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imacmagic New user 27 Posts |
What's that feeling you get when you are truly and completely fooled? It's what we all want, after all. It's why we got into magic in the first place. We were fooled once, and it made us feel a certain way and like a drug addict, we wanted to re-create that feeling.
Let's be honest, after all. Sure we want to create that feeling for our audiences, but if that was all we wanted to do, we would stop browsing magic catalogs. We have learned plenty enough tricks to fool our audience reliably and repeatably ad infinitum. We look at magic catalogs, we watch video demos, and read endless descriptions of tricks with the hope of re-creating that first feeling of astonishment. But what is that astonishment made of? Why does it feel so good? I believe that the astonishment of being fooled is a form of pure hope. All magic is a performance art where the intention is to create a highly concentrated form of hope in someone else. So concentrated that it washes over you, making hope feel tangible and true and beyond reproach. Self-evidently true, if only for a moment. Hope for what? Hope that something broken can be repaired. Something confusing and uncertain can be made certain. Something worthless can become valuable. Something lost can be found. Not a playing card, the stupid playing card is just a metaphor. But a metaphor for what? A lost childhood. A lost love. A lost family member. A lost sense of hope itself. It all depends on the spectator. After all, magic is just a form of performance art and the only real experience happens completely within the mind of the spectator. In this world, hope is an increasingly rare commodity. Raw pure honest hope is even rarer. It's getting harder and harder to move up in this world. Finding a job, even a crappy unskilled job these days feels like an endless parade of despair. Rents are on the rise. Seems like everything is getting more expensive and that successful people have no more skill than you. Makes you feel like life is a big rigged game of lottery where most of us end up getting screwed and the few of us who do get ahead are paraded around on TV and news and our Facebook feed to make us feel worse about ourselves. We go around with our daily lives, not talking to our parents for years on end. And when we do, it seems to end up making things worse. Our children seem to hate us no matter what we do. It's so easy to end up feeling hopeless. Of course, you don't think about it explicitly when watching a magic trick. You don't stand there and say: "Hey, that magician just tore up a dollar bill and put it back together again, if she can do that then maybe I too can fix my relationship with my father." It's not that specific. It's not a straight line. Metaphors don't work that way. But when you suspend your disbelief, when you release that tight grip on reality that you've been holding on to so tightly. Holding like it was the only thing keeping you from falling apart. When you release that grip, even for a moment, your brain doesn't know the difference between the dollar bill and the relationship with your dad. You don't suspend disbelief just for the bill or deck of cards. When you are completely and utterly fooled––fooled so badly you are speechless––then hope has flooded your body like dopamine rush. If that's really possible, then maybe anything is possible. Maybe my old way of thinking is wrong. Maybe things really can change for the better. Hope. There's a meme in magic today that doesn't make sense to me. It's the meme that magicians "shouldn't" be trying to "trick" their spectator. That giving the magic abilities to the spectator is better than just "showing off" some ability to fool them. To me, the biggest sin in magic isn't "tricking" the spectator, the biggest sin is in not providing hope. For example: magician makes a coin disappear. The end. It's a ***ization of the "Lost to Found" plot. Where did the coin go? What's the point? Hopeless. Totally unsatisfying. Unenjoyable. Magician crumples an empty piece of paper up and hands it to you. Then she makes a coin disappear and it appears in the paper you had been holding the whole time. Lost to found. Hope. The magician didn't give the person any magical powers, but still provided a satisfying illusion. Small, maybe not a lot of hope, but fun. Enjoyable. Worthwhile. Magicians tend to think of themselves within certain magical silos: card magic, coin magic, stage, mentalism. That taxonomy might make sense from a magician's point-of-view but does not make sense from a spectators point of view. When you go to a car mechanic, it might make a huge difference to the mechanic that you are driving a Mercedes, he only works with American brands, but it makes no difference to you. Your car is broken. For a spectator, tricks fit into different plot buckets: Lost to Found - pick a card - cut to card(s) - card to impossible location - coin to impossible location - ring to impossible location - think a card - thought reading - book test Broken to Fixed - torn and restored card - torn and restored bill - torn and restored string - torn and restored person Less Valuable to More Valuable - card to another card - coin to another coin - bill to another bill - appearing money - person to another person - appearing person Uncertain to Certain - headline prediction - lottery prediction - card prediction Normal to