Religion, Psychedelics, and Other Types of Magic with Paul Vigil

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Paul Vigil has burst out of his native Salt Lake City taking his magic to TV and the Las Vegas Stage. He has appeared on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us twice. He trained with Johnny Thompson and worked as a street performer for years – slowly honing his skills. In his early 20’s he was only interested in performing magic for himself. He grew to understand the importance of developing an act that appealed to audiences.

Paul has designed some really impressive stage shows. His goal is to challenge his audience but also to leave them satisfied. He likes to start his shows as big as possible to prove to the audience that he can do what he says he can do. On top of that, he wants to instill a belief in the audience that they can examine anything they want on stage.

Paul has a powerful interest in ethnopharmocology. He wondered where magic came from in primitive ancient societies. He came to believe in the theories of R. Gordon Wasson. He pointed out that ancient societies flourished in locations on the planet where there was access to psychoactive compounds. Those plants in turn gave rise to shamanism – an ancient form of magic. Those ancient ways of understanding the world didn’t survive in modern societies.

Paul was one of the earliest magicians to appear on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us. He was asked to audition along with most of the magicians in Las Vegas for the shows pilot. He had to show his effects three times that day but made it onto program.

What was your favourite part of the show?

Tyler loved hearing about the role of psychoactive substances ion culture

Jonah loved hearing about the impossibility of world around us.

So happy that Discourse in Magic is out there spreading the love of the magic.

Who should we have on the show?

Mike Piciata

Ed Kwan

Plugs

Classic Fantastic Book

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