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It's Clever ... But Is It Magic?

Having been present when literally thousands of "ordinary people" have seen magicians perform, live, I heard one comment from these people, as they walked away afterwards, more than any other: "it's very clever".

I'm sure it was always meant as a sincere compliment, but it got me thinking about whether that's an appropriate or desired response.

I'd been wondering for some time about what magic really meant to me (I'm purely an amateur, so can't use the valid and easy answer that "it's a way of earning my living"), and I'd sort of come to the conclusion some time ago that I didn't want to be perceived as a 'card juggler".

By using this term, I'm certainly not trying to denigrate those who have superb technical, sleight of hand skills, but that persona simply wasn't for me. I appreciate skill as much as anybody, and there's a place for such a semi-open display of technical ability, such as in gambling demonstrations.

I also accept that most magic requires skill(s) at some level in order to produce the desired result, but those skills should be hidden, not part of the show.

For me, magic should be about making the impossible seem possible, and if your audience can go away with the perception that it's your ability to manipulate a deck of cards, or coins, or whatever other props you choose to use, that has caused the "magic" to happen, then I would consider myself to have failed.

You see, I subscribe to the belief that your audience should not be able to come up with any explanation at all about how the effect was achieved. I can't remember who first said this, but I think this is what makes magic so different from every other art form.

I'm not saying it has to be deadly serious, or that you have to pretend you have supernatural powers, but it also has to be, for me, more than mere entertainment. (Again, this is perhaps the privilege of one who doesn't rely on magic for a living!)

There's a place for jokes and gags, of course, but at the end of the day, magicians should be creating something much more than a few minutes of eye candy. We have the ability to bring a few moments of joy into their lives, for sure, but we can also inspire people, and make them consider fundamental questions about the nature of our world.

And I guess this is why I have never enjoyed many styles of magic very much - even since before it became a hobby when I was 16 years old. In particular, stage illusions were always a case, to me, of "trick boxes" - I may not have known how they worked, but that the secret lay in the box itself was never in doubt in my mind.

So, that reduces some magic to the level of puzzles - clever puzzles, indeed, but there's that word "clever" again.

I realise I may be offending some magicians with these comments, but they are only, after all, my opinions, and there are enough styles of magic to go around for everybody to carve out their little niche.

And I'm not just having a go at illusionists either. (After all, who am I to question the genius of people such as Jim Steinmeyer?) A lot of stage magic, especially, falls into this category to me too - we've probably all seen the "prop" magician who looks more like they're doing a "dealer dem", picking up one prop after another for an entire act.

We've probably also met those magicians whose real love is in performing "difficult" sleights - they spend years, in some cases, practising and perfecting moves that nobody is meant to even see. And this approach is fine too - in the presence of other magicians at the local club.

But whatever type of magic you choose to perform, I've definitely backed away from the flourishes and the fancy shuffles that scream out that you know your way around a deck of cards just a little too well. I suppose that, when you hear that well-worn phrase, "I wouldn't want to play cards with you", then you've already destroyed the illusion of magic and replaced it with a very real demonstration of manual dexterity.

Anyway, back to my musings.

Now, the implications of this approach are pretty huge!

For one, it severely limits the magic you can perform, as Darwin Ortiz has pointed out in his latest book, Designing Miracles.

(This book, by the way, has crystallised many of my own thoughts on magic that I've never quite been able to put into words. It's an excellent read, is well written, and should be on every magician's "must read" list.)

After all, how many tricks can you think of where there is no possible explanation, regardless of whether people are right or not?

For a start, almost every card trick that begins with the request to "pick a card" would be out. And so would a lot of coin magic (much of which I find boring anyway - and, yes, I can hear the hisses and boos already). I've already talked about prop magic, including illusions, so that's another entire genre gone.

So, what tricks would I consider to be "good magic" (i.e. ones that meet the criteria for "no possible explanation")?

I guess the trick at the top of my list would be Paul Curry's incredible Out Of This World (and I include some of the many variations on this effect too, such as Out Of This Universe, and Cosmos).

A lot of Simon Aronson's magic does it for me too, mainly because so much of his work has a truly "hands off" approach - you really don't appear to do anything.

I would include much of the artistic magic of Rene Lavand and the late, great Tommy Wonder's magic, Jon Allen's Destination Box, a lot of mental magic (especially the "propless" kind), Pavel's Super Walking Knot and, dare I say it, the classic Linking Rings.

The list probably goes on and on, but then when you apply filters to this list based on factors such as your performing style, the venues where you perform, your technical ability and even your body shape, then I think you'll find the list shrinks quite rapidly.

So, whether you agree with me or not, I hope this gets you thinking about your magic some more, and to me, the most important question is probably deciding what impression you want to create with your magic.

© Mark Farrar, April 2007

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