Magic (illusion)

Magic, including the arts of prestidigitation and conjuring, is the art of entertaining an audience by performing illusions that baffle and amaze, often by giving the impression that something impossible has been achieved, almost as if the performer had magic or supernatural powers. Yet, this illusion of magic is created entirely by natural means. The practitioners of this mystery art may be called 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.

History

Hieronymus Bosch: The Conjurer, 1475-1480

Performances we would recognise as conjuring have probably been practised 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. Successful magicians have become some of the most famous celebrities in popular entertainment.

Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, the first modern magician.

Modern entertainment magic owes much of its origins to Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805-1871), originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in the 1840s. His speciality 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 (or possibly of all time), 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 lockpicking and escaping straitjackets, but also made full use of the whole range of conjuring techniques, including fake equipment and collusion with individuals in the audience. Houdini's showbusiness 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 performer and the audience about what is going on. Unlike in the past, almost no performers today actually claim to possess supernatural powers (although there are exceptions to this, they are regarded as charlatans). 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. Houdini also gained the trust of his audiences 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.

Magic has come and gone in fashion. For instance, the magic show for much of the 20th Century was marginalized in North America as largely children's entertainment. A revival started with Doug Henning, who restablished the magic show as a form of mass entertainment with his distinctive look that rejected the old stereotypes and his sense of showmanship that became popular on both stage and numerous television specials.

Today, the art is enjoying a vogue, driven by a number of highly successful performers such as David Copperfield, Lance Burton, Penn and Teller, Derren Brown and many other stage and TV performers. David Blaine is sometimes included in this category, though his major performances have been more a combination of Houdini-style escape tricks and physical endurance displays than the illusion magic performed by others. The mid-twentieth century saw magic transform in many different aspects: some performers preferred to renovate the craft on stage --- such as The Mentalizer Show in Times Square which dared to mix themes of spirituality and kabbalah with the art of magic --- others successfully made the transition to TV, which opens up new opportunities for deceptions, and brings the peformer to huge audiences. 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 (sometimes misleading) reassurance that the effects are not obtained with the help of camera tricks.

Many of the basic principles of magic are comparatively old. There is an expression, "it's all done with smoke and mirrors", used to explain something baffling, but contrary to popular belief, effects are seldom achieved using mirrors today, due to the amount of work needed to install it and difficulties in transport. For example, the famous Pepper's Ghost, a stage illusion first used in 19th century London, required a specially built theatre. Harry Houdini led the field of vanishing large objects, by making an elephant disappear on stage, although not using mirrors, and modern performers have vanished objects as big as the Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, and the Space Shuttle, using other kinds of optical deceptions.

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Secrecy

The purpose of a magic trick is to 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 and cunning. Usually, magicians will refuse to reveal their methods to the audience. The reasons for these include:

• Exposure is claimed to "kill" magic as an artform 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. Sometimes the secret is so simple that the audience is let down they were taken in so easily.
• Keeping the secrets preserved the professional mystery of magicians who perform for money.

Membership in professional magicians' organizations often requires an oath not to reveal the secrets of magic to non-magicians. This is known as the "Magician's Oath".

The Magician's Oath (though it may vary, 'The Oath' takes the following, or similar form):

"As a magician I promise to never reveal the secret of any illusion to a non-magician, without first swearing them to the Magician's Oath. I promise never to perform any illusion for any non-magician, without first practicing the effect until I can perform it well enough to maintain the illusion of magic".

Once sworn to The Oath, one is considered a magician, and is expected to live up to this promise. A magician who reveals a secret, either purposely or through insufficient practice, may typically find themself without any magicians willing to teach them more secrets.

However, it is considered permissible to reveal secrets to individuals who are determined to learn magic tricks and become magicians. It is typically a sequential process of increasingly valuable and lesser known secrets. The secrets of almost all tricks are available to the public through numerous books and magazines devoted to magic, available from the specialised magic trade. There are also web sites which offer videos, DVDs and instructional materials for the aspiring conjuror. In this sense, there are very few classical illusions left unrevealed, however this does not appear to have diminished the appeal of performances. In addition, magic is a living art, and new illusions are devised with surprising regularity. Sometimes a 'new' illusion will be built on an illusion that is old enough to have become unfamiliar.

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. Penn and Teller frequently perform tricks using transparent props to reveal how it is done, for example, 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 ('the hole in the ring'), proclaiming: "See? Once you know that every ring has a hole, it's easy!"

See also Intellectual rights to magic methods

Types of magic performance

Magic performances fall into five broad genres:

• Close-up magic, which is performed with the audience close to the magician, possibly in physical contact. It usually makes use of everyday items as props, such as cards and coins (see Coin magic). Ricky Jay, following in the traditions of Dai Vernon and Max Malini, is considered the foremost practitioner of close-up magic today.
• Platform magic, in which the magician stands while performing and is seen by more people simultaneously than the close-up performer. Examples of platform magicians include David Abbott.
• Cabaret Magic, in which the magician performs for a medium to large audience, but at or almost at floor level and much closer to many spectators than in auditorium performances. Night club magic and comedy club magic are typical examples. Cabaret performers can generally also function as stage performers. The long-obsolete term parlor magic is sometimes misused as a synonym for cabaret magic.
• Stage magic, which is performed for large audiences, typically within an auditorium. This type of magic is distinguished by elaborate, large-scale props. The most famous magicians in the world, such as David Copperfield, Siegfried & Roy, and Penn and Teller, are best known for their ability in stage-magic.
• Children's magic, which is performed for an audience primary of children, typically performed at a birthday party, daycare or preschool, elementry school, or library. This type of magic is usually comedic in nature and involves audience interaction as well as volunteer assistants. Some magicians, such as David Ginn, Samuel Patrick Smith, and Barry Mitchell are best known for their ability to entertain children through their performances, books, DVDs, and CDs.

