Close-up magic is magical entertainment that happens right in front of you, magic you can not only see but feel and touch. This intimacy is what makes it so different from other types of magic. An expert close-up magician will involve and interact with the audience far more than a stage magician (or any other form of entertainer for that matter).
Most close-up magicians use common props such as playing cards, coins, sponge balls and rope. And all magicians perform the same basic magical effects with these props, making them appear, disappear, change, levitate, break and restore, and penetrate other objects. What is amazing about close-up magic is that it happens so close to you, sometimes while you are holding the props!
There are many standard close-up magic effects and standard routines used to present them. For example, the ‘Ambitious Card’ where a chosen card repeatedly rises to the top position in a deck of cards without any shuffling or cutting, or the ‘Sponge Balls’ where the balls move invisibly between the magician’s hands and those of the spectator’s. In fact, these routines are freely available if you care to look. Anyone can search the internet and buy books and DVDs on close-up magic, or even the props and standard routines.
What really sets one close-up magician apart from another is how they present their magic. In fact, presentation is the key - it is what makes close-up magic entertaining. A really good, professional magician will be creative and present their magic in an original and entertaining way. Sometimes humorous, sometimes mysterious, sometimes just plain weird and freaky. The magic becomes a vehicle for the personality and ideas of the performer.
This is what makes close-up magic great entertainment. An interesting, strange and funny person demonstrates the impossible, weird and wonderful, right under your nose!
Showing posts with label magician. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magician. Show all posts
Friday, April 16, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
To Be Or Not To Be A Professional Or An Amateur Magician
An amateur magician is anyone who has a minimum amount of talent, skill and knowledge when it comes to performing magic tricks. He or she may be anyone who knows one magic trick or at least three magic tricks.
But basically, a more technical definition of an amateur magician is anyone who does not in any way practice magic as their trade, even if he or she knows four, five, six or more than a number of magic tricks. This is regardless of how good, better or excellent he or she may be in performing flourishes, sleight of hand or optical illusions.
However, there are those amateur magicians who try their very best to expand their current knowledge as well as repertoire and still practice magic as their primary source of income. People who do this are usually called hedge magicians. This is in order to differentiate them from authentic professional magicians who make practicing and performing magic as a trade and make an actual living doing so.
Meanwhile a professional magician is anyone who has a little bit more knowledge and talent compared to an amateur magician. These professional magicians know sufficient magic that makes it enough for them to use it as their primary source of trade and income, as well as not using magic to assist them in a trade other than magic.
So technically, even if a barber performs his job using magic and no matter how many tricks he or she knows and is capable of, that barber is still not considered as a professional magician because his primary trade is cutting hairs and not necessarily being a magician.
Another way to differentiate a professional magician from an amateur is by the way he or she does flourishes.
According to the Online Encylopedia of Magic, a flourish is any sleight that is performed for the purpose of entertaining an audience and does not in any way contain any moves that are hidden. Most sleights that are performed are done so in order to deceive a captive audience and to do something that can not be detected. Meanwhile, a flourish is any trick that is done to draw the audience’s attention away from where an actual sleight is simultaneously being performed.
There are some magicians who consider the performance of a flourish as simply a finger exercise and not really actual pieces of performance. But those magicians who do put in and include flourishes in their act are considered by some of their fellow magicians as a seriously skilled performer.
If a performance consists of a card trick wherein the cards are spread out on the table and when a performer does a pressure card fan, the image that that performer projects is one of professionalism and experience. But a performer of magic who simply holds the cards and then spreads them slightly, may then be considered more as an amateur. Although this may or may not be true or this may not be considered as a hard fact, this is the perception and the impression that a performing magician usually gives to an audience.
Flourishes are done not just as a form of show-off to the audience, a flourish is also done for the purpose of presenting just how a performer is truly dedicated to the magic act. It also shows the degree of professionalism one has for the performance.
When a flourish is done, it makes it easier to know the difference between a magic trick performed by an expert magician and your friendly neighborhood Jim who is doing a card trick.
A skilled performer comes off as a natural and will ultimately receive more credit for his or her performance as well as recognition, not to mention that good old respect for the skills he or she has.
When a spectator is looking at a magic trick where the occasional flourish is done, that performer is also seen as more than a magician but a person who is passionate at what he or she is doing. It is therefore so much easier to hire a magician who has more skills and experience than one who needs to practice his or her craft more.
But basically, a more technical definition of an amateur magician is anyone who does not in any way practice magic as their trade, even if he or she knows four, five, six or more than a number of magic tricks. This is regardless of how good, better or excellent he or she may be in performing flourishes, sleight of hand or optical illusions.
However, there are those amateur magicians who try their very best to expand their current knowledge as well as repertoire and still practice magic as their primary source of income. People who do this are usually called hedge magicians. This is in order to differentiate them from authentic professional magicians who make practicing and performing magic as a trade and make an actual living doing so.
Meanwhile a professional magician is anyone who has a little bit more knowledge and talent compared to an amateur magician. These professional magicians know sufficient magic that makes it enough for them to use it as their primary source of trade and income, as well as not using magic to assist them in a trade other than magic.
So technically, even if a barber performs his job using magic and no matter how many tricks he or she knows and is capable of, that barber is still not considered as a professional magician because his primary trade is cutting hairs and not necessarily being a magician.
