Mastering Magic for Adults: Secrets Revealed
Introduction
Ah, Magic! From the ancient Druids to Merlin, Houdini to Harry Potter, magic is nearly as old as time itself.
In the beginning there was supernatural magic, sorcery, and witchcraft. With “Eye of newt and tongue of frog” magicians, witches, and sorcerers wove powerful spells causing them to be revered, persecuted, and feared by the common person for their abilities to control weather, events, and life itself.
Kings and tribal leaders kept personal magicians on staff to intervene with the Gods on their behalf. Providing protection from enemies, famine, and disease, powerful Wizards like Merlin were valuable members of the King’s Court.
Magic’s journey from occult, to science, to entertainment, is a long and glorious one. The Egyptians prized their amulets and magical figurines. The Romans had their priests, called Oracles, who could speak directly with the Gods themselves!
Today magicians entertain audiences in nearly every culture. For some, it is a rewarding career, for others, it’s a hobby, or a sales tool, or simply a way to win a free drink at the bar. The goal of this book is to introduce you to the art of Performance Magic and to show you ways that magic can be used not only to entertain, but to create memorable sales presentations, trade show effects, and other business uses. We’ll even show you how to magically present your business card in a way that no prospect or client will ever forget!
While it’s hard to find a magician that can change you into a newt these days, there is no end to the list of magi that can saw people in half, vanish large (sometimes VERY large) objects, and swap places with caged animals. This type of illusion, or Large Stage Magic, amazes audiences even though they know that it’s all being done by the clever use of props, smoke, and mirrors. However, let an ordinary person such as you pass a cigarette through a coin, and then make it disappear into a common table napkin, and you’ve got people believing in magic!
My name is xxx. I’ve been a magician, entertainer, comedian, and performer for more than 20 years. Magic is what I do. It’s how I feed my family as well as my need to serve mankind. If I couldn’t do magic, then the only other thing I could possible settle for would be to win 100 million in the lottery, buy a very big hammock, and suffer my fate bravely on some Caribbean Island surrounded by short people yelling “De Plane, De Plane”.
I can guarantee you that the Empire State Building will still be visible when you’re through learning the wonderful effects that I have in store for you as we’re going to focus on the types of magic that you are likely to have the time, skills, desire, and money to perform. We’re going to teach you how to perform routines in these popular magic categories:
Small stage/Stand-up
This type of magic is great for performances in front of the types of audiences that you might encounter at a lodge meeting, trade show, or other gathering. This is where you get to perform the “Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat” magic that includes magic wand routines, linking rings, appearing and vanishing flowers, and “other ooh and ah” effects that are easy to learn, use inexpensive props, and are as fun to perform as they are to watch.
Close-up, “Pocket”, or “Walk around” magic:
Personally, I think that this is the most amazing magic that you can perform. Using every day objects such as playing cards, business cards, pens, matches, rubber bands, paper clips, coins, handkerchiefs, table napkins, water glasses, cigarettes and bank notes, you can create an endless number of effects that can be done at a restaurant table, in front of your coworkers, and of course, in a bar to win that coveted free drink
Children’s magic
If close-up magic is the most amazing, then Children’s magic is the most gratifying. There isn’t much that will warm your heart more than watching little faces light up in awe and amazement when you perform at a child’s birthday party. Even something simple like making balloon animals can be very rewarding (both personally as well as financially). Kids are willing to watch you all day, and parents are willing to pay you well for the entertainment. This can also be a profitable part-time job for experienced amateurs.
Get ready for a metamorphosis that will transform you from being the one that’s amazed to one that’s amazing as you begin your journey into Mastering Magic for Adults: Secrets Revealed.
Chapter 1 – In the blink of an eye
Before I can admit you into the secret society of Magicians, there is an urgent matter, having to do with your eternal soul, that my position as your guide into the Inner Circle of Magicians mandates my discussing with you:
Those of you familiar with Dante Alighieri, born in Florence, Italy in May of 1265, know that he wrote of the “Nine Circles of Hell”. Each circle held the souls of those who had committed sins belonging to a particular category such as Thievery, Treason, Murder, Lust, and other nefarious offenses. Each circle produced eternal punishments that grew more and more horrible as the soul got closer to the ninth and final circle that was reserved for the worst sins of all. But, was the ninth circle really the final one? I think not. For Dante hid the existence of the most horrible circle of all from everyone but the members of the Inner Circle of Magicians. Dante knew of the untold horrors, the punishments so severe and unimaginable, that they could only be delivered upon those pour souls who were evil enough to violate the sacred bonds of Magic by doing the unthinkable. Yes, they had disregarded the ultimate Magician’s creed to….
“Never, ever, ever reveal to non-magicians how a magical routine is performed”!
For to do so is to tear open the very shroud that covers the secret ways of magic and expose the mysteries to mere mortals. This has the unfortunate results of forever depriving that mortal of the spellbinding awe that is produced by the wonders of magic. And that is a sin worthy of great punishment.
