What's this? What's this?

What is magic?

This argument discussion goes around the forums and groups every so often and everyone has a varying opinion on what is what. I'm not saying this article is gonna do anything other than muddy the waters, but I felt like sharing.

I think a lot of people think magic is the tricks and procedure that creates the effects. For me that is more skill and technique. "Trade secrets" as it were. Plumbing is not pipes and the tools needed to attach said pipes. It's the finished product.

I think magic is the end product. It's the feeling/effect the audience experiences. It's what happens in their eyes and brain. It's what they SEE, not what they don't see. Magic is a feeling of wonder and awe. Magic has been used by non-magicians to describe many things that aren't traditionally the art form. Ever heard the term "movie magic"? It's a feeling one gets. Some things are considered "magical" like sunsets and nature. It's because of the feeling one gets from such visuals.

So while for many of us the art of magic is the creation of gimmicks, methods and skills to facilitate such things, I think it's the people who don't know the minutia that goes into creating those moments that get to define the term.

Maybe. I'm no plumber...

Magical Vs. Impossible

Dai Vernon is credited with saying something to the effect of "confusion is not magic". I want to add my own thoughts along this line to the magic world by saying impossible does not equal magical.

I think doing something impossible and doing something magical are two different realms. Much like we seem to lump all performing traits under the term "character" we seem to just fist every thing that is supposed to be magical into the category of "magic".

Much like my popular stance that coincidence is not magic so too shall this gem rest right next to it.

What got me thinking of this was watching the demo for an animated torn and restored card. I like to think that magic has a very defined clear cut effect to it. Tricks that I feel sit under the impossible umbrella are things that either don't make sense or are not magic in and of themselves. It's a very thin line I admit.

Usually magic is best when it serves a purpose or fills a need. Let me explain it to you using hand puppets and this little one act play I just made up.

Magic
Random Person: "Man I am hungry"
Magician: hand me that napkin (magician makes sandwich appear from empty napkin)
Person: "Wow that was amazing! Thanks!"

Impossible
Magician: "Watch me take this sandwich and make it penetrate halfway thru this pane of glass"
Confused Person: "Um...ok."
(Magician fuses sandwich and glass as one)
Person: "Wow that was.. weird. Why did you do that?"
Magician: "Because I can..."

That might be a tad extreme but doing something random like the second example serves no purpose other than eye candy. Magic is impossible. Impossible is not always magic.

Does this mean all your magic needs to serve a function? Hell no! However the moments of magic should make sense to the task at hand. Ambitious card is magic. It is structured as such. Turning an apple into an iphone? Not so much. Doing something impossible "just because" may seem like magic to some but in the end...

it might just be damned silly.

Widen your gaze...

Tonight at dinner a few of us were discussing how we look at things thruout our life is like a camera or movie. When you are younger, your area of vision is very tight and narrow. However as you get older, you get a crane shot that allows you to see a lot more of big picture.

I bring this up because this happened to coincide with something I was thinking about the other day about age and how we perceive our art.

The things that make sense to you and are important to you change over time. What you start out trying to say, (if you indeed are trying to say anything with your art and not just show off how big a tool you are), might inevitably change into something else. Maybe by choice and all at once or gradually it will sneak up on you like a mugger in the night. One day you might just look at your performance, (which you should do often), and say, "You know... this no longer makes sense to me".

That's what it's all about isn't it? What makes sense to us at a certain time and place of our life. Sometimes there is compromise and sometimes there is utter annihilation. If you are serious about what you do, do not fear the reaper Ted. Be open to change and realizing you might not be in love with an idea that you once were.

You'd be surprised how far a little objective observation can go.

Bizzaro.

Getting swept away...

A few years back I did a lecture at the Dallas, TX magic club. A good chunk of that lecture (and all of the ones I do) talk about creativity and character. Afterwords, a friend of mine (who incidentally was the one who taught me how to shove a nail into my face) came up to me and told me about a bit of theory that he and his wife subscribe to and are always checking themselves against it.

With his permission, I am going to give you that bit of information and expound upon it in my own little way. This one goes out to all my honkies in the sticks. It's called the Broom in the Corner theory and it goes a little something like this...

Suppose you are sweeping your kitchen or some such other surface and then your phone rings or someone knocks on your door. Since you're in the middle of what you are doing, you set the broom into a corner it doesn't go in. Time passes and you mean to get back to sweeping, but other shiny things keep distracting you. Eventually the broom stays in that spot so long, that's where it comes to live. That's not where it originally was stored, but now... it is.

We do that in magic quite a bit. We'll get complacent with a move or patter or theory or... whatever. We give it nary a second thought and just come to believe that's how it's always been. It's because of this we don't question our motivations or use of certain props. As youngins we start out using dove pans gaudy painted boxes and various card sleights. We use these items for so long we don't move away from them and if we do... it's not very far.

