Official Wizard of New Zealand fired by city council after more than 2 decades

[Celerity]

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/10/16/new-zealand-wizard-christchurch-fired-contract-ended/8487006002/


The Wizard of Christchurch, who is otherwise known by his given name, Ian Brackenbury Channell, casts a "spell" during a television interview in Christchurch, New Zealand, Wednesday, March 2, 2011.
MARK BAKER, AP

For more than two decades, the New Zealand city of Christchurch has annually paid thousands of dollars to Ian Brackenbury Channell, known as the official Wizard of New Zealand. Now the city council wants him to disappear.

Channell has been paid $16,000 annually in New Zealand dollars (about $11,290 U.S.) – about $368,000 ($260,000 in U.S. dollars) over 23 years – for "acts of wizardry and other wizard-like services," the city's assistant chief executive Lynn McClelland said in a statement to USA TODAY.

"The Council is grateful for the valuable and special contribution The Wizard made to our city’s cultural life, and he will forever be a part of our history," she said.

Born in London, Channell began making appearances in the city's Cathedral Square in 1974, according to the city's library website. Over the years, his public appearances included rain dancing during droughts.

snip

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. He wasn't wizardly enough?

Or too much?

[Celerity]

3. the council had decided to stop paying him because he did not fit with the modern image of the city

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/126624095/council-to-stop-paying-the-wizard-16000-a-year-after-23-years-on-the-payroll#comments

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/world/australia/christchurch-new-zealand-wizard.html

[brooklynite]

4. He can probably get a job at the Hobbiton farm.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

2. Couldn't keep the vampires out

[Thomas Hurt]

5. Needs to change up his schtick...maybe start going by Ian the White