“Magic has lost all its magic. These days, it feels more like a sleekly packaged act of illusion engineering. The eye-popping, jaw-dropping, awe-inducing wonderment that used to accompany the abracadabra has mysteriously vanished into thin air. All one gets to hear now is the incredulous catcalls of killjoys screaming: “Haven’t we seen this on YouTube before?” Things were much better in the pre-internet era. The worldwide brotherhood of magicians went to great lengths to create an aura of mystique around their tricks. No one ever wrote ‘sleight-of-hand’ manuals or shot ‘Magic for Beginners’ videos explaining the elaborate deceptions. Part of the charm flowed from the larger-than-life persona projected in the public eye.”

source : IBNlive

Surely such comments should cause all magicians to stop and reflect.

What value do we give our art?

How do we recapture the magic and present the mystique ?

How do we encourage our audiences to value our work if we see  no value in it.

Related articles

• Magic 4 Learning (alanjonesradio.com)

I guess this will now set me thinking – who are the 10 Ten Card-Magicians of all time?

Your responses welcomed ….

Alan

It is common for Theatre shows do run preview events and performances before the formal run of dates begins….

It is common for comedians to try out material on a selected audience before going on tour…

I would assume therefore that Magicians would do the same…

For me this was the first time of running a dress rehearsal preview of a full two hour show in front of an invited audience and I’m not sure why it’s taken me this long to do it!

Ok the downside is having to cover the costs of hiring the venue BUT the pluses far outweigh these costs.

It’s almost impossible to rehearse a mentalism show without an audience, and despite the scripting, blocking, routining that needs to be done its not until there are real people watching what you do are you likely to get any sense of the ‘effectiveness’ of your show.

Seance : The Daisey Mae story is a two hour show ending in a seance. I spent ages on a back story linking the effects I wanted to use and hopefully creating a sense of realism to what, is in effect, a very surreal show.

On Monday a small audience  of around 30 people, including a couple of professional mediums, came to see the ‘preview’. They were told it was a work in progress…

I can’t begin to describe the valuable feedback I got from what they said; what I observed and how they reacted.

Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the second half of the show; but none of this was apparent from the audiences point of view as a quick re-think during the interval meant that I could cover for the things that were not going to do as they were told during the pre-round-2 set-up. A magician friend in the audience (Paul Silk aka Professor Tickles) knew what I was ‘going for’ in the second act but said that what was used to cover about 20 minutes was in keeping with the rest of the show. In essence it was that old thing of the audience not knowing what to expect so not missing what they did not know…

The audience were very positive in their comments on the entertainment value of the show and all said they would come back to see the paying show booked for November.

So from this experience I have not only learned the value of doing such a live preview but also have some valuable insights on how to streamline the show and make the ‘public performances’ so much better… I’ve also created a bit of a buzz which I might be able to ‘ride’ into the local shows in November.

So now to sell the show to a broader market.

I guess this idea will not be new to many, especially those who regularly present full evening shows. But I suspect that many magicians faced with the challenge of creating a two hour stage show would look to their cabaret repertoire and mix and match from tried and tested routines. They will of course rehearse, have dress rehearsals and technical run throughts – but I wonder how many put their raw, untested material ‘out there’ in such a preview show?

Love to hear from those who do …

And if you don’t then please do …. you learn so much about the tweaks your show needs before it goes ‘live’ and of course, develops with continued performance.

Alan

Are we just too smart to enjoy being amazed?

Are we just too shallow to admit that we can be touched by something we see?

Are we meeting people who reduce magical experiences to the statement – “It’s just a trick!” ?

Are a youth simply becoming desensitised to art because once they know that something can be done they devalue the artist you can actually do it ?

Saying you Know is not the same as Showing You Know – Showing You Know is not the same as Confidently Presenting what you Know – Being creatve, artistic, inspiring and a litle humble in Performing what you Know is another thing entirely.

Take this GENIUS of magic…

Innovators@Google presents: Marco Tempest from Marco Tempest on Vimeo.

SUPERB and INSPIRING as well as creative – if you say it’s ‘camera tricks’ then you miss the point totally and self-define as an uncreative hack…..

