Today our spotlight falls on the award-winning slight-of-hand magician and illusionist, Eric Walton. A proud denizen of New York, Eric is performing his one man show Esoterica which is set to mesmerize audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe. His show is on at the Underbelly, Baby Belly throughout the festival and looks a fascinating show to see. First let’s find out about Eric and his show…
1. What inspired you to become a writer, actor, sleight of hand artist, raconteur, winning entertainer whom critics have compared to as Oscar Wilde, Vincent Price and the devil himself?
The short answer is that I enjoy performing more than I enjoy anything else. I studied theater in high-school and thought, “This is it. This is what I want to do.“So when I was nineteen, I packed my bags and moved to New York City and have been there ever since.
Then about eight years ago, I saw my first card trick and it changed everything for me. I began to study magic every day and then I got the idea that I should incorporate magic and theater and my other interests, such as philosophy, metaphysics, language and psychology, into a show. So I started writing and eventually came up with ‘Esoterica.’
2. What is your show about and what should the public expect from your show at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
‘Esoterica’ is really a show about ideas; big ideas, like perception, destiny, memory, deceit, psychic phenomena and so on. People should expect, above all else, to have a really good time. For all its academic trappings, ‘Esoterica’ is a very funny, very ironic and dry show. This is of course not just my opinion. This is according to first-hand accounts of actual audience members whose credibility is beyond reproach.
3. What are your funniest and worst experiences performing in front of an audience?
Earlier this year, I was doing a show at the Brighton Festival Fringe in which I would begin the program by running onto the stage, grabbing the mic and then introducing the show with this carnival/side-show banter. One night, in front of a sold-out house of 400 people, I ran onto the stage and when I got to the mic-stand, I stepped on a rhine-stone and fell flat on my back. The mic-stand hit me right in the eye on my way down and it was swollen for a few days after. Some of the performers from a show called ‘The Tom Tom Club’ had been in the audience and the following night I saw them in the green-room and they said they really liked my entrance and that they had discussed maybe doing something similar. And they were serious. Apparently the whole thing looked staged. I told them that as far I knew, falling flat on your back was in the public domain and they were welcome to it.
4. What was the last Fringe or Festival you performed at and what was it like?
As mentioned, I just did the Brighton Fringe and it was a amazing. Great crowds, great shows, lots of energy and some very tasty chips after the show.
5. What’s your best advice for aspiring performers in your theatrical medium?
Get thee to a nunnery. And by ‘nunnery’, I mean ’stage.’ Performers need time on stage, in front of an audience and the more you do it, the better you’ll become at it. And you should practice all the time. Also, if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse who discourages you from being a performer, you should either break up with or divorce him or her.
6. Are there any dreams or goals that you have yet to fulfill?
Thankfully, yes!
7. What is the best advice you have ever been given? And did you follow it?
I don’t generally solicit advice and when it’s offered, I do my best to ignore it,
but the best advice I ever got was, “Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.” It’s Latin. I had to look it up and now so do you!
8. What is the best book you have read and why do you like it?
‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra‘ by Nietzche is a great book. It fits in your pocket and is chock-full of insight into the nature of humanity.
9. Who is the person you most admire and why?
Baruch Spinoza was a total bad-ass. He was smart, courageous and independent.I wouldn’t have been able to spar with him, that’s for sure.
10. If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?
Besides the levels of atmospheric CO2, I would change the levels of atmospheric religious dogmatism that threaten to louse everything up for the rest of us. If you must believe in god, please do it without blowing things up!
