For those of you who read Inside Magic religiously, you know that Sergey has been a regular contributor to these hallowed pages.
(By ‘religiously’ I mean ‘often,’ not as Kari Dora of Quincy, Ohio, defines how she reads us ‘religiously.’ We received an article from the Quincy Register-Post-Dispatch-Telegraph, that showed Kari with candles around her monitor as she read one of our reviews. She fills her basement with incense, lights the candles, kneels before her Dell 24″ flat screen plasma monitor and holds her breath as she reads a paragraph at a time. She does not breathe until she has read the entire paragraph, so when there are longer paragraphs, like these, she becomes hypoxic and woozy and thinks she can actually see Paw Lawton come through the monitor and advise her on mutual funds. She is a mutual fund advisor with a major financial powerhouse and we doubt anyone knew – until the article came out – that she was such a freak for Inside Magic. When we had our horrible incident that kept us off line for two weeks, she nearly died from the hysteria that her hypoxia and incense caused. But I digress. Private note to Kari, note the length of the paragraph.)
We honored, therefore, to have Sergey send us the first videos of two of his illusions and the beautiful Madonna photograph. Sergey wrote: “We began to work, performing four to five thirty minute shows each day in one of the best covered parks, a wonderful magic theater with 250 seats.”
Through the advanced electronics here at Inside Magic, we’ve tried to load the videos for your download but if you have any problems with it, please go to Sergey’s very cool website at : http://www.illuzion.boom.ru/. We’ll keep you updated on Sergey’s career and any new information we can get about his successful run in Korea. Sergey’s Videos can be downloaded here.
The misuse of our art, hobby, craft, profession, passion by those who would bilk the credulous should be of concern to all of us for it reflects on all of us. I agree with Dave Boyd that we cannot change with a simple disclaimer the held beliefs of those who see us perform, but we must make that disclaimer less we too become part of that nefarious group preying on the vulnerable.
Remember that those practicing our art not too long ago were considered in league with the devil. Witches were burned here in Europe and North America based on firmly held beliefs not evidence. The major church of that time held that witches must be, as so many people believe in them.As part of the dialogue, despite that it may be an old chestnut, I offer again my complete essay on ethics for this subject.
When a magician performs for an audience, even an audience of one, the audience is asked to suspend disbelief for the length of the performance. Fiction writers do the same thing. Neither the novelist nor the magician is working within the “real world.” As magicians, our make-believe world is a magic world where, assuming we do our parlor tricks well enough, the audience goes along and is entertained, even mystified. They leave the theater, restaurant, party or whatever venue we are working knowing that we are not in league with the devil or that we have not violated the Laws of Nature. We just did tricks that they don’t know how to do. Well-written, and sometimes not so well-written, fiction does the same thing. The modern novelist tells his public up front that the characters and the situations in which they find themselves are not real. He tells the reader that they should not confuse the characters with any person living or dead.
No reasonable person accepts a book of fiction with this disclaimer as a work of non-fiction. In the real world, works of fiction without a disclaimer have often been accepted as fact with disastrous consequences. “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” and its part in leading to the Holocaust is arguably the most egregious example in history.
As magicians we do not put a disclaimer in front of our act reminding the public that what they will see and experience is a trick, a swindle or a flim-flam, even though it is. We do not have to tell the audience that we are going to pull the wool over their eyes and do things that are impossible. This is understood. After all, the Statue of Liberty is not really going to disappear. Is it? The single sponge ball the magician just put in someone’s hand is not capable of spontaneous reproduction. Is it?
Why is it necessary for an ethical fiction writer to warn his public that what they are about to experience on the printed page is not real, but not for the magician? Is it ethical for a magician to fool his public without warning, but not for others? In a recent national television program, the magician told his audience that he wasn’t sure if he could do a trick. Of course he did it very well much to the public’s amazement. Was he unethical?
I’ve read (and maybe you have as well) the description of the Fish Bowl Production by Rich Marotta. I first heard about it at a convention a while back and then read about it in Hank Lee’sNewsletter. Finally, I read a description in Magic.
Then I saw it and realized it was not at all what I read it to be. It was something far more.
When Pavel lectured for us afew weeks ago, he tried to stress that the method of the trick matters little. The thing that matters is the effect on the audience. When you perform an effect that leaves the audience talking about it later, on the way home, the next day or — better yet –describing you as “the magician that made a bowl of water with live fish appear from an empty bag, you have done your job.
This is the trick for just that purpose. I am not sure if I will use it as an opening or a closing or a transition effect as Rich Marotta does. But you will have an effect that is not difficult to perform, looks great in production and does not look too magicial.
I have to explain that last qualification. Pavel pointed outthat you can do amazing things — such as making two pieces of rope appear to restore simply by dropping one end near the other. It is done by magnets and looks amazing but it doesn’t make too much sense. It can’t happen that way without some gimmick.And so it becomes a puzzle for the audience rather than a magic trick.
This effect will not give the audience a chance to guess its solution. The move to produce the bowl is so natural and the splash of water right after productionimmediatelythrows off even the clever among your audience. It is angle proof and very simple to master.
Theproduction is not cheap. I found my favorite on-line dealer, Penguin Magic, had it for about $180.00 compared to $220.00 retail. But this is an investment in something that will make a reputation. So if you are saving for one effect to take your act to the next level, consider this. It doesn’ttake long to perform, but looksso incredible that the shorteffect will stay with your audience for a long time.
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