Magic

stimpsonslostson

Is anyone else fascinated by magic?

I especially love slight of hand tricks- cards in particular. I can't actually do it, but watching it makes me feel like a kid (rather than a jaded 30 something scientist).

Here's my favourite magician in action: Ricky Jay.

fretmeister

Yup.

Been earning money performing magic for 8 years now. I love it.

d8m

Not really.

I have come to the conclusion that all music shops are run by magicians as they always make my money disappear

ICBM

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C . Clarke

bingefeller

Yeah I loved Simon Drake's show Secret Cabaret.

Grunfeld

Magic is brilliant. 

I heard a psychologist recently saying about the brain and perception and how, as psychologists, they would get excited by the way they could produce a simple optical illusion to make a subject think that one line seemed to be slightly longer than another... and then along comes a magician and he makes a fucking elephant disappear!

fretmeister

One of my favourites. 

The amazing Michael Vincent.

 

WYNIR0

Michael Vincent is wonderful.

beed84

Clicked the link and ended up watching all of it!

Great magic and brilliant showman. Loved it.

axisus

ICBM said:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C . Clarke

It is if you use a carbon dioxide extinguisher.

EdGrip

This thread reminds me that I still haven't been to a Jerry Sadowitz gig. 

DesVegas

If they come with a beautiful assitant, i'm your man.

viz

DesVegas said:

If they come with a beautiful assitant, i'm your man.

Actually I think it's normally a lady assistant that they're looking for.

mike_l

DesVegas said:

If they come with a beautiful assitant, i'm your man.

So you're willing to wear the sparkly leotard then?

fretmeister

stimpsonslostson said:

Is anyone else fascinated by magic?

I especially love slight of hand tricks- cards in particular. I can't actually do it, but watching it makes me feel like a kid (rather than a jaded 30 something scientist).

Here's my favourite magician in action: Ricky Jay.

I'd only seen extracts of that before - that was brilliant!

roundthebend

I love it, particularly sleight of hand, but don't think I have enough interest to learn the techniques. I'm usually very patient but I reckon it requires repetitive practise and that's something I don't enjoy.

Also, I've always wondered how you can learn when much of the trickery is kept secret.

fretmeister

I have performed this effect once.

Needless to say it took an astonishing amount of time to learn it!

Col_Decker

I like the slight of hand stuff, but the David Copperfield-esque "Im gonna make this 747 disappear, then I'm gonna walk through the Great Wall of China" can f**k off.

CabbageCat

From what I have read most of the basic card tricks seem to be based on false shuffles. If you can reliably keep the top/bottom card where you want it (which isn't that hard - some of the simple false shuffles are very easy and still extremely hard to spot) you can do all sorts of magical things. Some of the cooler false shuffles are worth watching just because they are good examples of dexterity - like juggling - and they are wasted on the viewer who will be just as baffled by an easy one.

RocknRollDave

I have a friend who does the kind of mentalist stuff, if that's the right word? Most recently he is doing Hellstromism techniques, i.e. reading people's involuntary muscle movements. Clever stuff,it's almost more impressive than actual real magic would be!

fretmeister

roundthebend said:

I love it, particularly sleight of hand, but don't think I have enough interest to learn the techniques. I'm usually very patient but I reckon it requires repetitive practise and that's something I don't enjoy.

Also, I've always wondered how you can learn when much of the trickery is kept secret.

Practice: To roughly refer to Penn's book. They do a trick where an item is dropped behind a cardboard cut out of a celebrity. The audience doesn't see it happening as something else is going on at the same time, but without it the trick wouldn't work.

That single element (the dropping) took Penn 8 months of daily practice before he was happy to move the trick from 'development' into 'rehearsal.'

Similarly Paul Daniels performed one of the best Single Cup & Ball routines ever done. He was happy with his competence on it after 18 months of practice.

Of course there are some effects that take far less time to learn and can be performed after a couple of hours. It's no different to music really - learn the language and the basic skill set and that speeds up the learning of new pieces.