I liked this short movie and wanted to share it with you.

https://vimeo.com/229568473

"A real magician does not keep secrets from people. A real magician keeps secrets for people".

Well spoken. Thanks for sharing this.

I also liked his second point that there is an invisible dialogue or hidden narrative going on during a magic performance about this person who has a unique skill set. I think he means that there is the story of the secret running parallel to the story of the effect, and he is wondering when to wink or acknowledge it.

I wrote my Master's thesis on the functions of narrative framing, so I am sensitive to embedded or framework stories. In classic literature, the frame narrative often acts to unify and present a bunch of shorter stories--for example, The Canterbury Tales or One Thousand and One Nights. (Modern frame stories often go further in invoking psychology, mythologizing, or metafiction.) Pop Haydn's podcast on story is very helpful in applying the idea to magic. Pop discusses how the performer has a backstory that brings him up to the point of the story enacted in the present performance.


In a magic performance, the play really includes the audience and participants whose roles but not exact lines have been scripted. As Pop says, this is the story that will be retold later: this mind reader knew my number, this magician restored my torn bill. There is character, plot, conflict, emotion, and drama as in any story.

The outer narrative or story proper may be a framework for other stories. For example, the performer may tell how a deck of cards became haunted or he may tell the story of a gambler with aces. These stories are probably best when they are integrated into the effect and when they serve the effect.

I guess what I question about the point in the linked video above is the idea that the magician's skill set is the invisible story to be revealed at some point in the performance. The short film uses the dramatic analogy of the guy who appears to be dealing cards face down until the top card is turned over and you suddenly realize he is practicing second dealing. I just don't see that as being the normal narrative pattern in a magic performance--although I would be very happy to have it proven otherwise.

One Thousand and One Nights

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore." He continued "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."



We're the Emperors now.

For there is the study of art and study of Zen...

...and also the Zen and the art of study.