Saturday, December 29, 2012

Breathe Magic Camp: Lending a Helping Hand

From BBC News comes this report on the Breathe Magic Camps, a collaboration between Breathe Arts Health Research, Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Charity.  

The training in basic magic skills is designed to help patients living with hemiplegia--a partial paralysis--to develop the skills needed to live more independently.  The program curriculum was designed in collaboration with Magic Circle magicians, therapists, clinicians and researchers.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Magic Has a Lot to Offer...

From the Hindustan Times comes this item about magic and the many rewards and benefits of pursuing it as a career.

Listed as a pro and/or con of magic as a career:  "You will get name, fame and money, provided you are good at your work."

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Can You Imagine...?

This item is from the Times of India and deals with magician Samir Khan and his work with the BJP political party during the current campaign.

With the recent conclusion of an election cycle which boastfully broke records for the amount of money spent, can you imagine the potential windfall for domestic magicians were they able to strike the same sort of deal with either, or both, parties?

It's never too early to be thinking about the 2014 elections....

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Show Business is SO Glamorous

From the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin, New Zealand comes this item about a magician who quit his day job to work three nights per week in a new restaurant. 

A Vist to the Bahamian Island of David Copperfield

From Forbes.com comes this article by Hotel Detective Gary Walther who spent three days at Copperfield's Musha Cay resort.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Episode VI: Spooning

Friday morning began with a lecture by Uri Geller.

Uri Geller: in the words of Vice President Biden, this was “a big fucking deal."

Despite his reluctance to associate with magicians, Geller has been an influence on magic for five decades.

When I was becoming interested in magic I knew only an handful of names and his was one of them. I would watch Doug Henning and Mark Wilson on American TV and “Magic Tom” Auburn on our local channels and I would read about Geller.

He came to North America in the early 1970's at precisely the right time. There was a boom in interest in all things paranormal and, as a result, his talents were eagerly received. Each deformed spoon or key, each restarted clock seemed to demonstrate that despite all of the upheaval of war and social and economic unrest, it was within our capacity to control our environment.

It should be noted that this was also the time of Rod Serling's “Night Gallery,” “Ghost Story” with Sebastian Cabot and a host of other TV shows with paranormal themes like “The Sixth Sense” and “The Night Stalker.”

I'm not sure that I ever fully bought into the notion of Geller's unique abilities. I had read enough about Houdini's campaign against fraudulent spiritualists to be convinced that Geller was doing sneaky business and was very good at it.

But while bunking down in Camp Skeptic, I was nonetheless impressed by his powers of self-promotion. Believe him or not, it was hard not to know about him and the abilities he claimed.

And two generations later, it was possible to still see his impact on the magicians gathered in Orlando for Genii's 75th Anniversary Birthday Bash.

In a number of comments made from the stage it was clear that some performers were uncomfortable sharing the program with Geller. And in the lobby, there were conference attendees lined up two and three deep to have their picture taken with him.

Needless to say, there were very few empty seats at his morning lecture.

It is not overstating it to say that Geller played his audience masterfully. At least indirectly, through the power of his mind, he was able to transform the room from a group who had the previous day snickered at comments about spoon bending to one that gave him a standing ovation and he did it all without exposing his methods.

That in itself is a great trick.

Instead of lecturing about effects and methods, Geller told his life story with the same kind of optimism and good humor with which earnest and sincere people on television convince you that you can lose weight without exercise, or earn vast profits without risking any money.

After years of hearing magicians complain about his refusal to acknowledge that his effects are the product of skill and technique rather than paranormal abilities, Geller's response is that he doesn't have to respond. He demonstrated through a series of examples that the only thing that matters to him is, in essence, that they spell his name right. (It's pronounced “Ooo-ree” and not “U-ree.”) At one point he said that he didn't bother to read the articles written about him, he just measured the number of column-inches.

And so now he travels the world selling versions of a competition show the goal of which is to ostensibly name his rightful successor. He has reinvented himself as the Simon Cowell of “mystifiers.”

Despite all the too-clever remarks and the manufactured animus between him and magicians, it is too easy to dismiss him as a footnote. He did something significant in the history of magic. He built an original act and sold it to the world. He made his reputation on deforming flatware and the general public knows his name. These are all feats to which magicians of every stripe aspire.

Regardless of what magicians may think, there is much to learn from Geller about building a career and continuing to stay relevant in the eyes of the public. He's done it, is doing it and should be celebrated for that.

That's what I think..., or maybe that's just what he wants me to think. 

 

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Genii Bash - Episode IV: A New Hope

The next lecturer at Genii's 75th Anniversary Birthday Bash was Charlie Frye.

As was the case with Mr. Long's presentation, there was a torrent of information broadcast with a similar nervous energy.  

Master Genii, Richard Kaufman, introduced Mr. Frye by saying that he had seen him lecture in Asia and had been very impressed.  I came away from the Orlando presentation wishing I had seen what Mr. Kaufman had seen. This is not a comment on Mr. Frye's skills as a performer--he put on a hell of a show at the closing night gala--but more about the structure of his lecture presentation.

Not being familiar with Mr. Frye's work prior to his lecture, I had no contect for the torrent of gags and stunts that he demonstrated.  That he performs a high energy cabaret act that clearly seems to have been informed by a lot of street performance experience helped to frame his presentation retrospectively.  Having just listened to Eugene Burger talk about scripting and the idea of tricks as pictures without a frame, Mr. Frye's presentation seemed a clear demonstration of this idea.


