Magicians
This page deals with general "Magicians" orientated things.
It's a bit of a mixed bag really, just blurb that does not fit snuggly anywhere else on the site. Who knows, this might be the perfect tonic you needed to cure your insomnia. Sweet dreams...
You can click on the menu list below to jump directly to the paragraph:
- What is a magician?
- Types of magical performance.
- What is magic? – Types of magic effect.
- What type of a magician is Dorian?
- How did Dorian get to be a magician?
- If magic is your job, what are your hobbies?
- Where do you learn to do magic?
- What magicians or people inspire Dorian?
- A brief history of magic.
What is a magician?
A magician can be classed as anyone who performs magical effects. Magicians
come in many shapes and forms and there are many aspects to the art of
conjuring.
The term magician is also applicable to sorcerers and wizards from fiction
(and some beleive reality). These characters have magical powers and cast
spells.
The type of magician that this web site is dealing with is
the magic as
entertainment
with no
supernatural implications. All impossible feats are accomplished by natural
means (Although to witness it first hand you might believe otherwise).
Close-up Magicians:
A close-up
magician performs their magic act in close proximity to their
audience. The magic lends itself to much interaction with the spectators
and they are actively involved in the act. There are a number of terms
to describe close-up magicians such as table magicians (see below)
or sleight of hand magicians.
Platform magic / stand-up magic:
These are terms used to describe magic that is performed usually for
a medium sized audience.
Parlour magician:
This is a bit of an old term derived from a performance that may have
taken place in the parlour of someone’s house, entertaining a group
of family and friends. The term usually donates an act performed at
floor level with the audience (who may be seated). The room or area
where this performance is taking place may be “parlour” sized. He more
modern term for parlour magic would be "platform," “stand-up
magic,” "club" or "cabaret."
Street Magician:
A more recent name given for ‘close-up magic’ has been ‘street magic’,
which has been made popular by a well know American TV magician performing
on the streets to random pedestrians and passers-by.
Table magicians:
The term table
magician is so called due to the magic performance being
done at a table of seated guests. The table in question is usually
a dinner table which
could be at an event such as a corporate awards ceremony or a gala
ball.
Mentalism / Mentalist act:
Some magical effects involve the mind such as telepathy, divination,
clairvoyance, precognition, psycho kinesis and mind control. These
effects come under the banner of “mentalist” routines, which of course
can be performed in a close-up manner and environment as well as say
on a stage.
Illusionist:
This is the term generally given to the magician who performs on the
stage usually with large elaborate props.
Stage Magician:
Stage magicians are magicians that perform on the stage. Acts can be
varied and typically all kinds of magic can be performed on a stage
to an audience. It could be an illusion act manipulation act or a mentalism
routine.
Manipulation magic act:
A manipulator has a magic act that has little to no audience involvement.
It involves the pure art of sleight of hand.
Professional magicians:
These
are magicians that make their living
by performing magic. They will have many years experience in entertaining
at a high level and at many types of functions and events.
Amateur magicians:
Amateur are magicians of varying competence in the
magical arts. Some armatures are truly great entertainers and competent
masters of the art and some are just casual hobbyists that like to
“dabble” with it.
Children’s magicians:
are skilled in the art of entertaining
our young generation, quite often using colourful comedy props and basic
magic that involves the little people and keeps them laughing. Some children’s
magical entertainers come in the form of clowns, which is all well and
good as long as you don’t suffer from Coulrophobia.
What
is magic? – Types of magic effect:
A magician through the employment of sleight of hand, timing, psychology
and misdirectional methods etc will
achive his goals in creating a magical effect. But what are the bare bones
of magic? what are the basic things a magician does?
Below is a list
of categories and classifications of magical effects:
Vanish:
An object is made to disappear from where it once was. This could for
example the vanishing of a coin in the magicians hand or the vanishing
of the statue of liberty as performed by David Copperfield.
Appearance:
The opposite to vanish is the appearance. An object is made to appear
from nowhere. Most famously (and stereotypical) is the appearance of
a rabbit in a hat or maybe the appearance of a fan of cards from an empty
hand.
