What is magic?
He sprung that on me.
What is magic holic
We got right into it.
Jesus I wish I'd thought about this.
If.
What is magic?
It's the big huge impossible to answer question
What is magic
I don't know I don't think I have a really good answer for that.
An easy question.
Why would you start with that
can we just say that police state your name
Very good question.
Long answer now can we start with the easier question
Good answer?
I have been trying for over half a century to come up
with a succinct definition magic this is the best
that I've managed thus far
Magic is the aesthetic exploration of mystery
But that's one of a many
many many possible answers I mean
Magic is also
A hobby for a young person magic is also
Kind of a notion that used in advertising magic is
also
The the sensation of something larger than oneself
for some people and they know them with a wonder of
the universe
But for me it mostly boils down to a performance art
Of impossible things.
What we do is conjurors and as performing magicians
as people that pretend to have magic powers
Is.
Apparently break the rules.
And.
It's interesting because the rules are shifting.
Thing they change all the time.
You know it's anything inexplicable
But I heard a great
Definition can key who was named remain the author
He said it's a single moment when a crack forms in your
mind
That lets the light in.
And it opens up all the possibilities.
This is a very interesting idea
It's kind of a hopeful thing magic is
A. Seduction.
Because you are literally coming from the outside
as
This stranger.
And you are slowly.
Through what you're saying and what you're doing
sucking someone into your world
Even if they don't want to necessarily go there at
the beginning
top margin and also heal against
among other things
So they are where I am about to work on what they saw
sin against
When you go to eat study saw you nontechnical business
technical so you got
Hudson what basis when you are not famous
I'm a big fan of the Arthur C Clarke quote where any
technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable
from magic
And to me as someone who's also a big fan of science
and technology magic represents that alternative
path
Where you can use science and technology to present
something that where where the natural world seems
to behave in ways where most people wouldn't expect
it
Magic is.
Whatever science says is impossible.
So magic is a moving target always because what's
mysterious and amazing to people 2000 years ago
Isn't mysterious and amazing now if much it matters
for for one reason
It's that it's.
Provokes this experience of wonder.
Problem with.
The experience of wonders that wonder spoken about
in very woolly fluffy ways
people talk about
Shamanism and.
Spirituality and all these in dancing around in a
pool and banging drums and all that wonderful stuff
and that's fine if you're into that
but it's really not necessary
We know it's not real
But it is.
It's a very concrete way of
Of reminding us.
That we cannot be certain about what's around us
That we think we know.
You know I I know why how the light works
You sure about that?
The main question is
is it necessary to see something to expand magic
It doesn't happen in your life that much the magic
It's very easy to get lost to think you make an elephant
appear that it has to do with you know you because it's
so Big
I wasn't there and now I see
And.
It's not impressive
Unless there is an interpretation and underneath
if you also can reach into the emotional aspect of
magic to create
meaning or or or something that matters for the person
And then then you have truly an experience.
I decided to to research for things
In which the skill was not an explanation
Of things that could be done if you were able to do much
without elements and for me the moment I thought this
the most important part of the experience
Was that we're all going to be under the same conditions
The other had to be dark
I had to be wearing a blindfold
And because otherwise you had any advantage
it wouldn't be
Logic.
I did the show in Spain and the sister of the king of
Spain was there
And she's blind she was born so uh and she came to me
after the show and over was very important moment
you know
But she was so sweet she came to me and she said that
she wanted to thank me
And I said why and she said because before this moment
I never understood
A vanishing was I never understood what was for something
to disappear
For me beautiful things is like a family
for instance
In which one of the members
especially in parallel
And suddenly.
They they feel the joy of sharing the same experience
from the same point of view for a moment
a brief moment
There was no difference between them
We're not used to understand the world around us without
using sight in one eye suddenly you realize that even
when you're using side
you are always creating interpretation
That's why I think I truly think that that it is a question
about not magic
For the plan but
The essence of magic.
The one thing that makes magic special is that undeniable
truth that this experience and as technology with
television in special effects
become more and more
You're going to see more people like Chris angel and
dynamo who are illusions of an illusion
And.
And to me
you know
if if you can't trust that the people there are actually
having that experience
If you can't trust that what you're seeing on the TV
is actually what was happening
Then there is no magic
it's it's it's a best of special effects show
and it's a stupid special effects show what they be
blinded very successfully
Very cleverly was to turn the camera on
The audience since so we're seeing people responding
that they become our eyes and ears as if we were there
and I think that's a very clever move
I still think it's not quite the same as actually being
there
You know
I mean
I think it's most basic magic is like
I just pulled you bitch
But.
The challenge is to make that.
You know not mean.
I have over time.
Come to understand that.
Magic may be at its highest investors just another
form of storytelling
And a fundamental truth I believe of storytelling
Is that whoever tells the best story wins.
I.
Start magic very young 5 years old maybe six
but I think 5 I had a traveling dad one time he came home
I'll never forget this with a little
Plastic. Round.
Basically like a flat cylinder in two parts with a
little lead on top and you lifted off the lid
And there was a
Gap and here with a piece of felt where you could nick
5 cent nickel would fit right in there
And then you covered it with the lid.
And when you lifted it off it had changed to a penny.
And then you cover it with the lid again and when you
lift it off
the change to a dime
And then he could hand you that lived in the little
piece in the diamond you could examine it and that
was
First my very first.
Contact with magic.
On my next birthday.
I got a box of plastic magic tricks TV magic
partial protein and when you're a 6 year old kid with
a top hat and a cape
That's that's you know that's when the hook is sunk
A trick deck of cards TV
Magic cards advertised on TV
And I remember my grandmother dropping me off at
The drugstore and I ran in to get it she state of the
curve
And I got the deck of cards and brought it back
I hadn't even taken out the package yet
But that's where we're driving down the street
I remember tapping it and holding it up to my ear
Like because the card was going to come to the top and
this trick deck of cards
I tap it and I'd listen
I expected to hear if I like gears and all you know
but it's that imagination that's part of the thing
that appealed to me and listen involved
In magic yourself movie about a Mississippi riverboat
gambler
And I said that's what I want to be I shouted
There is your head of brocade version dealing those
cards
In an appeal to me
I went to a used bookstore in the only book I could find
Was the expected the card table by us that we are nicer
became by
My book after 4 years I came to the rude awakening to
where a lot of places for a 12 year old cartridges work
When I was trying for 5 years old
I asked my father to bring it.