***
I largely kept my notebook holstered for the evening show.  It was exciting to see a performance of Thurston's Rising Cards by Jonathan Levit ably assisted by the lovely and talented Mr. David Regal.

The effect was recreated for the Los Angeles Conference on Magic History which is a tough ticket to get so seeing Thurston's signature piece brought back to life was a rare and genuine treat.

***

After the evening show was the lecture I was most excited to see.  Magician, writer and skeptic Jamy Ian Swiss was going to talk about mentalism.

This last sentence deserves a second look not because it is so artfully crafted, but because it conveys something of a conundrum.  How does a skeptic, an advisor to the James Randi Educational Foundation perform mentalism without irony?  As Mr. Swiss repeated near the beginning of his lecture, "Jamy Ian Swiss is not a mentalist, he's an asshole."

Listening to his presentation, it's hard to think of Mr. Swiss as anything other than a thoughtful and passionate advocate for his art.  As Rick Maue noted in reviewing Mr. Swiss's book Shattering Illusions, "Mr. Swiss doesn't hate mentalism, he hates bad mentalism."

Mr. Swiss went to some lengths to differentiate between mental magic and mentalism.  He referenced a conversation with Teller of Penn & Tell wherein Mr. Teller defined mental magic as being concerned with the revelation of proper nouns ("You're thinking of a_____.")  Mentalism, by comparison, Mr. Swiss defined as the revelation of thinking.

As a mentalist, Mr. Swiss claims no special powers which, he noted, was unlike another performer attending the convention.  Mr. Swiss accomplished his effects as a result of observation, experience and some specialized knowledge.  

It is perhaps because I have been listening to a lot of old radio dramas, but as I listened to Mr. Swiss, I was reminded of one of the old Sherlock Holmes programs.   Holmes would make pronouncements about visitors to 221B Baker St. that would, with different framing, rival those of Alexander or Kreskin.  As Holmes explains, his pronouncements are the result of a string of observations and deductions.

Holmes was a rationalist and Swiss is a skeptic so is it too much to describe Mr. Swiss as the Sherlock Holmes of Mentalists?

I am not a big fan of mentalism per se, but I am fascinated by the psychology of it.  Reading books on the subject, it has always seemed to me that there are so many different ways that an effect could fail and that uncertainty made it very unsettling as a form.

As I write this, it occurs to me that the critical factor in mentalism is the experience of the performer.  We audience members imagine ourselves to be wildly individual and capable of an infinite number of choices in response to any situation.  To the experienced performer, one closing in on Gladwell's 10,000 hours to mastery, the patterns of response become apparent and the selection of 37 as an uneven number between one and fifty less and less of a surprise.

It would also make sense that, after mastering magic's carefully structured classics that the more bi-directional quality of mentalism would have a strong attraction.

Somebody, and it may have been Mr. Swiss, likened mentalism to performing jazz and the comparison seems apt in that it requires a mastery of skill and technique and the ability to listen and adapt to the input from the spectator.

Mr. Swiss also spoke about the importance of "clarity of effect."  The audience should be able to describe what happened in a simple sentence.  Too many effects, both in mentalism and in traditional magic, have lots of process and that can undercut the magical moment.  As Mr. Swiss said, "Just because the audience is confused doesn't mean they've had a magical experience."

Too often the processes of a magical effect exist to disguise the method and the effect on the audience is not so much magical as confusing.  One thinks immediately of the 21-Card Trick and its endless counting and pointing.  When you contrast that with magician shows hat empty and pulls rabbit from hat, you quickly understand the difference.

The last thing I wrote down was "You have to talk away the box."

To be frank, I no longer recall the context in which the remark was made, but as I reflect on my impressions of Mr. Swiss's presentation the comment makes sense to me as integral to the creation of a piece of theatre.  Absent supernatural forces, every effect will have a method that creates boundaries and limitations on the performer.  It is therefore incumbent upon them, through their scripting and presentation to deemphasize those limitations for the audience.

More easily said than done, but foundational to the creation of magical experiences.

Dare I say, "elementary?"

Saturday, November 3, 2012

P is for Part 3

The advent of Internet videos has unleashed a torrent of magic and powered many a hand-wringing column, blog post and conversation.  It has also created a slew of performers who can display their relative skills to the world with concern for audience response.

Approbation has been conflated with page views.

Real performance is a bi-directional process in real time, a conversation really between the magician and his audience.  And, like any conversation, it is made up of an unending series of adjustments and refinements in response to verbal and non-verbal cues passing back and forth over the footlights.

There is no virtual simulation for this, no matter how good your Internet connection.

To upgrade your skills as a performer, you have to perform in front of a living audience.

Preparing for those performance opportunities means doing what other performance artists have always done:  prepare, practice and rehearse.

I can recall my own early days in magic and how each time I would get a new trick, I would renew my commitment to being a better performer only to tear open the package, pour over the instructions and quickly become bored with the props.  And, like most game day prayers, my commitment to practicing would similarly evaporate.

It was only when challenged to "do a trick" that I would go back to my props and quickly try to put together a program based on my sketchy memory of the instructions I had read.  It's no surprise then that I never accomplished my goals in magic.

I bring all of this up by way of introduction to the lecture of Eugene Burger at the Genii 75th Anniversary Bash in Orlando.