Transposition/teleportation:
An object appears to change its position in space. The object seems to
vanish from one place and reappear in another. As a translocation this
would be like when a number of coins travel one at a time from the magician’s
left hand to his right hand. As a transposition two different coloured
balls could swap places under two cups.
Transformation:
A transformation is where an item or object changes its physical form.
The object may change in size shape, colour or weight. It could be where
a coin of one denomination transforms into another, for instance a 2p
piece changes into a £2 coin.
Penetration:
An object is made to pass through another solid object. For example
a wine bottle may be made to pass through a dinning table or a set
of metal
rings are made to link together.
Restoration:
This is where something is broken, torn or damaged and then put back
into its original unharmed state. An example of this is where a magician
tears a playing card into two pieces and then puts both pieces back
together to make a complete card once again. Or a piece of rope is
cut into two
with a scissors and then put back together to make one piece.
Extraordinary feats: (Mental, Physical)
* Incredible accomplishments using memory such as being able to memorise
the individual names of a room full of people.
* Extraordinary physical ability such as being able to levitate.
Telekinesis:
Levitation or moving of objects without physical contact. A magician might
make a nut and bolt srew themselves together with not physical intervention.
Escape:
The magician is placed in a restraining device and escapes to safety.
Examples include being put in a straitjacket and then placed into a
tank of water.
ESP (Extrasensory perception):
Clairvoyance – The ability to gain information about a person, location,
object or event through means other than the normal human senses.
Telepathy - The apparent ability to receive and send thoughts from one
persons mind to another.
Precognition - This is the direct knowledge or perception of future events
that are acquired through extrasensory means.
Mind/Mental control – The ability to control a person’s actions or choices.
Many magical routines use various combinations of magical effects. An example of this would be with the classic "cups and balls" routine. The magician may make a small ball disappear (vanish) then makes it re-appear (production) under a solid metal cup. He may then make the ball pass through (penetration) the top of the cup. There may be two cups in play and one ball could be placed under the first cup and then found to have travelled across to underneath the second cup (transposition).
What type of a magician is Dorian?
Quite often the question gets asked “What type of magician are you?”, or “What do you call yourself?”
Dorian is a close-up magician. The magic he performs is called ‘close-up magic’, due to the fact that the act is performed literally close-up to the audience. There are of course variations on the name just like some people would call a car; a motor, a vehicle or a set of wheels.
If the performer is entertaining at an event such as a drinks reception, due to the fact he has to move amongst the guests working group to group would make him a mix and mingle magician, wandering, walk around or walkabout conjuror. Sometimes even a strolling conjurer, roaming, roving artiste or roving illusionist.
Due to the fact that the magic happens in the magicians (and sometimes even in the spectators) hands he can be called a sleight of hand magician, close quarter or close hand magician.
On the occasions that the magic performer is entertaining at the tables of seated guests, working from table to table, this is often refered to as table hopping. In this instance he might be called table magician or table side entertainer. For more information see also table magician page.
It all comes down to the context of the performing situation. Indeed a close-up magician can perform a mentalist/mentalism style magic effect on stage which is in turn then broadcast on a television show, and if that show is playing on a television set that happens to be in a shop window on a street then that would make him a close-up, stage, TV, street magician! How avant-garde!!
How did Dorian get to be a magician?
(From car mechanic to card mechanic...)
I distinctly remember goofing about with a magic set at a very young age, but the poor quality and content of that box of tricks never really lived up to the expectation and was not enough to keep me gripped. My fascination with magic didn’t really take hold until some time later.
This is a time when we did not have all the information technology we do now. It was not that easy to obtain answers to the questions I wanted answering. Magic was always something I wanted to be able to do, but where the hell do you start? How did the magicians on TV such as David Copperfield and Paul Daniels get their knowledge? Was there a school to learn such things? Did those guys have real special powers? Was it all just camera tricks?
