MiloCast

I dropped by the magic shop last night, and witnessed an all-too-familiar scene. A young lad of about 12 was visiting the shop with his father, and wanted to get into magic. He was shown a dizzying array of card tricks, coin tricks, and mentalism effects. Each effect suggested for his purchase was a cheap, easy to use prop: a trick deck or something along those lines. I casually asked the kid what kind of magic he was interested in. He replied that he was new, and generally interested in everything. I recommended a single book; an encyclopedic work which would give him not only a foundation in magic, but hundreds of “tricks” he could perform. He left after buying a trick deck of cards and a booklet containing variations on the limited effects possible with the cards.

What bothers me about this experience is that this kid is going to go home and do tricks for his friends and family without a clue about the world of magic. His presentation (such as it is) will more likely than not present a challenge to his spectators, rather than an experience of magic. If the first trick is successful, he must decline doing anything else, because he doesn’t know anything else except maybe another trick or two with the same deck. Should a friend ask to see the deck of cards, he must refuse, without any graceful transition to another miracle which will divert attention from the deck. In short, what we have here is not a magician, but a guy with a trick deck of cards.

I do not worry that this trick deck will become “exposed” to members of the public; it’s already widely known, and yours for the asking and about $5 at any magic shop. I worry that his spectators will see magic as simple trickery, and not as an experience designed to temporarily free your mind from its daily routine and ordinary perception of the world. But even more, I worry that this would-be magician will quickly bore of his trick deck, and dismiss magic as a dumb hobby. All because his tricks do not inspire great reactions. Even worse, his spectators may encounter an experienced magician one day, and dismiss him as soon as they see a deck of cards in his hand, because they have “seen that trick already.”

While I usually try to tie in a magic topic with something relevant to daily life, I have no tie-in today. All I hope to accomplish is to relate the idea that magic is not about tricks. It’s about an experience. As I stated in a recent post, you must develop a relationship with the audience, and then you are free to provide them with an experience they will remember long after they have forgotten the “tricks.”