Illusion, Michael. A trick is something a whore does for money, or cocaine.
I’m guessing he just pulled a whoosh out of his hat. At least I hope so.
Well then, what is a “magic trick”?
It depends. I do try to figure out how the tricks are done (and I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it), and sometimes that reveals a certain elegance and creativity that I really like. Sometimes it’s one simple bit of sleight-of-hand that makes a big, flashy trick work. But even the sleight-of-hand isn’t as simple as it seems. It takes lots of practice, and there’s a science behind it. I read somewhere (probably the booklet from Penn & Teller’s show) that curving motions are better at capturing the eye than straight ones, so even gestures that are intended to misdirect are carefully planned and practiced.
In general, it’s all about making people think they’ve seen something that they haven’t really seen. And I enjoy that when it’s done well.
You’re probably thinking of this, but there is one cigarette involved. I love that trick. I think it was the first thing I even saw P&T do, on a TV show about magic back in the early '90s (or even the '80s). I was very happy that they did it when I saw them in Vegas; it’s still one of my favorites.
Here’s another one I like. It’s Harry Anderson as a guest on Saturday Night Live fairly early in his career. The essence of the trick is a pretty simple thing, but that relaxed narrative that he goes through just works like any great storyteller.
I know how the “quick clothes change” act is done, and it doesn’t spoil the illusion for me. I think it’s fun to watch.
What I can’t stand is the "put the pretty woman in a box and stab it with a bunch of swords (or otherwise pretend to harm her, but of course she’s really okay thing. I know how it’s done, and it’s boring, and kind of offensive. I’ve never seen it done to a man.
There was an episode of Numb3rs in which there was an elaborate illusion making a woman appear to fly while surrounded by flowers. One character said it was invented as a response to the kind of misogynistic illusion I’ve described above.
Any way I could convince you to share that info with my gf?
I spotted right away what he was doing, but it was a very smooth performance and a nice story. He had a great delivery, and I had the benefit of rewind to confirm what I thought.
I should also say that I enjoy knowing how a trick is done, but I especially enjoy figuring it out myself, rather than just being told. If I’m told how a trick is done, I’ll file it away for reference, to possibly help figure out similar tricks later, but I don’t feel like I’ve “earned any points”, so to speak, for that one.
Of course, there’s a vast gulf, for most tricks, between knowing how it’s done, and being able to do it. It’s one thing to be able to say “Oh, he must be palming the card there”, and another to be able to do it without actually being seen.
He makes you think you’ve seen something that you really haven’t. It’s just so simple, and your brain fills in the rest. Add a little style and showmanship (even very low key, like that clip) and it can be great.
I find myself objecting to these on different grounds. The violence aspect doesn’t bother me, as it’s all an illusion anyway, and we know the woman isn’t being hurt. But once I saw how some of these were done on the Masked Magician show, they were kind of ruined for me because…
The “lovely assistant” is really doing all the work, and the magician just waves his arms around and takes all the credit.
Since then I’ve felt that sort of trick to be demeaning, regardless of whether there are swords or blades or just curtains and mirrors.
That’s pretty much true of any “girl in the box” trick. Swords penetrating, disappearing, smashing the box, sawing her in half, etc. Just goes to show that women have been heavily involved with magic even if they haven’t always gotten the credit.
I think I have seen ones with the magician in the box vs the assistant in the box, and the assistant inserting the swords. Heck, that was the gimmick in one of the acts this season on AGT. They did a dancified version “from the back”, with the surprise being the magician not being where we saw him move to, but still being in the box, and then the real surprise being the decoy swapped for Nick Cannon (host on AGT).
Yeah, that’s what I mean. Doesn’t matter what they do to the box. She’s the one making it work.
Yeah, that was a neat idea but they did it really poorly, IMHO. (and the judges agreed). Oddly, I saw a very similar trick from a thoroughly mediocre magician at Six Flags last month, and he (or I should say, his “assistants”) did it way better. (the rest of his act was very meh, but you don’t really go to Six Flags and expect to see Copperfield or Penn and Teller.)