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Magicians and
Magic History
Magic, also known as prestidigitation and conjuring, is the art of entertaining
an audience by performing illusions that entertain, baffle and amaze, often by
giving the impression that something impossible has been achieved. Yet, this
illusion of magic is created entirely by natural means. The practitioners of
this mystery art may be called magicians, table magicians, close up magicians,
conjurors, illusionists or prestidigitators. Artists in other media such as
theatre, cinema, dance and the visual arts increasingly work using similar means
but regard their magical techniques as of secondary importance to the goal of
creating a complex cultural performance.
Magicians
Performances we would recognize as conjuring have probably been practiced
throughout history. The same ingenuity behind ancient deceptions such as the
Trojan horse would have been used for entertainment, or at least for cheating in
gambling games, since time immemorial. However, the respectable profession of
the illusionist gained strength during the eighteenth century, and has enjoyed
several popular vogues.
Modern entertainment magic owes much of its origins to Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin
(1805-1871), originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in the
1840s. His specialty was the construction of mechanical automata which appeared
to move and act as if they were alive. The British performer J N Maskelyne and
his partner Cooke established their own theatre, the Egyptian Hall in London's
Piccadilly, in 1873. They presented stage magic, exploiting the potential of the
stage for hidden mechanisms and assistants, and the control it offers over the
audience's point of view. The greatest celebrity magician of the nineteenth
century, Harry Houdini (real name Erich Weiss, 1874 - 1926), took his stage name
from Robert-Houdin and developed a range of stage magic tricks, many of them
based on escapology (though that word was not used until after Houdini's death).
The son of a Hungarian rabbi, Houdini was genuinely highly skilled in techniques
such as lock picking and escaping straitjackets, but also made full use of the
whole range of conjuring techniques. Houdini's show business savvy was as great
as his performing skill. In addition to expanding the range of magic hardware,
showmanship and deceptive technique, these performers established the modern
relationship between the performer and the audience.
In this relationship, there is an unspoken agreement between the magicians and
the audience about what is going on. Unlike in the past, almost no performers
today actually claim to possess supernatural powers. It is understood by
everyone that the effects in the performance are accomplished through sleight of
hand (also called legerdemain), misdirection, deception, collusion with a member
of the audience, apparatus with secret mechanisms, mirrors, and other trickery
(hence the illusions are commonly referred to as "tricks"). The performer seeks
to present an effect so clever and skilful that the audience cannot believe
their eyes, and cannot think of the explanation. The sense of bafflement is part
of the entertainment. In turn, the audience play a role in which they agree to
be entertained by something they know to be a deception. This is one of the few
situations in which people willingly allow themselves to be lied to, and the
audience trusts the performer not to exploit this, for example by cheating them
out of money. Houdini strengthened this trust by using his knowledge of
illusions to debunk charlatans, a tradition continued by magicians such as James
Randi, P.C. Sorcar, and Penn and Teller.
Today (2006), the art is enjoying a vogue driven by a number of highly
successful performers that specialize as either stage, TV or close up magicians.
The mid twentieth century saw magic transform in different aspects: some
performers preferred to renovate the craft on stage - such as The Mentalizer
Show in Times Square which dared to combine spirituality and the ancient wisdom
of kabbalah with the art of magic - others successfully made the transition to
TV, which opens up new opportunities for deceptions. A widely accepted code has
developed, in which TV magicians can use all the traditional forms of deception,
but should not resort to camera tricks, editing the videotape, or other TV
special effects - this makes deception too "easy", in the popular mind. Most TV
magicians are shown performing before a live audience, who provide the remote
viewer with a reassurance that the effect is not obtained by camera tricks.
Categories of illusions
Although there is much discussion among magicians as to how an effect is to be
categorized, and in fact, disagreements as to what categories actually exist --
for instance, some magicians consider "penetrations" to be a separate category,
others consider penetrations a form of restoration -- it is generally agreed
that there are very few different types of illusions.
Perhaps because it is considered a magic number, it has often been said that
there are only seven types of illusion:
Production
The magician pulls a rabbit from an empty hat; a fan of cards from 'thin air'; a
shower of coins from an empty bucket; or appears in a puff of smoke on an empty
stage-- all of these effects are productions, the magician produces "something
from nothing".
