Early in 1999, one of my clients introduced me to a wonderful world I didn’t know existed, and I’m glad she did. She handed me a thick book and told me she thought I’d enjoy it. While it was written for children, news reports had adults walking the streets with a copy tucked under their arm. Her daughter introduced it to her, now she was introducing it to me — as she did to any adult who’d listen.

I devoured the book in a couple of days. Over the years there were few authors capable of keeping me up well past my bedtime. That short list included Jonathan Kellerman, Michael Crichton, (early) John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Sue Grafton, (very early) Tom Clancy, and one of my all time favorite writers, Patricia Cornwell. Within one chapter, I’d added another name to the list.

On her offer, I quickly and happily traded the first book for the second in the series, which only cemented my appreciation for the new wizarding world I’d discovered. Months later, the third book in that series — “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” — would be released and I was one of the people waiting in line for a copy. I was a fan of JK Rowling and her creation, Harry Potter.

In November 2001, when the first motion picture — “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone“ — hit the theaters, my wife and I managed a pair of tickets for the first showing on the first day. We sat in the middle of a theater filled with kids accompanied by moms (and occasionally dads) all having skipped school, work, or both. Most of the kids were wearing some piece of clothing or carrying some relic associated with the Harry Potter novels. I’d never seen anything like it. Magic.

For the thirty or so minutes prior to the lights going down, the excitement inside that theater was as close to electricity in the air as I’d ever experienced. One of my fondest memories I’ll ever carry with me of ever seeing a movie was when the opening scene came up on the screen. The collective gasp by every kid — and some adults — in the theater was incredible. Throughout the motion picture, director Chris Columbus nailed one scene after another. It was amazing to hear the comments afterwards: it was exactly as we’d “seen” it in our minds. That’s magic.

Over the years, as each new installment was released, I’ve purchased both the hardcover novels as well as the unabridged audio book versions (voiced by the excellent Jim Dale.) Driving long hours was made a lot less tedious immersed in the world of Harry Potter. And with each motion picture released, we happily sat in the theater on opening day surrounded by the most appreciative film fans I’ve ever witnessed in my life. Those are some of the few really magical film experiences I’ve had.

As you are well aware, the latest Harry Potter novel was released at midnight this past Friday night. No, I didn’t stand in line for my copy, but I did pick one up the next morning. I’ve read through it once, and now I’m reading a few chapters of it each evening to my wife, another devoted Potter fan. Book six is great and certainly deserves its position next to the other five volumes.

Interestingly enough, the Harry Potter world doesn’t seem to be impacting our little world very much. Oh, sure, lots of magicians have attempted to cash in on Potter Mania (and the only mystery performer I know personally who actually obtained the rights to perform a Harry Potter show is San Francisco’s Walt Anthony, who jumped on the Potter bandwagon long, long before most of us even knew there was a “Harry Potter” — let alone a wagon.) But kids largely haven’t tied the Potter world in with the world we call magic.

You may want to consider the reasons why that is.

On a related note, back when I was a member of the Ring 2100 email list (which list I gave up on when I tired of having to constantly tell the listserve software that the email address I’ve used for almost fifteen years really is a valid email address so stop cancelling my emails) every once in a while some performer would ask for advice on putting together a Harry Potter-themed kidshow. I always considered doing that a bad idea.

Aside from the question of whether or not one should theme an entire performance based on a pop culture phenomenon (as opposed to the occasional nod within a performance) I usually pointed out that kids who are interested in the world of Harry Potter live in the world of Harry Potter. If you think Trekkers hate being called Trekkies try screwing up a Potter reference in front of a room full of Harry Potter fanatics. It’d make the scenes in Kindergarten Cop look like, well, kindergarten.

A few years ago a performer asked advice on doing a Harry Potter themed trick. He admitted he hadn’t read any of the books, only the reviews. He was a nice fellow and, for all I knew, a great kidshow performer. But he was out of his element in this case. In part, my response included this:

I won’t speak to the licensing and copyright issues involved in doing a “Harry Potter” themed anything, but I will say this: kids who are interested in the Harry Potter series know details and I think it’s a bad idea to consider even a “Cliff Notes” knowledge of HP to even begin to approach anything resembling adequate knowledge required to pull off an acceptable performance.

Among the reasons there is such a pull from consumers for HP-themed stuff is that the series is wildly important to those people who have become fans. Keeping that in mind, skipping or twisting a seemingly little detail can easily disappoint a HP audience, whose expectations rival those of Star Trek fans or Tolkein fans. That’s really not fair to the audience, the client, JK Rowling and everyone else associated with the HP franchise.

Maybe I’m going a little overboard for the tastes of some, but experience is mean taskmaster. Any kidshow performer who is worth his salt will probably understand the following:

I would just as soon cut my toes off with a rusty old knife than I would enter the realm of kids + Harry Potter without having read the books a few times. (FWIW, I am a “Harry Potter” fan in a really big way.) The results could very well be worse than accidentally exposing the workings of a Princess Flying Carpet in front of 100 11 year-old boys.

That was four years ago and my opinion hasn’t changed.

I’ve often noted that we can’t just use the word magic to describe what we do. We necessarily have to qualify it. Close-up? Stage Illuuuuuuuusion? Bizarre? Kidshow? Three-meter? Card? Running-through-the-woods-nekkid-banging-on-a-drum magic(k)?

What is magic anyway?

One definition of magic might be 265 million copies sold of the first five books in the Harry Potter series, read mostly by kids who might not otherwise be all that interested in reading any book at all. How about over 9 million copies of book six sold over the weekend in just the US and UK alone.

A few more Potter-related numbers from Friday’s BBC Online:

Book retailer Waterstone’s collected facts about the franchise in The Harry Potter Report, which aimed to assess the scale of the phenomenon:

– The first five books in the series have sold more than 17 million copies in the UK alone, with a value of over £100m.

– Harry Potter creator JK Rowling has been the UK’s best-selling fiction author between 1998 and 2005.

– The fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, sold 1.8 million copies in the UK within 24 hours of publication in June 2003, making it Britain’s fastest-selling book.

– More than 265 million Harry Potter books have been sold in 200 countries, written in 62 languages.

– In France the English version of Order of the Phoenix became the only English-language book to top the country’s best-seller list.

– JK Rowling won Spain’s Prince of Asturias Concord Prize “for having helped children of all races and cultures to discover the joys of reading”.

– More than 1.1 million cassette and CD recordings of the Harry Potter series of novels have been sold.

– The three Harry Potter movies have taken a combined income of £1.35bn at the worldwide box office.

– Movie versions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the Chamber of Secrets and the Prisoner of Azkaban broke all UK box office records.

– Released in May 2004, The Prisoner of Azkaban movie made more than £408.2m at the global box office.

– The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie is due to hit UK cinemas in November, with plans already in place for the fifth and sixth films.

– Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was the UK’s fastest-selling DVD, selling more than one million copies in two days.

– Harry Potter tales have inspired a vast number of merchandising spin-offs, from computer games to board games, sweets, toys and clothing.

– Harry Potter merchandise worth an estimated £1bn has been sold to date.

– JK Rowling has become the world’s richest author and the richest woman in the UK.

– The 2005 Sunday Times Rich List estimated her fortune at £500m.

Keep in mind this brand of magic revolves around a world that only really exists between your ears. If that isn’t magic I don’t know what is. It’s a heavy dose of perspective with respect to what we call magic, isn’t it?

Bob and Eugene have been beating the drum for years and years reminding us where magic really happens. It may be time to dust off Magic and Meaning and give it a fresh read, don’t you think?