Photos by John Cornicello
The McQueen Method: Tune in to Your Potential
Eddie Dean promo by Patricia Klich
Smells Like Dean Spirit
Eddie Dean, Telepathy Rock Star does “Ireland’s Got Mór Talent”
Eddie Dean, “Telepathy Rock Star” was in the news again. Stripping psychics? That was me. (No need for the plural, Mz. Bruton.) ‘To quote a mystified Jason Byrne, “I was off me banger watching you”.’
Well, that and three Euro will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Look ma’! No physical communication!
Telepathy Rock Star
Project Viola Ten TRAILER
The Twisted World(s) of Quantum Physics
Hypnotic Thought Inception Experiments
Playing Apollo
Over the past year I worked as dramaturg and actor on Patricia McQueen’s “Will you stay and watch me dying,” an exploration of theatre through transmedia performance installation which sought to provide new perspectives in the area of performative and visual arts and their interaction with multimedia technologies and attempted to investigate how the medium of theatre addresses mechanisms of violence and power, and the role of sacrifice within them; the ambivalence of love and hate; the trauma of separation and loneliness in the face of death; the dark and cruel side of human nature, displaced beyond humanity; injustice and guilt, which cannot be clearly defined; and the unspeakable loss inscribed, at times, within love.
It was a great experience to work with some of Ireland’s finest actors, artists, and directors, and a great opportunity to go a bit “method” while preparing for my role as Apollo: God of prophecy, poetry, music, sun, truth, plague, archery, blah blah blah blah blah… I hope you like the photos. #Apollo69
Mind readers wanted…
David Blaine and Derek DelGaudio
In Marrakesh I once wandered hopelessly through the labyrinthine Souk vainly searching for my hotel. I asked a young vendor about the address and was handed off without delay to an elderly gentleman who led me through twists and turns for what felt like kilometers leading into days. Just before turning a corner, plainclothes men on motorcycles holding radios arrived and the man disappeared into the twists and turns of the Souk. They claimed to be police and led me the rest of the way to my hotel, which was just around the corner. The desk clerk spoke as much English as I spoke French. It was his first day on the job and he didn’t know how to book me into my room. I would need to wait for “his friend” to return. The old man who fled from the police reappeared with his hand out. I gave him what I considered to be a generous tip by local standards. He wanted more. Sorry my friend, not tonight.
Amidst all this frenetic activity poised on the razor’s edge of chaos, a melodious voice coming from the staircase behind and above me, with all the nuances of a classical James Bond villain, pleasantly proclaimed in the comforting accent of an elderly New Yorker, “Welcome to Marrakesh…” At breakfast the next morning, we exchanged a few pleasantries. He was in his seventies. The following morning I sat in a dark corner for privacy. He asked if he could join me. Forcing myself to be social, I asked questions and he laid out one of the most fascinating life stories I’ve ever heard. I still follow his travels and I hope that I age as gracefully as he has. What prompted me to recall this memory and describe it with such melodramatic prose at 3am? Oh, it’s just that a driver shortage has left me stranded in a Greyhound Bus terminal in Columbus on my way to New York and the lady just said, “Watch your step, you’re steppin’ in blood.”
♠ ♥ ♣ ♦
I finally arrived in New York City, hours after the show began which I traveled there to see. But I am happy to report that I was able to switch my ticket to two nights later, and also that I have lovely friends who have a couch. I saw Derek DelGaudio’s show ‘In & of Itself,’ which was brutally good. I expected to be impressed with the theatrical experience. I did not expect to stumble out of the show muttering to myself that Derek must apparently be able to do real actual magic, because that’s the only answer that goes any distance toward explaining some of what I saw. After the show, I spent some time backstage with Derek and David Blaine. (I’m not even going to tell you who’s holding the camera…) We discussed being real and feeling fake and everything in between, and Derek eloquently summed it up: “Welcome to the crisis.”
These two guys are simultaneously the most real and the most unreal people I’ve ever met. This is the sort of paradox that one can really wrap one’s mind around at 4am while spending the night in an airport. But you know what they say: Spend the night in a bus station/airport once in a week; shame on you. Spend the night in a bus station/airport twice in a week; shame on me.
Another publication: ‘The End of Mind Reading’
On Friday the 13th — appropriately enough — my paper, ‘The End of Mind Reading’ was published under my former stage name Edward James Dean, in the University of Huddersfield’s Journal of Performance Magic. Regarding this paper, the editor of this edition, Franc Chamberlain, writes:
‘Of the nine papers presented at the symposium only three are included in this issue of Performance Magic, those by Todd Landman, Nik Taylor, and Edward James Dean. Each of these… questions in one way or another, magic in an age when the magician is openly playing with questions of truth and fiction, reality and illusion, instruction and diversion, and enchantment and disenchantment. Edward James Dean draws on some ideas from Richard Schechner’s work on play and the concept of ‘dark play’ to explore some of the ambiguities in performance magic and makes links to the world of wrestling and the openness of contemporary kayfabe.’
To read ‘The End of Mind Reading’ click here
My first paper published in the JPM, ‘(Re)Discovering the Body in Mentalism’ can be found here: click here