Amid a burst of fireworks and a haze of smoke, a burly showman in a white sequined suit and gold lame cape appears with a flourish. Over the next 45 minutes, he appears to make a Pyongyang bus levitate and wriggles free from a box sent crashing to the stage through a ring of fire.
This is magic North Korean-style performed in a show touted as the country's biggest ever and mounted in a city where good, old-fashioned illusion, a dancing bear and a dose of slapstick comedy can still command the biggest crowds of the year.
The country's love for magic is a legacy of the circus traditions they inherited decades ago, during an era of Soviet influence.
North Korean founder Kim Il Sung ordered the creation of the Pyongyang Circus in 1952 in the middle of the Korean War. The tradition of highly technical stagecraft — including the Arirang mass games, where 100,000 performers move in sync in a feat that has come to embody North Korean discipline and regimentation — still dazzles in a country where high-tech entertainment is scarce. [...]
You can follow the link to read more. I guess I am not surprised the regime would have a magic show be such a big deal, last month I saw the below video and this passes for pre-school education. I wonder how many six year old children were brutalized and discarded before they found the perfect five to play this silly melody in perfect unison. This video would be impressive if children in North Korea led happy and healthy existences, but it is all propaganda all the time and these kids and their families are slaves to the regime.
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"일류션, Michael. A 트리크 is what a whore does for money... or candy!" --North Korean G.O.B. Bluth
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