#1- We are creating the ILLUSION of being able to bend the Laws of Reality. This Illusion is created through the performers technical skill, belief in the illusion (which creates your body language conviction), and thirdly, the amount of credulity (or ready belief) of the audience.

That's what I came up with 30 years ago for the magic classes I was teaching. It was my attempt to give some realization to the 'what' we were attempting to teach and learn, etc.

What I would love is to see 9 more theories that do not in anyway partake of the above #1.

On 2007-10-05 12:56, Brad Burt wrote:
I also would love to know how the number '10' was arrived at even with the explanation of the '11' site mentioned above?

Theory in what sense? I have written dozens and dozens of essays on magic theory touching on it from many differing directions. I am almost at a loss to imagine what anyone could mean by focusing it down to a specific number. For instance you could look at various theories having to do with 'marketing' yourself as a magician or what is basic to 'misdirection', etc.? What keeps me coming back to magic is the sheer complexity of the craft and it's attendant components.

That said, looking at it from a strictly semantic point what would be a theory of 'magic' as it pertains to the craft of conjuring? Let's look at one of the definitions of 'theory' that seems to pertain to the present discussion, or seems to most closely pertain as I understand the original question:

5. a particular conception or view of something to be done or of the method of doing it; a system of rules or principles.

The above seems to be what is being asked. I particularly like "...a particular conception or view of something to be done..."

And, so what we come to is...What is 'magic' as it pertains to the art or craft of conjuring? What is 'it' that we do when we perform? What in 'theory' are we doing?

Try this:

#1- We are creating the ILLUSION of being able to bend the Laws of Reality. This Illusion is created through the performers technical skill, belief in the illusion (which creates your body language conviction), and thirdly, the amount of credulity (or ready belief) of the audience.

That's what I came up with 30 years ago for the magic classes I was teaching. It was my attempt to give some realization to the 'what' we were attempting to teach and learn, etc.

What I would love is to see 9 more theories that do not in anyway partake of the above #1. In other words, if there are 10 theories of magic and the above is one of them then what are the other 9? If they lack any true distinctive then they will generally amount to no more than a restatement of #1. That's not to say that there could not be a MUCH better statement of the basis of what we do than I came up with! But, I've played with it for 30 years and I just could not come up with anything else that seemed to encapsulate and distill a description of the type of magic we practice as those who conjure.

Again, to get another '9' seems to me to demand that the basic heading of 'magic' then be broken down into sub sets and those sub sets described in theory. For instance: Misdirection, sleight-of-hand, Illusions (large), and so on.

Just because I have written all the above I fully expect for someone to pop up with a KILLER list of what the other 9 are!!! LOL Sincerest regards,

On 2007-10-05 08:45, amazin wrote:
Yes this is where I came up with the number. I thought I should know 1-10 before worring about theory 11