Other specialties or niches have been created:

• Street magic, which is performed for audiences that don’t always know that they are audiences. The street magician uses magic to gather a crowd and convinces them that it is good enough to deserve money at the end of the show. One of the classics of street magic is the cups and balls routine. Famous street performers include Cyril, Gazzo, Cellini, Tom Payne, and David Blaine.

• Bizarre magic, which uses mystical, 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. Charles Cameron has generally been credited as the "godfather of bizarre magic." Others such as Tony Raven, Tony Andruzzi, Tony "Doc" Shiels, Eugene Burger and Christian Chelman (Belgian magician) contributed heavily to its early development.

• 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, and other similar feats. Magicians in this field include Max Maven and Derren Brown.

• 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 eating razor blades, needle-through-arm and pen-through-tongue. Magicians known for performing shock magic include Criss Angel, Vincenzo Ravina and Brian Brushwood.

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 in which the item is held in such a way that it is not visible to the audience and the hand appears empty (eg. palming a coin or card). There is a wide range of basic sleights described in the literature for vanishing, producing, and switching small items. Magicians today seldom resort to hiding things up their sleeves, which has become a cliche, although this technique can still be used on occasion.

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. Professional magicians do use hardware gimmicks, but tend to base their acts on skill with sleight of hand as the main foundation. Many magicians see gimmicks and sleight of hand as a means to an end, and most use a combination of both.

Stage magic tends to revolve around large props that are almost always gimmicked, in that some kind of secret mechanism is involved. The performer's skill is then largely in timing, patter, panache, comedy value, and related acting skills. Common stage props include cabinets capable of concealing an assistant; boxes from which items can disappear or appear; rings that can be linked and unlinked; and swords, knives or even guns which help create illusions of deadly danger.

Children's magic requires a good understanding of how children are going to react to different visual effects. The performer skills depends largely on involving the children throughout each routine, keeping their mind active and using their comments to the best comedy and entertainment out of that routine. Sleight of hand skill is rarely necessary, and the magic that is most successful is visual and comedy in nature. Stage magic in the smaller visual props is quite often used, however, some of the best routines are those that are specifically designed for kids. Many age-old classics of magic work well in this group such as Run-Rabbit-Run, Miser's Dream, and the use of rabbits and doves in the acts

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. For example, by drawing attention to one hand by snapping the fingers, tossing and catching a prop, or saying "watch this hand", the 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 can also mean to re-direct or re-structure the spectator's perception of the action taking place. For example, telling a person to "look into the empty box" when really a secret compartment hides something. The word 'empty' is used to restructure their perception of the box. Another example is when placing something from one hand into another accompanied by the appropriate phrase and expression when really the item is not placed where it is said to go.

Many different techniques are used to create misdirection, and all require great amounts of practice to perfect. One technique is the use of natural-looking and confident movements, to disguise any surreptitious manipulations. Making a hand with a palmed coin move and behave like an empty hand is an acting skill used to misdirect the audience in coin magic. Another technique is the use of a confident flow of chatter from the magician, known as "patter". Patter may take the form of a story, or it may simply be the magician (selectively) narrating the actions being performed. Either way, it directs the attention of the audience wherever the magician wishes.

Another technique of misdirection is the use of optical illusions to hide or displace the location or size of objects. When the sides of a box are painted with concentric rectangles, or a hollow tabletop is beveled so that it is thicker in the center than at the edges, such containers appear to be much thinner than they actually are. These are often used in stage illusions, since they allow an assistant to hide in a space that appears to be too small to fit in, or to turn sideways and assume different positions in a box when there appears to be too little room to move.

Misdirection, along with theatrical acting abilities can help to improve how the magic is perceived by the audience, although the method is mostly based on gimmicks and manual dexterity with sleight of hand. These elements show the difference between an expert magician and a beginner, even while they perform the same effect.

Misuse of magic

In modern conjuring, it is not considered fully honest to give a performance which claims to be anything other than a clever and skillful deception. In today's skeptical world, claims of actual supernatural powers would likely be greeted with ridicule, although many people believed that the hugely successful 1970s illusionist Uri Geller had a paranormal ability to bend spoons, for example.

Other performers have capitalised on popular belief in ESP and other paranormal phenomena as a way of presenting magic tricks. However, there are dishonest performers who use the techniques of conjuring for fraudulent goals. Cheating at card games is an obvious example, and is no more than a form of theft. During the height of the vogue for spiritualism and the wave of popularity for séances in the late 19th century, many fraudulent mediums used conjuring methods to perform illusions at séances designed to convince those present of actual supernatural events, for financial gain. The great illusionist and escapologist Harry Houdini devoted much of his time to exposing fraudulent mediums. Spiritualists and mediums at work today tend to shy away from effects such as making knocking sounds in darkened rooms, and objects apparently moving without being touched, as these were devices often used in the past by fraudulent practitioners.

Many simple conjuring tricks continue to be used to defraud the innocent, however often they have been exposed and debunked. The three card trick, also called "Find the Lady" or "Three-card Monte", is an old favourite of street hustlers and conmen; also, the shell game, in which a pea is hidden under one of three walnuts. Although these are well known as frauds, some people are willing to lose money on them just for the entertainment value. There are other street hustles which use conjuring techniques and methods such as misdirection to commit theft.

External links

• Mental Magic
• Card Magic