Meme way magic show?
From this moment until.
Yeah I am 70 years old
Or everyday I am letting that they will either know
why I was 9 years old
And I went and visited my cousin
John and John had a little set of 3/4 inch multiplying
billiard balls
And he says
say
Mike look at this boom
2 balls
boom
3 balls and it was amazing
And he said here you can have these.
And that was the moment now what's amazing to me is
that John
Gave that away and sort of never gave it another thought
And the moment I got it
it completely changed my life
I think I probably was drawn to magic for the same reason
that most young boys are
Magic turns out to be a very.
Practical coping mechanism for dealing with some
form of
Social and or psychological maladjustment
There's something.
That.
Enters your.
Consciousness.
Before a certain age?
And it's.
Your your vulnerable.
Toward being bitten hard.
By this fascination.
And the lure of being able to do the impossible and
there is just something about that world of trickery
deceit lies
That is
if if you
if you have that type of mindset
it's really hard to say what it is
But if you've got it in no
you're in the right place 1 day
I was invited to the magic castle.
I walked into that building and I said this is where
I belong I don't
I don't know why but because first of all
it's a nightclub
You have to dress up in you
drink and I don't like doing either
One of those things to think about the building that
was this old Victorian building in the atmosphere
and everything so
I was so fascinated that the next day.
I call the magic castle and actually spoke to bill
Larson
the man that runs a magic castle
And I said I'm a mine and I would like to know how I can
work at the magic castle
And he very kindly said to me.
Well to work at the magic castle
you have to be a magician
And I paused and I said.
Oh really.
My father died when I was young and the guys that ran
the local magic shop
Felt pity for the kid who lost his dad
And they said well you can come work.
At our magic.
But here's what you don't get paid.
And all you get to do is vacuum the floor and clean the
bird cage
I jumped at it I loved it.
And.
What the opportunity for me was to hang out with these
guys to learn
And when there were no customers which was most of the time.
I got to read magic books.
So magic shops at least from my personal perspective
are very important for the people that work there
How important they are in today's culture.
As a meeting place or place where the culture and the
and the information is transferred
I'm not sure
I don't think they are all that important.
For someone who wants to be a performing magician.
However.
They have been really important to the culture of
magic
The greedy and I see they still doi Okada
With the most to.
It was no good to do some of you showing in Ghana
I know that you are good and I know many will not agree
that stop or start communication
2 the battle to come with bus bar terminal school
we had to he does suck on your taste
Tenants magic is the oldest magic store
Certainly in New York City in one of the oldest in the
country and the world
I guess
My name is Adam Bloomington and the owner of magic
Tim has been here since 1925.
And obviously there's a lot of New York conditions
and traditions all over the place
You grew up at tenants and have fond history and memories
of all the different locations we've had
I think any brick and mortar magic store is really
kind of a central
The growth of any local magic community but
Tenants especially.
I think the attraction is the ability to one walking
here and feel some history
We've moved five times
Since 1925
so there's been quite a few different locations and
not everyone started coming here
But you walk in and you see a lot of old pieces
you see a collection of our old books that we published
We have a library
that people can borrow things from
so you get to come in and really see things first hand
and touch things
Historically.
Tenants was really catering towards professional
magicians
You'd come in to buy your props for you know the latest
road show
Now it's much more of an amateur audience
Professional magicians at this point are not buying
as much in a in a local magic store
We have anyone coming in from 4 year olds up to
I think the oldest customer I've ever met here was 97.
And you know we don't run out on the street
we've never been on the streets
so you've got to know where here
It's kind of.
Paying our.
Magic shops are incredibly important and I really
believe that as magic stops
Disappear.
The culture of magic starts to disappear
So for me
it was tenants
When I was a kid I used to driving in the city go to tango
from the elevator and see Tony and dried understand
what Tony was saying
And there were certain guys that hung out in the shop.
Bible
It was there and like that's a real magician people
were walking into a magic shop and the guy behind the
counter might be a master
Somebody the other magicians were traveled the well
to spend 5 minutes with there are
Increasingly few of these places and now most of the
interaction is taking place online
It's a different thing it isn't as good.
Internet.
Toledo darkness.
Communication, I think I said.
The magic game day communication
Kentucky Indiana
Jenni dog or tmall looks she must
I don't think Magic shops are like they used to be
But the world's not like it used to be
The way people congregate is now.
Ethereal
It's on the internet
it's not
In person many times I really miss being able to go
into the magic shop and saying to the guideline the
counter what's that what's that
Because there are few and far between now and even
those that are around are often now staffed by
Magicians who don't really know
Deeply their product line
They know the latest thing
but if you point at something that was released 4 years
ago
It's been in the counter and gathering dust you go
What is that they go
I don't know
I thought of love magicians
they are a very strange bunch of people
And.
There is so much diversity in there and some extremely
funny people
There's a very serious people that down some very
creative people there there's some extremely sad
people as well
I think the magic world is a very strange place I think
magic attracts all sorts of
People that.
For some reason or other.
Not be able to really.
Be accepted in any other community magic like all
art
Is autobiographical.
And so if.
A persons?
Race or gender or.
Class status or sexual orientation or educational
level all of those different ingredients that go
to defining who a person is ultimately are expressed
through his or her magic
So yes
it's a factor
Is it a factor that should prevent anyone from doing
magic absolutely not
So few women in magic because that's just the way it
is it's going along with a lot of other things that
women didn't use to do before
So I don't even think it's a question that needs answering
If you have a passion for something
It has nothing to do with whether your male or female
it's about doing the hard work about
Relating to other people about getting feedback
about just being there
the world of magic is incredibly welcoming
incredibly nurturing
It's almost like a foster family
and if you're if you've ever been someone that felt
different or alienate or in any way not accepted magic
Is this amazing safe haven
Magic is one big family
but it's a really dysfunctional one
and we're all just trying to get by and create new tricks
And and hopefully perform for the public and entertain
them
But with that
you have an enormous amount diversity
you'll have people like the director of the Central
Intelligence Agency
people who
The C E os of gigantic Wall Street investment banks
who are very wealthy
billionaires sitting and talking to people who
Their students or you know
sanitation
engineers that community is
Like a community.
