"The best general theory of magic we have yet in any literature" - Dr. Lawrence Hass
Metamagic - The "Magic" Behind the "Many Magics" (continued)
In An Essay on Magic, Bob Neale acknowledges, "I do believe that there is an underlying magic for all the magics," what he refers later to as "metamagic." This project includes selected short commentaries on the nature of the phenomenon.
"What Makes a Magician"
"Correlation" is not "Causation"
A popular children's magical entertainer and creator of magical effects for organizational, school, holiday, and library shows, Jim Kleefield brings a lifetime of real-world performing to his thoughtful and provocative reflection that challenges the easy explanations often given to the question, "Why did you become a magician?" He argues the answer is far more complex than the child's first experience of a birthday party or elementary school magician.
Jim Kleefeld grew up near Cleveland and earned a B.A. in Theater and an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education. He spent thirty years working with the Cleveland Public School System and ten years on the faculty at Cleveland State University. All the while, he performed magic shows for clubs, churches, scouts. He has written long-running columns in M-U-M, Laughmakers, and Kidabra Journal magazines. He has also had articles published in numerous other magazines. He has been in the children’s magic market for over thirty years, specializing in summer library shows and educational school assembly programs. He has written two dozen magic books and created hundreds of tricks and routines. Jim and his wife, Diane, were high school sweethearts and have been married for 50 years. They have two grown sons. Jim has a passion for books and has amassed over 10,000 magic books and 4000 pop-up books in his collection.
"Teddy-Bunnies: A Case for Consequential Life Magic"
The Deep Roots of Magic in Early Childhood Development
First explored in a 2018 "PEPTalk" for the McBride Magic and Mystery School's "Magic and Meaning Conference," Dr. Geoffrey Grimes explores how transitional objects, produced in the context of magical entertainment, complement and support early childhood development. From his long career as a college English professor, he draws upon popular literature, the theories of Bob Neale, and the research of the 20th-century British psychoanalyst and child psychologist Donald Winnicott and later proponents of "object relations theory" in exploring the concept of "metamagic."
Complemented by his own observations of 40 years and more as a family magical entertainer, Grimes identifies parallels between Neale's discussion of the association between the magician's "onstage magic" performance illusions and the patterns of "life magic" natural to lay audiences in maintaining--consciously or unconsciously--the illusions that function in shaping, defining, and interpreting human experiences for a lifetime. As Neale notes, "If I am a magician, you are a magician. We are all magicians," constantly creating, revising, and thriving in our world of illusions that give all our lives their meanings and values.
[A paper first delivered for the 2026 Conference of College Teachers of English]