It will also cost the rest of us magicians a lot of missed opportunities to win free drinks in the bar once the non-magicians start blabbing all of our secrets to the world...
You have been warned!
So, with that serious subject having been covered to my satisfaction, it’s time to get “On with the Show”!
How the human eye and brain perceives illusions.
Magicians perform routines, effects, or illusions, never “tricks”. A trick is when someone tells you that their pants are on fire when they’re not. Illusions are masterful performances that fool the eye and brain into seeing something that did not happen, or happened in a way that is different then the eye and brain think it did. The ability to fool such a sophisticated pair of organs as the human eye and brain is truly magic!
A magician waves a seemingly empty hand in the air and, poof, out of nowhere a magic wand appears. You see a magician holding a coin in the flattened palm of their hand. They momentarily close the hand into a fist, open it, and the coin has vanished.
How is this accomplished? Simple, you already know the answer:
The hand is quicker than they eye!
Don’t believe me? Try this experiment…
- Hold either arm straight out in front of you with your palm turned sideways as if you were going to execute a karate chop.
- Bend your arm at right angle in front of you.
- Now, rapidly raise and lower your arm, in front of your eyes, as if your arm were a railroad gate moving up and down. Keep doing it until you can no longer see your hand moving.
- When you get tired of trying, and realize that the hand is NOT quicker than the eye, come back here and we’ll tell you how it really works.
Bye the way, the above steps that we gave you were a “trick”. See, magicians never perform tricks. Tricks are usually dumb and don’t impress anyone. Magic is, well, magical.
OK, if the hand really isn’t quicker than they eye, how does magic really work? There isn’t one simple answer. The way magic “works” depends upon the particular routine being performed. Some work by slight of hand and misdirection, some require special props, often called “gimmicks”, and some even use existing laws of nature or mathematics like this quick and easy routine called “Add it up”. The steps to performing this routine are listed below. See Figure 1 for an example.
1. Ask a friend to think of any 3 digit number.
2. Then, ask them to reverse the digits.
3. Subtract the smaller number from the larger number.
4. Now reverse the new digits and these new numbers together.
5. Tell the audience that you can tell the future and that you already have the answer written down on a piece of paper in your pocket.
6. Remove a piece of paper from your pocket that you have previously the number “1089” on. You will always be right.
Hint: You may want to give an audience member a calculator, or paper and pencil, to see they do the math and get the number right.
Figure 1
Slight of hand effects, as well as misdirection techniques and gimmicks, all depend upon fooling the brain into thinking it saw something that it really didn’t. I admitted that I played a trick on you with the hand is quicker than the eye stunt, but it really is possible to fool the brain. Have a look at these examples:
Although the circle in Figure 2 is perfectly round, it appears to be distorted by the background pattern.
Figure 2
In figure 3, there aren’t really any grey spots at the corners of the black squares.
Figure 3
Likewise, in Figure 4, there are only white circles at the intersections, no black ones.
Figure 4
In figure 5, believe it or not, both lines are the exact same length. Measure them with a ruler if you don’t believe me.
Figure 5
So, now that we know it’s possible to fool the brain, how can we use this fact to perform magic? The answer to that question will require every word in the remainder of this book.
Be prepared for a letdown.
Before we get too deep into magic, I need to explain something very strange that occurs when you first learn how to perform magic for yourself. Simply put, the “magic” disappears and all you are left with is the cold hard details of the steps required to perform the effect, or how the gimmick works that performs the effect for you. It’s a bit of a letdown, at first, because at some level you probably were hoping that there really was magic in that hat or wand. Or at least you hoped that there was a lot more to creating the illusion then there usually is.
This is a very common and normal feeling. Don’t let it get you down. Simply keep everything in perspective by remembering that just because YOU know how it all works, that doesn’t mean that your audience is going to be any less amazed. It takes a mind shift from being “entertained by magic” to “using magic to entertain”. Once you make that shift, you’ll be well on your way to being a master magician. This whole illusion disillusion is a great example of why you never want to end up in Dante’s 10th Circle of Hell by revealing how a routine is performed to any non-magician.
Once you have this letdown under control, get over it and work your way back to a child-like belief in magic. In order to succeed, you must come full circle and start believing in magic again. I know this sounds contradictory, but it’s true. While most people are used to thinking “I’ll believe it when I SEE it”. A true magician thinks “I’ll see it when I BELIEVE it”. If you don’t believe in the magic, and see it through your audience’s eyes, they won’t see it either.
Slight of Hand
I’ve already shown you that the hand is not quicker than the eye, so what in the name of Merlin could sleight-of-hand possibly be? It is the quick execution of a movement in a moment when that movement is not being observed. This would be a very good time to ask “How can I make a movement, and not have that movement detected, when I am standing up in front of a bunch of people who are staring right at me and watching every move that I make”? To which I say, “Good question”!