Enchanted - floating bill - floating person - haunted deck - "out of this world" - PK touch Notice that in these plot buckets, there is a mix of what magicians consider different "kinds" of tricks. The "Worse to Better" plot includes card magic, money magic, stage magic. The "Lost to Found" plot mixes card magic and mentalism. That's because fundamentally these kinds of tricks share the same plot premise. How is a "book test" similar to a "pick a card" trick? In a pick a card, you pick a card. It's yours. Only you know it. You return it to the deck and it is lost forever, impossible to find. Then, by some miracle, it's found. Lost to Found. In a book test, you pick a word. It's yours. Only you know it. You close the book and it is lost forever, impossible to find. Then, by some miracle, it's found. Lost to Found. In thought reading, you write a name or a word. It's yours. Only you know it. The paper is hidden or destroyed... lost, impossible to find. Then, by some miracle, it's found. Lost to Found. Magician borrows your wedding ring. It disappears. It's lost, impossible to find. Then, by some miracle, it's found. Lost to Found. You name any card. It's your card. Nobody knows where it is in the deck. Impossible to find. Then, by some miracle, it shows up at any number you name. Lost to Found. All these tricks appeal to the same plot metaphor. How things get lost and how they get found changes in innumerable ways. But the finding––the hope that something lost can be found again––that's what emotionally resonates with the audience, whether or not they have any awareness of it. All the popular magic plots share the same structure: Worse to Better. Lost to Found. Broken to Fixed. Less Valuable to More Valuable. Uncertain to Certain. Normal to Enchanted. Worse to Better. In one word? Hope. Hope that things could get better. That your life could transform for the better. That the bills will get paid. That you could reconcile with your father, even if he's already dead. As you might have noticed, I keep mentioning reconciliation with a father. Why? One of my personal heroes is David Copperfield. I've been watching him since I was six years old. I looked for to the TV special every year, back when he was still doing them. One of my favorite tricks from the TV specials was his ace assembly. He said his grandpa taught him that trick and there was always a nod to him. It was a small detail, something that some might consider too corny to mention. I'm sure it's happened, but I've never seen another magician spin an ace assembly with a family twist before of after. That tie adds metaphoric weight to the ace assembly. Lost to Found. The aces disappear, get lost, and then are all found together at the end. We all die, but by remembering each other we can stay together forever. Recently I went to see Copperfield in Vegas. The show was amazing. There were a few tricks that really surprised me and one that all out completely fooled me. Utter speechless awe. He popped one balloon that was completely inside another balloon. Some of you are probably rolling your eyes at this, some of you might say: "Oh that old thing, everyone knows that trick." Well it was completely baffling to me. The thing I enjoyed the most about his show was the major climax. Copperfield admitted to falling out of touch with his father as his career exploded and how much he regretted that now that his dad was gone. A large chunk of the show revolved around the idea of time travel back to reconcile with his father. I'll admit it, I cried. It hit me hard. It gave me hope. When I got home, I went online and checked the reviews. One comment said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the tricks were good but the whole script was complete rubbish and needed to be thrown away, start over. Clearly, no metaphor will universally touch everybody in the same way. It can't. We all carry different baggage. The tricks only happen in the spectator's head, not on stage. Not all the tricks in Copperfield's show were of the "Broken to Fixed" plot. In fact, he had tricks for every plot in his show. Uncertain to Certain (headline prediction), Normal to Enchanted (animated alien), Lost to Found (book test), Less Valuable to More Valuable (appearing people and vehicles), Broken to Fixed (shrunken and restored person). He had every kind of plot. But in addition to the individual trick plots was the theme of the show. A theme is something missing from *** near every other magic show out there. Copperfield's bread and butter is theme. Sometimes the theme is reconnecting with his childhood self (making the entire theatre snow). Sometimes the theme is reconciliation. Sometimes the theme is love. And not all the tricks are necessarily tied to the theme, but many are. What is reconnecting with a childhood self? Lost to Found. What is reconciliation with a lost father? Broken to Fixed. What is finding love? Less Valuable to More Valuable. In a word: hope. The theme of the show mirrors the sentiment of magic itself: to generate hope. It's fine if you don't like that style. It's fine if appealing to the emotional side of life seems corny or inauthentic to you. By no means am I saying you must adopt a Copperfield approach to your magic. Copperfield does Copperfield. You do you. But when you better understand your end goal, what you are really trying to accomplish with your magic, you can create better magic. You can stay away from