Children.
There are illusion there are enjoyment we we
we won
We like very much to be together for this
There are a lot of conventions and dinner together
all the time
Mathis and her together and other fields
Performan usual is not like this
Usually not I've been a orchestrator musician and
an actor of comic and magician
But there's nothing like magic
you know
I've been stranded in Europe and I find a magician
there and how you need a proper something
and they're there
I don't like the idea of the
Thinking that the magicians as a group for all kind
of ego maniacs that are trying to outdo each other
all the time
with each other's biggest streak
So or being really catty about each other behind each
other's backs because I don't that's not my magic
that's not what I feel about magic
But he is there you know
and I suppose there
In the same way that you know
whoever wins the Turner Prize every other all is wants
to say something negative about them
My favorite thing about magic
I love performing I love being a magician I love being
fooled by magic everything we've been talking about
but really the best thing
Is the collection of people that magic has brought
me in touch with and then put in my life
System.
Best gift the magic could give me.
Magic saved my life.
Yes.
You want to talk about it, yeah.
Since I can remember I wanted to be an entertainer
that I wanted to be a performer and I wanted to be a musical
performer
When I was really young
my dad was
you had to watch the kids sometimes and that was never
found was my single goal
My single focus and that's what I woke up in the morning
I thought about that what I went to sleep
thinking about my mom was working at night
Bowling. Alley.
And so he would laugh and take us up to the bone and we
would stay in the nursery all night and he would go
in the bar
My mom would work or whatever
And once I somehow ended up in this wrong door
the nursery I was next to it
And there they had guard dogs there that they would
let loose in the alley at night
For many of those years
I couldn't or didn't go on stage
Without the aid of drugs or alcohol
And when I saw.
The dead end with music and what that was going to be
I thought my life was over
I don't remember a thing
But I was attacked by one of the dogs
the dog he can beat me in he tore right from here
This part of my mouth open because of that water gathered
in my mouth as a kid
my tongue was always wallet I had a very difficult
time
Which beach you know
I kid I had 6.5 year than the plastic surgery
That makes your hands.
So one very hot summer afternoon in the mid nineties
we loaded our gear into a nightclub in downtown Baltimore
And I'm looking for a place to cool off
And it could be anywhere
could be a woman's shoe store mattress shop
But it wasn't the place that I stepped into was called
Kenzie magic
I want a Saturday I went by mcdonald and there was one
of mcdonald was doing the miles from smile show with
something with the name of it
And over the man named Tommy heart performing is a
lot of mcdonald
For about ten minutes
I started feeling guilty for essentially loitering
So I asked the sky that'll make the single person in
the shop
If he had a trip, but I might be able to perform it.
The clip down the street.
And he said what about this and he reached in his pocket
and he took a handkerchief
And he pushed into his fist like this said presto change
O U and it was gone
It was unbelievable I couldn't believe what I saw.
And I also couldn't believe that the trick was for sale.
He did it was called the gene anticipatory did a paper
there way or pay for it
I was watching the world did I just see that night were
about three songs into it as a couple of people in the
audience
And our guitar player broke a string.
And I can't tell you why
but I immediately remembered this device that I had
in my front right pocket to vanish a small object
He go off on you just got to get the box to read the book
then get back to aggie books and I remember drop in
my eyes
He kind of walking away and he goes out what wrong
And I you know I go I'm not a good reader
And.
I don't know.
What happened at that moment or whatever? But he said.
He goes wait to wait a minute and I talked to you so everybody
laughed and said that's okay
any show me how to put a card behind my hand
And the back.
And he goes if you can learn that I can teach you need
everything I'd done
I grabbed the mic can I blurred it who has a who's got
a condom out there
A wrapped condom.
And no time to me
if you want on stage picked it up
opened it up and very crudely
I put that condom in my fist.
And advanced.
And that crowd went crazy for a week I couldn't wait
till the next Saturday to mcdonald so I go there and
there he is performing in the show
I'm in the back back pm and hiding a card there in the
show
Are you wrote his eyes 100 times but I'm just saying
you ve got to see me I can do that I'm ready for the next
lesson
I came back to L A
And my girlfriend at the time is now my wife had a passed
to the magic castle
And we went.
And from the second that I said open sesame to that
owl and walked into that
Main bar the grand salon.
I fell in love with magic.
What Tommy did for me at that time was he gave me my vehicle
You know instead to moment I become alive with one
on Mondays now
15 years later I am very proud
To be a part of this.
This community I was kind of like going 90 miles an
hour to edit into a dead end
And then all of a sudden
there was an offer that just sort of like open up and
there
and then it was
And here I. Am.
Magic saved my life
There's no way they go about that
I mean I am who I am because of
Maybe the greatest piece of magic I've ever seen
Was when I was 13 years old.
I went to my first magic convention and there was a
guy there named jack Shannon
In performance.
He took out a lit cigarette.
Which he was smoking and and clearly from the smoke
and the lit embers
it was the real thing
And he put it into his fist.
Everything looked like a shit
I mean you thought my god he's got a burning cigarette
in his hand
And then he slowly uncurled one finger
And he slowly uncurled and another.
And somewhere right around this point it dawned on
every member of the audience
each in his own moment
Not simultaneously.
That is jack was studying his hand in the process of
opening it to show it empty
He was smoking the cigarette.
The hair on the back of my next to it
But that time
I adjusted now.
To create magic.
Yeah
I wanted to be a third level that they have no other
hands who then it has to be magic
How could he do that
They know I love it honestly I really really love it
I mean that is the ultimate
Achievement for me when I see
My audience smile and.
