Magic in History...The Magic Man...

     Despite their unrelenting belief in the divinity of their ruling Kings, the ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom, beginning 4,000 B.C., were practical minded.  Included among the Egyptian practical arts was Magic, designed to achieve practical effects where science and rational technique could not Master.  Master technicians and slave labor built their pyramids.  Not Magic.

     In subsequent civilizations Magic continued to be sought and employed to attain goals that otherwise seemed beyond the reach of science and practical men.  Magic has been perceived as a true supernatural art that sometimes has taken the form of Sorcery or Wizardry.  And so by agreement of Kings and everyone the Magic Man is recognized expert with credentials in Magic Arts.

     In the times of King Arthur, the fabled repute of wizards in human form was further enhanced by the legend of Merlin the Magician and his control over the Knights of the Roundtable.

     The Golden Era of Modern Magic began in mid-18th Century.  With the aid of technological advancements in travel and communication in 1900, the organized Masters of Wizardry expanded their converts by exporting their Magic Shows personally to far off cities and nations where their astounding illusions were acclaimed.

     The puzzling illusions of the Indian Rope Trick or Walking Across Hot Coals, traditional to wizards of the Far East, seemed outdated compared to the incredible feats of the Wizards of the West.  These Master Magicians of Modern Times bore such titles as:  Herman The Great:  The Houdini Brothers and the Great Howard Thurston.  For decades in the U.S. and abroad the Modern Masters of Magic mystified vast audiences fascinated by visions and occurrences beyond science and rational explanations.  Voluntary stage convicts escaped from escape-proof steel cells.  Ladies isolated in mid-air inexplicably vanished and reappeared at ground level.  Birds materialized from empty containers.  Elephants became invisible.   Playing cards called out at random by audience members floated upward from card decks.  Local law officials used their own leg and hand irons to shackle death defying escape artists securely in water torture cells.  Others were hurled into rivers from towering bridges and returned alive.  A Hindu "Princess" was eerily levitated above stage horizon at her Master's command.  Foolhardy wizard assistants permitted their methodical burial alive in air tight coffins buried in water or under ground for prolonged periods beyond human endurance yet returned from the dead like Lazarus.

     Despite more advances in technology, the feats of Modern Master Magicians were awesome in defying scientific explanation or detection.  In more recent times the Mecca of Master Magicians of world class recognition and skill is a stone rendezvous in Los Angeles, California, known to all practitioners and followers of Magic Arts as The Magic Castle.

     Only the finest of the Masters are permitted to appear on the inner sanctum stages before a select membership of invited guests.  It was perhaps inevitable that the rulers of The Magic Castle beckoned the Magic Man, Barry Valentine, to enter their ranks.  How had such an honor of magical peers come to the Magic Man?  The Magic Man himself has described this world class endorsement as a "strange twist of fate and fortune."  Valentine had previously achieved an envious notoriety in stage trickery and sleight of-hand in a successful tour of numerous cities, corporate festivities, ship cruises, pro-celebrity sports events, and private resorts.

     The suave expertise of the Magic Man with the cryptic eyes and jocular exchanges had won him the approval of sophisticated audiences at such entertainment centers as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs.  Son of a composer-singer young Valentine was not stranger to entertainment when he launched his career as Magician at age nine.   Along the Road to Magic, Valentine experienced momentary diversion as a test car racer, equestrian, sleuth and U. S. Air Force member.   But he was always gripped in the Passion of his True Calling:  being the Magic Man.

     There can be no other Destiny for the Magic Man Barry Valentine, a dedicated Worker of Stage Miracles that flaunt the limitations of science and logic.

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Updated:  04/03/2008