storm01 wrote:How is everyone getting on with this ?
Are any of you serious mentalists using it ?
Well...
Coney Island Witch
by Christian Chelman © 2008
Translated from the French by Carl Gibson
Inv.SAH/cw-72521
Gear used by a Carnie Psychic
Collected in 1972 at Coney Island, New York (USA)
Description:
Carnie tarot deck (major arcana only), Witches Almanach (an oracle notebook) dating from 1938, 22 tickets for various attractions (pre-WW II), personal photographs of the Curator and his family taken at Coney Island in 1972, silver quarter, medallion (Illuminati?), miscellaneous post cards (1930-40), 1960 edition of Je parle Anglais (a book teaching French-speakers English), etc.
Five of the major arcana tarot cards have been placed in the pocket in the inside cover of the Witches Almanach, along with a photograph of a dwarf.
Curator's report
Back in July 1972 my parents took me on my first trip to the United States. I was 15 years old and two friends came along with us. As you can imagine, I was really looking forward to the. I was ready to go out and explore a new world – although the long flight via Iceland tempered my enthusiasm a bit.
And what a great chance for me to practice my schoolboy English!
Just imagine the adventures we had! I remember it like it was yesterday: almost driving into a bear crossing the road in the Appalachians, watching a shootout scene at the OK Corral in a tiny tourist village, visiting the Statue of Liberty, going up the Empire State Building, suffering from a bad case of indigestion fuelled by hot buttered popcorn in a drive-in movie theatre and much, much more.
But the strangest memories of all have to do with the time I spent Coney Island. Just recently, while looking through some old trunks up in my parents' attic, I came across some old snapshots.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves …
The date was Saturday August 12th.
We had decided to spend the day at Coney Island, the world-famous amusement park in New York City. My parents kept a close eye on me, as they were convinced I'd get lost in the crowd. But for a 15-year-old that kind of parental attention can get a bit stifling. So I told them I wanted to buy a hot dog and arranged to meet them a bit later by the Wonder Wheel. After all, I was easy to spot in my bright white t-shirt prominently featuring the logo of my judo club. It was 2 p.m. and I was supposed to meet them half an hour later. No problem! I already loved the fairground atmosphere, with all the carnies more than keen to get their hands on what they considered THEIR money – even though it was still in MY pocket.
I was looking around for a hot dog stand when I saw her. She looked about 40 or so and exuded a charm from a bygone era. I felt like I had seen her before… maybe in a dream. She had her own garish little pitch, with a sign that read ".
Madame Zora: Psychic - Palm and Tarot Reading – 25 ¢"But her clothes were straight out of the 1930s and she wore loads of rings and a small pendant that seemed to represent a kind of esoteric eye inside a pyramid. Noticing my interest, she gestured for me to approach. She spoke to me in French, albeit with a strong Louisiana accent: "
Vous n’êtes pas d’ici, ça se voit. Vous venez d’Europe, de France ou de Belgique…" [You're not from around here, that's for sure. You're from Europe – from France or Belgium.]
Bingo! I was obviously one of those tourists who could be spotted a mile away. What with the logo on my t-shirt, I almost expected her to say something like "
I see you practising a sport, a martial art of some kind… "
I told her that I wasn't interested in fortune-telling and that I did not have much to spend. I was saving my money for my hot dog…
She gave me a sidelong smile. "25 cents is not that much and if what I tell you makes no sense, then you'll get your money back. Carnie's word of honour." I gave her a dollar and she gave me 50 cents change.
Taking my hand, she got quite a shock! Her expression immediately changed. "You're one of us! I felt it. Have a seat. My notebook told me this morning. You are travelling in a group of five people: 3 men and 2 women." She opened a cardboard box bearing a strange symbol containing a tarot deck wrapped in black lace. She mixed her cards and asked me to choose three. The Fool, the Magician and the Wheel of Fortune were placed on the table.
"You think your future lies in sports, but you are wrong. You will meet a Magician, a Collector of amazing objects that will have a far more profound impact on your life than you can possibly imagine. He will take you across the frontier that separates the earthly world from the world of the Prodigies. The Wheel of Fortune indicates the reversal of the values and realities in which you believe, but the veil of Illusions will soon rip apart. And the Wheel of Fortune itself will play a role in the near future!" The three cards indicated a maxim in the book accompanying the cards. "Tap into the Powers of your Imagination. Inspiration is close by. Connect to your spirit element. An Ivory charm wards off sadness."
"To show you that you are one of us, here's my talisman," she added, pulling off her medallion. "Show it to the other carnies and they'll let you into all the attractions free of charge."
