Friday 20 February 2015

We have all the Magic we need.




One of the great joys of being involved in performance magic is that it enables you to retain some of your innate childlike qualities... and this is a good thing.

Like most magicians, I have draws overbrimming with stuff that I will never, ever use and may not even ever look at again. So why do we continue to buy so much bric-a-brac? I think there are two reasons.

The first is the whole 'inner child' thing. As with most hobbies it is great to relive Christmas whenever we have enough spare change - to eagerly await the postman's knock - to excitedly open the tactile little jiffy bag - to play around a bit - and then consign it to the purgatory of the magic draw. Rinse and repeat.
The second reason is that magicians, like the hero Galahad are constantly seeking the 'holy grail' (the is evidenced by the fact that many magic routines market themselves as being just this - even though they are not). There is, I think, a hollowness at the core of magic... something is missing.
My own view is that what is often missing is magic itself.

So as a magic retailer (albeit a rather mercurial one), I am going to aim the gun squarely at my own foot and tell you what you already know; you already have all the tricks you need. 

I have often argued that if you have a couple of the standard classic books on magic (you may wish to draw up your own shortlist), then you are set for life. Everything you ever need for a lifetime of performance and exploration is probably already in there. Further more, you will probably discover that all the workings behind the stuff in your magic draw is is there too. Man, you could have saved yourself a lot of money! I think this money could have been better spent in buying books that are outside of traditional magic, books to inspire new thinking and new approaches. For the Bizarrists here, the money could have been better used scouring junk shops, antique stores and ebay to find some really nice props to add to the ideas you already use.

So what is it that is missing? What is it that puts us on the treadmill of consuming the same ideas in different packaging? Where is the Holy Grail of magic?
Luckily for this discussion, I think I know the answer to this.

The Holy Grail is you!

The real magic is to be found in you, in your performance, your ideas and your engagement in magic.
This can never be bought. When we attempt to buy it, we are left hungry as the meal did not contain the nourishment we had hoped for.
My suggestion here is that you concentrate on just a handful of ideas. Enough for a 30 minute performance and really look to how they connect to you on a deeper level.. this as an alternative to going through the motions of the trick. How does your performance of magic connect you to your audience?, and more importantly, what you are trying to achieve?

..and why?

Are you a magician, or some guy that demos other creator's tricks?

If you are a magician, have you ever stopped to wonder what magic actually is? If you can achieve magic, how do you communicate it in a meaningful manner to the audience? And again, just what is that meaning? If you have been involved in magic for some time, you will have transcended the immature stage of performing magic to 'look cool' or to project your ego in a social situation. We all will have moved on from annoying people for our own psychological needs, to the idea that we are bringing magic into their lives. But - what do we mean by this and how do we achieve it?

This train of thought has been important to the development of my own magic for some time. And it is informing the ideas that I am currently working on for Alchemy Moon.

I will discuss in what way in a future post.

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