This is where slight-of-hand meets the art of misdirection. Using misdirection, I can, for example, momentarily draw your attention to my left hand and free my right hand to make a certain movement unobserved. Here’s a good example of misdirection in its easiest form.
Let’s suppose that I have a small object concealed in my right hand that I want to place into my pocket in order to be able to produce it later as part of the finale of the effect that I am about to perform. I need to draw the audience’s attention from my right hand for a moment so I can slip the object into my pocket unobserved. Now, every eye is on me, and my every movement is being watched. This is not good, right? Wrong! It’s great. Because my “every movement” is being watched, I have total control over determining which of my “every movements” is actually going to be observed by the audience.
Holding my magic wand in my left hand, I wave it in the air and, with my best magician’s voice I declare “Now, for my next amazing feat I will” and I introduce my next routine. Folks, I guarantee you that every eye in the audience is locked onto my magic wand, and absolutely no one sees my right hand momentarily dipping into my right pocket. There is nothing more powerful than the dynamic duo of misdirection and slight of hand.
Hey batter, batter. The purpose of “patter”
Patter are the words that you say to an audience while you are performing a routine. When I waved my magic wand, in the example above, and said “Now, for my next amazing feat I will” I was using patter.
The quality of your patter can mean the difference between a “clap, clap”, when you are through with your routine, and a “CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP” for the very same routine.
The kind of patter that you use depends upon several factors including the persona, or character that you become when you perform your magic routines right on down to the type of misdirection that you need to pull off the effect.
Since patter is such an important part of any magician’s performance, I’ve put together some basic rules of patter that you should always keep in mind whenever you perform. And yes, there WILL be a test of you patter skills. I won’t be administering the test to you, but your audience sure will every time you get up to perform. Here’s your study guide…
- Always plan your patter and rehearse it just like a comedian rehearses jokes -- over and over again. First write a patter “script” and then stand up alone in a room and perform each routine, along with its patter, as if you were in front of a live audience. If possible, record your performance on a video camera, or at least a tape recorder, and rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse again until everything seems natural and, well, magical. If you don’t have a video camera, rehearse in front of a mirror so you can see your hands from the same prospective as your audience will.
- After you think that you have your routine down pat, perform in front of a family member, or trusted friend, and have them critique your performance. Remember, never purposely reveal how any of your routines are done. Just put on your show as if you were playing in front of a packed house.
- Try to invent plausible and entertaining stories to go along with your routines. Talk your way through the story as you perform. It will entertain your audience even more, and actually it makes you more relaxed
- In addition to stories, many magicians like to tell an appropriate joke during the performance. This has the same effect as a story on the audience and is likely to make them laugh and applaud even if your effect wasn’t as great as you had hoped it would be.
- You can also use your patter to misdirect your audience at key times during your routine. If there are times when you need to set up or dispose of a gimmick, for example, speak directly to one particular member of the audience so everyone is looking at that person and not at your hands.
- Be sure to speak slowly, clearly and loudly. Use a microphone if the performance hall is large, or if you are competing against background noises such as performances given in a dinner theatre or wedding reception. It is crucial for the audience to be able to hear you clearly. If they have to strain to hear what you are saying then their attention will wander and it is likely that they will catch you at the moment you are trying to misdirect them, or lose interest in your performance all together.
- Create drama and excitement by varying your tone and cadence. Make believe that you are a world class narrator hired to narrate a best selling book or blockbuster movie. Use your voice as a tool to enhance the overall magical experience.
- Strike a balance between just the right amount of patter and too much. If you talk too much you might end up boring your audience.
- Don’t fall into the trap of telling the audience what you are doing step-by-step. You’re not a chemistry professor conducting an experiment in front of your class, you’re a magician filling people’s minds with awe and wonder!
- Don’t ruin the effect by telling the audience what will happen in advance. If you are performing a routine called “Scotch and Soda”, for example, which is an excellent routine where a gimmicked coin is used to turn a Mexican centavo into a U.S. quarter. You would surely spoil the surprise by saying “Watch carefully as I turn this Mexican Centavo into a U.S. quarter”. Just perform the routine and let their jaw hit the floor!
- Don’t take yourself too seriously. If a routine goes wrong, just laugh along with the audience. If you’re a quick thinker, you can turn the failure around with some clever patter and make it look like you planned it that way. For those of you who remember watching the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, there was a running gag where Bullwinkle would say “Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat”. He’d reach into his magical hat and pull out a lion, or a bird, or a fish, anything but a rabbit. Every time, he’d simply look out at Rocky, with a confused look on his face, and say “Oops, wrong hat”. Now that was a classic trick-gone-wrong recovery line if I’ve ever heard one.
Always plan your patter carefully. It’s part of the key to transforming a mere routine into a truly spectacular and spellbinding performance