There are moments of happy discovery as a Sherlock Holmes fan, letting the master detective lead you into places you'd not have thought to go. And this past Friday night, that fannish urge led me to Alton, Illinois, a river town on the banks of the Mississippi near St. Louis.
The promo read "Join Master Magician Carlos David at the American Oddities Museum as he presents a chilling parlor show base on those traveling mediums, mystics, and mind-readers of yesterday. . . a night of magic and mystery, inspired by the kinds of parlor shows that were practiced by fraudulent mediums when they took advantage of people like Sir Arthur." As we don't often focus on the "wacky celebrity with questionable beliefs" side of Conan Doyle in the Sherlockian world, it seems like a rare opportunity.
Entering Troy Taylor's American Oddities Museum, one finds the nicely curated work of a man enthusiastic about his interests. Troy Taylor is a name that might be familiar to an Illinois Sherlockian who was around in the 1980s, when he was running Decatur's local Sherlockian group, Ferguson's Vampires. I had corresponded with Troy a little bit at that time, and even commissioned some art from him for the Dangling Prussian, so it was pleasant to see the business he's built up following his passions, having written over one hundred and twenty books and doing an incredible number of ghost tours and events, enough to make you wish Sherlock Holmes was as popular as ghosts!
Rob Nunn in his native environment, surrounded by books.
The largest room in the museum was set up as one would for an author's reading, several rows of chairs in an intimate setting, but also lights dimmed with electric candlelight and some excellent light background mood music, nice to listen to with an interesting eerie feel, not too creepy, but not too normal.
Carlos David is a very experienced, very good magician, well versed on Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, and the balance of mystery and reality woven into his show was spot-on. You could see how someone who wanted to believe in active spirit communication as much as Conan Doyle did could have their beliefs enhanced and justified by tricksters with such impossible feats that could be attributed to ghosts. In the Sherlockian world, we get a lot of talks and presentations by folks who aren't skilled professional entertainers, so if was a joy to see someone who was very good at what he does connect it with Conan Doyle.
I'm not going to go on about the show at length, as my friend Heather Hinson will be writing it up for the Parallel Case blog soon. (Also, I'm tired after a week of travel.) Heather was touched by the ghost of Kingsley Doyle at one point during the show, so I'm sure she's going to have a lot of thoughts! But it was a lovely evening, in good Sherlockian company, and another reminder that letting that one great spirit -- the spirit of Sherlock Holmes -- lead you on adventures can be a whole lot of fun!
