In 2005 one brother from the UK found himself, somewhat suddenly, standing in front of True Parents and major leaders in a most unusual capacity. He is a magician. What happened next is worth reading about.
By Simon Rosselli
Recently Father called members from around the world to come to Alaska as a condition for his world speaking tour. I am a professional magician, so before leaving for Alaska, when I met Rev. Song Yong-cheol, continental director for Europe, he asked me to bring all my magic tricks. He said he would have me perform for True Parents.
I brought as much as I could fit into one suitcase (I had to leave my sawing-in-half box and other larger stage props behind). Thirty-six hours later I landed in Kodiak. A few days went by and then we were asked to put on an event at a local restaurant, where we invited guests to attend a buffet dinner and an introduction to the Divine Principle and Father’s life.
I was part of the entertainment and ended up coming on at 8.30 pm. Though it was late, the guests really entered into the spirit of things, and I basically finished to a standing ovation. I think some of the leaders were surprised by the performance.
A few days later, at the gathering to say farewell to True Parents, Dr. Yang Chang-shik asked me to get ready. I only had a few minutes to prepare and then found out I was basically to be the only entertainment. Suddenly, there I was, in front of True Parents. I wondered how I would play the situation. I had thought about it long and hard since I arrived and had decided that if I found myself in this position, I would really be a child in front of them. After all, they are parents; we are children. A child would have no concepts or inhibitions; his main purpose would be to bring joy to his parents. However, I had no idea how it would be received. There might be cultural, language or humor differences, so if I felt it was too much, I would back off and respect their space.
I wanted to break the ice. As I stood there in front of Father and Mother, I told them, “Although I have performed many times, tonight I am nervous.” I started with a few card tricks, asking Father to choose a card. I then held Father’s finger, studied it and said that we all have unique fingerprints, so I would find his card through his fingerprint. I got him to sign a card and ripped it up; by magic I put it back together again. I asked Mother to sign a card and then made it fly in front of her eyes. I joked about having both their signatures on cards. They both were really laughing and really entered into the spirit of things.
At this point, I felt I didn’t need to hold back anything. I really pushed the boat out. The more I gave, the more they responded. Holding Mother’s hands, rabbits disappeared and then reappeared and while the rabbits were together as a family, they multiplied and babies appeared. It was really so wonderful to see Father and Mother so free and really enjoying themselves. Mother was almost in tears, she was laughing so hard.
After fifteen minutes, I felt I was ahead of the game. I wanted to quit while I was ahead, so I politely bowed and said, “Thank you very much,” but they asked me to continue. I continued for another ten minutes and again politely bowed and said, “Thank you very much,” but as I was leaving Father started speaking in Korean. Dr. Yang translated and said, “Father wants you to teach everyone a trick.” I didn’t want to do that as it takes something away from the magic and dilutes things. How do you decline, though, in a situation like that? I started to make a joke about being expelled from the Magic Circle (the world’s leading magic club) for revealing secrets and politely bowed again, but Dr. Yang said, “Father said you have to teach everyone a trick.” I told him that if Father could tell me where the 5 of clubs was after showing him the cards and laying them on the table, I would teach everyone a trick. As I put each card down, 1, 2, 3, I asked Father what the number was, and then I shuffled the last two cards. Father was really watching intently and was determined to win. He chose a card, but instead of them being 1,2,3, 4 & 5 by magic, everything was reversed and was 5,4,3,2,1. Seeing that he would not be able to guess it, Father laughed and let me leave.
Dr. Yang however was determined to find out and again used “Father said,” and that he wanted to know about a rope trick, in which though I had cut a rope three times, it came back together. When Dr. Yang had cut the rope, it fell to pieces. I said, “You’ve already demonstrated how to do that.” The whole room, including True Parents, burst out laughing. I bowed again and was finally allowed to leave. As I was leaving, Peter Kim asked me for my business card, which when I gave it to him burst into flames—again more laughter. He said he would invite me for one of the future holy days.
Then Mother came up to sing. Before she started, she said, “I wish the magician could do some magic on my voice, so I could sing well for you.” When Father spoke to us, every ten minutes he kept asking, “Where is the magician? What’s your name?” He talked about magic and whether it was real or not, and how True Parents were real, but he wasn’t sure about magic anymore. I could see from this feedback that I had really touched their hearts and left a mark on them.
Afterward, I was talking to a Korean leader who said that Koreans and Japanese could never have done that. In all his time in the church, he had never seen anything like that. At first I thought he was talking about the magic and replied that I knew some very talented Korean and Japanese magicians in the Magic Circle, but he explained he was talking about how close and personal I had been with True Parents. I explained that when Father gives us a direction, it could be taken as if an emperor were giving orders to his soldiers, but this is not the relationship I feel we should have with Father and Mother. Above all else, they are our parents. Therefore, when we do things and overcome challenges, we should do them to bring them joy and happiness, just as children do everything to bring joy to their parents. This should be the secret to that relationship, a parent–child relationship.
Knowing the path they have trodden for us, it was truly wonderful to be able to bring them so much joy, happiness and laughter and to really touch their hearts.