They're just completely taken by the magic that is
performed and they perceive it as a miracle
For me
my personal goal is to move people to a point of uncertainty
and genuine uncertainties
So I'm not interested in them necessarily believing
magic is real or call them questioning whether the
magic is real
I'm really interested in moving them into a place
where they're not sure
I think if you can do that
you create a real moment of magic two way thing that
I'm just as astonished at what happened
As my spectator
there are many emotions of them trying to evoke that
things that I've been there
I've had those emotions myself as a as a spectator
And a want them to feel the same.
In in sometimes.
When I do a show I find.
Window an opportunity to do something that I could
have never done before
And it's only true of that moment my field
Professionally is magic so it becomes up to me a way
to create effects
tricks whatever you want to call them
That will transfer that feeling of awe to an audience
I mean music is supposed to be
Saying all the time everything is possible and be
better than that
We know it's not real
it's a metaphor
but it remind us that limitations are an illusion
For me magic.
As absolutely changed
how I see the world and try to that magic has to cross
that line
From just being wondrous and magical
To be impossible or it isn't magic
I want you to go away thinking.
No one ever saw what I just saw no one
And like you can pay me no amount of money that can replace
that feeling that I get the reward of causing a miracle
to happen
I. Think.
Later that day.
Each other.
I know that I am at my most joyful without wanting to
sound kind of
Nearby eg your happy copy I am at my most joyful when
I am performing magic and when I'm proud of the magic
I'm performing
And I also know that I am at my most depressed and unhappy
when I am performing it badly
One of my favorite phrases is the devant poster
You know
laughter
born of amazement and
You know I want the magic to be so powerful that eventually
the only
Reaction left the people is laughter
I want them to be entertained.
Through the performance of magic or mystery entertainment
And.
My goal is to both produce a sense of wonder.
For them and enjoyable sense of wonder and.
Very specifically I want them to.
Have a?
And non threatening.
Sense of uncertainty.
If you put somebody at a point of them
really not knowing really being uncertain
Suddenly
you have an entire room full of people are exactly
the same place at exactly the same time
It doesn't matter about what they thought when they
came in the room
It doesn't matter what they think when they leave
the room
In that moment
we are all connected in
I'm not knowing
You get to a point where you've shown them
something very personal and
They also respond you in on a very personal level that
they're not detached from it
And I feel the experience of really something that
is not possible in credibly one
It's happening is not but not at the same time the impossible
thing in my mind
In the fascinating thing in my soul in this
There's business of these both seem together
Which knocks some could get some
You don't necessarily us that day.
So to the spire iota.
Twice as nice or not, Christie Toluca.
Kotobukiya day I took up
One magical on immigration will like it
So that when that gene
So on one color.
Magic coat there or my second
Talking incoming Missile steering together
A lot of times.
People kind of come see magic very defensive
You know
they put their guards up because they don't want people
don't like to be fooled
It's common sense of our were to come up to you
and you know
raise my arm to punch
You obviously defend yourself
I think it's allowing the people to feel comfortable
to take their defence down and just embrace what
What's about to happen
It's not all about them wondering how it was done
I don't want them to think I was on
I just want them to get that feeling that they can't
explain as soon as they start to figure out how I did
a trick then I think I failed
I want them to almost give up on trying to figure out
how to magic trick works and just not
Pound them enough
It's just like well shit
I don't know people really adore good magic
They may resist it first when they don't know there's
such a thing as good magic
But once they realize that what they're going to see
is great you very rarely seen audience turn away or
not beg for more
I think that magicians.
Do their best to convince themselves and others that
magic is an art form
But I think that like
Almost any endeavor.
It can or cannot be our depending.
Upon how artfully it's being performed or executed
every form that you can use to express herself if it's
used right is art
I mean there are painters who paint and there are no
artists in their people with sculpted internet
Artist.
And the same applies to magic
Matt used to say that the most difficult thing to painters
is a rose
Because every person of diet
how can you paint a rose again and give it your own voice
There are people who can turn carpentry into an art
who can turn the art of the tea ceremony and to something
that is
Transcending.
Regularly drinking tea?
Which you can do anywhere?
And it's the same with magic there is people who are
artists and who can transform what they are doing
I know some magicians
That are quite artful and who I would consider artists
but I think
At large and it's not a negative thing.
That a lot of people who practice magic.
That they've seen.
Someone else perform or they've learned from a book
or they've
Learned from another person then performing it just
the act of doing it
Does not necessarily make it art or them artists
You know
there's an art in picking a repertoire
there's an art and putting pieces together and in
order
I mean I can create a playlist or a mixtape that makes
you feel something and there's creativity involved
in that
Is it important to do all original material
Absolutely not but I think the more you become in tune
to your own personal voice and your strengths and
weaknesses
The more original your material becomes you know
you were told in books I read as a
You know it's not about the trick
it's about the performers
it's not about the trick
it's about the performer
I only want to be an entertainer I don't care about
the magic and
You. Know.
You know as I've gotten more and more into it
I mean
I think that's bullshit I mean
You know
the tricks really do matter the tricks really matter
Last night I saw Matt King show
Matt king did a lot of things that people could say
Well
that's a classic
but the way mac does it the way he performs
It makes it is very own
even if somebody had just seen one of those pieces
performed by somebody else
they probably wouldn't even recognize it
The most important
the most most important is that some of them as
Of course.
No question the most important that person
if I like the persona
I can go through the personal I can
But if the persona.
I don't like him then they magic
Don't documents like
I mean all of these things are wonderful pieces.
But that's just the part of it in some sometimes it's
a big part but more important
it's a small part
Because it's what the magician the performer brings
to the table that makes that thing work
Did you understand the see you visited a day for Scotland
so good to do is look at the selling that type is the
most
On the whole
I said game for you
All performing all art is like
Being seen in the proper light, the reserve.
Example on youtube they put Joshua bell the great
violinist
In the subway.
At his playing beautiful music and people walking
by and just like these some other guy in the subway
But if he was in the concert hall and people would be
standing up that applauding
And they'd be on the top and they'd pay hundreds of
dollars for the tickets
But because he was not in the proper light
people didn't appreciate it
In the same way
Light pictures up on a.
