Abra-Kadabra

They say that magic is nothing more than an optical allusion, its purpose to distract from the truth, that something very simple is being concealed as something very difficult and confusing. Magic is something that conjures a thousand questions from an audience. And if everyone around you is asking questions about you does that make you magical? If you are something very simple and plain, but to others you are complicated and layered are you a magician or just mysterious? And what is about the magic that is so intriguing? It’s got everyone talking but nobody ‘knowing.’ Magic is something beautiful that we can see on and off screen; something that has spark and reality, something that has character and individuality. And magic would not be magic if it wasn’t unique. So we have to ask, if life is one big magic show, against all the odds how do we pull the rabbit out of the empty hat?

For any show, the practicing element is the most important. Run-throughs take months, the scripts, the movements, the changes, and the lights. All these things must come together to surface as a professional piece. But in life we have very little practice. There are no run-throughs; there is no real stage. It seems that life is an improvisation; an actor’s worst nightmare, on the spot, centre stage, lights, camera, action. Or is it? Could life be scripted? Could it be nothing more than an international soap opera? The story lines are all fitting and sometimes things happen in such weird coincidence that we assume that there must be some pattern somewhere. I look up into the dark nights sky and wonder is it up there? Is destiny reality?

If in life there are only a few that succeed, we have to wonder, much like the audience, how they do it? Why is it that they are always those who least deserve it? This is what makes us believe that destiny is real, because despite their shortcomings and histories and problems, someone always comes along and solves them, in a minute. No. In a London minute. All the while the pain of ‘making it’ and eventually ‘faking it’ consumes others. I plead that someone, somewhere can help and someone somewhere will pull me out of this hat.

Sometimes all we need is a little encouragement, and little belief behind us. If you’re not the only one hoping you’ll make it, then the extra push won’t seem that hard at all. But what if you are alone? What if no one believes in you? What if you question the belief in yourself? Has the show come to an end?

Setbacks are hard to deal with, especially when so many come in so short a period of time. We can’t go around winning all the time even though it appears some people do. Some have the money, some have the glory, and some have all of it. But we don’t always see all of it. We see what they want us to see. And that is magic. The element of surprise, concealing reality. Ultimately; acting.

But it should not comfort us that other people have the same problems. Because that doesn’t make our own problems any smaller. Instead we should just deal with it. Break down if we need to, break up if we can’t go on. If you share how to do a certain magic trick then people spread the word, share it with their friends and on and on. So in life, if we stop concealing our feelings and just do what we have to to solve our problems then people will share the solution just like a trick.

Everybody knows there is no business like show business, but what everybody doesn’t know is that show business is the business we’re all in. On this dramatic stage we call life, people enter and exit, magic happens, tricks are shown, lives concealed, connections, characters and creativity is built. But as glamorous as it sounds, it is an ugly business. We don’t all win, we can’t hide forever and just like the paparazzi follow the stars, there will always be those who follow our lives with intrigue and pick at it along the way. Life may be scripted or not, we simply shouldn’t care because scripts change, whole scenes get erased and themes emerge from nowhere. And if there is no one encouraging you then let the other side of the tightrope be your encouragement. From experience I know that if you’re alone you manage to get there somehow. I said at the beginning that I didn’t believe there were rehearsals for life, but I take it back. This post has made me realise that rehearsals are everyday. Because yesterday we rehearsed for today and today we’re training for tomorrow, and there’s no guarantee it will come, but the show must go on.

Alla-Kazaam