Magic Shows

Magic shows have served as a kind of entertainment in the recent years and the number of people who attend such shows is growing. There has always been some rumors about these shows as to whether the tricks you see are real or just deceptions. They usually perform these tricks in a very skillful manner that you find it hard to believe they’re not real; however, the range of the performances is not very wide.

Magicians can perform production, vanishing, transformation, restoration, teleportation, escapology, levitation, penetration and prediction.

When they perform production they produce something from nothing; for instance, a rabbit from an empty hat, a fan of cards from thin air, a shower of coins from an empty bucket, or the magician himself appearing in a puff of smoke on an empty stage.

As for vanishing, they make something disappear. For example, they make an assistant disappear from a cabinet. Although they try to keep their methods secret, this vanishing method may use a similar technique as production but in reverse.

In transformation, the magician transforms something from one state into another like when a handkerchief changes color or a lady turns into a tiger, or an indifferent card changes to the spectator’s chosen card. A transformation can be seen as a combination of a vanishing and a production.

In restoration, the magician destroys an object, and then restores it back to its original state; for instance, a rope is cut, a newspaper is torn, a woman is sawn in half, a watch borrowed from one of the spectators is smashed to pieces and then they are all restored to their original state.

In teleportation, the magician causes something to move from one place to another; for example, an assistant is moved from a cabinet to the back of the theatre. Sometimes a single object is moved like the mentioned example and sometimes two objects exchange places, then this is called a transposition: a simultaneous, double teleportation.

In escapology, the magician or an assistant is placed in a restraining device such as handcuffs or a straitjacket, or a death trap and escapes to safety. Examples include being put in a straitjacket and into an overflowing tank of water, and being tied up and placed in a car being sent through a car crusher.

In levitation, the magician defies gravity, either by making something float in the air, or with the aid of another object (suspension). For example, a silver ball floats around a cloth, an assistant floats in mid-air, another is suspended from a broom, a scarf dances in a sealed bottle, the magician hovers a few inches off the floor. There are many popular ways to create this illusion of even the magician himself being levitated.

In penetration, the magician makes a solid object pass through another; for instance, a set of steel rings link and unlink, a candle penetrates an arm, swords pass through an assistant in a basket, a saltshaker penetrates the table-top, or a man walks through a mirror. This method is sometimes referred to as “solid-through-solid”.

In prediction, the magician predicts the choice of a spectator, or the outcome of an event under seemingly impossible circumstances; for example, a newspaper headline is predicted, or when a random card is chosen, the magician reveals he had known that certain card. Such tricks are called “Pick-a-card” tricks.

No matter what the method is, these shows involve a lot of tricks which make use of our optical illusion in order to show us things that don’t really exist or perform actions that can’t happen in reality. In the past, some people believed magicians had supernatural powers but nowadays, the audience enjoys the show despite knowing that they are only tricks. In other words, modern performers such as Harry Houdini and David Blaine have established the modern relationship between the performer and the audience. In this relationship, there is an unspoken agreement between the performer and the audience about what is going on. Unlike in the past, almost no performers today actually claim to possess supernatural powers. The effects in the performance are sleight of hand, misdirection, deception, collusion with a member of the audience, apparatus with hidden mechanisms, mirrors, and other trickery. Actually, the adult audience plays a role in which they agree to be entertained by something they know to be a deception.

The mid-twentieth century saw magic transform in many different aspects. Some performers preferred to renovate the craft on stage such as The Mentalizer Show in Times Square in New York which mixed themes of spirituality with the art of magic. Others successfully made the transition to TV, which opens up new opportunities for deceptions, and brings the performer to huge audiences. Most TV magicians perform before a live audience, who provide the remote viewer with a reassurance that the illusions are not obtained with post production visual effects; however, nothing would take the place of a live performance in which you see for yourself what really happens.

With the growing number of people watching magic shows, tricks become out-of-date very easily; therefore, in order to keep their business going, magicians need to invent new tricks. But how far can they go? Isn’t there an end to this? People have been entertained by such shows for a very long time, but can these shows entertain them any longer when their lives become more complicated in terms of modern technology in the future?