Vanish
The magician snaps their fingers and a coin disappears; places a dove in a cage,
and the bird vanishes, puts a silk into his fist and opens his hands revealing
nothing, or waves a magic wand and the Statue of Liberty has magically gone. A
vanish, being the reverse of a production, sometimes uses a similar technique,
in reverse.
Transformation
The magician has a volunteer pick a card, from a deck, and with a flourish,
shows the wrong card, then the magician magically changes the card to the
correct card chosen.
Or, a dog is placed in a cage, the cage is covered with a cloth, which is
immediately whisked from the cage, and the dog has become a tiger. A bowl of
fire may become a dove. Transformations change one thing into another. Or, into
several others.
Restoration
The cut-and-restored rope is a restoration: a rope is cut into two pieces, the
two pieces are tied together, the knot vanishes, leaving one piece of rope. A
newspaper is torn to bits. The magician rubs the pieces together and the
newspaper becomes whole. A woman is sawn into two separate parts (an apparent
hemicorporectomy), and then magically rejoined. A card is torn in fourths and
then restored piece by piece to a normal state. Restorations put something back
into the state it once was.
Teleportation
A teleportation transfers an object from one place to another. something is
vanished, then later found inside a tightly bound bag, which is inside a box
that is tied shut, inside another box, which is in a locked box... all of which
were across the stage.
The magician locks their assistant in a cage, then locks them self in another.
Both cages are uncovered and the pair have magically exchanged places. This is a
transposition, a simultaneous, double teleportation.
The magician climbs on a motorcycle, rides it into a crate, the crate is hoisted
in the air. The motorcycle instantly appears, engine roaring, in the middle of
the audience, 80 feet away, with the magician astride it. In a teleportation,
something magically moves from one place to another.
Levitation
The magician "puts his assistant into a trance" and then floats her up into the
air, passing a ring around her body to show that there are 'no wires' supporting
her. A close-up magician folds up a borrowed note, and then floats it in the
air. A playing card hovers over a deck of cards. A silk scarf dances in a sealed
bottle. Levitations are illusions where the conjurer magically raises something
-- possibly including the magician him or herself -- into the air.
Penetration
In which one solid object passes through another. The magician links two solid
steel rings, or the cup and balls trick in which the foam balls pass through the
cup are penetration illusions.
Secrecy
The purpose of a magic trick is to entertain, amuse and create a feeling of
wonder; the audience is generally aware that the magic is performed using
trickery, and derives enjoyment from the magician's skill. Usually, magicians
will refuse to reveal their methods to the audience. The reasons for these
include:
Exposure is claimed to "kill" magic as an art form and transforms it into mere
intellectual puzzles and riddles. It is argued that once the secret of a trick
is revealed to a person, he or she can no longer fully enjoy subsequent
performances of the trick, as the amazement is missing.
Some magicians have taken the controversial position that revealing the methods
used in certain tricks can enhance the appreciation of the audience for how
clever the trick is. Some frequently perform tricks using transparent props to
reveal how it is done, although they almost always include additional
unexplained tricks at the end that are made even more astonishing by the
revealing props being used.
Often what seems to be a revelation of a magical secret is merely another form
of misdirection. For instance, a magician may explain to an audience member that
the linking rings "have a hole in them" and hand the volunteer two unlinked
rings, which the volunteer finds to have become linked as soon as he handles
them. At this point the magician may make a gesture at the open space in the
center of the ring as he jokingly says “theres the hole in the centre”.
Types of magic performance
Magic performances fall into three broad genres:
Close-up magic, also known as table magic or close up table magic, is
performed with the audience close to the magician, possibly in physical contact.
Close up magicians usually makes use of everyday items as props, such as cards
and coins. Close-up magic is a form of magical entertainment that happens right
in front of you, magic you can not only see but feel and touch. This intimacy is
what makes it so different from other types of magic. And it is this that has
probably made it the most popular type of magic performed today. An expert
close-up magician will involve and interact with the audience far more than a
stage or platform magician.
