magic shop in order to provide children and adults, amateurs and professionals with the hard-won resources of community, educators and magic gadgets - everything that the young Joe found in the course of time, all present for the community in one shop - his very own, Misdirections Magic Shop.
In what was likely the single most spell-binding performance of the night, James "The Amazing" Randi demonstrated that one need not believe in magic to create it. Judging by the roomful sitting rapt, heads tilted and bodies forward, I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who felt the stunning power of his performance. Which is amazing, really, because for the duration of his entire act, he sat curled up and cross-legged in a black leather arm chair. With his wooly beard and wily eyebrows, he cut the figure of a meditative story-weaver. His voice, the rhythm of his speech, and a certain gestural flourish had the effect of creating, almost wholly independent from content, a space so intimate it felt that to lean any further forward would be to fall into his reverberating presence. James Randi told stories of jailbreak, stories about how, with a little bit of patience, attention, memorization and wit, he was able to create the illusion of magic, of surmounting with humor the seemingly impossible.
For the fourth and final act, following on the heels of Randi's gentile version of subtle and soft-spoken sorcery, STALLION! and Team Cherokee launched a salvo of shock-and-awe camp theatre. In a bizarrely comical and self-consciously overblown multimedia performance - video, music, magic and dance - STALLION! and Team Cherokee were, in a word, scorching. From his farcically sexualized assistants wearing leather and wielding power tools, to the handcuffed and Chinese-finger-trapped escape gag, what was there not to love about STALLION!? But then again, who hasn't seen that age-old, full-body balloon dive & roll trick? Truly unique, the sorcerer and his apprentices never seemed so swaggering.
So maybe magic, as a spatially constitutive feeling, has the power to cut across class, creed and culture. To find out, come to future Porchlight events or, better yet, try and create a little magic of your own by telling really, really good stories. If you've got something hot, won't you come on over and share it with us?
As a postscript, please feel free to join in the post-event conversation with thoughts, comments and anything interesting in response to the themes featured in the Porchlight. Stories don't need to stop when the curtains close.
-Jeff
01/10/2012
Abracadabra.
Hey folks,
in conjunction with the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Houdini exhibition, Beth and Arline have organized what is sure to be a very rare Thursday night. The theme is magic and the setlist consists of a constellation of personalities and professions within what might be considered the industry of magic.
For longer than anyone can remember, 'magic' has been faithfully functioning as an incontrovertible answer to all sorts of questions beginning with 'how.' This Thursday night, selected voices of experience and talents of the trade will showcase magic and, special treat, its relation to how. At issue, I think, is not so much the spectacle of magic and illusion; but, rather, the spectacle of our own experience in reaction to the unknown.
Authentic, present, and inspired, Eric Mead curates the magic that is strange perception. "It is my job," he says, "to imagine impossible things that never are or never were, and then I find ways to make them into theatrical realities." Check out his Ted talk to learn how the form of presentation is the content of perception. Wholly winning, he's the sort of meta-magician who illuminates the expansive power of human consciousness by revealing just enough to privilege our perspective, while concealing enough to sustain a self-consciously funny sense of awe.
There will be the professorial James Randi, world-renowned former magician and escape-artist turned nay-sayer and outspoken critic of the paranormal, pseudoscientific, and supernatural. In what I imagine to be the Fred & George Weasley of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Joe Pon - distributor and educator of magic, owner of San Francisco's very own Misdirections Magic Shop - will take the stage to tell stories from his unique position within the industry. And, for those of you expecting GOB!, you'll find him manifest to wild excess in the body and bombast of STALLION, master magician!
So, while the primaries drag on with their attendant abuse of communication, where inhuman talking points muddy the waters of human conversation, where stories are canned, calculating, and insult our curiosity, won't you while away with us elsewhere and listen to stories of magic and mind? For two hours, let's spend some time together in negative space - that thick, richly textured atmosphere between subject and object, where the self is half-suspended in the realm of mystery; let's exist for a while in our collective imagination, soaking in the porchlight of iridescent wonder. Thursday night promises to be totally super awesome.
-Jeff
Hey folks,
in conjunction with the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Houdini exhibition, Beth and Arline have organized what is sure to be a very rare Thursday night. The theme is magic and the setlist consists of a constellation of personalities and professions within what might be considered the industry of magic.
For longer than anyone can remember, 'magic' has been faithfully functioning as an incontrovertible answer to all sorts of questions beginning with 'how.' This Thursday night, selected voices of experience and talents of the trade will showcase magic and, special treat, its relation to how. At issue, I think, is not so much the spectacle of magic and illusion; but, rather, the spectacle of our own experience in reaction to the unknown.
Authentic, present, and inspired, Eric Mead curates the magic that is strange perception. "It is my job," he says, "to imagine impossible things that never are or never were, and then I find ways to make them into theatrical realities." Check out his Ted talk to learn how the form of presentation IS the content of perception. Wholly winning, he's the sort of meta-magician who illuminates the expansive power of human consciousness by revealing just enough to privilege our perspective, while concealing enough to sustain a self-consciously funny sense of awe.