By reputation, Burger is one of magic's revered philosopher kings.  He is as comfortable discussing theory and history as he is performing his torture-themed take on the Card Warp.

What is less clear until you see him in person is the mischievous twinkle in his eye.  He clearly enjoys confounding his audiences.  In my notebook I wrote "The Friar Tuck of Magic."

The premise of his lecture was "how can we make our shows better?"  Not how can we be better magicians, or how can we master a particular aspect of presentation, but how can we make our shows better.  How do magicians make better theatre?

In answer to his question, Mr. Burger went on to define what he felt were the four pillars of a good show.

Pillar I:  Practice
Burger is an advocate of regular and conscious practice.

While I can't pretend to speak for all, it seems that, for many, practice is too much like dieting:  they know they need to do it, but something more interesting always seems to get in the way.

It is for this reason that so many effects are sold as being "easy" and requiring little to no skill.

While I am certain it happens all the time, I am pretty sure Burger would maintain it was a mistake to confuse the skill requirement with the mandate to practice.  It may not take a lot of skill to operate a Svengali Deck, but it does take practice.

One of the key reasons for practicing is to empower the performer to not have to think about the procedure of the effect.  In Burger's words, "thinking kills magic."

Until the procedure of a given effect can be performed without thinking, in other words, until you can name the 16th letter of the alphabet without using your fingers or singing "The Alphabet Song" then you don't know the trick and need more practice.

Burger went on to say that practice should also be conscious.  This is to say that in practice the moves should be second nature to the performer but they should never be automatic.  The performer needs to pay attention to their practice so as not to learn bad habits.  The last thing one wants is to invest hours and hours perfecting a piece of "sneaky business" only to have it not be right for a particular effect.

Pillar II:  Rehearsal
Burger differentiated practice from rehearsal by saying that while practice can and should be done alone and in front of a mirror, rehearsal should be done in front of a camera and, as in the theatre, attempt to replicate as closely as possible actual show conditions.  And, Burger was careful to caution, it would serve the performer well to not always assume that the rehearsal audience is nice, or even interested in his magic.

The camera can be a useful tool for identifying procedural and presentational shortcomings but, like the Internet video performances of so many young magicians, it can blind the performer to angle issues that can crop up in the real world.  To receive maximum benefit from these rehearsals, the performer should move the camera to less-than-ideal angles.

Pillar III:  Scripting
Like practicing, magicians have heard about scripting their effects, but it too often falls off the preparation checklist.

Too many performers, especially beginners who specialize presenting other people's magic, believe that by repeating the presentation of the person who demonstrated the effect to them they will be "real magicians."  Worse, there are far too many who believe, mistakenly, that they have superior improvisational skills and they simply make up their presentation as they go along.

Burger's position is that a magic trick is a "picture without a frame" and it is through the scripting process that the performer provides a context for the effect.

It should be noted here that the script for a given effect has to also be consistent with the performer's onstage character.  This comes back to the magician as actor playing the part of a magician notion of Robert-Houdin.

Presuming I could master the Card Warp effect, it would no more make sense for me to repeat Burger's script than it would for David Copperfield to perform the endurance stunts of David Blaine.  Scripting is how the performer makes a particular effect part of their particular show.

And, from a purely technical perspective, the structure of a script provides the performer with a way of avoiding cluttering up the audience's experience of an effect with unnecessary verbiage--what Burger calls "verbal lint."  Improvisation can add energy to a performance, but the uncertainty can lead the performer--especially an inexperienced performer--to a dead end the only way out of which is more words and more audience confusion.

Pillar IV:  Critique
By investing in the first three pillars--practice, rehearsal and scripting--the performer should be more than ready to accept the feedback of a constructive critique.  Soliciting the comments of trusted fellow magicians and civilians, the performer can continue to adjust and correct aspects of their show so that they can be ready for an audience.

ByThe processes that Burger described are not static.  Much like then final performance, the process is bi-directional with each refinement impacting practice, scripting and rehearsal.  Each critique, like each, performance, informs the scripting, rehearsal and so on. 

Burger's Pillars are foundational to the creation of strong, individual performance and essential to beginning a real conversation with the audience.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Meet the Future

From ThisIsPlymouth.co.uk comes this story on local magician Alex Hansford, a recent winner of Rovi trophy at the British convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. 

According to the article, this is Mr. Hansford's second win of the trophy and it has gotten him thinking about putting off college for a year of travelling and street performing.

Here is a taste of Mr. Hansford's magic.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Our Chief Weapon Is...

A recurring theme in the notes I took at the Genii 75th Anniversary Bash has to do with magic as a theatrical form.

Like theatre, magic is primarily a medium of storytelling and the magical moment--when the trick happens--is not so much the climax of the story, but the inevitable outcome of bringing a specific set of elements into conflict with one another.

What does that mean?

Stories take many forms, but all involve conflict and resolution.  Whether we are talking about the Joads, or Indiana Jones, or a playing card that wants nothing more than to rise to the top of the pack, the storyteller's job is to set the scene, establish the characters, introduce obstacles, raise the stakes and resolve the story.

Stories are about transformation and so is magic.  Melodrama is about the peaks and valleys of experience, but truly powerful stories affect the characters and, by extension, the audience.