Alan

His use of technology makes his magic cometemporary and ‘of the moment’. The great pity is that some folks can’t see past the ‘magic’ of the technology itself to see the wonderful creativity that it inspires in Marco.

Technology is a tool – we are supposed to be its masters – but as I look around I see people who have mated with their mobile ‘phone; are seduced into continually servicing their Sky + systems and wedded to their Wii. To these people the creativity expressed by Marco Tempest is missed; they accept that technology can ‘do these things’ and fail to see the true nature of Marco’s art.

To me he is an artsist; a creative magician – a TechnoMage – he gives his magic meaning; his technology truth and his art artfulness…

Hot on the heals of the last post about magic’s ability to communicate powerful messages I find this in my RSS feed…

“Green entertainer Steve Trash, Rockin’ Eco Hero makes his debut performance at Hollywood’s famous Magic Castle. The Award-winning Green-illusionist brings his powerful, eco-friendly message to Hollywood with live ecological illusions and magic tricks. Trash will perform an amazing close-up sleight of hand magic tricks, including changing a red deck of cards into a green deck, and his famous eco-effects; transforming real trash into money. Trash will use the power of “reAl Green magic” to magically bend a metal key and perform his famous green magic trick; recycling an aluminum can in less than six seconds. Every trick he performs has an eco-friendly message.

Since 1984, Trash has performed to adoring fans of all ages, including 20 millions kids with his spectacular Green Illusions. He has toured all over the planet (Japan, Australia, Canada, Spain, Portugal and thousands of shows across the USA). This extraordinary eco-entertainer will turn the Magic Castle Green with his Solo Green Magic show. This critically acclaimed show is a powerful mix of amazing green magic tricks, rockin’ music and a unique eco-educational twist.

Trash will be performing in his SOLO GREEN MAGIC show at the Magic Castle on Friday, July 8th and Saturday, July 9th, in the Hat & The Hare Lounge from 9PM-1AM. Though the club is members only, they do offer trial memberships. Check the website for details. The Magic Castle / Academy of Magical Arts, 7001 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90028-8600″

Read more: http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/article/Steve-Trash-Eco-Friendly-Magician-Turns-The-Magic-Castle-Green-20110609#ixzz1OrSOlwCE

Here’s the article as it appeared in MIDDAY..

“In the age of rapid communication, magic can be a medium to spread social messages, says Indian illusionist Gopinath Muthukad, who won a prestigious international award for predicting 10 headlines of different dailies in different metros in India even before the pages were laid out.

“The response (to my prediction) was overwhelming. It showed that misconceptions of people about illusion and magic were changing,” said Muthukad, who will be conferred the magic world’s Oscar, the International Merlin Award, here June 23.

The Kerala-based magician is in Canada for a series of shows.

Muthukad, 47, who founded the first magic academy of Asia at Thiruvananthapuram, told IANS in an e-mail interview that he “had to convince people that the science of magic has a role in predictions”.

The prediction of newspaper headlines won the Merlin jury over, he said.

Muthukad, the second Indian to win the award after P.C. Sorcar junior, has also been using his art of magic and illusion to promote important social causes too for the last two decades.

“Magic is a visual art that penetrates the subconscious mind of people with the language bar. It can be used as a wonderful tool for mass communication. A highly successful mission was the STOP AD, a magical act with which we reached out to youths and adults against smoking, alcohol and drug abuse in Kerala,” Muthukad said.

Muthukad said he has been “using magic for social messages since 1990, when the government of Kerala launched its literacy drive in the state”.

“We designed new illusion tricks and adopted meaningful presentations of existing ones to communicate. The literacy massages had a deep impact,” he said. It encouraged Muthukad to take up new campaigns.

“If we go through the statistics of alcohol abuse in India, especially in Kerala, the graph always grows. It has left our society with a catastrophe of health and family concerns. The Kerala government told us to conduct magical education at the grassroots in all the 14 districts of the state,” he said.

Muthukad said he has managed to draw attention to several issues like “health, communal harmony and fight against terrorism” through magic.

