›› TALKiNG PiCTURES
The sorcerer’s apprentice Harry Potter finale needed more tricks up its sleeve, says magician by D av i d Te m p l e t o n
The ‘Deathly Hallows’ sequel was essentially—wham, bam, thank you Voldemort!—and then it was over, says Rabe.
Writer David Templeton takes interesting people to interesting movies in his ongoing quest for the ultimate post-film conversation. This is not a film review; rather, it is a freewheeling, tangential discussion of life, alternative ideas and popular culture. randon Rabe is aware of the irony. Though a committed fan of the Harry Potter movies, he’s been too busy actually performing magic to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the final film in the celebrated fantasy series. “I know, right?” he says, slipping into a seat at a San Francisco cafe, looking just a tad overdone, having finally caught Deathly Hallows the night before at a late screening, right after performing in “Maestro’s Enchantment,” the dazzling current show offered at the popular circuscomedy-cabaret Teatro ZinZanni (www. love.zinzanni.org). “I’ve been wanting to see the movie since it opened,” he says, “but we were opening ‘Maestro’s Enchantment,’ and then we needed to re-work some things when some new cast members joined the show, and then I had a big magic convention to go to in Las Vegas! There was actually a session being offered there with one of the artists who worked on the Harry Potter movies, but I didn’t get a chance to go to that one. Anyway, last night, I finally got to see the movie. “I was kind of disappointed,” he shrugs. With Teatro ZinZanni for more than six years, Rabe is a professional magician’s assistant, working exclusively with the renowned Russian illusionist Voronin. Rabe, who’s practiced the art of magic since childhood, got the coveted gig when he answered a Craigslist posting seeking an assistant. He was hired on the spot.
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22 PACIFIC SUN SEPTEMBER 2 – SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
“I’ve known about Voronin since I was a little kid,” says Rabe, who grew up in Hawaii before moving to Seattle, where Teatro ZinZanni first began its patented brand of high-energy mirth and dinner theater. “Voronin doesn’t speak a lot of English,” Rabe says, “but magic is its own language,
Rabe was one of the few kids of his generation who dreamed of being the next Doug Henning.
so we clicked right away.” Originally only working with Voronin during Teatro ZinZanni shows—once a year in Seattle, then another in San Francisco—Rabe eventually was asked to be Voronin’s fulltime assistant, and he now travels Europe doing the dinner circuit when not working one of ZinZanni’s constantly changing shows. Rabe also engineers and designs many of Voronin’s illusions. For obvious reasons, the Harry Potter films have appealed to him, and though
he’s never read any of the books—“I’m not exactly a book kind of guy,” he laughs—Rabe has dutifully followed Harry Potter’s evolution from 11-yearold wizard to powerful, game-changing hero, moving gradually toward the inevitable battle with the evil Lord Voldemort, rooting for brave young Harry all along the way. And that’s why he’s disappointed with the final film. “To be honest, I felt like this movie was one big rush to get to the end, and that it didn’t really hold together all that well,” he says. “Especially because there was so much detail at the beginning of the series, this young boy coming of age in the magic world, going to a school where he learns all this magic and all these techniques—and then when it comes to the final battle, Harry and Voldemort spew two or three spells—and it’s over. Harry went to Hogwarts to learn how to battle the darkness, to learn all this really cool magic, and then the only magic you see in the end is a couple of spiraling thunderbolts hitting each other. He didn’t actually use very much magic. Where were all the techniques he’s been learning for seven years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? “It was pretty cool, though,” he adds, “when Professor McGonagall brings the statues alive to protect the school from Voldemort’s army. She says, ‘I’ve always wanted to try that spell!’ I loved that.” As a professional magician, beginning at a time when few kids expressed much interest in following the career path of David Copperfield or Doug Henning, Rabe has seen interest in stage magic grow along with the Harry Potter fan base. “The Harry Potter movies have definitely helped bring an interest in magic to the younger generation,” he says. “Magic is really such a closed art form. If you walk into a magic shop and you want to learn the good stuff, the guy behind the counter isn’t going to teach you the really cool illusions. He’s going to try and sell you the cheap crap he sells to tourists every day. It’s a closed society. And there haven’t been that many people willing to work their way inside. But when a kid sees a movie like Harry Potter, and they want to learn magic, it opens the doorway. And a lot of kids are interested in learning stage magic now because of Harry Potter. “Beginning with the first movie,” he continues, “I’ve gotten requests to come to elementary schools and teach them about magic, the science behind magic. Early on, I did a bunch of classes for third- and fourth-graders. It was all because of Harry Potter.” Amazing. So despite all the early concerns by the Christian right, crying out that Harry Potter would end up luring children into a life of devil worship and satanic ritual, the real threat all along was that kids might want to become... Las Vegas illusionists.
Rabe, ‘not not exactly a book kind of guy.’
According to Rabe, there are now very few magic shops in the world that don’t carry Harry Potter-inspired magic tricks— or at least a replica of Harry Potter’s wand. Asked to name the most Potter-like illusion used in magic acts today, Rabe thinks it over before naming the classic levitation illusion. At Hogwarts, of course, the spell is named “Wingardium Leviosa,” also called the “Hover Charm,” and with it, a young wizard can make nearly anything float gracefully through the air. “It’s one of the oldest tricks in magic,” Rabe says. “To make your assistant levitate, or to make an object on a table levitate.” And one of the oldest levitation tricks is to make a broomstick stand up, dance around the stage and then fly across the room—like Harry Potter playing his beloved game of Quidditch. “That for me was my favorite moment in the entire series,” Rabe says. “The first time Harry flew on his broomstick. That’s everybody’s favorite wish, right? To be able to fly. “I don’t do that yet, but it’s on my list,” Rabe laughs. “Someday, I will learn to fly like David Copperfield, like Harry Potter, because... hey, it looks so frickin’ magical!” ✹ Cast a spell on David at talkpix@earthlink.net.
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