Not a magician

(Photograph by Darrow Montgomery)

I've spent some time getting to know David London and have seen him perform on a few occasions and I still cannot exactly verbalize what he does, though in some gut-level way, I sorta get him. Author Oliver Lucaks figures it out pretty well in this article for the City Paper. I suspect one reason I am drawn to this kooky person is that I kinda have the same problem: I can't explain what I do. Which sucks because most people want and need to categorize people. I often get pigeonholed as an event planner. But planning art events is simply a means to an end and the end is to see DC rise as a creative urban center.

Here's what I had to say about David London for the City Paper:

One person who understood the distinction is Philippa Hughes, founder of the D.C. art-event network the Pink Line Project. Upon meeting London at an artsy social last December and learning he was a magician, she was initially in a hurry to extract herself from the conversation.

“Well of course, the first thing I thought was David Copperfield,” she says, pantomiming corny magician hand gestures. “Great. A cheesy magician. Let me politely get away and talk to someone else. But it took about 30 seconds to realize that’s not what he was at all.”

Hughes decided to book London for one of her Salon Contra gatherings.

The odd thing, Hughes says, is that it wasn’t the magic tricks that wooed her, it was the showmanship.

“He’s pretty nerdy, but he’s very charismatically nerdy. That’s what fascinated me about him.” She says. “Here’s this nerdy kid who always wanted to be a magician,” she said almost vomiting the word, “doing card tricks. And he turns into this thing where he has people mesmerized. It’s pretty impressive. He embodies exactly what we need more of in D.C.”