There’s a huge difference between the ‘tricks’ some magicians perform and the ‘art’ others aspire to.
For many amateur magicians ‘learning magic’ stops once they ‘know’ the secret of the trick. Professional performers will regularly come across someone in their audience who makes the claim that they ‘know how that is done!’.
But knowing ‘how’ doesn’t mean you can do it!
A magic effect is a finely crafted piece of theatre with a beginning a middle and an end. It can have meaning in and of itself, but there are few effects that do, or it can be given meaning by the context or the frame the magician places around the ‘trick’.
I feel that some of the ‘apathy’ and ‘indifference’ to magic that we experience in the UK is because there have been too many magicians who have relied upon the ‘magic’ and not considered the emotional frame they place around it.
So, for example, the magician places a coloured hanky in the spectators hand and after a few magical gestures it changes colour. Visually appealing but what does it ‘say’ other than ‘look how smart I am!’
Even when such an effect is presented with ‘cod’ explanation (pretending to tell the audience how it is done) the bitter aftertaste that can be left is one of “I’ve just been conned” rather than I’ve just been ‘entertained’ or ‘amused’.
‘Frame’, ‘meaning’ and ‘intention’ are all important in crafting a magic routine. Notice I said crafting as opposed to learning or performing! A crafts-person is an artist who takes time over the creation of their art!
Meaning can be as simple or as complex as you like, but it needs to be something more than ‘look I’m doing neat things’.
Magic, as opposed to Mentalism, is a visual art and as such can access a wealth of social and cultural metaphors from which to draw meaning. The key thing is to remember that the ‘viewer’ will construct their own internal meaning from the clues you give them. Understanding this is the key to presenting (emotionally) engaging magic.
Here’s a great example of a simple piece of magic most magicians know how to do, but placed in a frame in which there is ‘meaning’ and emotional relevance for the audience.
Ian Saville : The Socialist Magician http://www.redmagic.co.uk
Alan