Platform magic, in which the magician stands while performing and is seen
by more people simultaneously than the close-up performer.
Stage magic, which is performed for large audiences, typically within an
auditorium. This type of magic is distinguished by elaborate, large-scale props.
Other specialties or niches have been created:
Bizarre magic, which uses metaphysical, horror, fantasy and other similar
themes in performance. Bizarre magic is typically performed in a close-up venue,
although some performers have effectively presented it in a stage setting.
Mentalism, which creates the impression in the minds of the audience that
the performer possesses special powers to read thoughts, predict events, control
other minds.
Shock magic is a genre of magic that shocks the audience, hence the name.
Sometimes referred to as "geek magic", it takes its roots from circus sideshows,
in which "freakish" performances were shown to audiences. Common shock magic or
geek magic effects include knife-through-arm and pen-through-tongue.
Techniques
Close up magic relies mostly on sleight of hand in which skilful manipulation of
cards, coins and other props enables an effect to be created. For example, the
appearance that an item has vanished (or been produced) can be achieved by a
sleight.. There is a wide range of sleights for vanishing, producing, and
switching items.
Sleights require a good deal of practice to perform convincingly, and so many
beginners are attracted to close up tricks based on hardware gimmicks. However,
most shop-bought gimmicks are usually obvious to the audience for what they are,
even if the exact mechanism is not understood. Some professional magicians do
use hardware gimmicks, but tend to base their acts on skill with sleight of hand
as the main foundation. Some magicians see gimmicks and sleight of hand as a
means to an end, and use a combination of both.
One principle that underlies virtually all magic tricks is misdirection, which
is the act of drawing the audience's attention to one location while, in another
location, the magician performs a crucial manipulation undetected. An
experienced performer can force the audience to look, however briefly, in a
certain direction, and use this as cover for what the other hand is doing. This
is the basic idea of misdirection, although it can become very sophisticated and
subtle for an advanced magician. These are based on the natural instincts of a
human being, relating to psychology.
Misdirection, manual dexterity with sleight of hand. along with theatrical
acting abilities and also NLP can help to improve how the magic is perceive by
the audience, These elements show the difference between an experienced magician
and a beginner, even if they were to perform the same effect
Early American Magicians
Most of the British Colonies of
North America were under the strong influence of Puritanism, which frowned on
all idle amusements as works of the devil. Magicians were outlawed in some
colonies. Only in Dutch New Amsterdam were such entertainers well received and
permitted to perform.
The general lack of acceptance in
the colonies may have prompted the first outstanding American magician, Jacob
Meyer, to make his reputation in Europe during the second half of the 18th
century. He adopted the name of his birthplace, Philadelphia, and traveled
Europe entertaining royalty and the general public under the name Jacob
Philadelphia. He even reached Russia, where he performed his illusions for
Catherine the Great. In 1774 he published 'Little Treatise on Strange and
Suitable Feats'. This was the first magic book by an American-born magician.
By the time of the American
Revolution, public attitudes toward magicians had become more tolerant. Several
European illusionists made their way to the United States after 1776. Among them
were Peter Gardiner, Hyman Saunders, and John Rannie. One of Gardiner's feats
was stretching himself between two chairs, with his head on one and his feet on
the other. He lay there as a member of the audience used a sledge hammer to
break a rock placed on his stomach. Saunders was able to remove a man's shirt
without disturbing the jacket or vest. Rannie was a ventriloquist and juggler as
well as an illusionist.
The first native-born American to
succeed as a magician in the United States was Richard Potter, the son of a
slave woman. He was usually taken to be an American Indian or a native of India.
His career lasted from about 1805 until his death in 1835. He, too, was a
juggler and ventriloquist.
While Potter's career was
progressing, a former soldier was working as a magician in the Midwest then
still mostly frontier. Eugene Leitensdorfer was born in northern Italy. He went
to the United States in 1809 and began performing in 1814. His most fascinating
illusion was restoring a playing card that had been burned to ashes.
In 1835 Antonio Blitz arrived
from Europe. He was basically a showman who used magic in his acts. His
illusions were always accompanied by humor. Laughter and mystification were his
goals. Catching a bullet in midair was among his tricks.