Truck that drives up and down Las Vegas boulevard
with my giant head on it but still somehow in people's
minds
That's the same as the guy who's you know
who's
You know cut out homemade business card is stuck on
the wall at the dairy queen in their neighborhood
You know offering
Children's birthday parties for 25 dollars.
Will get angry because you only go to look
you will get a much going to show when he could have
someone talking
Could you do come out of the way
The core of magic Sequoia
Do you think as somebody it's more nizing magic coat
so magical toy around that one
Colombus day colonel tucker you out
so I got out in public
Magic is a more direct communication with the audience
If a dancer is doing something interpretive
The audience might think I'm not sure what they're
doing
It doesn't relate
But magic a good magic
Sometimes even bad magic really gives a feeling of
surprise that doesn't exist in a lot of other fields
Another very complex
Where he died in
That's the dream that we have put in the reality
At the same time
we do the medicine we do to the people say impossible
past logically impossible
Cannot be done cannot assist this this experience
Or perhaps I am not through not possible at the same
time
Impossible I'm feeling no intellectual and emotional
a
Gamma that you know my edit Ehman
Study study study
In our field
many people died prematurely and there's this big
gap
Between the young and the masters and the person who
has filled
That gap.
Is one tamariz who is the most revered magician in
the world
At this moment
It happens anywhere between 2 and 6
Ann after late night dinner and lots of booze
And then he picks his mat out and his scars
Maybe perhaps something crazy
And then he goes into this
you know half an hour in our magic
And your mind and I
I think every person who got to be there at least once
in his lifetime
Is lucky when you really start to get to know one on
a personal level
There was a kind of a breakthrough to where
I started to get the real knowledge from the man you
want to talk about history
He knows so much about history
If you want to have a theoretical discussion about
what the concept of magic case
of course
is going to have many
many very interesting opinions
And then when you see him perform
You understand how everything comes to light 1 is
at once the most knowledgeable and the most giving
of all card magicians
To be serious and card magic today
2013
you have to go to Madrid and you have to study with Wang
tamara's
And another.
For me I think the seven members of mystery
Mister.
Of the love.
If you don't love your hair
You cannot you cannot express something which without
love is very
very important to love the passion of the audience
how they know that this man of this woman
They know but how they know is a mystery
For me
The second one for me
the mystery of the knowledge
If you.
Know more about these 3
about the author about him about the history of the
three and more you know more your magic is more
Looking for the people and the people feel this how
they feeling out
I don't know
And northern mister the second one for me
Let me study of the work?
More work you put in it.
Effect and taking an illusion a dream
more strong and more reaction and modern deep clearly
only more remain
In the feeling and emotion of the spectator
how they know that you put more effort
There are no but they free and this is a mystery
Another one is the the mystery of the
Energy.
Sometimes we perform I perform all the magician
We only need this in a theatre of 1500 people and then
one must feel the energy you have only physical but
also
To say you know
The five mystery for me the mystery of the
Of course.
They are in general
is no truth fiction or the real magic
Especially especially.
You are?
Lying.
Lim was the dining
Do this I don't know these
I have not here nothing that you have hidden something
of them
But they more through is the thing that you do more
Feel this and I don't know how they feel but they free
and 55
This method is the interior war
Morris during interior
More people like you
maddy more
they feel
Your remedy?
Integral world. There is no interesting.
You can be and good communicator
I would show my
By now, I would add.
So there is another thing.
The seven yesterday for me
the mystery of love but
Told the fees as long.
The last one is
I think is important they love
The audience, their people or.
Because he's not only a question to I do this and you
upload
if not the most important thing they loved to draw
and they loved the audience
Or 7 mysteries the I don't know I don't know how they
know
but they
For me saving.
Well that covers 7 mystery
imagine and familiar
Import.
And what's funny is once you kind of get a grasp of his
theory
Anytime
I have a show that doesn't go over very well not very
good
I can go back through it and I can find that one of the
veils was missing tonight
I did not have enough energy with those kind of a low
energy performance
It is absolutely fascinating
An audience can pick up on things that we're really
not aware of as performers so they can smell what what
what
Lectures authenticity when somebody really knows
their topic inside out upside down
You can just tell it to someone else in an actor could
say exactly the same words
but you just know they don't really
Know it and you can't quite put your finger on what
it is
it really connected with me because there is something
deeper were you do
Need to have a love for what you're doing love for the
audience and people can feel it
Our thirst and would go out and before every single
performance he would
Go behind the curtain. Look at the audience and.
Clasped his hands together and say in a whisper
I love you.
I love you I found something very special about that
for me
It doesn't come alive until somebody is there to experience
it because I think underneath all of it underneath
everything about magic
The only thing that matters is the emotion that he
creates
That's what makes it matter that's what makes it important
And that's what makes it unique in all forms of all
the magic happens in the minds of the audience and
what a magician is really doing
Fully controlling what the audience perceives and
how they think about what they are perceiving and
all of these things that magicians do
Like letting you examine the pros like rolling back
their sleeves like showing you that their hands are
empty
This is all part of that process of elimination to
take away one by one
All of the things that you think
or maybe how the trick works and when
There's nothing left when you've eliminated every
possible method and you still see something happened
that's impossible
You feel magic when you pick up that cup and there's
a ball under there
It's written under a cup it's not there's nothing
special about that
The secret of magic is not
How do I get the ball under the cup
The secret to magic is how do I make this room full of
people care that there's a ball under the cup and react
on mass
As this is the most important thing they've ever seen
You can study any compressing the technical point
of view the psychological
the artistic they lose you on the how to communicate
how to
Go to the other.
A lot of interesting thing so many
many
many things so different
Many.
Because you have the passion
if not is not possible to be another vehicle magician
You. Don't.
Don't give nothing.
All of us who are?
Struggling to try and create.
Good. Magic?
Are struggling with these same ennobles
we can all try our best to codify them and identify
them and analyze them
I think there are limits, I think sometimes.
After all of the discussion and all of the
The careful dissection.
And just have to go out and do it.
The extraordinary accomplishment of the magicians
of the twentieth century is that they managed to take
something that is inherently profound
And rendered trivial.
Then he said something that bothers me the most
you know
And I see somebody who didn't put the time and the thinking
And the work that goes into being a real magician
The problem.
