Never Meet Your Heroes

Is one of those pieces of advice that I vehemently disagree with.

This is a street magician called Gazzo. I should introduce him as the street magician, as he is largely responsible for the foray of true street magicians (none of this Dynamo or David Blaine nonsense) that you see around the world performing. If you've been to Covent Garden and seen performs doing the magic trick with 3 cups and balls, they were doing Gazzo's routine. His jokes, his lines, his patter.

I saw him perform at the Fringe, doing a street show and it was really something. Was it as 'good' as I was hoping or expecting? Honestly, no. Was is good in an absolute sense? Yes!

Afterwards when he was sitting down I went up to him and thanked him for being the reason why I started doing magic in the first place; after watching one of his performances. You should have seen the smile on his face. That is the reason why you should always meet your heroes, because you owe it to them to tell them what effect they had on you. A small gesture made a huge difference.

People always cite feeling disappointed or let down after meeting a hero of yours because you realise they're not what you thought they were. In my mind that makes your beliefs misaligned, not a fault with the person.

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I'm really happy with this portrait... Really bloody happy (although are the colours a little off? I can't decide if the face is too red).