Mr. Electrico, a sideshow magician who inspired Ray Bradbury, then vanished | Hacker News Reader

Mr. Electrico, a sideshow magician who inspired Ray Bradbury, then vanished

smithsonianmag.com

71 pointsCaiero19 comments

Reminds of a joke in the movie "Clue." The suspicious-looking widow is asked why her husband disappeared, and she says dismissively, "Well, that was his job. He was a magician."

Fumbling, they say, "but he never reappeared!" And she says...

"Well, he wasn't a very good magician."

You might notice that this whole Mr. Electro schtick is the core of the Stephen King novel Revival, with an ending that was quite unlike his usual; King has always had a huge yen for all things Bradbury.

I just read his new Fairy Tale and it also has some significant Bradbury tribute.

(A former tenured professor at Columbia College, Weller was dismissed in summer 2022 for violating the school’s sexual harassment policies.)

Why was it important to include this in an article about Ray Bradbury? It added nothing to the article, and actually took the focus away from the subject. Terrible journalism.

They added the doubts to the timeline from Weller. Then probably had to add this parenthetical after - perhaps by the editor.

I got a chance to see Dr. Megavolt perform at Burning Man 20 some years ago. There was an earth mover machine with flamethrower, a band in electric cage, and gogo dancers in various skimpy outfits, all engaging in a battle with the good doctor. It was incredibly epic. What I recall was the most immediately noticeable was the strong smell of ozone, all that lightning mad it feel like a thunderstorm. They did have to run the generators all day long to charge up the batteries for 15 show....

The Boston Museum of Science has a pretty good (well it was in 2002 when I visited) high voltage exhibit called the "Theater of Electricity"[0].

Perhaps not as exotic as the Burning Man performances, it was pretty exciting stuff even for me in my mid-30's. Well worth a visit.

[0]: https://www.mos.org/live-presentations/lightning

Good grief, I saw that show at least 30 years ago. It did make quite an impression on me.

Fond memories of the club where I was well enough known and respected as to be allowed to bring a violet wand into the premises and turn it on: human chains, human beer sign, other sideshowesque scenes.

If performers touch anything that’s grounded, however, “that would be instant death.”

Doesn't this put a lie to the suggestion by Bradbury that members of the audience, including him, were touched with a sword held by the performer?

Not if the performer was using an insulated glove. Otherwise yes.

A common magical technique is to perform the same effect in unrelated ways. There's no reason the sparks from the chair and the shocks from the sword have to be at all related.

Don’t fail to see Nyarlathotep if he comes to Providence. He is horrible—horrible beyond anything you can imagine—but wonderful. He haunts one for hours afterward. I am still shuddering at what he showed.

(That’s a quote from Nyarlathotep, witten in 1920 by H. P. Lovecraft.)

(Technically, it's a quote from the dream which inspired Nyarlathotep. Or a quote from Samuel Loveman which inspired Nyarlathotep, if you're nasty.)

DIY electric chair magic fun.

Don’t try this at home

https://youtu.be/sIbropvPzTM

Regarding the "live forever" command that the magician gave to the young Bradbury, Bradbury had a chance to sign up for cryonics, which is objectively the only way to get a chance to live forever, but he said that he could not face waking up in the future where he knew nobody, and that he cannot stand to leave his friends and neighborhood and neighbors of his current life.. so maybe he had a chance to live forever by signing up for cryonics, but he decided against it

"Immortality" is quite obviously not being used literally, rather in the sense that Bradbury has left such a mark that he will remain a part of society, via his work, long, long after he has died.

"Out looking for the camera crews Sell my soul for a second on the evening news... Immortality is what I'm buying, but I'd rather be immortal by not dying." Steve Taylor

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