Doug Henning

After I mentioned magician Doug Henning briefly on this blog yesterday, reader Frank Gresh e-mailed to say that he never saw Henning's Tony-award winning "Magic Show" on Broadway (as I did), but he remembers seeing a primetime special Henning did in the early 80s. That show was one of eight annual broadcasts the magician starred in, many of which won Emmy awards. Frank searched YouTube and found this clip, which I think is from Henning's final special, in 1983.

Along with lots of spandex, Henning was a master at engaging the audience in "the wonder" of magic. Here he is doing a close-up trick with a Rubik's Cube and then his twist on the classic Cups And Balls...


A few years later, Henning retired from the stage and sadly spent almost all his time and money caught up in Transcendental Meditation, falling under the spell of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The magician died of liver cancer a decade ago at age 52.

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