Wizard of New Zealand - Life and Career

Life and Career

Ian Brackenbury Channell was born on 4 December 1932 in London. In 1951-53 he served in the Royal Air Force as a pilot-officer navigator and in 1963 he graduated from the University of Leeds with a double honours degree in psychology and sociology. Shortly afterwards he was recruited by the University of Western Australia Adult Education Board to run their community arts programme. In 1967 he joined the teaching staff of the newly opened School of Sociology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

During the student upheavals, which began at this time, he created a direct action reform movement called Alf (Action for Love and Freedom) and implemented this with what he announced to be "The Fun Revolution". The result was an astonishing revitalisation of the university referred to in the Sydney Morning Herald as "the university that swings".

His head of department, convinced he was mad, dismissed him without consultation for insufficient progress in his thesis in the sociology of art. The Vice Chancellor offered to do all he could and in 1969 Channell, who wanted to stay on campus and continue his social experiments, was able to persuade the VC to appoint him official University Wizard with a small honorarium paid jointly by the University Administration and the Student Union. He began to experiment with his own identity and allowed his driving license, social security ID, passport and other important documents to lapse so that he could become a fictional character. After travelling to the World University Service headquarters in Geneva he received their backing to travel round Australian universities to promote his new revitalisation movement.

Picking himself up, and in a condition of considerable financial hardship, he was able to persuade Melbourne University Union Activities Department to appoint him their unpaid Cosmologer, Living Work of Art and Shaman. The Vice Chancellor gave him the use of the Old Pathology Lecture Theatre for his classes in synthetic cosmology and the Director of The National Gallery accepted the offer of his live body as a living work of art (on extended loan). At this time, shocked when the student Pacifist Society sent money to the Viet Cong, he founded Alf's Imperial Army devoted to sensational but non-violent warfare and regularly organized battles on campus. He founded the Imperial British Conservative Party to provide a counterbalance to international capitalism and the various forms of national socialism.

Having served his difficult apprenticeship in the puritanical atmosphere of the Australian universities, in 1974 the Wizard migrated to Christchurch in New Zealand and began to speak on a ladder in Cathedral Square. The City Council attempted to have him arrested but he out-manoeuvered them and became so popular that they made the square a public speaking area. Wearing his costume as a false prophet of the Church of England or his wizard's pointy hat, he has been speaking there at lunchtimes in the summer months ever since and soon featured in guide books.

He confronted Telecom over the colour of public telephone boxes, played for the local rugby team, heckled Christian evangelist Ray Comfort, evaded the compulsory census, and performed three drought-breaking rain dances in Canterbury, Auckland and the Australian outback.

With the help of the Mayor, Vicki Buck, the city of Christchurch hosted a Wizard's Conclave in 1995 when visiting colleagues gathered to help build a wizard's nest on top of the university library tower, to witness the New Zealand Wizard hatching from a giant egg in the city art gallery, sky diving whilst chanting a spell for a major rugby match and performing various rituals round the city. Soon afterwards, accompanied by 42 assistant wizards, he came down by Gondola from the Port Hills with tablets bearing the address of his new web site.

In 1982 the New Zealand Art Gallery Directors Association issued a statement that in their opinion the Wizard was an authentic living work of art and the City Council appointed him Wizard of Christchurch. In 1990 the Prime Minister, Mike Moore, an old friend, appointed him the official Wizard of New Zealand.

He had been providing his services free until recently when the Christchurch City Council granted him a modest annual honorarium. The Wizard has only been able to live out his radically new conceptual life style because of the trust and financial support of his longtime love, Alice Flett.

On 8 September 2003 the Wizard's large wooden house was destroyed by a fire, which Christchurch police treated as arson. The Wizard, his partner and two boarders were lucky to escape with their lives, and the wizard's extensive book and video collections were destroyed. The Wizardmobile, constructed from the front halves of two VW Beetles, was also attacked and damaged.

When not actively performing The Wizard busies himself checking the validity of his cosmology or "theory of everything" which includes elements found in such thinkers as the philosopher Whitehead, the sociologist Parsons, the physicist Prigogine, the systems analyst Jantsch and the biologist Sheldrake.

After the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake the Wizard has planned to retire and leave Christchurch for good saying the town he loved had gone and that it was the end of an era. He will be going with his mother to Oamaru, but not before wading through knee-deep water to help rescue Resthome Manager Sue Milligan's dog "Molly". However, after it was announced by CERA and the Anglican Bishop that the remains of Christchurch Cathedral would be demolished, the Wizard returned to Christchurch to oppose the demolition.

The Wizard was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours list of 2009.