While it may seem that I am advocating for Sam the Bellhop as the apotheosis of magic tricks, I am merely pointing out that which was stated explicitly, or conveyed implicitly, by the lecturers in Orlando:  witnessing raw technical skill may be engaging to technicians, but lay audiences want to invest their attention in a compelling story.  Put another way, while the patient has a vested interest in the outcome of the surgery, only other surgeons care about what instruments were used during its performance.

I find it remarkable that so many of the presenters and performers who lectured at the convention chose as their performing character one who was equally amazed as the audience that a particular trick worked.  This was less a reflection on specific technical skill as a choice of framing for the audience.  The magic was happening for them at the same time as for the audience.

Case in point was Chad Long.  From the outset, he projected a torrent of nervous energy that clearly masked a high level of technical skill.

The note I took away from his presentation reads as follows:  "Take a thing they know..., add something and it's a new thing."

That's all I wrote down.  I have been trying to work out why that stuck with me long enough to find my pen and I think finally it has to do with surprise and storytelling.

We humans are quick to recognize patterns.  It is a fundamental component of our decision-making process.  We observe and then make predictions based on those observations.  Anyone who has ever pulled out to pass a car on a two-lane road will know exactly what I am talking about.

Storytellers use this primal skill against us as a way of sustaining out investment in the outcome of their tales.  They establish the conventions of their story and then intentionally subvert or destroy those conventions.  And magicians do this all the time, for what is a "kicker" ending if not a demonstration that the assumption of the audience are mostly, if not completely, in error.

Mr. Long's notion of taking the familiar and adding new elements to create a new "thing" speaks directly to this.

Surprise, this subversion of convention, is closely tied to the magical moment.  The power of the magician comes, in part, from the ability to present the idea that whether through skill, or "strange and hypnotic powers," they can, if only in the context of their performance, live outside the conventions to which the rest of us are held hostage.  When you or I put the "ambitious" card in the middle of the deck, it stays in the middle of the deck.  But when the magician does it, there are no rules, no telling where that card will end up.

A big part of the discoveries I made at this convention was in recognizing a kind of universal coherence across the various silos of my life.

After four decades of following magic and bemoaning my complete lack of skill, or ability to perform, I find that my "safety" interests in theatre and storytelling are more closely related to magic than I had once thought.  My appreciation for a well-told joke and the associated comedy arts draws on similar skills as those used by the magician.

I wrote earlier about wanting to master The Pass as a way of connecting to the sleight of hand masters.  This is still a goal, but I now understand that technical skill without context--without a good story--is like being a comedian without timing:  you may know where the punchline is, but nobody else will.

So, I will end this installment of my report on the conference by illustrating a combination of elements that in combination create a magical moment for the audience.



Saturday, October 20, 2012

I Went to a Mahvellous Party! - Part 1

I was privileged to be in Orlando for the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Genii Magazine.

Genie-in-Chief, Richard Kaufman has clearly been paying close attention as he has travelled the world attending magic conventions and that education paid off in spades at the event.

Every detail appears to have been carefully considered.

The selection of the Florida Hotel and Conference Center proved to be inspired.  Not only was there ample room for the lectures and performances (the dealer room might have been a little larger) but as it is connected to the Florida Mall, there were lots of dining options beyond the hotel fare.  In my experience, the hotel staff was unfailingly courteous and helpful and seemed bent on creating a positive experience for their guests--even the magicians.

I can't really talk about the convention without discussing the generous "gift bag" that was provided to each of the registrants. 

The "bag" turned out to be a deluxe portfolio with a 1-1/2" three-ring binder, notepad, calculator and pen included.  The folio needed to be that large in order to include all of the swag provided by the magazine and its partners.  It came stuffed with DVDs and cards and gaffs and manuscripts for all manner of tricks.  I still haven't managed to get through the whole thing! 

Another important choice made in the planning stages of the conference was to keep all the participants on a single track for the majority of the event.  This meant that, by and large, the participants were having the same experiences at the same time and did not have to choose which presenters they got to see and which ones they had to forgo.

Magic lectures are a unique experience.  For a culture renowned for its devotion to safeguarding secrets, lecturers routinely both perform and explain their techniques and thought processes.  Want to know how a magician can routinely deal himself a winning poker hand?  Come to a lecture and he will freely tell you.  And, in case you miss any of the subtleties, there is a video camera standing by to provide a close-up view that even those at the back of the hall can follow.

Somebody asked me yesterday what was the best trick I learned at the event.  This was a tough one for me, because I am not a performer, but I am fascinated by the performance of magic.  As I have written about elsewhere, the technology used is not very sophisticated, but the thinking is and the understanding of human perception and psychology is something that the so-called "hard sciences" are only now beginning to understand.

Did I come away from the conference with new tricks?  Not really.  What I did take away was a clearer understanding of how to think about magic.


John Carney: The Invisible Coins from HMNS on Vimeo.

From John Carney, I learned about how the actor who is playing the part of a magician should prepare for his role.  Carney referenced the Erdnase/Vernon credo of the naturalness of motion--the audience should not be able to tell the difference between an innocent move and a move concealing the "sneaky business."  "Over-selling" that the hands are empty, for example, may have the effect of convincing the audience that the performer has something to hide. 


Carney also made reference--the first of many--to Scottish magician John Ramsay's statement that if you want the audience to look at something, look at it yourself.  He did this in the context of demonstrating a coin vanish routine.  His position was that the performer should not call attention to the vanishing moment, but rather that the performer and the audience should "discover" the vanish together.

