Post by Chris Martin on Jul 31, 2005 4:07:23 GMT -5
Let’s dispel an illusion right now. Magic isn’t an art. Alright, that should have gotten your hackles up, so let me continue. First, let’s agree not to split hairs here. You can get your dictionary out, look up “art” and, by definition, make a case for the fact that magic is an art. However, just because you can “artfully” vanish a coin via a French Drop, you are not an artist and the French Drop is not art.
What IS an art is connecting with your audience on an emotional level and entertaining that audience through the use of magic as a tool. Consider that the painter has many different sizes of brush, in conjunction with different colors to place on the canvas, in order to give the illusion of depth to his painting. Those paints and brushes are his tools, but those paints and brushes are not art. They are, however, used to create art.
Your sleights or gaffes or gizmos are your tools, much like the painter’s brushes and paints. You must use those tools to paint a magical picture and take your spectators on a journey through the physically impossible. On that journey, you will make many stops. These stops are the interaction of you and your audience. This interaction will change with audiences as well as venues and genre.
Let me explain. In the first example, we will consider the close up show. This allows for the maximum audience interaction with the magician. There are points where a spectator will make a clever comment and you will have the choice of rolling past that comment or actually making it part of your act. My personal belief is that if you overlook the chance to allow that spectator to become part of the overall effect that you are presenting, then your art is a lesser art. You see, magic isn’t a painting. In a painting, the interaction happens in the emotion that the painting evokes in each onlooker - a deeply personal emotional response to an equally emotional painting. Art.
In your act, when the spectator tosses in a comment, this is the emotional effect that your magic is having on them in conjunction with your personality that is as much a part of your magic as are your tools. To overlook this emotional response on the part of your spectator is to take away that which you have thrust upon them. When you perform for your spectators, you are entreating them to come into your world of magic, but, when they follow the path and come into that world, you are then responsible for them while they are there. Allow them to be a part of that world, which is what they are trying to do with their comment, regardless of how unhappy you may be about that comment (conversely, that comment may just be something good that you can work with easily). This ability to use that comment, to give weight to their emotional response, is very much an art and what will elevate your little trick into the category of high art.
With magic, though, the art is a fleeting art. The painter leaves a physical item in his path - the painting. The magician leaves only a memory of a moment caught in time. Oddly, that memory, that moment in time, becomes more powerful as moments and hours and even days and weeks drift past, but that is a topic for another time.
So, in the close up show, this interaction of the magician and the spectator and the emotional responses that you garner are what elevate your magic from a trick, to a magical experience and, ultimately, to art. The give and take of social interaction, the connection between magician and spectator, the ability to allow human touch to become part of your act and the emotions that can be evoked using all of those things is what makes for art in your chosen field of magic.
But stage is different, isn’t it? Touch is, in general, out of the question in such a venue. People tend not to throw out off hand comments at a formal stage show, taking away a valuable tool in moving from trick to art. Let’s examine the art that can come from a stage show.
For this particular venue of magic, we are better suited comparing our art to a dancer’s art. Some parts don’t change, it is still a moment caught in time. However, anyone who has witnessed the beauty of “The Nutcracker Suite” cannot deny that they are watching art unfold right in front of their eyes. Or, more contemporarily, the Cirque de Soliel. These things make an emotional connection with the audience, an emotional connection that can easily be compared to the connection that is made by the painter. I would argue that this moment caught in time, the very moment of that emotional connection, is just as real as the physical painting which the painter leaves in his wake. While the painting is physically real, memories are just as real and those memories will carry in the mind of the spectator forever.
A good example of this is the life of Harry Houdini. Nearly a century after his death, he is still talked about and has become almost legendary in those memories. Many of those memories are not true, they never happened (like getting stuck under the ice of the Detroit river), but they are part of the legend of Houdini. As I pointed out above, often memories become more powerful over time. Houdini’s trade has definitely achieved the status of art.