Next time you do a show, video tape it. Then watch it... a few times. Take a step back and ask yourself, "Why am I doing that exactly?" You might find you can open your eyes to new possibilities and find a better way to present or perform something and make it your own. You might even find a new place for that broom suspension...

like in the corner.

Bizzaro.

(Special thanx to Mica and Judy Calfee of Riot Acts Entertainment for letting me use this bit of amusement on my journal.)

If Hasbro taught me anything...

Remember when you were a kid? Ok well for some of you this was a few weeks ago maybe, but that's not the point... You got a new Transformer toy and before you even bothered to find let alone read the instructions, you were already trying to form that little plastic bastard into.. whatever it looked like on the box? Remember that? Hands? Anyone? I know it wasn't just me, c'mon now...

Regardless, you knew better. Sometimes this would lead to accomplishment.. sometimes it would lead to you looking at Jetfire and saying "How the hell does this thing work?" and then you snap his head off because you decided not to follow proper procedure. That sucks... but you knew better right? My gawd is this going anywhere? Yes... I think.

As magicians we buy something, look at the instructions, learn to do a ghost count (If you don't know what that is, slap yourself in the forehead for me) that is done awkwardly at the fingertips. How many people do you know, yourself included, still do the push me/pull me (hadadada) move in color monte because that's how it was written? Next to the double undercut and the glide, it is one of the most useless moves I happen to know how to do.

We don't question anything. Sure some of us do and we flock to their lectures and buy their videos to learn how they have jumped the shark as it were to create something we apparently couldn't achieve ourselves. We get handed a method or moves and told "this is how this goes" and we believe it. We don't question it. We just merrily roll along. Well friends I am here to tell you a little something....

QUESTION EVERYTHING!!!

Do not be content with what you are fed or handed. Look at it from different angles. Thru different eyes. Under a microscope. Hell try NOT looking at it. See what happens. Think to yourself, "Gee, I sure would like to accomplish X without having to do Y. I wonder if I can do that?" YES YOU CAN!! Don't be afraid to try and try again.. and fail and fail again. You will learn a LOT from your screw ups. However, if you don't practice properly, other people will have a lot to learn from yer screw ups as well.

If you just reject what you know.. or think you know... maybe you can create something that hadn't been thought of before.

Something with sponge balls maybe?

Bizzaro.

Thought for Food...

So I have been wanting to add a bit more to my creativity notes. You, my loyal readers, get a first glimpse of this addition to my usual ramblings.
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The other day I was going over some of the magic I have created in the last few years and realized a LOT of it involved food and drink based props. I usually joke that you "go with what you know" and then pat my belly. Like most jests, there is some truth behind that. The items I use are things I actually consume. Doritos, sandwich cookies, Coka-cola, Cheetos, etc. The best part about this is that I am not the only one in the world who deals with these objects on a daily basis. We all have to eat. (some of us do it better than others but there is no way in hell I am gonna start doing magic with Tofu)

This brings me around to my point (I knew I had one here somewhere): Use items people relate to. You pull out brass cups or gaudy boxes with dragons on them, what are they going to think? Magic Prop!! That's right. You could honestly save yourself a lot of time and money by using soup cans or styrofoam cups. It might not be pretty but if the prop matches your presentation and character, it will paint a more complete picture. The best part is, you will get all of the credit for the magic you do. If they think it's accomplished with the prop you bought then you get NOTHING!!!

If you use props or items they have handled, seen, bought, etc they will subconsciously know that there is no trickery involved with the prop... even if there is. On the otherhand, you can use a concept they are familiar with in an incredible situation. I believe that if you give them a little bit of truth, they will believe a LOT of BS. (Like a jumbo coin being filled with chocolate) In the case of using foodtsuffs, you can play upon people's memories, emotions, or even mental states because people associate so much with edible items. With cookies you can get them going back to their childhood, water, you can have them remember summertime. It's a dirty trick, but man does it work.

So look through your repertoire, and see what you can repaint, remake, or just plain get rid of/sell and maybe find a way to make a better mousetrap.

Just don't forget the cheese.

Bizzaro.

Another word for Thesaurus?

So I got to thinking about something the other day that may or may NOT help you become more creative. This one definitely ranks high on the list of "theory". (No need for a number behind that. It's too low on the list.) Anywho, on to my point. (yes I have one and not just on the top of my head) Ready for this one? Vocabulary!!

(Dramatic pause)

Crack open a dictionary and look up words you aren't familiar with. Here is a good exercise: Go to your Myspace account and look at the update mood section. Go thru the lost of moods and see what all of the ones you don't know mean. Here is a good place to go - M-W.com.

Ok so now that you have stopped looking at me like the RCA dog, allow me to explain. If you don't know what something is then you can't know what it does. The more ways you can interpret the world around you and recognize the terms, the better you can visualize the mechanics or props you might need. This in turn will help you be more creative as you are armed with the proper knowledge to add two and two together and get... 5.

I told you math was hard.

Bizzaro.