“We have also been trying to propagate Gandhian values and themes of national integration worldwide,” he said.

Muthukad undertook a magical tour in 2002 to spread the message of national integration with roadshows from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

His institute, Kerala Magic Academy Research Centre, teaches both contemporary illusion and traditional Indian street magic like the “Great Indian Rope Trick”, “Green Mango Trick” and the “Indian Basket trick”.

“India has rich culture and history in magic. It still amazes the western world with traditional magic such as green mango tree and Indian cups and balls. Unfortunately many amazing magic acts have been lost as they have not been shared with the next generation,” he said.

Muthukad’s inspiration is American illusionist David Copperfield, a living legend known for his story telling and illusion magic.

“He (David Copperfield) makes the difficult look easy and impossible the easiest. He adds beauty to magic like music to poetry,” he said. Copperfield created headlines around the world when he made the Statue of Liberty disappear, levitated over the Grand Canyon and walked through the Great Wall of China.

Muthukad himself began as a traditional magician before moving on complicated stage illusions. One of his popular illusion tricks is the “fire escape” trick – in which he disappears through a fire hatch.

“Traditional Indian magic concentrates more on mystery while the West concentrates more on entertainment values. But ultimately both evoke wonder,” Muthukad said.

Like Copperfield Muthukad first performed his tricks in public at 10.

“It was a flop. Then I decided to make my performance a unique one – and my performance was accepted. And I pledged my future to magic,” he said.

I find myself in total agreement with the notion that MAGIC as a relevance and a meaning. There’s a chapter in my book (Mostly Mental) which speaks of the role and power of magic. However, is it me or is there a sense at which the ‘supernatural’ aspects of magic’s mystique is being somewhat overplayed?

The prediction of newspaper headlines could be seen as being ‘supernatural’ and not part of the ‘stock-in-trade’ of the illusionist.

What is a magician really saying when they perform their magic?

Are they creating random and spontaneous acts of wonder with visual displays of impossibilities OR are they perpetuating a belief in ‘supernatural abilities’ through their portrayal as pseudo-psychics?

Magic is not the same as Mentalism!

In Magic it is often clear that the mage is weaving their spell, casting ‘galmours’ and creating illusions to inspire, amaze and amuse.

In Mentalism it is not always clear that the mage is weaving a psychological web of confusion and creating allusions to the possibility of the improbable.

Magic can engage, can communicate at a very deep level and can be used to inspire creative and critical thinking – it can be used to perpetuate cons and pre-scientific thinking.

Are YOU as a magician giving due regard to the empowering messages your magic represents?

Do YOU as a magician care about the art and relevance of our craft?

Should WE as magicians take more responsibility for the things we communicate through our performance?

AND Congratulations to Gopinath Muthukad on his great success and Merlin award – it’s so nice to hear of magicians who are thinking about their work and being rewarded for it!

Alan

Learn The Secrets To Effects & Illusions That Will Turn YOU

Into A Magician For Your Friends & Family, Almost

Overnight!

Unfortunately this is a depressingly typical advertisement and it’s not because the product can ‘almost’ turn me in to a wonder worker overnight!

In the UK, as perhaps elsewhere, magic is not seen in the same way it was even twenty years ago. Today I was talking to Professor Tickles , a professional childrens entertainer in Cornwall, and we were lamenting the passing of an age.

The Prof. asked a profound question, he wondered how many professional magicians were actually making a full time living out of their magic alone.

A valid question.

Were he to have asked that question a when we both started performing we would have been fairly sure of the answer. Magic as an entertainment art form was ‘acceptable’ and enjoyed by audiences. David Nixon and latterly Paul Daniels brought commercial and thus agent interest in booking professional acts.

The erosion of the art, and the fact that magicians today are seen as coming a poor second to comedians, jugglers and other variety acts, is due I believe to three major factors..

1) The magicians themselves not keeping ‘in step’ with the interests and needs of the audience. Audiences believe they are more ‘sophisticated’ in this day and age and that brings with it a degree of cynicism and dislike of being fooled. It’s really interesting to note that Derren Brown is one of the very few (and perhaps only) magical performer who can sell out major theatres on a national tour. If you look at his act it is intelligent, sophisticated and engaging.

