Magician is an entertainer who performs tricks that seem impossible. Magicians make audiences believe they can pluck dollar bills out of the air and change one orange into three. They appear to read people’s thoughts and produce bowls of goldfish from a scarf. Magicians even seem to make people disappear.
Many people think a magician’s hands move so quickly that the audience cannot follow the actions and see how tricks are performed. But the hand is not quicker than the eye. Most magicians avoid rapid hand movements because they know such motions confuse people and weaken the effect of the trick.
Magicians base their tricks upon a variety of techniques from science and the arts that they cleverly use to deceive the mind and eye. The magician creates a drama designed to create the illusion that impossible things are happening. Creating this illusion involves acting ability, skillful physical movements, and the basic principles of such fields as chemistry, optics, psychology, and physics. Magicians use carefully planned actions and words to distract the audience by centering its attention on the wrong place at the right time. In addition, the spectators do not know that a magician uses various secret devices.
Professional magicians perform on television, in theaters, comedy clubs, night clubs, and restaurants. They frequently appear at trade shows, banquets, business sales meetings, and conventions. Many young people find magic a fascinating hobby, and some earn money by doing tricks at birthday parties and other gatherings. Young magicians can gain poise and self-confidence by performing before an audience. They also may develop mental alertness and skill in using their hands.
Kinds of magic
Magic includes a number of types of tricks. The most common kinds of magic are (1) sleight of hand, (2) close-up magic, (3) illusions, (4) escape magic, and (5) mentalist magic.
Sleight of hand,
also called conjuring, legerdemain, and prestidigitation, requires especially skillful hand movements. The oldest known sleight-of-hand routine, which was performed in ancient Egypt and remains popular today, involves several small balls. The magician makes the balls appear, disappear, or change size while they are hidden under inverted cups or dishes. Gali Gali, a modern Egyptian magician, ended the trick by changing the balls into baby chicks. Paul Rosini, an American magician, turned the cups right side up and then poured out wine.
More varieties of sleight-of-hand tricks can be performed with a deck of cards than with any other objects. Cardini, a British magician, produced fans of cards at his fingertips. Then he made lighted cigarettes appear, followed by cigars and a pipe. Other magicians have used doves, handkerchiefs, clocks and watches, jewels, and lighted electric bulbs.
Close-up magic
is performed with spectators close to the performer, sometimes surrounding the magician or at a table only a short distance away. In close-up magic, magicians work with cards, coins, sponges, and other small objects. For example, every time the magician Albert Goshman lifted a saltshaker, a silver coin appeared beneath it. Johnny Paul, another magician, borrowed a piece of paper currency from a spectator and put it at one end of the table. Then he made the money move across the table into his hand.
Illusions.
Magicians called illusionists perform large-scale tricks with the aid of human assistants, animals, and elaborate equipment. One of the most famous illusions is sawing a woman in half. In 1921, magician Horace Goldin placed his assistant in a wooden box with her head, hands, and feet extending out through holes. He then sawed through the box without harming the body. Harry Blackstone, Jr., a modern illusionist, performed the same illusion by placing a young woman on a thin table without any covering. He then sawed through her with a huge electric buzz saw. Although a board placed beneath her was cleanly cut in half, the woman was unharmed.
The first great modern illusionist was Robert-Houdin, a French magician who performed in the mid-1800’s. Robert-Houdin became known as the father of modern magic because he contributed so many new tricks. For example, he suspended his young son in the air horizontally, with the boy’s arm resting on the top of an upright pole. Later, Adelaide Herrmann, a British illusionist, also performed this trick.
The three best-known illusionists in the United States during the 1900’s were probably Harry Blackstone, Harry Kellar, and Howard Thurston. Blackstone made a camel disappear. Kellar featured an illusion in which he made a cage containing a live canary disappear in full view of the audience. Thurston fired a pistol, and an automobile on the stage immediately vanished. Popular illusionists of the late 1900’s and early 2000’s have included David Copperfield, Lance Burton, and the team of Siegfried and Roy.
Escape magic.
Some magicians specialize in making apparently impossible escapes from various predicaments. The most famous escape performer was Harry Houdini, an American, who freed himself from police handcuffs, leg irons, and locked jail cells. He also let himself be handcuffed and placed in a crate that was nailed shut and lowered into a river. Houdini escaped in a few seconds. See Houdini, Harry.
Mentalist magic.
Some magicians, called mentalists, perform mind-reading tricks and predict future events. Mentalists call out the names of strangers in an audience and duplicate designs drawn on a piece of paper by spectators and then sealed in envelopes. They also write the correct total of numbers selected later by volunteers. During a television broadcast, Dunninger, a famous American mentalist, seemingly read the mind of a stranger in a submerged submarine.
Becoming a magician
People enjoy magic because of its mystery. If they know how a trick is done, it loses its appeal—and so magicians seldom reveal the secrets of their tricks. But basic methods can be learned from books on magic. Some of these books can be obtained from general bookstores or from public libraries. Other such books are sold by stores that specialize in equipment for magicians.
Two organizations—the Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) and the International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.)—have clubs in many cities throughout the world. S.A.M. has headquarters in Parker, Colorado, near Denver, and the I.B.M. has headquarters in St. Charles, Missouri, near St. Louis. Each publishes a monthly magazine and holds an annual convention. At the annual convention, magicians give lectures and demonstrate new tricks, and dealers in magicians’ supplies display new equipment.
See also Magic.