This is oversimplifying somewhat, but, in essence, Carney's advise was that, long after the sneaky business has happened and the coin has vanished, the performer should continue to present the "coin" to the audience in exactly the same way as he would if the coin were still there.  "Show it as you would actually show it," was the note I took at this point in his presentation.  If the performer believes that the coin is still there, the audience will too.

This goes to a larger and more theatrical point about the importance of the performer being fully present in the moment.  This is a subtext through several of the other lectures at the conference and one that I will keep coming back to.  The performance of magic is a shared experience and it is the job of the performer to do all of the necessary preparations so that he can do the sneaky business without thinking and concentrate on sharing something magical with the spectators.  The performer should be experiencing the magical moment for the first time right along with the spectators. 

Doing something "to" the audience is threatening.  Sharing something "with" the audience is powerful.  In the October issue of Magic Magazine, Joshua Jay writes about the "atfor dilemma" which is a variation of the same discussion.  His position is that it is better for the performer to perform "for" the audience rather than "at" them.

There's lots more to say, but this should do for the moment.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

John Calvert

From the Oakland Tribune in California comes this column about magician John Calvert's appearance before a group of fellow conjurors in Oakland.

Here is a conversation with Calvert about his life and career.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Set Your DVR

Steve Cohen, the Millionaire's Magician will hosting a two-hour special on the History Channel on Thursday, October 18th.

You can read more about the special here and see the trailer below.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

I Break for Science

I heard this interview on yesterday's edition of Talk of the Nation Science Friday on NPR.

Anytime there is talk about how easy it is to fool the brain, they have my attention.

What makes this relevant for this blog is their discussion about creating illusions of time--time misdirection, if you will.  That they have proven in the lab something that magicians have built careers on is in and of itself interesting, but that that same principle might now be used to treat people living with schizophrenia has literally caused my worlds to collide.

So, stop what you're doing and have a listen.

Monday, July 30, 2012

I Need Time to Process

Tonight, I had the great good fortune to see the Penn & Teller show at the Rio in Las Vegas and I couldn't be happier.

I had seen a travelling show some years ago when they came through Columbus and I have, as I have demonstrated throughout this blog, been following their work, but nothing compares to seeing them live.  It is to witness mastery.

I will write more later--sorry about your luck--but let me say that if you can, you should get out to Las Vegas and see a great piece of theatre that has some good magic in it.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

When All is Said and Done

I have been away from this blog for too long.  It's not that I ran out of things to say, it was that I never have seemed to have the time to say them.

For my birthday, I got a copy of "Maestro" the 4-disc celebration of the work of Argentine poet Rene Levand.

You won't find his work in the poetry section of Barnes &Noble, but rather one the shelves and websites of your favorite magic suppliers.
 
Levand is a magician in the same way that a Lamborghini is a car:  while the props may be familiar, in his hand the cards, the crumbs, even the tea cup become something more. They become transparent. They are the means to convey an idea and each idea in turn becomes part of a larger philosophy.

I wrote elsewhere about the poetry of Steinmeyer's Origami illusion as performed by David Copperfield.  The right effect presented in the right way and under the right conditions becomes more than the sum of its parts and it transcends the "catch me if you can" performer-audience dynamic.  It is so secondary to the experience of watching the piece that thoughts of "how" are drowned out and washed away.  It is almost as though the surprise of discovering that, as an audience member, you are still capable of being amazed drowns out everything else.

Levand is able to do the same thing without the Peter Gabriel, without the atmospherics, without the beautiful assistants and without his right hand.

I make this association not to compare and contrast performers--each are masters of their media--but to suggest something of the impact that is possible when talent and creativity are brought to the service of a singular vision.

I don't remember how I first came across Levand and his work, but I recall seeing a performance of "It Can't Be Done Any Slower"--a six-card Oil and Water routine--and being completely captvated by this man who looked like a beloved family friend and, even though limited by working through a translator, was able to convey a casual charm that made the audience hang on his every word.




On the DVD, Levand talks about his inspirations.  He makes reference to great composers and other magicians, a poet and Mae West.

In translation, he says he remembered a quote of hers that informs his work:  "The thing is not what you say, but in how you say it.  The thing is not what you do, but in how you do it.  And, especially how it looks when it is said and done."

And while her selection as one of his influences may seem strange when placed next to Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, her philosophy is most especially relevant for magicians.
The props and techniques used by the close-up magician are relatively few in number and many performers tend to visit the same "classic" plots in their performances so what then is there to differentiate one performer from the other? What makes one an artist and the other a craftsman?

I once had a colleague who taught film theory and criticism.  He kept a sign in his office that said something to the effect of "And what is the audience doing during all of this?"

That is the question that all artists need to answer.  Whatever your medium, it is far too easy to become seduced by techniques.  Learning the latest knuckle-busting move is a challenge and, once mastered, can become the go-to tool for every situation irrespective of whether or not it's the right tool.

I heard one account of the famous encounter between Harry Houdini and the legendary Dai Vernon in which Vernon is said to have fooled Houdini with a card trick even after repeating it 7 times in a row.  In this account, the speaker says that Vernon, an expert in sleight of hand, performed an Ambitious Card effect using a gaff.  No sleights, but rather the genius of the printer's art in order to fool the one-time "King of Cards." 

I don't know if it's true and it really doesn't matter.  It illustrates the idea that effects are designed for an audience and technique, while important, is secondary to "how it looks when it is said and done."

