Doug Henning was a magician, illusionist, escape artist, bushy mo'
wearer, possible Freddie Mercury relative (a completely made up theory,
but look at those chompers) and 70s fashion icon. Nobody wore three
shades of pink like he did.
Canadian-born Henning is popularly known as the one man who revived the magic show in 70s US and rejecting the cliched magician get-up of a tuxedo and thin moustache, opting for his bushy mo', colourful, glittery costumes, and a penchant for the scarf-belt.
He created a magic stage show called
Spellbound, worked on special effects for music videos for Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind and Fire, went to Broadway, and had his own television show; the creatively named
Doug Henning's World of Magic.
Eventually he abandoned magic and studied Transcendental Meditation, through which he claimed he was able to levitate. Then, he ran in the 1993 Canadian federal election as a candidate for the Nature Law Party. And to top off his full and borderline ridiculous life, he then began plans for a crazy billion-dollar project called
Maharishi Veda Land that was to be a place in the Himalayas where illusion, aural and visual sensory entertainment, and all kinds of magical trickery was on offer. Along with, apparently, organic burgers.
Henning died in 2000 just five months after being diagnosed with cancer. Apparently he was so dedicated to Transcendental Meditation that he refused all medical treatment.
At the end of every episode of
Doug Henning's World of Magic he said, "Nothing is impossible".