Who IS Ariann Black, or... When People Talk Out of Their Colon

Who IS Ariann Black, or...

When People Talk Out of Their Colon

A new business associate of mine was inquiring about me with some magicians from Colon, Michigan. These magicians, though they know nothing about me, took it upon themselves to lie about me. I know that false accusations come from a negative place, so I am going to use this blog in a positive manner, to clear up some misconceived notions about myself, Ariann Black the Magician.

I am not a "created" female magician. My show is not fabricated by some Svengali. I understand that there might be a lot of women who got into performing magic because someone threw money at illusion builders, costumers, choreographers and consultants for them, but I am not one of those.

I am my own creation.

I have been fascinated by magic from a very early age and have never wanted to do, or be, anything other than a magician.  Any allowance or birthday money I got went to buying magic books and tricks. My whole life has revolved around becoming a great magician. I have designed and built my own magic props. And when I say built, I mean built. With my own two hands. When I was young my father taught me how to use power tools and to fiberglass. So yes, I use more than duck tape to fix my props! I am also the person who paid for each and every prop sitting in my house. I went to Chavez with Dale Salwack when I was 19 and still perform parts of the manipulation I learned in my bird act. When I am not in a show, I make money performing close-up magic for corporate events and conventions. So if "created" magicians can design/build magic props, do back-palming, dove steals, and perform miracles with a deck of cards, then an awful lot of professional magicians must be "created".

My magic show is one that I have developed and built for myself over time. It is a show that I have had envisioned for over 20 years. But doing it all yourself takes time, which I am sure that folks living in Colon, Michigan know all about. The costumes are costumes I have collected over the years. I was one of the magicians who worked in the Las Vegas show Splash at The Rivera, and when they made changes to some of the production numbers and decided to get rid of costumes, I was there to make a fortuitous acquisition. Other outfits I have paid seamstresses to sew for me. There are no magic elves leaving fabulous show garments at the foot of my bed. The music for my show is all hand-picked by me to fit each and every routine. The theme and definition of the show SECRETS was entirely my idea. The show has gone through many transitions and I am the one who instigates those changes in order to perfect my show.

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. My father became a teacher when I was a toddler, my mother a teacher's aide. Teachers are not well-paid(though they should be!), which means they could not buy my show for me, and are not bankrolling me. I have no wealthy relatives, no sugar daddy paying my way, which is why it has taken me so long to get to where I am today. I have done this by myself. It has been my blood, sweat, and tears that I have poured into my magic over all these years, like most (male)magicians.

Now don't get me wrong. I, like many others, have said the wrong thing about someone in the past because I had been led to believe it to be the truth. I believe that most of us have been guilty of something like that at one time or another in our lives. But the difference is that as soon as I found out the truth I owned up to my mistake and went about correcting it. I doubt that same courtesy will ever be afforded to me.

Especially when someone's talking out of their Colon.