In his mid-eighties, Levand continues to adapt his technique as he experiences greater and greater physical limitations.  That he has osteoarthritis in his hand has meant that he has changed how he performs and has become "more artistic."

The DVD set is aptly named "Maestro" because it not only documents a life's work, it also is full of many important lessons that can only be learned from a perceptive and gifted teacher.

More than a simple recipe book full of tricks, "Maestro" will guide the viewer toward being a better artist by providing them with a way to approach their magic in a more thoughtful manner.

I am grateful to Luis de Matos for producing this testament to the art of magic.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

A Tourist in the House of Magic

One of the best writers working in magic is also a working magician.  His name is Jamy Ian Swiss.  Mr. Swiss periodically reviews books for Genii magazine and, in their most recent issue, he reviewed "Fooling Houdini" by Alex Stone.

To provide some context, let me first share a post about Mr. Stone's book, including a video promo, as it was presented on BoingBoing.net.

Now, let me share Mr. Swiss's review as posted on the Genii forum.  The review is posted as part of a discussion regarding the book, so you may have to scroll up to find it.  It was posted by Genii-in-Chief Richard Kaufman.

Finally, historian, magician, actor Ricky Jay wrote this review for the Wall Street Journal.

I started to write this blog in part because I was inspired by the work of Mr. Swiss and driven by the idea that I should write about something I know and which holds my interest.  I post this sequence about Mr. Stone's book because I wonder whether I am not guilty of the same kind of intellectual tourism.

There is no question but that it is fun to imagine oneself on the side of the angels when it comes to picking on a so-called outsider who imagines himself worthy of entry into one of magic's most prestigeous competitions and then publishes a book disclosing tricks and techniques.  It is, however, a form of looting, of saying "are too!" after the primary combatants have staked out their territory.

Truth to tell, I am not so sure where I stand when it comes to the disclosure of secrets.  I have made a point of not doing so in this blog because that was never the point.  I have also written elsewhere that being aware of techniques and methods makes watching the performances of true masters all the more impressive.  It is much the same as how having a visceral sense of what it takes to make a piece of wood do what you want can make you really appreciate the artistry of fine cabinetry.

Does that mean that all secrets to all magic tricks should be disclosed?

Absolutely not.

I don't think that disclosing trade secrets to inflate book sales or television ratings is by any means justified.  It would be like staging car accidents for the benefit of rubberneckers.  Having said that, I think that there was some merit in the rationalization used by Val Valentino in his role as the Masked Magician.  His position is that in disclosing techniques and methods he is hoping to push the art forward, to motivate magicians to create new effects and new methods.

 

Taken at face value, it would be tough to argue that any endeavor does not benefit from periodic self-examination and reinvention.

Magic will survive this dust-up just as it survived the publication  of earlier "exposes" such as "Great Magician's Tricks" in 1931 and "The Discoverie of Witchcraft" in 1584.

But there may be a bigger point missed in this conversation. 

As I have said before, in and of themselves, the technologies used by magicians to accomplish their effects are uninteresting.  Whereas one might imagine complex technologies employed to accomplish a particular effect, it is more often the case that it is unremarkable--more on the order of a bit of thread and a piece of wax than computers and lasers.  And this might explain why, once the secret is disclosed, the trick as a "trick" loses its appeal. 

While we may all be familiar with thread and wax and mirrors, we lack the skill and experience to combine these items in a way to create a magical effect.  Revealing the secret does not close the gap between magician and audience member, it makes it wider.  As Valentino says in the video, the "secret" of any magic trick is only one small part of the "magic."  In the same way, Mr. Jay writes in his review," that a performance is often the product of a collaboration between a variety of artists and technicians in addition to the performer, the "secret" is but one link in the supply chain that stretches from the conception to the performance of any effect.

Whether performed on a street corner or in a purpose-built venue, magic is a theatrical form where context, light, shadow, sound, choreography, form and textures combine to create the illusion. 

In the same issue of Genii wherein the Swiss review of Mr. Stone's book was published, there is an interview with Spanish magician Miguel Angel Gea.  Early on, he imagines a time when magic competitions such as the FISM contest that Mr. Stone entered will have only one category in which all performances will be judged:  theatricality.

"Fooling Houdini" is a title designed to attract the casual book buyer, but it is also a reference to an encounter between the renowned escapologist Houdini and the Canadian magician Dai Vernon.  Depending on the account, it is said that Houdini was boasting of his expertise with cards and how he began his career billing himself as "King of Cards."  Vernon, who made a lifelong study of card techniques, proceded to show Houdini an Ambitious Card effect that complete fooled the king seven times.

While the trick used to fool Houdini was not new, Vernon's approach, the unique way in which his skills as a performer meshed with his skills as a technician, made the effect into magic.  This is magic's biggest and only real secret.  You cannot pick up a pack of cards and go directly to magic's "Mount Olympus" expecting to be crowned King of Cards.  To expect otherwise is to truly engage in magical thinking.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Everything You Need to Know

This brief article from the Smithsonian Magazine contains everything you need to know about how magic works. Leave it to Teller to say a lot without having to say very much.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Meeting the Elusive Moth

The greatest trick ever performed by a magician is to inspire others to take up the art.  Each of us who has ever dabbled with a Svengali deck or the Ball and Vase has been engaged by seeing another performer.  While the bulk of the audience may be fooled, there are always a few in every audience who become motivated to learn the secrets and possibly even become performers themselves.