traps that create bad magic. You can use stories to spice up what other people might consider bad magic. Many magicians these days look down on the old 21 card trick. And sure its a trick with a lot of process. But is it a flawed trick? No. It's a standard "Lost to Found" plot. Maybe try re-framing the process to highlight the "Lost to Found" concept in a way that most magicians don't. For example: "Do you ever feel lost in a crowd? Like you are sitting at work and you see people that you've never seen before and wonder what they do." As you say this, you start dealing three rows of seven cards. "I don't want you to say anything out loud, just think in your head of one of these cards. That card will represent you and the others will represent the crowd." You are making the process itself into a metaphor. The justification for the process is the story itself. You have given meaning to the "Lost and Found" plot and thus to the old 21 card trick. Raised the stakes. It's not just a card you are thinking of, it represents you. Will the magician be able to spot you in a crowd? Are you special enough? There is nothing wrong with a trick that has proper structure. If you make a coin disappear and not reappear, you are making something of value go away. It makes no sense. But if you make a card box disappear when you don't need it anymore, after you make a gesture like you don't know what to do with the card box, it has become a "Normal to Enchanted" card box. Some people say that you should never use a center tear and then immediately tell them what they wrote. I would argue that it is still amazing to most laymen. It's still a "Lost to Found" plot. I think it still works. But can you deepen it with a metaphor? Use a story to increase the impact? Of course you can. Imagine this: How often do you feel like your thoughts go unheard in life? Have you ever been in a meeting and wanted to say something, but didn't because you were scared? Have you ever written down a thought on a piece of paper in class instead of raising your hand and saying it out loud? Why don't we do an experiment and you write down a word right now, as if you were sitting in class, too scared to raise your hand. So often magicians are scared of process. They think its unnatural. Of course unjustified process is unnatural. So justify it. Give them a story in which the context explains the actions. Use the magic plot bucket inherent to every popular magic trick to invent a story that mirrors the underlying metaphor. There is a brilliant Dan Harlan trick called Crazy Cash where a signed dollar bill is torn into quarters and restored but the pieces are restored in the wrong places. This makes no sense to me. It's a "More Valuable to Less Valuable" plot which is the wrong direction. But the same concept can be applied to a family photo and a wonderfully touching patter can be woven in. Doesn't need to be, but can be. Imagine the magician pulls out a photo of himself with his son. Recalls being too harsh on him one time, and the physical representation of that is tearing the photo in half. Then feeling guilty, thus tearing the halves in half again. Wishing he could put it back together again, but knowing that it would be impossible to do so. With a wave of the hand, the photo is restored, but restored incorrectly. The lesson? Fights can be mended, even if they can't be forgotten. The story plot matches the effect plot. The trick becomes an explicit metaphor rather than an odd failure of a restoration. One of the best ways to give other people hope is to tell stories of finding your own hope. How you overcame a challenge in your own life. Maybe big, maybe small, doesn't matter. Even the story of how you got into magic might be an interesting starting point for a theme. This isn't just the job of magic. It's also the job of a good novel, a good movie, a good TV show... of any good story. In the best stories, the protagonist wants something really bad. Odysseus wants to get home. Marty McFly wants to fix his future. Ariel wants to become human. Not only do they not get what they want easily, but they go through absolute hell to get what they want. It seems absolutely impossible that they will get what they want. The more epically impossible it seems that they will ever get it, the better the story. You know Odysseus will get home from page one. You know Ariel will become human. She's obsessed with it. It shouldn't be a surprise that they accomplish their goal... it's obviously their goal from the start. The real magic of a good story is convincing you that its impossible that they will ever reach their goal. Then, at the end, they do. Surprising, yet inevitable. Why is it that we want surprising and yet inevitable endings? Because it gives us hope. We desperately crave hope. We look for it everywhere. Facebook is an expert at this. Your Facebook feed dutifully doles out fear, fear, fear, and then a tiny little bit of hope. It's a formula to keep you addicted. Keeps you coming back and spending more time on the feed so that they can get more advertising revenue. That's a commercialized and toxic form of hope. Keep scaring you so you keep coming back to get your fix of hope. Network news uses the same formula. Terrorists. Gunmen. Suicide bombers. Lottery. Fear, fear, fear, hope. Is it to keep you well informed? No. Most people don't know this, but it is a documented fact that we live in the most peaceful moment in