dustbury.com: Illusions I recall

20 September 2006

Illusions I recall

Victorino Matus wonders if the magic has gone out of magic:

[T]here is a pervading sense that magic is not what it used to be. The turn of the last century was considered the "golden age" of magic. It was a time when audiences around the world were left spellbound by the death-defying acts of Harry Houdini, who left such a magical impression that after he died some of his followers tried to contact him beyond the grave.

[Andy] Dallas, who presides over the oldest association of magicians [the Society of American Magicians], says that magic's image tends to change over time. "In the 1960s," he explains, "we had the Scientific Age and magic was at an all-time low. Then along comes Doug Henning in the 1970s with his long hair, the new face of magic, and it's back." (A flamboyant illusionist, Mr. Henning performed his hit "The Magic Show" for more than four years on Broadway.) Mr. Dallas says that we are currently experiencing a decline, but a temporary one.

Cyclical? Or something else at work?

There are a number of factors responsible for this. One is technology: With advances in computer-generated imagery, magic on TV has become suspect. (Would anyone be impressed today by David Copperfield's floating over the Grand Canyon, as he did in 1984?) There may also be an image problem too — magicians are, for lack of a better word, strange.

But that's only the front of the cabinet:

The greatest threat to magic, however, may come from within, when illusionists decide to reveal secrets of the trade. One tenet of the Society of American Magicians' "Framework for the 21st Century" reads, "We are opposed to the exposure of all magic whether by purposeful acts or through careless or ill-prepared performance."

In 1997, Fox aired "Magic Secrets Revealed," in which a masked magician showed the audience how certain tricks worked. Andy Dallas called the show "incredibly damaging." "We very much opposed it but there wasn't much we could legally do."

I sat through every installment of "...Revealed," somewhere between transfixed and awed. And pace Mr Dallas, I don't think my interest in magic was at all diminished by getting a look behind the scenes: if anything, I got to marvel at how everything had to come together just so to make the illusions work.

And what's more, illusions are constantly evolving: while the basics remain much the same, the execution changes constantly, and there's enough competition among magicians to ensure that there will be even spiffier tricks to come. I remember back in the 1980s watching a variation on the old sawing-a-woman-in-half theme on some cable show, and saying something to the effect that "You know what would jazz this up? If they sliced her lengthwise." Sure enough, a few years later, I was watching another magic show on cable, and the assistant was propped up perpendicular to the table, and a circular saw dropped from the ceiling to split her right down the middle. The next step? Earlier this year, Cris "Mindfreak" Angel ripped someone in half on a park bench with no equipment at all. (Oh, come on. It's a trick.)

Fred Casto, who heads up the International Brotherhood of Magicians, saw no lasting damage from Fox's brief foray into illusion exposure:

"[I]n the long run, I don't think it hurts. You could take the principles that were exposed on television last week and turn around and fool the person who watched that program today with those same principles. You might just have to dress it a little differently."

It will certainly work on me.

With the rise of blogdom, the next Grand Illusion should be obvious: set up a giant blender on stage and introduce a litter of puppies.

Oh, come on, it's a trick.

Posted at 1:20 PM to Entirely Too Cool