With?
With bad magic what makes it bad?
Is that there is no connection between the performer
I'm the audience, there's no sense.
The the performer knows what he or she is doing
I remember seeing a soaring in half
I won't mention names where the woman got into the
box
And a pair of feet emerge from the bottom of the box
which were clearly wooden
By were clearly wouldn't think they were clearly
not human feat
And no one in the audience believe that these feet
were human feet
because even if you had very very bad site
you would you would know
And if you were almost registered blind
you would know they were wooden feet
The magician Caroline Hester
the woman in half and then separated the boxes and
no one was thinking but she's in that box
And there's a pair of wooden feet there
No one was fooled it was pathetic and it was probably
one of the most enjoyable moments of my life
So I think we are a kind of a low hanging fruit
you know it's easy to make fun of magicians and I'm
not sure that that's completely
You know undeserved
I mean when I started doing magic for money the place
I worked
Most was in a comedy club.
The comics.
Hated. Us.
They had worked with other magicians and those magicians
or the kind of magicians who buy a trick from the magic
shop and do it as the directions tell you
And with the jokes that are printed in the directions
And these guys have
you know
they do their act and they recorded every night and
then they go back to their hotel room
And I listen to it and they
Right and they change one word and do it again the next
night with that one word different
And you know they're publishing and working
and you know
working their butts off on their act
And.
So to see a guy getting laughs
With with with jokes I didn't write and tricky didn't
invent
No that although.
And rightly so
really we treat our audiences often disrespectfully
we treat them as props we use jokes that weren't funny
50 years ago
And they still aren't funny
Now we do a lot of the same tricks
We do a lot of the same tricks the same way and I can't
blame an audience member for when they hearing
Oh
we have a magician thinking
oh god not one of those
Normally you see a magician wandering around a restaurant
performing tricks
and they won't be particularly good or will be a clown
a birthday
Or something like that.
And and the public tend to base their their ideas about
magic on those individuals
that's not especially surprising
Most of those people are not particularly good
and so the public don't hold magic in especially high
regard any time a Lehman
Sees a magician perform it's interesting that they
don't just make up an opinion about that person that
they saw they make up their opinion about magic in
general
That shouldn't happen?
From outside of magic looking in you seem to see a lot
of the same stereotypes that have been around for
100 years
tuxedos
Rabbits from. Hats.
I think that people outside of magic still think that
that is some of what magic kids or a lot of what magic
is
And of course from the inside of magic
Nothing could be further from the truth
The image of the magician sadly
Is for most of the public
a cliche that involves something nice for children
Judging magic through that filter
Is like judging music.
Solely based on how people sing in the shower
I think being a magician is.
Almost the hardest thing you can do and people always
Question that well what do you mean by that
And I'm dead serious
Oftentimes in lectures I have said.
You want to be a brain surgeon, it's easy.
You go to college
you go to medical school and you go to brain surgery
school
and then you get a job in a hospital
I teach you exactly what to do exactly where to cut
exactly where a solid guys had open
Your brain surgeon.
How do you become a magician
I have no idea so many
Gilbert is a young magician relatively new to slight
of hand
Who has embraced it in a way.
Where he invents all his own slight of hand
And this is very special if not unique in magic
it's extremely rare
Here's a guy a young guy that discovered magic and
And I think that he needed magic.
And now I would say as much as magic needs
1 day in the convention
you know muddy and I'm going to do something for you
already share them at the first moment
And I oh and I like it.
Especially the thing that he.
Throw from he had not.
And we were going out for Chinese food
it was me and Michael Webber and Jim Steinmeyer and
max maven and Eric mead
And just all these heavy hitters and at the end of the
table is this young guy
And.
Everybody was fixated on him.
Everybody was talking to him.
Webb's like down on the floor working with him on some
card trick or something
Mead can't stop talking about and I think stein March
So it was the most amazing thing he had seen in a long
time at one time had an argument
About Matty with somebody else who said?
We live
but there's lots of magicians like Matty and I said
no
There really are no other magicians like Matty
There's a great colour and tarbell.
It goes.
What magic requires that you.
It gives you.
So I question you know
believing in yourself for having faith in yourself
you take a course of actions and you do it
It will happen
It's not I'm practicing five hours a day or eight hour
day
I'm pretty much thinking about it all day long
I sort of had to.
Become self sufficient.
A very early age.
Yeah there's no magic books written for me
So it's me reading stuff that's completely not remain
Having to.
Figure out ways.
I think that every performer is in the same situation
as me
And they don't realize it because it's not so obvious
they have to figure that out for themselves
Real magic does exist anyway
Because you.
Can really make anything happen.
From nothing.
For me magic.
Has absolutely changed how I see the world
All of them
Interact with that.
Starting a cycle of events almost
Unfolded by themselves.
Magical.
Almost magically.
I think most of the non magicians who have attempted
to explore magic either
On film or video or on the printed page
I have not done a very good job.
But that's because they they usually are attempting
to accomplish something in a matter of months that
takes many years
There are narrow scientist that believes that they're
going to solve their own study of neuroscience by
studying magicians
I personally think they're on the wrong track. I think that we're.
We're more about applied psychology than we are about
the structure of the brain itself
Problem with the psychology and worse still
the neuroscience of magic
Is that magic is complicated
Scientists have regularly attempted to come up with
grand cities of magic and they haven't gone anywhere
and there's a reason for that
Magic is not a natural kind.
It's not the stuff of science
it's not like a rock or a tree magic is about human interaction
And it draws upon cultural stuff.
Language and meaning.
And without that you don't have it.
Neuroscientists and the.
People that have been thrown out of magic conventions
that go on to write tell all articles and books
They don't know what they're talking about so they
can only pretend to tell and it
They could write it in a fraudulent sort of entertaining
appealing way but in fact it's nothing
it's it's a lascivious
it's not the real thing
A good magic trick?
It's like a soap bubble.
It's a thin layer of iridescent soap suspended equidistant
from a single point in space floating
Carelessly through the wind.
Delicate to the world.
And when you find out the trick you pop that bubble
and it goes from this beautiful special orb to a wet
spot on the ground
You have people.