There will be the professorial James Randi, world-renowned former magician and escape-artist turned nay-sayer and outspoken critic of the paranormal, pseudoscientific, and supernatural. In what I imagine to be the Fred & George Weasley of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Joe Pon - distributor and educator of magic, owner of San Francisco's very own Misdirections Magic Shop - will take the stage to tell stories from his unique position within the industry. And, for those of you expecting GOB!, you'll find him manifest to wild excess in the body and bombast of STALLION, master magician!
So, while the primaries drag on with their attendant abuse of communication, where inhuman talking points muddy the waters of human conversation, where stories are canned, calculating, and insult our curiosity, won't you while away with us elsewhere and listen to stories of magic and mind? For two hours, let's spend some time together in negative space - that thick, richly textured atmosphere between subject and object, where the self is half-suspended in the realm of mystery; let's exist for a while in our collective imagination, soaking in the porchlight of iridescent wonder. Thursday night promises to be totally super awesome.
-Jeff
in conjunction with the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Houdini exhibition, Beth and Arline have organized what is sure to be a very rare Thursday night. The theme is magic and the setlist consists of a constellation of personalities and professions within what might be considered the industry of magic.
For longer than anyone can remember, 'magic' has been faithfully functioning as an incontrovertible answer to all sorts of questions beginning with 'how.' This Thursday night, selected voices of experience and talents of the trade will showcase magic and, special treat, its relation to how. At issue, I think, is not so much the spectacle of magic and illusion; but, rather, the spectacle of our own experience in reaction to the unknown.
Authentic, present, and inspired, Eric Mead curates the magic that is strange perception. "It is my job," he says, "to imagine impossible things that never are or never were, and then I find ways to make them into theatrical realities." Check out his Ted talk to learn how the form of presentation IS the content of perception. Wholly winning, he's the sort of meta-magician who illuminates the expansive power of human consciousness by revealing just enough to privilege our perspective, while concealing enough to sustain a self-consciously funny sense of awe.
There will be the professorial James Randi, world-renowned former magician and escape-artist turned nay-sayer and outspoken critic of the paranormal, pseudoscientific, and supernatural. In what I imagine to be the Fred & George Weasley of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Joe Pon - distributor and educator of magic, owner of San Francisco's very own Misdirections Magic Shop - will take the stage to tell stories from his unique position within the industry. And, for those of you expecting GOB!, you'll find him manifest to wild excess in the body and bombast of STALLION, master magician!
So, while the primaries drag on with their attendant abuse of communication, where inhuman talking points muddy the waters of human conversation, where stories are canned, calculating, and insult our curiosity, won't you while away with us elsewhere and listen to stories of magic and mind? For two hours, let's spend some time together in negative space - that thick, richly textured atmosphere between subject and object, where the self is half-suspended in the realm of mystery; let's exist for a while in our collective imagination, soaking in the porchlight of iridescent wonder. Thursday night promises to be totally super awesome.
-Jeff
12/14/2011
Oh My God!
Monday's show is going to be excellent and you should come on down! We know it's kind of a heavy topic: Oh My God! We assure you that there will be the funny (Cassie J. Sneider and Dayvid Figler on the bill!) as well as the inspiring and enlightening. Celebrate the strangeness of this time of year with the miracle of a personal story after a few cocktails.
11/17/2011
Podcast!
We're launching our podcast! After much deliberation and existential angst over the years about whether it was good and right and proper and okay to record people's stories, whether it made the show NOT AS GOOD if people knew they were being recorded, we have decided to give a podcast a whirl. The stories are so good and deserve to be heard. Take a listen. It launches on Monday!
04/19/2011
Open Door and SF International Film Fest!
Bring your stories about sports and athletics to the Hemlock Tavern next Monday, April 25th. Your five-minute stories will be rewarded with a free drink and possibly $50 if you are deemed the winner!
Also, it's time to get your tickets for the SF International Film Fest show. Our musical timekeeper that night will be the delightful Rob Reich of Tin Hat and Rupa and the April Fishes.
01/03/2011
Sketchfest!
We have two exciting shows coming up with SF Sketchfest! They're both on Friday, January 14th at the Purple Onion and the theme is "Myth Vs. Reality".
Check out these line-ups:
8pm
Debi Durst
Dayvid Figler
Joe Klocek
Paul Myers
Chelsea Peretti
10:30 pm
Kamau Bell
Matt Besser
Suzanne Kleid
Ali Liebegott
Bucky Sinister
More info: www.sfsketchfest.com
10/16/2010
Friends On All Fours: The Animal Show
We have a great show lined up for Monday night! Stories about animals by the people who love them. Advanced tickets still on sale here:
Porchlight
San Francisco's own storytelling series
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