#vaudeville

Just finished what I call the "House by the Sea" era of Dark Shadows. It begins when Mr. Nicholas Blair shows up at Collinwood for the first time and ends with his fiery demise on Widow's Hill. As always, I absolutely hate to see Blair go. I fill the void with marveling over Chris Jenning's werewolf transformations that look somewhere between late night taco bell blow outs and severe menstrual cramps. It's a freefall but I lock onto the storlylines that I like (Buried Alive and the Haunting especially) and ride it out till 1897 rolls around.

But there's just something about the Nicholas Blair era. Perhaps it's an acquired taste within an acquired taste but Its my humble opinion that he's the most underrated villain of Dark Shadows. Blair, played by Humbert Allen Astredo, derails the show...in the absolute best way. Blair is a threat to everyone; he's got more class, more charisma, more power. He has it all until he doesn't which leads to the best self-inflicted crash and burn of the whole series.

Without further ado, here's some ramblings on all things Mr. Nicholas Blair.

Part 1: He's a Magic...Man?

Nicholas Blair never got a backstory. He appears in the Leviathan arc (yuck) and in a later radio drama, but his origins are very mysterious. The show never really elaborates on who or what he is…but it sprinkles some fun breadcrumbs throughout his original arc that create some interesting possibilities for his origins.

Is he the Devil? At first glance he gives that vibe...Pointy eyebrows...mustache...the archetypal caricature on every rockabilly guy's arm, rendered in American Traditional style.

Nope. We start to doubt that pretty early on, but it’s confirmed late in Collection 11. Is he a demon? A sprite? He does have sort of a man-sized, elf-on-the-shelf quality...always sitting on anything but chairs. He can disappear and enter rooms without going thru doors. So, it’s possible…But so can Angelique. They call him a warlock and that's just another way to say a male who practices witchcraft and sorcery.

But what immediately stands out about him is his theatrical flare. Like I said, perhaps an acquired taste, but I can't get enough of Nicholas Blair's hand gestures. Whether he's conjuring up spirits, casting spells, giving orders, or flirting with Maggie he's always highly expressive with his arms and hands. The camera often lingers or zooms in to highlight these gestures.

The performative traits of Blair are the key to what he is. No. He's not the literal Devil...He's actually the guy the Devil is always whispering to:

Collage of "Golden Age" magician posters (mostly 1900-1920s). ⬆️

Maggie- "You are a magician, in a way, aren't you?!"

Nicholas- "In a way...yes."

The magician-coding is strong. He's really a dead ringer for the "Golden Age" era of Magic. Go take a scroll through lithograph posters of magicians from the 1880's - 1930's. Trade the signature tux for a gray three-piece suit and you get Mr. Blair.

Top picture is Mandrake the Magician, who got his start as a child magician in Vaudeville in the late 20's. ⬆️

⬆️Barnabas is a haunted soul(?) lost in the happenings of the late 1700's. Quentin is a Victorian baddie crying all night listening to Shadows of the Night on his phonograph. Nicholas Blair pretends to be Roger Sterling but is actually a Guilded Age bullshitter with his mustache and maximalist taste in interior decoration (digging the art nouveau lamp and striped wallpaper).

There is some crossover with (and contention between) Late-Victorian occultists and stage magicians. (I promise I'm going somewhere with this.) The emerging magicians had a tendency to expose and mock the fraudulent "powers" of the mystics and spiritualists. The hard-core occult practioners (the Theosophical Society and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and many other occult secret societies were highly active at this time) despised the trivialization of esoteric and magical practices. #I'mwithHoudini

The Victorian obsession with occultism transitioned into a fascination with magic shows. The stage magician became one of the many "acts" making up the entertainment space at the Turn of the Century. These acts compiled into a theatrical variety show format known as Vaudeville which replaced the Minstrel 🤮Show, ran concurrent with Burlesque, and was obliviated by Hollywood.

Many things in Dark Shadows give a nod to Victorian occultism and mysticism; Nicholas Blair does. But what sets him a part from other characters is that he is less of a reference to the Horror genre and Gothic/Romantic Literature aaaand way more of a callback to Vaudeville. He's a flashy magician who just happens to have real supernatural abilities...Occult power and showmanship intertwine and blur. At first its hard to tell what the limitations of his power are; he bluffs, he keeps his hands clean. He walks and talks like a sophisticated sorcerer but it becomes clear that, for the most part, it's an act. At heart, he's a shifty vaudevillain trying to dazzle and misdirect his audience -even the Devil- with sleight of hand.

So, when it comes to what he is, I think he is somewhere between Jino (K-pop Demon Hunters) and the Shadowman (Princess and the Frog). He is or at least was human.

Like the Shadowman, Blair is full of charisma and showman's flare; he’s actually “got friends on the other side” and real occult powers. But he's also a shifty conman with his own agenda. (I think he may have been planning all along to use that whole Satanic Race thing as the ultimate bargaining chip to get out of Hell. He was really digging hanging out on earth; had a bougey beach house, a hot babe... the way he dropped that bomb on Diabolos felt like he was showing all his cards. The gall!)

He gambles and talks too big, promises too much and loses everything when he can't produce results. He gets dragged back to hell kicking and screaming, just like Shadowman.

What he has in common with Jino is that for all intensive purposes, he's practically a demon and is living in a hellish, less-than-human-state in which he can move between the spiritual realm and the physical world. But…like Jino, there is enough of a shred of humanity left in him that he can fall in love. The more Nicholas falls in love with Maggie Evans, the more his supernatural powers are drained from him. It’s a power that has been given; it is not innate.

He gives “I sold my soul at the mythic crossroads" vibes big time. For funnsies: Maybe he was a desperate magician on a seedy Vaudeville circuit and made a Faustian bargain. He'd get wealth, affluence, immortality and real power if he served Satan and helped to facilitate his agenda for the Age of Aquarius (can't forget the late-60's "rock and roll" Satanist aesthetic sprinkled on top).

So the way I see it, Nicholas Blair is a hearty infusion of early-20th Century Americana into the Gothic world of Dark Shadows and I love that.

Alias: The Punchline

Title: The First Joker

This is the first layer, a rough outline of its form. Tell me if it looks good. I want to finish drawing him.