A Night to Remember

Romantic Interlude: “Love is on every side, Cupid said. And no one's side. Don't ask what Love can do for you.” Rick Riordan

Graphics by Mike Knight

Illustration from Scribd.com

Leonardo da Vinci’s  Vitruvian Man. is a study of the perfect proportions of the human anatomy. Most people have seen this piece of work. A sketch of a nude man with outstretched arms and legs contained within a circle. da Vinci was not just an artist; he was also a  scientist, illustrating this from observations of things around him. Through the application of mathematics, he designed the ideal human form with perfect proportions. Although he didn’t follow the mathematics of the golden ratio in this piece of work, as many believe, he did apply other mathematical  principles, working primarily with fractions using quarters and halves to complete  the Old Master’s  famous work, the Vitruvian Man expressing his feeling “everything connects to everything else.” His belief is a reminder of today’s colloquial expression, Six Degrees of Separation, the theory all people are six or fewer social relationships away from each other. We’ve all heard phrases like “it’s a small world” or “friend of a friend.” In the Vitruvian man shown above, da Vinci transcends that thinking, conveying that men aren’t just connected, but also man and nature as a whole are equally joined working together in balance.All things in the universe are in perfect balance, giving birth to life through love.

aIt was Plato’s belief the universal force of creation is love, the attraction between opposites. The Greeks believed in many types of love and had a broad vocabulary to describe each. Eros was the Greek God of Love and fertility, born of Ares (God of War) and Aphrodite (Goddess of Beauty and Eternal Youth). Eros represents sexual passion and desire, a dangerous, primal love igniting our deep need to procreate—a form of love where lovers lose control in erotic embrace. Falling for Eros can be ruthless, wounding your heart with arrows from a temporary love, a liaison, an interlude.  The essence of Eros is captured in an illusion we were first to accomplish named Interlude by Jonathan (Pendragon), my ex-husband and stage partner for 33 years. (https://tinyurl.com/57zdamet) It's an illusion where Jonathan was locked in an A-Frame structure with his arms outstretched, giving the appearance of da Vini’s Vitruvian Man. An instinctual piece of magic where, like one of Cupid 💘 (Ero’s Roman counterpart) arrows, I seemingly penetrated his heart, passing through his body. Two bodies merge into one as one passes through the other, a sexual allegory. This is the message received by an audience watching our visceral presentation.

Photo by Ken Marcus

We were introduced to the concept of Interlude over dinner in 1989 at Trader Vic’s in Beverly Hills discussing our illusions for the next season's Best of Magic series for Thames TV in London. Present that evening were John Fisher, the executive producer; John Gaughn, one of the best magic builders; and  Jim Steinmeyer, a highly respected magic creator. The concept of Interlude as a stage illusion was presented by Jim, who had submitted it to magicians since 1981, receiving no bites. During dinner, Steinmeyer introduced it, and although neither Jonathan nor myself were attracted to its box-like structure resembling the shape of a refrigerator, Fisher, on the other hand, was intrigued by Jim’s idea and wanted us to consider it as a performance piece in his upcoming series. I can't speak for Jonathan, but my objections were two-fold. It was a puzzle illusion, a style best performed by somebody like Harry Blackstone or Doug Henning. Jim’s presentation required me to be placed on a board and passed through Jonathan’s motionless body, devoid of physical movement, which was stagnant for our active physical approach to grand illusion. As minimalists, I felt we needed to do better. Jim’s illusion was only a drawing without blueprints, so it was left to John Gaughn to design it and bring Steinmeyer’s idea to life. Fisher was emphatic and wanted us to perform it mainly because it was a new illusion never before accomplished by anyone. He had confidence in our staging and choreography to pull it off.

The next day off, we went to the workshop at John Gaughn’s studio in Burbank. Hard at work, John, Jonathan, and I began developing the intricacies of Interlude. Unfortunately, due to other obligations, Jim could not be there for the design of this prop. He had other obligations elsewhere for Disney on a big project, So we did not see him until almost the completion of the prop. When returning from his travels, Jim saw his refrigerator-shaped box replaced with an  A-frame framework, which, when Jonathan stood in it, his entire body was in view. A board wasn’t required for this method for me to lay on; instead, I opted to crawl through Jonathan’s body, turning this illusion into a Pendragon-inspired piece of magic.  Jonathan had a clear idea of how he wanted the redesign to look. At our first meeting alone with John Gaughn, Jonathan drew out his concept with John filling in the blanks with his incredible building and design skills. Without exposing the details, the final Interlude produced from John’s shop was a collaboration between John, Jonathan, and myself. All three of us are working our butts off to make it happen. Our hard work paid off because our method made this piece of magic a modern-day masterpiece. When performed for the first time in London, it looked exactly like I was coming out of Jonathan’s chest with Jonathan’s perfect body in almost full view. John Fisher and the executives at Thames TV couldn’t have been happier.