In my case, it was from seeing Magic Tom on local TV in Montreal, seeing Mark Wilson on the talk shows and watching The Amazing Kreskin who, in those days, had a weekly TV show.  For those who have come after me, those inspirations might be David Blaine and David Copperfield.  For those who came before, it was for several generations, Blackstone.

http://www.otrcat.com/z/blackstonesignede.gif
Harry Blackstone, Sr. was among the last of the great touring magicians.  Each summer, he and his company would set out from their summer quarters in Michigan to work the circuit of theatres and auditoria throughout the United States and Canada.

Blackstone was a popular name because he put on a popular, fast moving show that was a hit with children and their parents.  Perhaps the most accurate measure of his popularity was that he became the subject of both a comic book series and a weekly radio program.

Blackstone represents a link to the days of Thurston and Houdini, of Carter and Kellar.

One of the classic effects in magic is the Linking Rings.  Like the soliloquies of Shakespeare, this is one of those effects that tests the mettle of every performer.  Though well-known, the effect still has the capacity to inspire and amaze.  Done poorly, the Rings can speak volumes about missed opportunities and misunderstanding.



The Linking Rings are also an appropriate metaphor for the history and culture of magic itself.  Each period in magic is its own closed loop that is seemingly impossible to penetrate.  These rings overlap with each new generation and there inevitably arrives students who seek out the wisdom of their predecessors and use that knowledge to create their own period.  And like that, the rings become linked.

Lance Burton promoted his show as being of a tradition that stretched back through Lee Grabel to Dante, to Howard Thurstan to Harry Kellar to Alexander Hermann.


* * *

I recently attended Magi-Fest in Columbus. 

For 81 years, magicians from all over the middle of the country have gathered in Columbus to talk magic and learn from its leading practitioners.  There is camaraderie, competition, conversation and lots and lots of magic.

A focal point of this, or any other magic convention, is the dealer room.  This is an opportunity to sample the wares of leading manufacturers and resellers from around the country.  In the absence of access to a real brick and mortar magic shop, this is when you can actually put your hands on the latest and the newest that you may have only read about online or in your favorite magazine.

The days are filled with lectures by visiting experts and the evenings are taken up with performances. 

At the Friday night show, a number of notables were introduced from the audience and this was how I learned that Adele Friel Rhindress was at the convention.

Adele was an assistant with Blackstone during the last years of his two-and-a-half-hour evening show, is one of only 5 people from that period who is still alive and, as she said, "the only one who's talking."  She feels a real responsibility to make sure that history records the experience accurately.

When they introduced her from the stage I was impressed, but I thought that I would never get a chance to meet her, or talk to her.  I am a shy person.

The next afternoon--the last day of the convention--and after making a final pass through the dealer room during which I purchased a copy of Adele's memoir from Abbott's Magic, a company that was founded by Percy Abbott who used to work with Blackstone, I went into the common area to examine my purchases and figure out what session I would go to next.

Across the room from me, I noticed Adele seated at a table with maybe four conventioneers.  She was signing copies of her book and telling stories.

One of the guys at the table was keeping an eye on a video camera that was running in the background.

They were getting their books signed.  I would like to have my book signed.  How could I ask her to sign my book?

She was right there, a link to another ring and I didn't know how to ask her to sign my book.

Should I ask?  Is it too rude?

I packed up my purchases and walked across the foyer to stand at her table.

She was in the middle of a story and I didn't want to interrupt.

I stood there a little longer.

I think she noticed me and was about to speak to me when a couple of guys came out of the dealer room and she knew one of them who quickly introduced her to the other and they were off into a whole different conversation.

I decided to go get a coffee.

When I came back, Adele was still there talking and signing.

What to do?

Finally, I got up the gumption to approach one of the other guys who was waiting to have his book signed and asked him if it would be too rude to have her sign mine.

How pathetic is that?

He invited me to join the line.

As it turned out, Adele was not just repeating the same anonymous inscription from one book to the next, but rather she was interviewing each person to find out about their connection to magic so that she could write something personal in each one.  And in the course of each of these mini-interviews she would connect to some aspect of her personal story and she would share an anecdote either from her days with the Blackstone show, or from her re-entry to the world of magic.

She talked about being energized by being with "her people."

The Blackstone show as she knew it closed in 1950 and it wasn't until 2006 that she returned to magic and began thinking about telling her story.  She read a book about her old boss and noticed a number of errors and omissions.  She contacted the author and he managed to persuade her to relate some of her stories.  Unbeknownst to her, he had those reminiscences assembled into a manuscript and set the pages to Adele to edit.  And, as if by magic, her book appeared late last year.

Adele spoke of her "best friend in magic," Terry Evanswood and how he brought her to Magi-Fest and provided her with a hotel room and how he was going to put her in his performance for the conference's closing night.  She met him, almost by accident, at another convention in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  He is a magician and, as it would turn out, a huge collector of Blackstoniana--if there is such a word.

As I waited my turn to have my book signed, I heard her make several references to the slight breakfast she had had many hours earlier and that she need to have something to eat before that night's performance.

It seemed the least I could do to take charge of making sure she got something to eat and, as a result, I got to be her lunch date.

