Friday, June 20, 2014

WMF John Harrower

Ever heard of magician John Harrower? He is from Tillicoultry which is a town in Scottland North East of Glasgow. He also advertises as John King. An interesting side note: if you compare the two websites you will see an interesting hair situation. But this is besides the point I'm trying to make.

John made a recent Facebook post on the group he runs. Worldmagicnetwork! The group has three basic rules. Rule number three: Don't be a dick! A rule that doesn't seem to apply to John.
Let me quote his post: "Hi guys, I've been thinking about updating my kids act. Trying to educate them on the realities of history as well as show them fantastic magic tricks and magic in history. Would love to hear your thoughts. In any case, the theme I've decided on is the holocaust.
I'll perform magic tricks with a story to them and at the same time, educate kids on some of the mysterious facts surrounding what we've been told about it. I'll use magic to illustrate that things that we know now and in history are not always what they seem to be. For example, when I produce something from nothing, I'll point out similarly there were only 5 and a half million jews in pre-war europe, millions survived yet 6 million of them were killed by Nazis. Where did those extra jews magically appear from?!
When I a vanish of a small object such as a card or a ball, I'll point out that whilst its easy to vanish small objects, somehow traces of the permanent Zycon B residue from mass gassings were not found in 2009 forensic testing of the supposed 'gas chambers'. And similarly other things disappeared for example no mass graves, piles of human ashes or documents linking the Germans to the mass extermination of the jews have ever been found either!
I'll also inform the kids of other impossibilities surrounding the holocaust such as it taking around 8 hours to fully cremate a body and the Germans only had 15 single-body crematorium ovens but somehow they manage to burned at least 2500+ bodies on a daily basis! Now that's real historical magic!"
I read and re-read that post. Over and over. Being a German I have a thing or two to say. Like the last bit he said. Claiming that the Germans only had 15 single-body crematoriums. I've been to concentration camps. I've seen the ovens in person. I've been in the rooms where thousands of people have been living. I've been in the corridors where they had been shot. I've seen the bullet holes in the walls. Far more than 15 ovens.

I've been to Berlin, where they collected tons of documents. Tons.... I've seen the orders... I can read them. They are in German. I've been confronted with a very dark time of German history. And not just indirectly. My great grand mother died a few years ago. At the age of 101. She never was a person to look up to. They way she talked about anybody but her family made it clear on what side she stood during those times. And even she confirmed the holocaust. There is no talking it away. There is no denying it. And denying it is among the worst things one can do. So bad in fact that here in Germany it is a crime to do so.

Naturally John's opinion met people who oppose it. So the usual "dickhead" post followed. So John backed away from his initial post:
"The thing is, on WMN, I deliberately act up to being a villain character all the time and I thought that my posts earlier were quite obviously said tongue-in-cheek that I thought that everyone would have picked up on that. Does anyone seriously think that I was being sincere when I said that I was going to do kids shows.. and kids shows dressed as hitler!? Come on!
As for the 'real me', I don't actually claim to know what did or didn't happen in the concentration camps as I wasn't there. Ive heard both the 'David Irving' argument and the 'Official' argument but I side with neither as I have no way to truly distinguish between historical fact and propaganda."

At first it seems like an appeal to ignorance, but this is not the case. John clearly knows the facts. He just heard different opinions and doesn't know what to make of it. This is not an argument from ignorance, it is an argument of bullshit.

Normally this sort of stuff is not what I would post on this blog. John clearly fails, but not as a magician, but as a human being. And those cases I try not bring up here. But his failing clearly is taking a shit on the already soiled image of magic.

Unless... he is a genius.

Of course he must be kidding. A sick and sad joke. He cannot be serious.

Nobody is that fucking stupid!
Nobody!

7 comments:

funnybaldbloke said...

Gobsmacked

Marplots said...

The guy is obviously a genius. I've often thought about a pedophile oriented kid's show. It's a natural to use with psychic touches.

Unfortunately, the public was ill prepared for my creative genius.

I do have one suggestion for his act - the flaming duck pan. Just run it in reverse so the duck disappears and you end up with a pile of ash and flames. Oh. And give the duck a clever Jewish name.

The guy is an idiot.

Barry Solayme said...

Jesus H. Fucking Christ, he is a slimy little shit-bag indeed.

What a disgusting prick. DId anyone pick him up on this shit?

BS

Unknown said...

This is a level of Bullshit that I can't begin to fathom. In America we have 911 "thruthers" who believe the 911 attacks were a government plot, and while I disagree with them (it was the bush administration for crying out loud) they atleast sympathize with those who were killed and say it was a heinous act. Holocaust Deniers don't. It's scary that there's almost a glee in their eyes over it. It make me strongly think they're all just anti-semites who are just using using it to rub salt in the wounds. Social Media gives you a scary glimpse into peoples psyches.

Magic Tony said...

Well, wouldn't you know it?!? Harrower is also a 911 truther:

https://twitter.com/doug_segal/status/480035388363653121/photo/1

Unknown said...

No one cares about this shit stain.
Lets move on guys. Let him rot in his hole. You have my permission to go and gas him if you want.

Unknown said...

Obviously, the expressing of such vile, dull-witted nonsense is bad enough, but it is the back pedaling that really fucking pisses me off.

I can deal with someone preaching vileness and stupidity. It is their right to do so (even the Westboro Baptist Church). The best way to deal with it is just to walk away. But when they will not stand up for what they have said because they fear their paycheck may get cut, then that is downright disgusted.

Fuck John Harrower / John King, not only for preaching such disgusting stupidity, but also for not being man enough to stand up and say "Yeah, that is what I believe".

Little chicken shit.