The Greatest Shaman: A Magical Interview
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Today we’ll be interviewing a magical artist who creates inspiring performance art using a wand that was hand-carved by actual beavers. By the end of this episode, you might be questioning if there truly is that much of a difference between show magic and real magick.
Watch our interview with Joe LeDoux on our YouTube channel:
Or listen to the audio here:
When the curtain goes up, and the magician steps out, the sleight of hand begins. Even as you watch wonders unfold before you, your brain keeps telling you it’s all a trick. It’s not real magic. Or is it?
Because magic can be any unexplainable feat of spectacle, right? Aren’t the sensations you feel when you witness something awe-inspiring a form of magic? Don’t we all have the capacity within us not just to experience magic, but to make it as well?
Magician and artist Joe LeDoux brings magic to life through multiple means, and talking to him today will hopefully make you look at the world a little bit differently. And, of course he has a ghost story. Prepare to be amazed, today, on Homespun Haints.
About the Guest: Magical Artist Joe LeDoux
His whole life, Joe has been seeking something more than this mundane existence. After attending Massachusetts Art School for animation, Joe realized that he preferred live performance art. A meeting with Jeff McBride tipped him in the direction of performance magic, something he had always been interested in. Soon, Joe’s career as a professional magician entertainer was quickly growing. He even performed with Le Grand David for one memorable summer. Still, something was lacking.
Joe tells us about an epiphany he had that can be summed up as a quote from author Alan Moore: “It’s not the job of the artist to give the audience what the audience wants. If the audience knew what they needed, then they wouldn’t be the audience. They would be the artists. It is the job of artists to give the audience what they need” (taken from GoodReads.com).
As it’s rather complicated and unique, he refers to what he does Art-as-Magic Experiences in Artistic Spaces. Comparing the terms “showman” and “shaman,” Joe proposes that one job of the traditional shaman was probably using performance (visible yet fake) magic as to demonstrate how (invisible yet real) magick works. Which reminds us of another Alan Moore quote: “Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.”
If Joe’s words in this interview inspired you, you’d probably love his book, Muhachi’s Book of Wisdom for Artists: Drawing Real-Life Inspiration From a Cartoon. Catch Joe’s next live performance as of this writing: at Boston’s West End Museum Feb 8, 4-6pm. He’ll be talking about his art on exhibit, performing some magic, and giving a presentation on the Ashcan School art movement. If you’re not in Boston, you can watch clips from his performances on his Youtube channel @joeledoux67. Follow Joe on IG @joeledouxmagic, or on FB.
The Bridge Houdini Jumped Off Of
First, Joe tells us a story about standing on Boston’s Mass. Ave. bridge, looking down at the water that Harry Houdini leapt into in handcuffs in 1908. Joe was attempting to work out a challenging magic trick where he’d make a mermaid appear on the beach. He was thinking of how the old stories once talked of a sea serpent in New England. He was also musing on the first UFO sighting in the US in 1693, over the nearby Muddy River in Boston.
A plan began to evolve. In June of 2013, Joe placed an announcement in the newspaper. Under the heading “paranormal events,” Joe’s announcement read that he had placed a spell over the entire city. The spell, he claimed, would make people see UFOs, fairies, and sea serpents all over Boston for one month.
The poem Joe wrote for the announcement inspired many people. Several readers submitted accounts of their sightings of magical creatures to his website. Instead of attempting to prove or refute the stories submitted, Joe read both imaginary and potentially real accounts as equally interesting resuts. Whether the real magic was in making people think they saw incredible things, manifesting actual paranormal phenomena, or inspiring people to stretch their imagination muscles, Joe feels that his ForJune Teller Spell was a success.
It was a perfect example, as Becky said in the episode, of the power of art.
Learning Grammar from a Grimoire and Spelling Your Spells
Language itself is magical. What would those first hominids think if we plucked them out of their time and deposited them in a modern setting? Wouldn’t they stare in amazement at how easily and quickly humans are now able to share complex ideas with each other; how we all seem to share a synchronizing, mystical connection? Even time travelers from just a couple hundred years ago would be amazed to see so much literacy across classes, and those from 50 years ago would be shocked at the entire libraries’ worth of knowledge that we can access from our pocket devices.
Back when the masses weren’t so educated, humans of yester-year conflated the ability to read and write with the ability to mystically manifest one’s will. Joe furthered our etymology studies today by explaining that the term magic “spells” comes from the ability to spell (once meaning to recite written words either by reading aloud or by memory). Similarly, the term “grimoire,” meaning a book of magical spells, comes from the same Old French word from which we got “grammar,” meaning the study of the rules of language and writing. Fascinating!
Here at Homespun Haints, we have a long tradition of musing about the magic of etymology. Here are more articles in our Etymology for Goth Polyglots Series:
Are Fairies the Anthropomorphic Essences of Plants?
We have several guests who’ve talked with us about the nature of fairies. Joe mentions in passing this theory about fairies, but it caught our attention. What do you think? Are fairies (other than dryads) just plant essences? Have you seen a fairy, in Boston or otherwise? Did you observe increased fairy activity in June of 2013, by any chance? Did you at least have a spooky day?
Submit your own ghost story to the podcast