What an honor!
* * *

At one point, while I was standing at a respectful distance from the table, I watched a couple of young guys walk out of the dealer room and past Adele's table.  They both took note of the table and the video camera and one of them turned to the other and said, "What's that?"  The other guy took a second look and said, "I don't know," and they walked on without ever breaking stride.

Adele and her colleagues are the reason those two and every other person was at this convention.  Through her work, she lit a spark in someone who kept the spirit of magic alive so hat it could be passed from one generation to the next.

With so many discovering magic through the Internet it is all to easy to lose sight of what came before.  With the latest custom printed playing cards and transistorized trickery in hand, we stop thinking about those who came before and were able to make a living with a bit of thread and some wax.

It is fitting that Adele's book is called "Memoirs of an Elusive Moth."  The "Elusive Moth" was a signature illusion in the Blackstone show but the moth is also an appropriate metaphor for magic and its history.

Not only is it ephemeral and difficult to capture, but it can be easy to overlook and gone before you know it.

At 86, Adele spoke of preferring to be around "her people" than those "old fogeys," but it is all of us who are moths to the flame of magic that she and those like her kept alight.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Rath of the Magi

Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection this week.

It may not seem like a big deal.  We all have cameras on our phones and tablets and computers and pens and clock radios.  It seems like you can't go anywhere without being observed and recorded, so the idea of capturing memories, the "times of your life" doesn't seem nearly as novel as it did when our parents put away their bulky, smelly Polaroid and brought out the Instamatic.  That was progress, we were suddenly living in the future where the family could pose around the fireplace at Christmas and, somewhere between two weeks and two years--depending on how quickly the roll of film was used up--the image would come back.

Instead of the black and white Polaroid pictures that you had to apply a fixative to and which always seemed to curl up, you got back square color prints that laid flat and seemed to multiply all by themselves. 

All through the business press there has been hand wringing about the death throes of a 131 year-old company that virtually invented the personal photography category.  Why didn't they recognize that the market was moving?  Why were they not more aggressive in embracing digital photography?  Why did they always seem to be following and never leading?  Since August there have been stories in the press about the possible sale of a portion of Kodak's vast patent portfolio as a way for them to return to profitability.  This is the corporate equivalent of the ancient WASP dictum to never spend principal and not unlike closing the barn door after the horses are gone.

All of this  brought to mind the continuing debate in the magic community about the effect of YouTube and other video sharing sites are having on the art.

The concern is that the ready availability of these sites has made it a simple matter for amateurs to traffic in the secrets of the craft.  No good trick goes unrevealed.  These are the secrets that are the bread and butter of their inventors and people should have to pay for access to them.

I understand the argument in so far as the livelihood of the invetors is concerned, but I also think that services like YouTube provide a valuable research tool for people who are serious about magic.

When I first became interested in magic, in the dark days before the Internet, I would read the magazines and come across references to performers and to moves that were presented in such a way as to assume that all the readers would know to whom, or what, was being referred.  Like the old line "if you have to ask about the price then you can't afford it" not following the references suggested that you were not sufficiently inside to be accessing this material.

Video sharing has brought the modern masters of the craft within reach of enthusiastic amateurs like me.  I can call up Dai Vernon and see his performance of the Cups and Balls.  I can see Cardini's famous act.  I can see Fred Kaps' famous salt pour.

And if I'm reading the description of a particular effect, I can often find a performance of it online or of some of its component moves.  I can only speak for myself, but this is a huge advantage in understanding.

There is no doubt that secrets are disclosed, but, finally, I don't think this is a bad thing. 

I don't say that as an open invitation for the rath of the magi, but because I think that secrets are only a small part of a magician's real power as a performer.  As noted elsewhere, it is one thing to know the secret of the Cups and Balls and quite another to be able to present them as artfully as Dai Vernon.  You can look up the secret of the Miser's Dream and never touch the presentation given by Penn and Teller.



I mention Kodak because I think the horses have left the barn with respect to protecting magic's secrets on the Internet.  The choice now becomes whether to engage in a draconian style market-following response such as SOPA and PIPA or to lead the conversation.

If inventors don't want to see poor quality web cam productions of their latest creations then they should put out material themselves.

I'm not suggesting that they don't post the $29.95 miracle deck and DVD with special bonus features, but to post a lesser trick with household items and use a tool like iTunes, or similar.  Imagine learning a new card trick for ninety-nine cents. 

Wouldn't the world be a slightly better place if beginners learned how to do the Twenty-One Card Trick from a pro?

There is magic available for download through a variety of sites but at price points around ten dollars and above, it limits access and promotes piracy.  I am suggesting a lower threshold for less revolutionary material so that would-be students can learn a simple bill switch or color change from a good teacher that is well-produced.  These were the gateway tricks for us when we started with magic and, judging from the number of posted videos, there is no reason to believe that this will not continue to be the case.  By feigning outrage and looking down their noses, Magic will force more bedroom productions and take a leadership role in its own debasement.

The public doesn't hate magic; they want to be amazed.  They have a low regard for bad performers.  Addressing that is where Magic should focus its ire.  Magic's body of knowledge is primarily focused on its secrets and its past while the future is at the gates and clamoring to get in.  They are talking among themselves and trading in secrets because that's what they see the insiders doing. 

Were Magic to open its doors a little wider it would not only grow the community it would also grow its marketplace for more and better secrets.

The learning model for magic is as outdated as chemical-based photography.  And until Magic accepts this, it will forever be playing defense and closing the doors on the empty barns.