Scots-born John Henry Anderson,
who performed throughout Europe and the United States, was another consummate
showman. He advertised himself relentlessly and conducted street parades to get
audiences. Bullet catching was his favorite trick, but he is better remembered
as the magician who pulled a rabbit from a hat. He did not originate the trick,
but he popularized it.
Houdini and After
Houdini was born Erik Weisz in
Budapest, Hungary (see Houdini). Before taking up magic he was a trapeze
artist. Houdini began performing in the 1890s. His worldwide fame came from his
amazing escapes. He started his escape routines by getting out of straitjackets
and handcuffs. He progressed to an act in which he was shackled with irons and
placed in a box that was locked, roped, weighted, and submerged under water.
Late in his career he went to Hollywood and made such films as 'The Grim Game',
'Terror Island', and 'The Man from Beyond'.
Two other great magicians of the
early 20th century were Harry Blackstone and his chief competitor, Dante.
Blackstone (Henri Bouton) was born in Chicago in 1885, while Dante (Harry Alvin
Jansen) was born in Denmark three years earlier and came to the United States at
age 6. Bouton took the name Blackstone in 1917. He worked in vaudeville, in
theaters, and in his own show. One of his best-liked illusions was the
"disappearing horse." He also used one of the most ancient illusions, the Indian
rope trick, and like Houdini he was an escape artist. Late in life Blackstone
toured military posts during World War II, had his own radio show, and appeared
on television variety shows. His son, Harry Blackstone, Jr. (born 1933),
replaced him as a stage and television performer.
Dante began entertaining in 1902
but did not get his stage name until 1923, when his friend and associate
Thurston bestowed it on him. He traveled the world with a magic show, and, like
Blackstone, he appeared on television.
During the 1940s the most
recognized name in magic in the United States was that of mind reader Joseph
Dunninger. He began as a magician doing card tricks and other illusions but soon
found that people were more fascinated by his abilities as a mentalist. His
national renown came from his radio show, which began in 1943. He was succeeded
as a mind reader by the "Amazing Kreskin" (George Kresge, Jr.), who also did
hypnotism routines. Kreskin worked in clubs, but he became widely known from his
television appearances.
A great number of other magicians
little known in the United States made reputations for themselves during the
middle of the 20th century in their native lands and in Europe. Among them were
Kalanag (Helmut Ewald Schreiber) of Germany; Protul Chandra Sorcar of India;
Emil Kio of the Soviet Union; Raffael Chefalo of Italy; Julius Sundman of
Finland; and Fu Manchu (David Bamberg).
In the last quarter of the 20th
century, Doug Henning and David Copperfield inspired a new interest in magic. In
1974 Canadian-born Henning starred in a rock musical entitled 'The Magic Show'
on Broadway. He avoided using complex mechanical devices, believing they had
become outmoded. In 1975 he appeared in 'The World of Magic' on television. He
duplicated a number of Houdini's escape tricks and performed a convincing
levitation illusion.
David Copperfield was born in
1957 and began performing magic at age 12. He was the youngest member ever
admitted to the Society of American Magicians. His shows featured a great
variety of tricks, but he was noted for his escapes and the ability to make
large objects disappear. One of his early remarkable illusions was making an
airplane disappear off an airport runway. In 1987 he staged an escape from a
well-guarded cell at Alcatraz prison. From the late 1970s he was on television
annually in 'The Magic of David Copperfield'.
Emergence of Modern Magic
So remarkable were the
innovations that Robert-Houdin introduced to stage illusions that he has been
called the father of modern magic. By profession a clockmaker, he was born
Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin in Blois, France, in 1805. His debut as a magician was
in 1845 in Paris. He was the first magician to use electricity; he perfected the
thought-transference trick; and he used common objects to create illusions
instead of complicated pieces of machinery. He also denounced magicians who
claimed psychic powers or supernatural help for their tricks. Robert-Houdin is
the man from whom the American magician Harry Houdini took his name a generation
later.
In 1856 the French government
sent Robert-Houdin to Algeria to discredit native priests who were using magic
to foment rebellion. Robert-Houdin used one of his best tricks to deceive them.