2) Traditional magicians who work at mastering their art (the Michael Vincents, Guy Hollingsworths of the world) are respected and applauded by magicians and enjoed by audiences when they are booked BUT are being undersold by the explosion of David Blaine, Street-Magic-Clones, who buy into the adverts like the one above. The general quality of performance drops and hence the public perception of magic and magicians falters. If you try selling yourself as a magician you are competing with the image that the potential  booker has of one of their ‘uncles’ or a ‘YouTube Magic Hack’ performing meaningless feats of trickery.

3) The ecomonic climate is such that an evening out may not include being ‘fooled’ by some mountebank or trickster offering emotionally neutral demonstrations of one-upmanship. There have always been hobbyists and of course the hobbyst becomes the semi-professional  rather than the part-time professional. I make the distinction here as the semi-professional possibly sees their magic as providing ‘pin money’ at best, or merely an opportunity to  ‘do some magic for an audience’ at worst. The part-time professional on the other hand possibly understands that being a ‘professional’ means that you are trying to earn a living or establish a business for yourself. So whereas the former will approach bookers and offer services for ‘beer, a meal and a whip round’ (with no thought of  this being a business ‘loss leader’) the latter recognises the value of their skill, effort and work so seeks a ‘fair’ wage for their performances.

I like many professional performers am finding ways to bring my skills to other markets, I always have done this. In the past it was because I wanted to have a varied approach to earning my living but in this day and age it is a requirement for survival. I feel lucky that I have had a regular (twice a month) cabaret residency for my mentalism act for the last eighteen months. This with the one-off or short run bookings and the summer season residencies amounts to half of my professional income. Would that it were more. The other half of my income is from using my performing skills and magical interests to create and deliver motivational seminars, presentational workshops and personal development coaching.

I think this is the ‘norm’ for many professional magicians, but would love to hear from readers about their thoughts and experiences.

With the advent of the spiritualist movement in the late 1800′s some magicians found another way to please paying audiences. Now whilst not only mediums based their spiritual hokum on trickery, the fact remains that many did. Even the founders of spiritualism, The Fox Sisters admitted to blatant fraud towards the end of their careers.

In many respects the first popular magician to make a stand against misuse of magic and magical techniques was Harry Houdini. Not only did he set out to expose fraudulent mediums but he was one of the original members of the Society of American Magicians to be invited to set up a committee for the investigation of psychic claims with the full support of the scientific community.

For the last thirty years or more James Randi has been actively fighting a battle against flim flam and woo. His understanding of magical techniques has given him a unique perspective which in some cases has ‘seen through’ some of the flaws in scientific method and thinking.

Not only did James Randi as a performer emulate Houdini, but as a critical thinker he has donned the mantle of psychic investigator. More to the point Randi has inspired a new generation of magicians who are making a stand against the fraudulent application of tricks. Banacek, Penn and Teller, Jamie Ian Swiss being the more notable examples.

I remember as a fledgling mentalist I got angry at folks like Randi as, at the time I saw them breaking the ‘magicians code” in suggesting the methods behind effects similar to those that featured in my act. At the time my enthusiasm for the art and innocence meant that I did not feel the public needed the kind of protection Randi and his fellow conjurors were offering.

Well I”ve been performing for best part of twenty five years now and guess what – the public do need protecting. Now more than ever.

As a performer who takes the paranormal, the psychic and the occult as themes for his performances I try to be very aware of how i need to maintain the mystery of the presentation whilst not promoting beliefs in wooly thinking and woo woo.

Of course these considerations are not a problem for card and coin magicians or those demonstrating some for of manual dexterity or theatrical illusion, but they are vital for the growing number of magicians choosing to be psychological illusionists, mentalists, psychic entertainers and such like.

What responsibilities do you have in this area.

For my part I am a Rational Mystic and try to offer some entertaining distractions and provocative debates an the Haunted Cornwall radio show….

Alan