Who stand up and say here's the real secret of magic
And then what they tells you makes it perfectly obvious
to anyone who actually knows about magic
but they don't know what the real secret is
Exposes of magic like the masked magician
their cheap the three that insulting their stupid
That's beyond the ethics of the matter
I dislike
Expose your first of all because it's rude
The people who expose magic.
Do not know if it's going to be harmful to magic
In fact
I don't think it's harmful in the larger picture
But I don't think the people who expose know that or
care
it's more just mean spirited
it's more
Why did you do that
You know
it's like spitting in the street
there's probably no massive harm
but it's like
What do that for.
I don't think many people would come and watch a stand
up comedian and moments before entering the theatre
Listen to that comedian show on on a download or something
to rob themselves of the laughter
Right they nobody walks into a comedian wanting to
know the punchline
Jay Mary used to say.
Those that know don't tell and those that don't know
And.
The man in the mask doesn't know he only tells he doesn't
have any idea what he's talking about
And in no way can be exposed in this fashion
because it's such a deep psychological game
That.
You can't possibly.
Expect to understand how it works because you know
we're trapped Doris in a left hand is sort of way I think
That show kind of helped the magic.
In that it made.
People talk about magic and I don't know what your
experience was
but a lot of people
Would love to talk to me and say wow what do you think
about the mathemagician
And the exposure and all of that
so it kind of
Brought it back to the surface
so to speak
I wish people didn't have access to that information
But on the other hand, you know.
It's just a trick is just a trick
My friend Jim Steinmeyer said it best
he said
Magicians protect an empty safe
Layman think that we have.
In some old salt mine in a mountain somewhere
a big steel door that's locked tight and with armed
guards out in front
And all the great secrets of magic are in this vault
And if they somehow got through that door and went
in there
there'd be a piece of thread and a little mor link
Clean up against the wall and a rubber
And they go where where's all the secrets.
Well this is it.
I was working on a television special
where we needed to
Create a specific levitation effect or an animation
effect
And we are really nice method
It was very simple as based on something
Al baker came up with a long time ago and it was incredibly
simple
incredibly deceptive and I show the director and
he loved it
And he asked me how it was done and because it was into
role to getting the shot right
I told him it's a string and pulling this straight
You don't see it
And when he found out the method he dismissed the effect
Because it wasn't interesting enough.
And no matter how I tried to explain to him that the
method was totally irrelevant
what we were trying to catch her own film it just
That bubble had burst from him.
Blue. Pill.
Red pill.
If you can only choose 1 which would you choose
What the blue pill.
You know all the secrets to magic and you can never
return with the red pool
You will always live in the fantasy world and the world
that you believe it to be
It's impossible to go back
You can never
it's a spoiler
it's it's I mean
maybe that's even a better way to talk about it with
people like you want to know
The end of breaking bad or do you want to watch the whole
show and experience those emotions
Maybe some people want to know it's a hard question
I personally have offered this pill
To some of my workers
my friends
because it's part of the nature of my business
And a lot of the times people come to me afterwards
people who took the blue pill
And say.
Cyril, I can never go back, however.
They say to me that they have a whole new appreciation
for the art of magic
They're all types of tricks
Where I think the secret really can be quite interesting
and that they tend to be more psychological and optical
and a little bit like lateral thinking puzzles weaker
I can't believe I didn't think that that's that's
lovely
And so with the mystery of the red cards
you simply see somebody show both sides of two pieces
of red cardboard
And then they put together and a small toy car appears
And it appears to be completely impossible because
you can see the angle you can see under the table that
there's nothing there that looks suspicious
Sleep.
Origins back click actually come from a charity shop
where I went in and found the little car with optical
sensors on the front
Cost about 2 pounds 50 and the car simply follows a
black line or tape it
And my immediate thought I think this is what what's
interesting about magic
Most people look at that and go that's kind of a fun
toy magicians never do that with anything nothing
everything they pick up
they go that's interesting
If you look at it from this angle
they look it looks quite different
So if you've got two screens and you show
Nothing behind the one.
And the car is behind the other and then the car moves
behind the first screen
And then that allows you to show the other car
I think people assume there's no car there at all because
they're not assuming you've got an object moving
behind screens
Why because in everyday life objects don't move like
that
I think the clip is a nice example
Of how magic works you see something which looks incredible
and you being tripped up by a really simple assumption
And a huge amount of work.
Quigg is about exciting people and making them curious
about the world and making them realize like a good
magic trick
The what you have in your head at any one moment
Is a construction it's not an accurate representation
of the world
it's just the way you see things
And because it's just the way you see things.
It means that you couldn't perhaps change how you
see things you can see the world in a different way
And that's the underlying message to ology in that
sense is absolutely identical to magic
You know there are several great magic collections
around the world in a course skin classrooms is one
of the great ones
Jenny is one of those guys who loves magic more than
anything
And now I have accumulated a lot of magic over the years
I mean
I like to see this
The things that the performer use.
When you go to John go and see what he has
Created it is completely unique
I always love going there and I always feel like a brand
new
Kid interested in magic when I walk into that special
little room
I appreciated for its craftsmanship and the ingenuity
that went into
Making all those things and the fact that some man
spent all that time just for magic drink
what was an audience thinking when they saw something
like that
Well I only share my collection with.
Magicians are someone who's knowledgeable about
magic
My reason I guess it's very selfish
Because I hope to learn about some of the things I have
There are so many things in this collection that are
so unique
Ideally
I would love to take everything in this house and put
it back where I found it
So that the next guy could have that same thrill.
My special day or my passion you might say are the mechanical
figures called the tomato
And one of the pieces in here is the automaton chess
player
which was built in in being around 1769
Now that piece was the product of a magician and all
across Europe came the word that not that they've
made a chess playing machine
But they had made a thinking machine
it captured the imagination of whole populations
in different cultures
This concept.
Of a robot the word didn't exist yet
But but the idea of an automaton a self
Realized.
Mechanical. Creature.
That could actually function?
