So as is par for me, my interest in my spare time has taken a temporary detour back through the world of magic and such, so I’m again finding myself with magic and performance on the brain.
This in turn leads to dreams of grandeur and of one day having a television special ;), but then I have to figure out what I would call myself. It seems that the current age of big magicians is to have a fairly normal name, no more “Eisenheim the Illusionist” sort of stuff. Now it’s David Copperfield and Criss Angel and David Blaine.
Personally I think I’d go for more of the odd name, right now my fictional pseudonym is “Phineas the Legend.”
How about you guys? What would you call yourself if you were a professional magician?
I think I would probably call myself “The Great” something or other. Probably some Italian-sounding name, like “The Great Gandalfini”.
I’m also partial to oriental-sounding names like “Hajji Abdullah” or “Fakir Mustafa”.
Or perhaps something in the gothic vein. Too bad “Dr. Byron Orpheus” is taken, now that’s a great magician’s name. There’s a Swedish magician called “Iodine Jupiter” which is also a good name. Hmm, how about “Balthazar Ravensoul”? “Lucifer Blake”? “Mortimer Faust”? “Aleister Darkwood”?
There are many students who believe that Alexander the Great was a famous magician. In fact, I’ve read student essays which state that Alexander the Great is known in history for making the Statue of Liberty disappear or for sawing a woman in half.
Copperfield is a literary reference, and Criss Angel seems to be a KISS nod. Yeah, the trend seems to be going away from exoticism/Orientalism and more towards “old money.” I guess it’s hard to date supermodels if you call yourself “The Amazing Wasabi.”