So, your stage show can touch your audience emotionally by presenting something more than just a series of tricks. If you are a manipulator, you choose your music and add a visual interpretation of that music that is creatively and personally you. You are achieving art through your interpretation, but those cards appearing at your fingertips is not, in and of itself, art.
Furthermore, you could be a grand illusionist with your many big boxes. If you simply pull the middle of some poor girl’s body out of joint, this is not art. What this is is a box that is gaffed to allow you to appear to do this stunt. You need an interpretation, a presentation that will connect with your audience on an emotional level, if you wish to achieve art from this trick.
A good example of achieving art from a stage stunt is Melinda, the First Lady of Magic. She presents a penetration effect using a giant screw that is plunged through her midsection. It then picks her up, off the ground, where her body goes limp and hangs lifelessly from the massive screw shaft. Of course, she comes out of the whole thing unscathed and no worse for the wear! Now, think about that just for a second and put some of the words that I’ve used above for explanation together:
“Penetration, screw, plunged, limp, hangs, massive.” Do you see an emotional connection for, in particular, women? Then, after all of this, she emerges unscathed. This would seem to say that women can triumph over anything in the male’s world. Of course, your own, personal, interpretation could be completely different, but isn’t that the very heart of art? The fact that you and I can read a poem and take away two very different ideas is the essence of art and emotional connection.
Further, on stage, you can bring an audience member up as an assistant. Don’t ever forget that the entire audience is on stage, only vicariously through the person that you’ve brought up. That’s right, each person in the audience sees themselves up on stage in place of the person that you have. Now, if you make that assistant nervous or uncomfortable, you are evoking the same emotion in your audience. Think on that. So, if you make your assistant feel good and allow them to triumph in front of this audience, you are making such a deep and personal connection with your audience that you will always be remembered in their mind’s eye. This is something that the mentalists among us understand very, very deeply.
I’ve used two examples in this article, close-up magic and stage magic, to explain my stance on magic as art. This can be considered a template for whatever your choice of genre of magic that you may do. Some are very obvious in their emotional connection, like bizarre magic or mentalism. Others may not be so obvious, like street magic. However, given a bit of thought, you can elevate your little trick into high art, if you but only try.
Please, though, don’t tell me that just because you do a masterful card trick that you are an artist.
- Michael Jay
What IS an art is connecting with your audience on an emotional level and entertaining that audience through the use of magic as a tool. Consider that the painter has many different sizes of brush, in conjunction with different colors to place on the canvas, in order to give the illusion of depth to his painting. Those paints and brushes are his tools, but those paints and brushes are not art. They are, however, used to create art.
Your sleights or gaffes or gizmos are your tools, much like the painter’s brushes and paints. You must use those tools to paint a magical picture and take your spectators on a journey through the physically impossible. On that journey, you will make many stops. These stops are the interaction of you and your audience. This interaction will change with audiences as well as venues and genre.
Let me explain. In the first example, we will consider the close up show. This allows for the maximum audience interaction with the magician. There are points where a spectator will make a clever comment and you will have the choice of rolling past that comment or actually making it part of your act. My personal belief is that if you overlook the chance to allow that spectator to become part of the overall effect that you are presenting, then your art is a lesser art. You see, magic isn’t a painting. In a painting, the interaction happens in the emotion that the painting evokes in each onlooker - a deeply personal emotional response to an equally emotional painting. Art.
In your act, when the spectator tosses in a comment, this is the emotional effect that your magic is having on them in conjunction with your personality that is as much a part of your magic as are your tools. To overlook this emotional response on the part of your spectator is to take away that which you have thrust upon them. When you perform for your spectators, you are entreating them to come into your world of magic, but, when they follow the path and come into that world, you are then responsible for them while they are there. Allow them to be a part of that world, which is what they are trying to do with their comment, regardless of how unhappy you may be about that comment (conversely, that comment may just be something good that you can work with easily). This ability to use that comment, to give weight to their emotional response, is very much an art and what will elevate your little trick into the category of high art.