human history. If you were to stand back and be able to pick a time to live in (any time at all, it's a free choice), there would be no period in human history that has had less murder, war, famine, rape, etc. than right now. By every measure. So why don't we know this fact? Why do we seem more scared than ever? Why aren't there news reports about this? Because news isn't there to inform you. It's there to scare you into coming back, spending more time on their website and watching TV, increasing their ratings so they can sell more commercials. It's a ***ization of our desperation to find hope in our lives. You as a magician have the honor and ability to provide people something they are desperate for in a healthy way. A way that doesn't rely on scaring them into believing things that aren't true or are completely out of context. Of adding undue stress to people's already stressful existences. A pure, unbastardized form of hope for a better future. It may not be a huge dose of hope. A small dose is perfectly respectable. It's honest. It's more than most people give on a daily basis to anyone. So go forth and fool us. Fool us good. Interrupt our patterns. Make us reconsider what is possible. Do it proudly and do it often. And if at all possible, remind us that there is more to this world than meets the eye. That maybe, just maybe, tomorrow might be brighter than today. |
Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Being presented with the impossible (or very unlikely)
The response of others in context. Discovering the means by which one was deceived. More useful to consider as a sandwich. Usually served open face with a spoon full of sugar, JonT
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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funsway Inner circle old things in new ways - new things in old ways 9982 Posts |
Much of what you say is true -- and sad. But, methinks your perspective is a bit misaligned.
The problem is not that "hope is rare," it is that the capacity for hope was never learned. Hope implies accountability for results and pride over having dreamed and planned and strived, even is the objective was not reached. Today, every kid gets a trophy just for showing up. They get the same diploma whether or not they learned anything, cheated along the way or just gave up. Hope has no reward. Imagination has no reward. Creativity has no reward. Bulling others gets results. Stealing is easier than working. Lying is easier than supporting truth. Performance magic has the ability to take a person back to the early years of mental process formation, of experimentation, imagination, trial and error - awe and wonder. But, what of a child never experienced any of that? If they learned instead that every game has a 'cheat', and that the lazy and liar gets the same rewards as the honest striver ...? Why do you use the term "fool" instead of "astonish?" Consider that every person has experience with being fooled in life, but few has experience with being astonished. Another Café' member stated his position as a teacher was "Casting false pearls before fake swine." Where is the audience who will appreciate what you are trying to say? Is it enough to do tricks and fool people in a fun way with some hope that an occasional bold spirit will be ennobled or inspired? Is it you own hope that is being tested? Not saying you should not keep trying. Just be prepared for the scorn and rejection and complaints that Jon's sandwich has the wrong type of mayo. Will finding just one person a month who knows what hope is be enough to fuel your passion? And what if they are just lying - telling you what they think you wish to hear? happy to chat off list anytime. Hope you will. (Check my sig line)
"the more one pretends at magic, the more awe and wonder will be found in real life." Arnold Furst
eBooks at https://www.lybrary.com/ken-muller-m-579928.html questions at ken@eversway.com |
imacmagic New user 27 Posts |
To hope is simply to want something to happen... to imagine a life better than it is today. We all have the ability to hope. It's part of the human condition. To be fooled triggers that hope like hitting a funny bone triggers an automatic response. But if you are not completely fooled to the point of astonishment, then you are not hitting that funny bone.
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funsway Inner circle old things in new ways - new things in old ways 9982 Posts |
From your first posts I concluded you thought "hope" was more substantial than that.
Everyone can want something other than what they have. Few are willing to do what is necessary to make it so. Yes, just making folks muse on how life might be different could be of value. Better than just asking a pseudo-friend on Facebook what they think. So, I am caught between the notion that any magic trick is good if it is a diversion from a video game, and knowledge that true astonishment can be life-altering. Guess I feel that "lack of hope" in anything is a major cultural problem today, leading to most folks never taking accountability for their actions. Can performing magic make a difference? It is doing something live for a real person that might make a difference. Yup, when I demonstrate that the impossible can be defeated, it could cause another to think about overcoming a problem in their own life. But, if they do not act on it, I am no different from watching a cartoon.
