06/17/2022
Excerpt from Vanish Magazine, written by Felicity Fields:
"We should be intentional in encouraging the younger generation as much as possible. I think everyone on the planet has picked up a guitar, or hit a drum set and realized very quickly that it's hard to make that sound good. So, when they see someone playing very well, they quickly can connect the dots and say 'WOW, that guy's talented.' It would be nice if everyone learned a basic form of magic. If the classics were sort of understood, which is terrifying for some older magicians to hear that, but it would make people see better magic and go 'oh my god, that's so good, I tried a double lift once and couldn't do it. But that person's doing things I can't even see it. So clearly, they must be a skilled magician.' More importantly, that also gets us closer to someone seeing magic that's bad and going 'that person is not good at magic,' and that's OK. People see bad magic now and go 'magic sucks' when it's really that guy who needs to work at his magic. I wish magic wasn't such a gated community and people could explore a little bit and go 'not my thing, but I'm glad I learned it and then walk off. That way people will appreciate magic more."
- Erik F Casey
Knowing Casey now, it's not hard to believe he honed his craft for about 7 years before showing anyone. He is passionate about good magic, he asks for advice and works at it because he wants to perform his best. Casey's encouragement was originally said in a conversation we had after the interview. I thought it was such a unique perspective that I made him repeat it for the recording. Magic is stuck in a rock and a hard place, wanting the next generation to join us, but not wanting to reveal too much. His take could open magic to others and push it to be better.
