Dan Dailey questions the ”wow factor” in live glassblowing demonstrations. Oral history interview with Dan Dailey by Barb Elam, April 26, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. 01:40.

Dan Dailey: These people would stay there and watch them make something and put in the annealer when you’re done. And then they’d clap and over and over again, it made me wonder, ‘Well, what’s to clap about?’ You know, it’s like such an odd phenomenon. And I do understand that what everybody refers to as “the magic” of the material or the, you know, it’s a compelling material. You like to watch it. It’s a liquid that comes together as a solid, it becomes colorful as it cools down and all these things. It’s moving around, it’s shiny, it’s hot, you can’t touch it directly. So there are many things about it that make it, ‘Wow, how do you do that?’ you know—‘Wow.’ So the wow factor I think dominates what the heck is it that you are making, and I feel like the thing that you’re making, the idea you are trying to articulate is far more important than the process, and I don’t care if I do it myself or not. I’ll be happy to make a drawing and see it done and maybe stand right there or even push on it or say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, let’s do this,’ or ‘I changed my mind,’ you know? Let’s take advantage of this thing that I didn’t think of because I’m watching the form develop, and let’s stop it right here and start over again or do something a little different, so working that way, that with that, remove I’ve found that I have much more control in a way of the way my thoughts are coming out as objects.