When I left school I did not know what I wanted to be, although I did know what I did not want to be and that was a car mechanic... I was loath to the idea.
(Skip forward about 6 years). One day the gate to the long and winding path of the magical arts was opened.
I was working as a light vehicle technician (posh term for car mechanic, grease monkey, thing I did not want to be!) at a busy local garage. One of the new lads that had not been working with us long asked me if I owned a deck of cards and if I could bring them into work the next day. I had these visions of some lunchtime poker session that might see me end up taking home a bit less than my usual minimal wage. It turns out that he (JW) wanted to show me some magic tricks and with my very own deck of cards no less! In total fairness what he showed me blew me away, I was witnessing real magic first hand and right there and then it ignited something inside me. I mean here I was witnessing real magic that was being performed in real-time, up close and with my own deck of cards… I wanted a slice of that cake alright!
I begged, nagged and pleaded for JW to show me how he accomplished those magical feats. In the true fashion of a magician he would not tell me the secrets. It was only after wearing him down with continuous pestering and the promise that this was something I really wanted to pursue as a hobby and that I would not tell a soul did he then eventually confided in me and divulged the secrets.
Just learning those basic bits of card magic really did open up a new world to me and it’s safe to say I was totally bitten by the magic bug. I would absorb any magic like a sponge, if anyone knew even the simplest trick I wanted to learn it. I would go down the library and take out books on card magic and general conjuring. I believe to this day that having magic knowledge just handed to you on a plate does not a good magician make. It's ok to show someone who's eager to learn where to begin the journey, but it is a journey that they have to take while driven by the hunger.
With the onset of Christmas I happened to see another magician at a chain store in town. He was there to demonstrate in-store magic sets that the shop was selling. After one of his pitches when the crowd had moved on I was eager to talk shop with him and try to gain some more insight of how to advance my knowledge on the magical arts. He guided me to a couple of books that come under a “magicians recommended reading” list and a couple of other tit bits.
As time went on I discovered that there was a local magic club that would meet up once a week not to far away and there I got to meet up with fellow magicians and have a place where I could discuss ideas and talk about magic.
One particular year I entered a magic competition at the club which was being adjudicated by a couple of magicians along with some members of the public. After the competition ended I got talking to one of the magician judges who just happened to be Phil Jay. Phil was already a very successful full time professional magician and was doing the very thing I wanted to do which was to make a living by being a magician. I guess Phil saw some potential in me and advised me that if I wanted to take my magic up to the next level, that I should give him a call… So I did, and that’s where our friendship began.
Over time Phil helped tutor and refine my act along with instil me with his great wisdom. He helped make me see magic from many different perspectives. Initially it was a bit daunting as the standards that needed to be attained (Phil's own standards) was so very high.
Every so often I would join Phil on a job, not to perform (I wasn't ready for that at this point in time) I was there to secretly observe in the wings. On the journey to the function we would of course talk about magic performance and various finer aspects of the art. On arrival at the gig I (dressed in suit in order to blend in to the background) I would subtly eavesdrop on Phil’s performances at the various tables. By being a spectator at a short distance I could see by example many of the lessons taught, this way all the lessons where illustrated by live examples. On the journey home we would talk about what had occurred that evening and have a bit of a Q and A session. It is without any doubt that Phil Jay’s generosity with his time and training has got me where I am today. Phil’s mentoring has without doubt been instrumental in my success as a close-up magician and I am truly grateful.
Around this time and to hone my act with real audiences I would work at a handful of restaurants in the evenings as well as having a day job (not a mechanic at this time). Working the restaurants for a few years was a part of the apprenticeship to a magic career. Magic is not a vocation you one day just decide to be full-time at. It takes time and effort to forge out a quality act, learn people skills and learn how to handle all kinds of situation.
It's funny how things work out. Had I not became car mechanic (the very thing I did not want to be), then I would not have had that magical epiphany that sparked a major interest in the magical arts.
Gotta love Karma.
If magic is your job, what are your hobbies?
Where do you learn to do magic?
What magicians or people inspire Dorian?
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