With magic, though, the art is a fleeting art. The painter leaves a physical item in his path - the painting. The magician leaves only a memory of a moment caught in time. Oddly, that memory, that moment in time, becomes more powerful as moments and hours and even days and weeks drift past, but that is a topic for another time.
So, in the close up show, this interaction of the magician and the spectator and the emotional responses that you garner are what elevate your magic from a trick, to a magical experience and, ultimately, to art. The give and take of social interaction, the connection between magician and spectator, the ability to allow human touch to become part of your act and the emotions that can be evoked using all of those things is what makes for art in your chosen field of magic.
But stage is different, isn’t it? Touch is, in general, out of the question in such a venue. People tend not to throw out off hand comments at a formal stage show, taking away a valuable tool in moving from trick to art. Let’s examine the art that can come from a stage show.
For this particular venue of magic, we are better suited comparing our art to a dancer’s art. Some parts don’t change, it is still a moment caught in time. However, anyone who has witnessed the beauty of “The Nutcracker Suite” cannot deny that they are watching art unfold right in front of their eyes. Or, more contemporarily, the Cirque de Soliel. These things make an emotional connection with the audience, an emotional connection that can easily be compared to the connection that is made by the painter. I would argue that this moment caught in time, the very moment of that emotional connection, is just as real as the physical painting which the painter leaves in his wake. While the painting is physically real, memories are just as real and those memories will carry in the mind of the spectator forever.
A good example of this is the life of Harry Houdini. Nearly a century after his death, he is still talked about and has become almost legendary in those memories. Many of those memories are not true, they never happened (like getting stuck under the ice of the Detroit river), but they are part of the legend of Houdini. As I pointed out above, often memories become more powerful over time. Houdini’s trade has definitely achieved the status of art.
So, your stage show can touch your audience emotionally by presenting something more than just a series of tricks. If you are a manipulator, you choose your music and add a visual interpretation of that music that is creatively and personally you. You are achieving art through your interpretation, but those cards appearing at your fingertips is not, in and of itself, art.
Furthermore, you could be a grand illusionist with your many big boxes. If you simply pull the middle of some poor girl’s body out of joint, this is not art. What this is is a box that is gaffed to allow you to appear to do this stunt. You need an interpretation, a presentation that will connect with your audience on an emotional level, if you wish to achieve art from this trick.
A good example of achieving art from a stage stunt is Melinda, the First Lady of Magic. She presents a penetration effect using a giant screw that is plunged through her midsection. It then picks her up, off the ground, where her body goes limp and hangs lifelessly from the massive screw shaft. Of course, she comes out of the whole thing unscathed and no worse for the wear! Now, think about that just for a second and put some of the words that I’ve used above for explanation together:
“Penetration, screw, plunged, limp, hangs, massive.” Do you see an emotional connection for, in particular, women? Then, after all of this, she emerges unscathed. This would seem to say that women can triumph over anything in the male’s world. Of course, your own, personal, interpretation could be completely different, but isn’t that the very heart of art? The fact that you and I can read a poem and take away two very different ideas is the essence of art and emotional connection.
Further, on stage, you can bring an audience member up as an assistant. Don’t ever forget that the entire audience is on stage, only vicariously through the person that you’ve brought up. That’s right, each person in the audience sees themselves up on stage in place of the person that you have. Now, if you make that assistant nervous or uncomfortable, you are evoking the same emotion in your audience. Think on that. So, if you make your assistant feel good and allow them to triumph in front of this audience, you are making such a deep and personal connection with your audience that you will always be remembered in their mind’s eye. This is something that the mentalists among us understand very, very deeply.
I’ve used two examples in this article, close-up magic and stage magic, to explain my stance on magic as art. This can be considered a template for whatever your choice of genre of magic that you may do. Some are very obvious in their emotional connection, like bizarre magic or mentalism. Others may not be so obvious, like street magic. However, given a bit of thought, you can elevate your little trick into high art, if you but only try.
Please, though, don’t tell me that just because you do a masterful card trick that you are an artist.
- Michael Jay
