He never did a trick the same way twice. He believed in an extemporaneous type of performance. He could fit the trick to the person. Of course that meant he had to really know what he was doing. There's a reason it's hard to play jazz. But when he was on and feeling it, he was one of the best that ever did it.
“How come you never showed me the chain trick?” I asked him once. “Everyone in town does it. They all say you gave it to them.”
“You didn't need it,” he said. “But here I’ll show it to you.”
He did the trick in three phases. I didn’t much care for the trick when I saw the others do it. But he had a way of making it charming.
He taught me the trick. Some extra psychology and small touches he used to make it even better. Then he said “but you got to have something to say. You know, to make it interesting. It’s not that good a trick. You can talk about the circle of life. Or what these beads represent. I don’t know something, just make it interesting…” Wu must’ve thrown out a dozen suggestions for things to make the trick about.
“What do you mean it isn’t that good of a trick? Isn’t it your favorite trick?” I asked.
“Yeah it’s one of ‘em,” he said “but it's not a particularly great one.”
The trick is done with a small ring and a chain. It seems every magician in the state of Virginia does the trick. And it’s all because of Wu. He teaches it to them and gives them the props free of charge.
Wu was always doing that. Giving out magic tricks and teaching things for free. It’s hard enough to run a magic shop and make a living. I have no idea how he did it when he gave as much as he did for free.
I guess he just really liked the trick and it’s fairly simple. Oddly though no one’s done anything interesting with it. They just parrot. My friend Joao pulls the ring out of his pants and calls it a cock ring. That's about the most interesting thing anyone’s done with it.
I must’ve seen Wu do it a dozen times. Each time with a completely different script. Even once I saw him do it where he didn’t say anything. He just chomped his cheap cigar.
He always stressed that. Having something interesting to say. That’s probably where a lot of my style comes from. I thought I was real original. But when I think back I can trace it all to these early influences.
When I first thought I had something really good, it was a classic coin trick but I had written a script to it that was topical and addressed things that had happened in the news the previous couple of days. I showed it to Wu. He loved it.
“Topical” he said “that's great.” He liked the angle. No one was topical in magic. Every customer that walked through his door he had me show it to. I got some good responses, some responded to the script, some responded really only to the trick. Real mixed bag.
I showed it to a sort of magic critic to see what he thought. He hated it. “Why doesn’t the last coin vanish? Why make it topical? Magic isn’t supposed to get political!”
I stopped doing the trick. It was only going to be good for a week or so anyways. That’s the problem with topical, you got to keep up. But I left feeling a little sick. But I knew I was on to something. It felt too good. So I kept writing. I just didn’t perform much of that material. There was also no venue for it. No one books political magic. They've never heard of that. They book you to walk around and do close up tricks at company parties. But where do you go to break new ground? That's the problem with magic. But that won't always be the case. Not for me anyways.
I've begun performing in that style more and more recently with more and more success. I’ve finally found a way to define it. I'm not your kids magician. I have but one rule left for my performances: never pander.