But just what is it that we do?

I'm sure there are as many different answers as there are people in this room. In the end, it comes down to what your ultimate performing persona is. This must be your first decision and it is not an easy one. Are you going to be in this role just when you are on stage, or are you going to live it full time? If it is going to be full time you better make sure your persona is not too far from the real you. How good are your acting abilities, your voice, your stage craft, and if they are not all they should be, are you ready to devote the time and energy to improve them?

The role of a Ritualistic Magician, a High Priest, or someone who is in league with the dark side, who can control demons to do their bidding is the most difficult one, and yet the one we all at some time try to emulate. We see ourselves, on stage, a commanding figure fully attired in all the trimmings of a Wizard, with cold piercing eyes, and a voice that could command demons from the deep. But unless we have all the skills mentioned above, to our audience, painful as it is to say, we come off as a comic figure. Still, if you have the tools and can pull it off, it is the most dramatic presentation of Bizarre Magick.

The role of a collector is a popular one and can be very strong. Here, you are sharing with your audience some of the strange arcane artifacts that you have collected from around the world. It is the objects you show that have a power of their own and not you. This is a very close kin to the role of a storyteller. Most Bizarrist that I have known do collect strange objects so this persona is not too much of a stretch and is not as demanding as someone with supernatural powers.

There is the role of one who has studied the occult in all it's forms and is an expert in the field. Dr. Van Helsing of Dracula fame comes to mind. Here again the main skill needed is that of a storyteller and the effects you use to illustrate the story, and prove it's truthfulness are almost secondary to the story you tell.

The role I assume is that of a Storyteller and for me it is easy as I love telling stories. I am "on" all of the time. My childhood was spent in the Great Depression. I learned by rote, listening to my father recite great old barroom ballads at the Saturday Night parties that were always held in our tenement apartment on the lower East Side of New York. When I was a little older, but didn't have a penny in my pocket, I would do recitations of these same classics in the local bar rooms for drinks and change. They served me well, and still do. Who can resist "The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God" or "The Cremation of Sam McGee"?