"the more one pretends at magic, the more awe and wonder will be found in real life." Arnold Furst
eBooks at https://www.lybrary.com/ken-muller-m-579928.html questions at ken@eversway.com |
imacmagic New user 27 Posts |
Yes, I ageee with you. I believe what you are taking about is gumption and if hope is rare, gumption is an endangered species.
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MeetMagicMike Inner circle Gainesville Fl 3501 Posts |
I want to believe as many true things as possible and as few untrue things. I want the same for others.
A book or a movie can provide the hope and wonder you write about. A magic show can too as long as you intend it to be a parable and your audience sees it that way. However, if your audience leaves your show more inclined to believe in things that are not true then you have not enlightened them. You have done the opposite. |
imacmagic New user 27 Posts |
I'm not going to disagree with you, but I will say that the problem is not limited to magic: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-......ory.html
:) |
Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
What does amusing audiences with specious demonstrations of the impossible have to do with enlightening people? Or expecting them to believe* anything?
Finding (and possibly illustrating) bridges between what one might be asked to believe and what one may conclude as true (for who/where/when) can be useful though is not a part of our performing art. We do tricks. If we pander to social prejudices and preconceptions, offer our tricks as illustrations for some way of seeing the world... that's moving our craft toward the educator and perhaps too close to the charlatan. Maybe we can agree that it's not Our Magic to install/instill/elicit/create untrue beliefs about the world outside our shows. What do you think? * something icky follows * do you really want someone to ask you after the show if you can use your zigzag illusion to help a relative with a difficult surgery? Or someone to ask if the way you brought a card to the top of the pack could help move a tumor? * end icky
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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MeetMagicMike Inner circle Gainesville Fl 3501 Posts |
Jonathan Townsend,
I found your last post to be difficult to understand. Maybe it's me. I don't believe a performer HAS to enlighten. Just amusement is fine. I'm only saying that he shouldn't have it as his goal to encourage supernatural belief. Do you agree or disagree? |
Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Quote:
On Jan 20, 2018, MeetMagicMike wrote: agree.
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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Brad Burt Inner circle 2675 Posts |
It is an interesting topic, but I think you are ascribing more to magic than it can manifest. I don't think that magic engenders hope in an audience member, unless it's the hope that comes from a fostered interest in learning magic. "I sure hope I can learn to do that..."
I guess a great bit of magic might make one "hopeful of the future", but in 50+ years involvement with magic I have never noted that in myself. Nor, really, can I say that I have ever come across anyone who noted that they were more hopeful because of a magic performance. I'm not saying that it couldn't happen, but seeing something of the sort manifest in ones own life and then projecting it into other folks is tenuous without testing the assertion in some manner. Best,
Brad Burt
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funsway Inner circle old things in new ways - new things in old ways 9982 Posts |
Maybe "hope" is the wrong word here, even though there is something to what the OP is looking for.
I know people who have been motivated to deal with difficult problem after seeing a magic. Did they think the situation "hopeless." Don't know, we are playing with words. The Vanishing Wheelchair Project of Ricky Boone get folks with disabilities involved in magic performance and ti has changed many lives. Parents and friends come to shows to see a kid perform a magic trick who last year would not even speak in public. Hope is involved in there somewhere. Other parents try and get their paraplegic involved in the hopes that being close to Ricky and hearing his story and example will help their child "open up." Doesn't have to be magic - maybe singing or art; but most start with magic and love the reactions they get form parents when they learn and perform a magic trick. It is a two hour drive for me to get there and perform in an evening show with these "new magicians." But, the real joy is the afternoon workshops when I can teach them magic. Do I go there at my own expense and perform for free because I hope my participation might make a difference in someone's life? You bet! But, the title asks whether fooling itself creates hope, not whether hope can be part of magic. "fool" is as slippery as "hope." Yes, I feel that being involved with performance magic can generate hope. Not sure about the fool part. I never try and fool anyone. Astonish, yes. Inspire, yes. Maybe if they are only fooled there is no hope for anything more.
"the more one pretends at magic, the more awe and wonder will be found in real life." Arnold Furst
eBooks at https://www.lybrary.com/ken-muller-m-579928.html questions at ken@eversway.com |
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