Magic In The Arctic Circle

Published August 14, 2017 | By ncmarsh

Magic In The Arctic Circle

Thule Air Base | Greenland

Stunning view from Thule, Greenland

2:10 AM:

We are taxing for take-off for a six hour flight that leaves at 1:50 AM from Baltimore to Thule Air Base in Greenland. We reported to the airport at 8:30p. Suddenly the flight attendant shouts “sir, you must sit down, sit sir!” The gentleman, who had been trying to run to the bathroom right before takeoff, vomits on himself and his seat mates. The smell causes several other passengers to become nauseous. There is an announcement that we are returning to the gate so the plane can be cleaned and sanitized.

3:00 AM:

Our fellow passengers are exhausted and stressed by the delay. We begin an impromptu show for our fellow travelers stranded at the airside. Magician Jason Michaels performed phenomenal sleight of hand with playing cards, mentalists Christian and Catalina read minds, and I featured a favorite illusion. Being able to take a moment of stress and angst and turn it into laughter and joy felt incredible, and it did a great deal to soothe nerves on an incredibly stressful trip and turned out to be a huge help with word-of-mouth and good will for our performance the next day.

Mentalist Christian Painter at the beginning of an impromptu 3AM show in an airport terminal on a rough day of travel

Performing on Top Of The World

Operation Magic All Stars at The Top Of The World club, Thule Air Base, Greenland

Setting up to perform for airmen in the showroom at the Top Of The World Club. Thule, Greenland.

Magician Nathan Coe Marsh performing for American troops stationed in Thule, Greenland.

An American Soldier as the star of the show during an interactive stunt in the performance of magician and clean comedian Nathan Coe Marsh in Thule, Greenland.

Thule Tripping

After our show was finished and the post-performance endorphins were pumping through our bodies, we went out on a late night exploration of the incredible terrain just beyond the base.

The coast line, with its rocky beach and a view to a glacier a few hundred meters away, felt like another world.

We jammed into a pickup truck like sardines for a rocky drive out to a waterfall on the coast. I was born in the Appalachian mountains and spent many Summers on drives up washed out roads but never have been in a vehicle that bounced that violently going up and down hills.

The Operation Magic All Stars team packed into a pickup truck for an adventure in the Arctic Circle.

The waterfall we explored. This was photographed near midnight (during the Summer, Thule experiences 24 hours of daylight; in the winter it is dark for 24 hours)

Several in our party took the “Polar Plunge,” immersing themselves in the freezing glacial water of the fall (I neglected to bring a change of clothes, and the idea of hiking out in wet clothes and near freezing temps didn’t seem like a bright one).

One view at Thule Air Base, Greenland.

View of a free floating ice, leading to a glacier, on the rocky coast near Thule, Greenland.

24 hours after our trip to the arctic circle we would be near the Equator, preparing for our show at Soto Cano Air Base near Cumayagua, Honduras — which found me taking a zip line over a massive waterfall and then climbing through the caves directly under it.

While the small adventures have been thrilling, the heart and soul of this trip is connecting with the extraordinary men and women who serve the rest of us. We’ve seen, especially at Thule, how far that can take these people from their families and the conditions they endure to serve us (six months of perpetual darkness and temperatures approaching -30 degrees) and at each station we’ve seen some of the many daily sacrifices that are part of a life of service. It is way too easy to take these men and women, and the work they do, for granted because so much of it is invisible.

Thank you to all who have served.

The Best is Yet to come!