A road to nowhere?

Fellow Magi - there is a question that I would like to pose as a point of debate. Be warned, my views are somewhat inflammatory.

Where are we going?

The first thing to define here is what do I mean by we?

Here, I am referring directly to the branch of magic that has come to be defined by the term 'Mystery Performance'. I think this is a far better label as it instantly de-constructs some of the more obvious clichés that form around the word 'Bizarre' - also I feel that if I bill myself as a 'Bizarre magician' the audience expect me to be 'bizarre' if not a little kinky! 

More importantly, I think the term 'Mystery Performance' opens up some interesting possibilities and ways forward. This is the nub of my debating point.

One of the useful doors that this term opens is in it's very title - it blurs the boundaries and allows us freedom.

For example we do not have all the 'rules' that the mentalists have (or 'popes' setting them) - if we wish to use cards we can, if we wish to use mentalism, we can. If we want to claim that what we do is 'real' we have an easier time of it. I think we are also better poised for our magic being real. A mentalist could not (comfortably) use the Cups and Balls - we can. This may sound like an attack on mentalists, it isn't - I am also aware that it is a generalisation. I could have used any branch of magic (including 'Bizarre') and pointed out their 'rules'. Rules are restrictions and we do not need them.

However, I feel that we should have aims - and this is what I would like to consider.

To define future aims, one needs to be aware of our past history (where we came from) and current circumstances (where we find ourselves now).

The history is interesting - I do not want to say too much here, as I feel that this is one of the points for discussions. Importantly for me is that the roots of what we do now have their foundation in 'real' magic. The very term 'mystery performer' should tell us this. Magicians have always been performers of mystery; shaman who open the doors of reality to the community in which they work. This is our legacy and it has always been my belief that this legacy should inform us in the present. If we call ourselves 'Performers of Mystery' we should deliver on that promise and do a little more than perform a bought trick or take people through the workings of a prop.

There are (of course) many other roads leading to where we are now - from traditional magic (sleight of hand, deception etc), séance work, involvement in the paranormal and (importantly for me) storytelling.

No areas are out of bounds in what we have inherited and therefore nothing is off-limits to what we bring to bear in our performances.

Where are we now? This is where my argument gets more controversial perhaps. You do not have to agree with what I have to say to be able to debate the points.

I do not think I can remember Magic being at a lower point in terms of public perception. I can certainly remember when I found Magic as 'Saturday night entertainment' shallow and unappealing back in the 70's. But at least it was popular and regularly performed, and for a mass audience.

Now, magic on TV is defined by just one or two representatives for the whole art - and this defines the public perception of what magic *is* ("are you like that Dynamo guy?").

Worse than this, I think magic is broadly despised by the contemporary audience. Now, before I raise your blood pressure too high, let me qualify this generalisation by saying that good performers overcome this, and appreciative audiences are still to be found. However, I think we all can connect to my *gut feeling* that magic is held in low esteem - Magicians find it harder to get work or to fill venues. When magicians are depicted on the media, they are often no more than clichéd parodies put in the stocks for us to laugh at. I generalise again, but if this generalisation rings true, then we need to accept it and do something about it. 

If it is true that magic is in low esteem, then it is not the fault of the art, but of the practitioner. The art of magic remains the same, but it is filtered through the variable of the practitioner. It seems to me that most magicians are more intent on demonstrating the superiority of their own needy egos than revealing the mysteries of the art and transporting the audience into a magical place. Most magical performances are little more than puzzles - puzzles that the magician offers no solution to in their display of superiority to their audiences.

Magician: 'I know the word you are thinking of/the card you have picked/which hand you hold the coin in - etc…' (this is something that I can do, that you cannot do).

'I will now demonstrate that I have this superior power to you - or rather *at* you'.

Subject (I use this term knowingly): 'Wow, how did you do that?' (actually, I am not that interested how you did it, I know it is a trick, and a puzzle you will not give me the solution to. So if anything I feel a little frustrated. But I will be polite, then you will let me get on with my life)

How many you tube videos have you seen where this is the real subtext?

(As for the videos where the 'rather select' street audience - who upon seeing a demonstration of a puzzle by some magician dressed as some kind of weedy rapper - start whooping and dancing up and down the street. Well, I need medication after seeing those. THAT is as bad as it gets).

I think that if I were to give many magicians a truth drug and ask them - what is your real aim in doing this - they would say - 'to get people looking at me and telling me I am incredible'. If this is so, it is a poor foundation for entertainment and perhaps a reason why most people no longer find magic relevant to their lives.

Frankly your audience do not care if you are incredible, in fact - they rather resent it. They want to be incredible. Now some people are thinking - but I do my tricks/effects ''in their hands'. Indeed, there is a good deal of deep and useful thinking that has gone into this of late. However, does the audience go away from the performance feeling empowered, or do they walk away thinking that they are inferior to the demonstration they have just seen? Do they feel themselves to be a conduit for magic or to be on the receiving end of it?

'Thank you very much' (for acknowledging my superiority).

I still love card tricks and traditional magic - but you may be performing the most skilled and inventive card trick ever - if I come in and claim that I can tell people their future, you will lose your audience to me - you are empowering yourself - I am empowering them.

I think there are better premises for the performance of magic.

For me, the better aim is to *bring mystery* into an audiences life - *genuinely* including and empowering them in the process. I have my own agenda here of wanting people to question what they mean by 'reality', as this is transformative. It has always been the magicians role to transform, just as it is the role of the Magician to be the trickster. We have just lost the deeper understanding of what this means along the way. 

So....

Why do you perform magic? I mean - here is that little blue truth pill.....

What is your goal in a performance? Have you defined it?

As a community of 'Mystery Performers', what are our aims and why do we hold them?

What do we wish to achieve and why do we wish to achieve it?

If magic is in an impasse, maybe asking these question will reveal a path out?  

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I did say that my aim here is to provoke debate, as debate is good, it contributes to how we move forward.
So how to debate this. well, a blog is not the ideal forum. 

However the MOON has a structured plan. 

We will fully debate this (and other topics) in the UNDERGROUND  

If you do not know how to find the door drop me an email at alchemytalk@gmail.com