Another way to differentiate a professional magician from an amateur is by the way he or she does flourishes.
According to the Online Encylopedia of Magic, a flourish is any sleight that is performed for the purpose of entertaining an audience and does not in any way contain any moves that are hidden. Most sleights that are performed are done so in order to deceive a captive audience and to do something that can not be detected. Meanwhile, a flourish is any trick that is done to draw the audience’s attention away from where an actual sleight is simultaneously being performed.
There are some magicians who consider the performance of a flourish as simply a finger exercise and not really actual pieces of performance. But those magicians who do put in and include flourishes in their act are considered by some of their fellow magicians as a seriously skilled performer.
If a performance consists of a card trick wherein the cards are spread out on the table and when a performer does a pressure card fan, the image that that performer projects is one of professionalism and experience. But a performer of magic who simply holds the cards and then spreads them slightly, may then be considered more as an amateur. Although this may or may not be true or this may not be considered as a hard fact, this is the perception and the impression that a performing magician usually gives to an audience.
Flourishes are done not just as a form of show-off to the audience, a flourish is also done for the purpose of presenting just how a performer is truly dedicated to the magic act. It also shows the degree of professionalism one has for the performance.
When a flourish is done, it makes it easier to know the difference between a magic trick performed by an expert magician and your friendly neighborhood Jim who is doing a card trick.
A skilled performer comes off as a natural and will ultimately receive more credit for his or her performance as well as recognition, not to mention that good old respect for the skills he or she has.
When a spectator is looking at a magic trick where the occasional flourish is done, that performer is also seen as more than a magician but a person who is passionate at what he or she is doing. It is therefore so much easier to hire a magician who has more skills and experience than one who needs to practice his or her craft more.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Optical Illusion And Magic
Perhaps, optical illusion and magic are no different from each other for both share the same effects: they amaze and fascinate and deceive the human eye.
A suspecting audience will lose the chance of catching the trick if you are perfectly endowed with sleight of hand skill and interest.
Your eyes can be deceived both by magician’s hand dexterity and apparent psychological persuasion (patter). The apparent patter of a magician combined with quicksilver hand skill is a perfect match to a dubious crowd.
Practical Optical Illusions
Optical illusions can be carried out in front of a large or medium size audience or can be performed using pictures especially if you have no immediate contact with the person you are trying to communicate with.
Pictures that visibly change their color or physically modifies along the way to keeping a long stare at them or by following simple rules or instruction helps you baffle your friends and amaze them of your ingenuity.
Optical Illusion is Magic
Magic is based on optical illusion because it involves the use of deceitful tricks that tends to help you perform the unnatural. Some of the most famous illusionists of time like Harry Houdini perform magic using a technique called Pepper’s Ghost.
In Pepper’s Ghost illusory technique, the use of glass fibers are perfectly positioned to create a hologram figure of the object you are trying to hide. Special effects and the use of black background are also critical to the performance of technique.
In the late 1800s, Harry Houdini first performed his major magic trick in front of a large audience by making an elephant disappear and making if appear again according to his own willing.
Since then, a lot of his contemporaries began making use of this type of strategy until it was patented in the late 1860.
Magic is a type of Illusion
You can hardly separate magic from optical illusion because the one is characteristic of the other. Magic involves the use of tricks that involve the quick hand and the use of colors and objects that seem to block the actual image of the main subject.
Specific productions (magic types) are achieved which shadows the image of the main object being given attention to.
For example, a glass of water that is apparently empty is actually lined with a clear material while the inside is stuff with material which you may show to your audience as a product of your magic (coins flowing from an empty bottle) when taken out.
A suspecting audience will lose the chance of catching the trick if you are perfectly endowed with sleight of hand skill and interest.
Your eyes can be deceived both by magician’s hand dexterity and apparent psychological persuasion (patter). The apparent patter of a magician combined with quicksilver hand skill is a perfect match to a dubious crowd.
Practical Optical Illusions
Optical illusions can be carried out in front of a large or medium size audience or can be performed using pictures especially if you have no immediate contact with the person you are trying to communicate with.
Pictures that visibly change their color or physically modifies along the way to keeping a long stare at them or by following simple rules or instruction helps you baffle your friends and amaze them of your ingenuity.
Optical Illusion is Magic
Magic is based on optical illusion because it involves the use of deceitful tricks that tends to help you perform the unnatural. Some of the most famous illusionists of time like Harry Houdini perform magic using a technique called Pepper’s Ghost.
In Pepper’s Ghost illusory technique, the use of glass fibers are perfectly positioned to create a hologram figure of the object you are trying to hide. Special effects and the use of black background are also critical to the performance of technique.
In the late 1800s, Harry Houdini first performed his major magic trick in front of a large audience by making an elephant disappear and making if appear again according to his own willing.
Since then, a lot of his contemporaries began making use of this type of strategy until it was patented in the late 1860.
Magic is a type of Illusion
You can hardly separate magic from optical illusion because the one is characteristic of the other. Magic involves the use of tricks that involve the quick hand and the use of colors and objects that seem to block the actual image of the main subject.
Specific productions (magic types) are achieved which shadows the image of the main object being given attention to.
For example, a glass of water that is apparently empty is actually lined with a clear material while the inside is stuff with material which you may show to your audience as a product of your magic (coins flowing from an empty bottle) when taken out.
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