Gardyloo #59
/
As this pangendered mult-instrumentalist and his/her mutant lamb-dog hybrid suggest, this site is now three years old.
On Wednesday I wrote about how I see magic evolving as the availability of secrets continues to grow. Essentially I see it changing into a two-part presentation. Traditionally, a magic trick takes place in one "act." I perform something mystifying and I leave you with the mystery. But, as secrets become more ubiquitous, I see magic presentations taking place in two parts. I perform something mystifying, then I tell you how it was done. It will almost be like a riddle, where you set up some intriguing question, but then ultimately you solve it for them. If we continue to perform in a trick-centric, magician-centric, secret-centric style, that's the only place magic really can go (if the second "act" doesn't take place with the magician, then the spectator will take care of it themselves wth a google search).
This may seem like a detriment to the art of magic, and it may be. But let's be honest, you love magic and you love learning all the secrets too, so it's not like the two can't co-exist. What it's definitely a detriment to is the experience of mystery. But don't worry, in the spirit of "take your weaknesses and make them strengths," I think I have some ideas that can allow us to co-opt this progression and create even stronger magic and mystery. More on that soon.
A reader, Casey, sent me this video/link. And I present it as a point of reference along the way towards the Magic as Riddle evolution.
Mathieu Bich goes on Fool Us and fools Penn and Teller with his trick Spreadwave
That video on youtube has well over a million views. And it links you right to a website he made—www.ifooledthem.com—where not only will he sell you the trick, but he'll just go ahead and tell you the secret for $2. It's just to satisfy your curiosity (as the secret is useless without the gimmicked deck).
Magical purists will say, "How dare he!" But it is his trick to do with as he pleases. And if he didn't "expose" it, someone else on youtube would do it instead. That's kind of the point I'm making about the ultimate endgame of the progression I feel we're on. How do we change course? There's an obvious, but not simple, solution. As I said, more on this to come.
The best thing in magic is when you find a truly one-of-a-kind performance. Sure, seeing the classics performed is always nice. But there's nothing more exciting than seeing something that is so perfectly original and unique to a performer that you know you'll never see something like it ever again. Like, for example, this trick where Franz Harary makes the Whitewater High School Marching Band appear on an empty football field! That's something you don't see everyday!
If you didn't watch until the end of Monday's video, you missed the part that made me laugh the most when making it.
This Week in Failed Experiements
Can I do a color-changing gumball trick by using dry-erase marker on a white gumball?
Uhm... no. No I can't.
The best thing in magic is when you find a truly one-of-a-kind performance. Sure, seeing the classics performed is always nice. But there's nothing more exciting than seeing something that is so perfectly original and unique to a performer that you know you'll never see something like it ever again. Like, for example, this trick where Ken Scott makes the Whitewater High School Marching Band appear on an empty football field! That's something you don't see everyday!