I can't really remember what happened next …
Two cops approached me and asked if I was Christian Chelman. My parents were frantic because I had been gone for five hours. I told them that was impossible; that I had only been away for 15 minutes or so …
The policemen didn't look like they believed me.
In my hands I was holding the Carnie Tarot, a highly oxidised medallion and the Almanach. I looked at my watch; it was 7.12 p.m.
When I told them what had happened, the younger policeman said that there was no Madame Zora at Coney Island, and that he had been working that beat for five years. Fortune-tellers were not held in very high esteem.
But the older policeman's face told a much different story. He said that there had once been a Madame Zora near the Luna Park back in the thirties or forties. On 12 August 1944, a raging fire destroyed half the Luna Park and her pitch had gone up in flames. Nobody had ever heard from her again. It was thought that she had gone down south. People said she was a first-class fortune-teller and they whispered that she must have made a pact with the devil himself to have those kinds of powers. But that was just Carnie talk… I showed them what I was holding, and they backed away. Legends don’t disappear overnight at Coney Island. Looking through my pockets I found loads of tickets to various attractions, but these were old tickets – from before World War II. I still had the half dollar that Madame Zora gave me, but now it was made of copper and was a restaurant token from Feltmans..
I was finally re-united with my anxious parents in front of the Wonder Wheel – or should that be the Wheel of Fortune?
Addenda:
The tarot and the Almanach have never lied. Sceptics like to joke about this, but their smiles soon fade. A bookmark has been placed at a certain page. When I ask them to draw three cards from the tarot deck, they choose the Moon, the Devil and the Wheel of Fortune. The bookmark itself has two old tickets stuck in it for two attractions: the Luna Park and the Devil’s Ride. Next to them is a post card of Coney Island with the Wonder Wheel on it …
Those who earn it are given a maxim. Some keep in mind, others don't. But the maxims always tell the truth.
While we were in New York my father contacted Stuart Kaplan, the famous collector of tarot decks. In fact, Kaplan asked me if I knew anything about the tarot. But I told him that I was more interested in James Bond. He just smiled …
About a year later I received a package in the post. Inside was a copy of the James Bond Tarot (Tarot of the Witches) by Fergus Hall, with the compliments of Stuart Kaplan. I tested it with the Almanach and they seem to 'communicate' well with each other.
It just goes to show!
Notes:
My aim with this was to create a ghost story in the tradition of M.R.James.
That meant I had to follow certain rules: The story had to take place in a familiar environment. It had to avoid any complicated esoteric language and it had to have a 'negative' connotation rather than a positive one. I forgot the last rule, but I retained the story's credibility. I also wanted my ghost to be a memory, a slip in time. And of course everything had to be connected to my universe.
I assembled a personal 'time capsule' from souvenirs from my first trip to the United States in 1972. The composition is simpler to the one I put together for the UK version of Homicide (with Peter Cairns) since I could re-use photos from that period. The superb Carnie Tarot and Witches’ Almanach have already been very well prepared. To fill out the look of the objects, I added a bunch of pre-War tickets from Coney Island, a photo of an American freak (General Mite, with whom David Devant worked during one tour), period post cards (Thank god for Ebay!) and various stones matching the 'gems' in the notebook. Of course, the tickets gave me the idea for the link between the tarot cards and the fairground attractions.
The character of Madame Zora comes from the Alan Parker film Angel Heart (The Girl of my Dreams - the central song in the movie – was written by Sunny Clapp in 1927), and the phrase "You're one of us" is a direct reference to Tod Browning's movie Freaks. So is the photo of the dwarf. I love these knowing little nods to the cinema.
I think anyone who properly understands how ghost stories work, and who combines that knowledge with perfect conjuring technique, has a huge range of options when it comes to performing bizarre magic.
The old coin and time travel are references to Somewhere In Time, a film focusing on the suspension of disbelief.
In addition to the original book test, I have added many effects based on the tarot cards (the Carnie Tarot and the James Bond Tarot), such as cards that refer to fairground attractions: the Moon (Luna Park, from the Latin 'luna' meaning moon), the Wheel of Fortune (Wonder Wheel), the Devil (Devil’s Ride) and so on. And then there is the Tower and a ticket for a bath towel. Tower… Towel… geddit??
.
During the story, I show a quarter from 1940 (Kennedy half dollar), but by the end it has transformed into a quarter copper token from Coney Island Feltmans restaurant (who shut down in 1946)
by Roth » Dec 3rd, '07, 19:58 
