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.