In a game of chess that influenced a lot of people to
To start thinking and saying well
if if somebody
Can come up with the right combination of gearing
and everything to do something they would play chess
I should be able to make
Something that would weave material like the lie
Whitley and the cotton gin
we know that one of the people who was inspired by the
turk
Was Charles Babbage
the British mathematician who essentially created
the computer he actually made a calculating machine
I think it's in the British Museum in London
He was influenced strongly by the chess player
I'm sure that all of our technology
or at least a lot of the start of all of our technology
owes its allegiance to a magician
Magicians have been the popularizer of science since
the beginning of science
Some of the first people to codify how science works
wrote books on what we would call magic now magic tricks
not not anything a cult
Paul maccready is the guy who invented the human powered
airplane
The gossamer albatross that today hangs in the Smithsonian
Institutes parents space museum
He was at my house once and he was standing right here
in front of
This wall of magic books. And he was looking.
And he surprised me when he said
you know what I think every high school in America
should have a magic club
And I said wow really why.
And he said because schools don't teach kids how to
think
Magic has the ability.
To make you actually stop.
Really think?
And not only remember but likely take to heart the
message that is buried within it
There was a book I used to read my daughter when she
was little it was about a little mouse
And all the other mice
you know they live in a little mouse colony and all
the other my spend their whole summertime gathering
grain and building a nest
And you know
preparing for the hard winter ahead
And. Frederick.
Would look at the sunshine
look at the colors
He didn't seem to be really preparing for the winter.
And when it was winter time
the question is
Does Frederick deserve
The eating of this grain.
It turns out Fredrick starts telling them about the
sun that he watched
And you spend as these tales about the sun in these
beautiful colors and all these things that happened
only in his head
And they feel warmer and they feel more full and you
know
Frederick it turns out
was contributing to the greater good
Entertainment affects every aspect of society and
our understanding of the world
We go to a play
we come away
completely change people
We see a wonderful film and we got magnetic completely
blew my mind because it allows me to see the world or
myself in a new way
It can have an effect on people and the world
Change how people see the world and how they interact
with the world
There's a sense in which
Our. Magic.
Magic by trickery.
It's very similar to.
The real effect as well.
Which is it it reveals.
The universe.
To be beyond arcane.
It's like that momentary glimpse
Into the vastness.
That surrounds us it becomes a moment of
Clarity.
As to just how much we don't know what magic is tremendously
important
It's the oldest performing art
There's no question in my mind
It's earlier trying to be a wonder worker with something
I'm sure that we did before we really rationalized
music and understood music and any other form of acting
It's important they love
If you have not you can go a lot of things
Probably.
You don't want to do more and better important
Thing you do think that the law is not important
Dilution of important
The dreams are not important
The point Vietnam important happening
Put the magic
I think in our lives, we need to.
To see something that entertains us and makes us feel
good and the wonderment of
What's going on there. How is he doing that?
One of my real attractions to magic is that I think
to see things that seemed so
Overwhelmingly impossible.
You either have to go all the way to space.
Or you have to see a really good magic trick.
For real.
Yeah that's the.
Picasso said that everybody was born an artist and
we're educated out of it
And I think maybe we're all born hard wired to appreciate
magic
And then as we grow
we become more cynical
and we're educated away from it
I mean
I think
as long as people are going to want it
Get out of their heads and experienced that sense
of wonder and mystery magic is going to be the perfect
solution for that
It always will be
I think it has to be what magic has the potential to
do and I'm not saying it's done it
But it has the potential to do.
Is reminding people that what we think is the case
might be wrong and that in turn
should breed tolerance
understanding humility
And those are generally conceived of as being good
things long as human beings
Don't become somehow omniscient.
Or omnipotent and know everything there is to know
there will be somebody that can entertain them with
wonders
Magic's biggest secret is that it has nothing to do
with tricks
We know.
In practical terms.
How to make you think what we want you to think.
The real secret to magic is that there is.
No. Magic.
Except.
What happens inside your head?
Once we understand the rules.
We can get you to think.
Almost anything and therefore we can do.
Almost anything.
The love that you have for the art.
And it's not even a secret, but I think that's the key.
Which I guess in a way is a secret.
Perception very very limited and can be manipulated
and we do whatever day
That's my job
Because secret.
Always.
Face the audience.
Great magic is better than sex
And harder to 5.
I I point out that I didn't say magic is better than
sex
Or the great magic is better than great sex.
But great magic is better than sex.
And harder to find.
Kill me I can I cannot
Talk about my 6 for life.
Magic's biggest secret.
Is in my pants right now.
I don't like the Peter pan syndrome.
It's a way to lock in their life and never go
All the secrets that you need to know to know how all
the tricks work they're all in magic books
They're all behind me or are all on the public library.
There are those who would try to convince you that
magix biggest secret
Is that it really has no secrets.
But its biggest secret.
Is that that is false.
There are secrets?
Magix.
Biggest secret could be defined by?
Great visual artist Francis Bacon when he said.
The artist's job is to all those deep in the mystery.
Magic biggest secret is hidden within the pages of
dragons love tacos available on amazon.com and let
your local independent bookstore
Matic s biggest secret is.
It's a great way to make women true that's telling
that my wife
she was a volunteer from the audience
That's how you met Your wife
I bet you
but you did the trick for you met Your life by doing
a trick
For I mean
we all need people by doing magic tricks
They're still there are still all secrets.
The biggest thing that the magic?
I think is it?
Bathroom.
Maggie from Magic
And the passion to people.
You love mazurov people in the
No more stupid.
My little true.
I actually don't know what magic biggest seek I actually
do know I take it back
I know exactly what magic biggest secret
Magic biggest secret is.
That the magician points you towards magic and you
were the one who makes the magic cap
That's magic biggest.
Magicians will have many
many different answers and they are all lying to you
These are professional deceivers
the biggest secrets in magic is
Magic biggest secret is knowing how to wink.
Magic's biggest secrets is probably that it hides
in plain sight every day
Howard Thurston said it you can pull their eyes and
you can fool their minds
but you cannot fool their hearts
The biggest secret in magic is that it's not actually
And never ever forget.
To always believe in yourself.
Which I probably set in the very beginning but.
Don't ever forget to believe in yourself.