Doug Henning's Datura Dreamtime

Artist's impression

Perky, toothsome Doug Henning (TV's Mr. Magic) is justly famed for his acts of prestidigitation, legerdemain, and mastery of the Black Arts. But at the start of his career, his invocation of the demons Alastor and Belphegor at a children's party, and the subsequent bloody deaths, led to a different kind of spell [LOL - Ed.] in the state pen, where learned to make balloon animals and developed a passion for vintage Australian psychedelia. On regaining his freedom by floating over the prison walls while high on Jimson Weed, he vowed to eschew the Black Arts and devoted himself to becoming a professional stage magician, stunning audiences world-wide with his tricks, his hair, and his skinny dungarees.

I interviewed him on the stoop of his swank Camden, NJ, tarpaper "tiny home", overlooking the tire recycling compound, the acrid stench of burning rubber crimping my nostril hairs.

FMF©: So, Doug -
DH: Oh, call me TV's Mr. Magic! Please!
FMF©: Doug - how did you get into Australian psychedelia?
DH: Well! It was through a dear Australian friend! An Australian, from Australia, and he had this collection of records from that wonderful Australian country, which is Australia, and I just, I don't know, fell in love? [simpers] It really was ... magic! 
FMF©: You have some music to share with us?
DH: I do! It's a wonderful album by Various Artists. Hmm - I wonder ... where ... it can be? [gestures mystically, fumbles CD from pocket] Oh wow! Where did that come from!
FMF©: You're fucking kidding me, right?
DH: It really is ... magic!
FMF©: Bull-shit, dude.
DH: Wait! There's more! [desperately tries to inflate balloon, passes out] 

Camden Transit Center

Pausing only to pick up the CD, grab his wallet, and his phone, and a souvenir snowstorm paperweight from Hawaii, and a lamp, and a Thermos, I made my excuses and left. In the VIP lounge at Camden's lush Transit Center [right - Ed.], I set fire to a Lucky and squinted through the smoke at Henning's wristwatch, which I had also disappeared. "And that's magic, pally! Oops - did I say that out loud?"