He had an empty wooden box that anyone could lift. It had an iron bottom,
however, and could be made immovable by turning on an electromagnet hidden under
the stage floor. With this trick he was able to convince an audience that he
could drain the strength from the strongest of men at will.
During Robert-Houdin's lifetime
the number of stage magicians increased dramatically. They were always popular
in Europe. As the United States grew more settled and the frontier gave way to
cities and towns, theaters were built in every town that could support one.
One of the most successful
illusionists and show-business promoters was English-born John Nevil Maskelyne,
a noted escape artist. He began his career shortly before Robert-Houdin's death
in 1871. Along with his amazing escapes he perfected levitation rising from the
stage seemingly unaided. In 1893 he teamed with master magician David Devant. In
1911 they published 'Our Magic', a major sourcebook on the theory of magic.
Maskelyne died in 1917, but Devant went on performing until shortly before his
death in 1941 at the age of 73.
Prior to the appearance of Harry
Houdini, the most outstanding American magician and showman was Harry Kellar. He
learned magic as a teenager. He traveled to all parts of the civilized world
before establishing himself in the United States in 1884. He performed until
1908, when he sold his show to Howard Thurston. Thurston was from Ohio and was
touring the world doing mainly card tricks when Kellar met him in Paris. After
he took over Kellar's show he made it the largest magic extravaganza to that
time. For more than 20 years he toured with a three-hour show and became known
for his large stage illusions such as the "floating lady." In 1931 he shortened
his program to appear as a stage attraction in movie theaters.
The English magician P.T. Selbit
(born Percy Thomas Tibbles) gained fame for two unusual illusions. In 1914 he
walked through a brick wall on stage. This illusion was updated in 1986 when
David Copperfield walked through the Great Wall of China in a performance that
was seen on television. In 1921 Selbit gained notoriety for one of the most
famous of all tricks sawing a woman in half.
Tricks of the Trade
A magician is an actor who
pretends he is doing the impossible. The most common trick is to make objects or
people disappear and reappear. For some illusions the magician depends on
mechanical or scientific props. The fire-eater, for example, uses a loosely
woven rope specially treated with chemicals. The rope glows before it is put
into the mouth, but it does not actually burst into flame until the mouth is
opened and a gust of air is expelled.
It is vital that a magician keep
the audience from noticing what is actually being done. This is the psychology
of deception. If the audience's attention can be controlled, the magician needs
only some skill of hand and very little apparatus. Distraction of the mind may
be just as necessary as distraction of the eye. The attention is drawn away from
the method. In a mechanical trick, for instance, the magician talks about skill
of hand or magic words anything but mechanics. Robert-Houdin was very adept at
misdirecting an audience, as he proved with his wooden box that could not be
lifted by the strongest of men.
Another element in the psychology
of magic is timing. According to the manner in which an action is performed and
the time at which it is done, a magician can impress audiences with the doing or
make them fail to notice that anything at all is being done.
Sleight of hand must be done
slowly and gently. The magician may speak of quickness of the hand to mislead
spectators so they will watch alertly for some swift movement. They thus fail to
notice the normal, easygoing motions by which the trick is really done.
There is a vast amount of
equipment designed to help magicians perform their mysteries. Much of it is
never seen by the public. Some of the apparatus the audience does see may have
very little to do with a trick. Feats in which people or large animals play a
part can only be done on stage, and they require special, often cumbersome
equipment.
Magicians have tended to
specialize. Alexander Herrmann, a 19th-century German, did mostly small tricks.
Harry Kellar, Thurston, Dante, and David Copperfield became famous because of
large illusions making a woman float in the air or making some huge object
disappear. In one fascinating trick Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty
disappear. Thomas Nelson Downs, an American, was known as the "king of coins"
because he specialized in coin tricks. Gus Fowler of Birmingham, England, did
tricks only with watches and clocks. Houdini emphasized fantastic escapes, while
Dunninger amazed audiences with seemingly impossible mind-reading acts.
Readers interested in learning
more about magic should consult 'The Illustrated History of Magic' (Crowell,
1973) by Milbourne Christopher, a noted American magician. There are many books
available to teach one how to perform magic tricks.
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