We didn't have much rehearsal time before we shipped Interlude to the UK. When we arrived in London, our days were full of morning to late-night staging and choreographing Interlude. For our rehearsals, Thames TV rented a local school gym used for basketball and gymnastics, so the place had that nostalgic scent of working out while in college with Jonathan, reminding us of our first date to the Fullerton College gym to practice gymnastics. Ironically, this time, we were joining forces not to work out but to execute a beautiful illusion of passion. We worked closely with Brian Penders, the director, to create this perception. But those rehearsals didn't come without a physical ransom. We both found ourselves heavily bruised, applying tubes full of arnica to reduce the purple discoloring and heal faster. In magic, you never leave home without arnica and band-aids. 🤕

In the first photo I am wearing a brace around my left elbow I made a reservation due to an injury caused from rehearsals. Brian, the staging choreography for the show overseeing our rehearsal. The second two Photos were taken in John Gaughn’s shop where Interlude was being designed and constructed.

All of our movements had to be worked out, from the moment Jonathan stepped into the prop to when I opened the back door so he could step out healed from my penetration. Close-up magicians who perform feats of legerdemain manipulate cards, balls, and other objects. They are often referred to as sleight-of-hand artists. When performing Interlude, I liked to call ourselves sleight-of-body artists because we created intricate moves with our entire bodies to accomplish this victory, which had never been done in the past, and established these movements as the default moves for future magicians to come. Jonathan and I did this ourselves without assistance, and I've always been proud of that achievement in our career. Not long after Interlude aired on British TV for the first time, every illusionist wanted one. Out the door from John Gaughn's studio, they went…. Another magic duo bought one, as did Siegfried and Roy and David Copperfield. Jim Steinmeyer collected $1500 from each sale for his idea, and as the builder, John Gaughn deservingly benefited from each purchase. Much of our work, which we put into Interlude, was used by other magicians without compensation from many of these performers. But they didn't figure out all of our secrets because the original template was lost, so future Interludes were built with a new design limiting the ability to execute essential movements we used needed to make the Interlude a believable piece of magic, causing one judge in an episode of America’s Got Talent to comment to a magician competing to say something like, “what was the trick?” When not appropriately executed, Interlude can have the appearance of somebody crawling out between somebody’s legs. A lot of effort has to be put into it to look compelling. I think one of the best compliments Jonathan and I ever received in magic was backstage in Cincinnati at Playhouse in the Park, where we shared the bill with Penn and Teller, where, paraphrasing Penn Jillette, “other magicians should stop performing their Interludes.” Whether Penn remembers his comment, I don’t know, but besides referring to our technique, my guess is Penn was also referencing the pathos and theater brought to our performance. I’m not sure I agree with him. I have seen others I’ve enjoyed,  my favorite being that performed by David Copperfield.

Rare photo ofJonathan having fun backstage with David Copperfield in David’s larger Interlude prop

As we were putting the finishing touches on our choreography over at the gym, we went through our checklist for filming day, and I didn’t have a costume. Jonathan wore his typical white shirt, so extra time was spent conceiving one for me with the help of Marcia, the wardrobe mistress for the show, with whom I developed a  friendship over the years working with her on many other projects, helped design one. What became my iconic two-piece leotard-type costume showing my midsection with cut-outs exposing my legs was eventually copied by many illusionists, reminding me of Coco Chanel’s quote, “If you want to be original, be ready to be copied.” For added color, we tied strips of ribbon throughout it. The inspiration came from torn t-shirts fashionable during the late ’80s. It was perfect for the Interlude.  John Fisher had been overjoyed watching our rehearsals, watching his baby come to life. He took his chances with us, hoping we'd deliver a masterpiece. From his reaction, we didn't disappoint. Still, it was after the actual filming of the illusion  I experienced the true love he had for this illusion as I received the warmest embrace from John Fisher, thanking us to the moon and back for our performance. I honestly felt a twinge of guilt when I thought about how, back at Trader Vic’s, I fought him on choosing Interlude for Best of Magic, but I was so thrilled at the same time. I can't speak for Jonathan, but his happiness shined like one of the spotlights. It's a euphoric feeling when you succeed for yourself and everybody, one I'll never forget—following the show, we all partied and celebrated a night to remember.

In the first photo picture here in my cut-away costume. In the second photo I’m pictured with Marcia the wardrobe mistress

Celebrating backstage with John Fisher in both photos. Juan Tamariz, a famous magician from Spain with us in the first image.

The first performance of our Interlude on Best of Magic for Thames TV in the UK

The response to that performance brought many offers for live performances and TV shows. Adding Interlude to our repertoire of powerful illusions gave our show an influential edge. It was the beginning of the nineties, a popular time in history for magic and our success as a Mom and Pop two-person duo increased exponentially as buyers requested Interlude for almost every performance. We went around the world once with Metamorphosis, and we circled the globe a second time with Interlude performing internationally in dozens of countries.  But ever since God’s creation of the sun and moon time hasn't stopped for anybody. (Except when Joshua battled the Amorites, Joshua 10:12-13) Time, a constant in this realm reminds us of the aging process. I can't recall our final performance of Interlude, but it was not too long following Jonathan’s injury from a broken arrow piercing his heart when we finally decided to pack it away for good. Jonathan helped create this illusion when he was at the peak of life and the height of his career exemplifying the true nature of the Vitruvian Man’s message of virility during his performances of Interlude. It's an ironic twist of fate that our inspiration for performing this piece of mysticism came from the combination of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and Eros, the Greek god of passionate all-consuming love who used arrows to puncture the hearts of his victims, leaving them heartbroken would come to an end with an arrow going through Jonathan’s heart and time forcing our hand with age. 💘

Through the passage of time like the leaves of Autumn, we all encounter our own end. Times left to memory.

Photo by Ken Marcus