Inside Magic

George Tait

George Tait is a young man with an older name. “George” is a name for someone of our generation but the name seems to match someone who looks young, is young, but has the experience of someone more worried about their 401K than their MP3s.

Mr. Tait claims to be “still young” and yet he has performed our kind of magic since he was six. At that young age, he learned the importance of checking your props before taking the stage. As a practical joke, someone removed a gimmick from his big trick. He was baptized into the world of magic with his own cold sweat.

Fast forward not too many years to last night in Royal Oak, Michigan. Mr. Tait offered his lecture to a group of old and somewhat crusty magicians. How did it go? Did he have more cold sweats?

We’re happy to report his lecture was a wonderful mixture of very neat ideas and neat tricks to accompany those ideas. His approach to lecturing is refreshing and humble. He does not claim — and perhaps he believes because he is just entering college that he cannot claim — to be the all-knowing font of magic knowledge.

He offered effects he enjoys performing and his attitude was one of sharing a discovery rather than showing-off.

There is a built-in bias us older, more mature magicians feel when learning from young whipper-snappers. Okay, maybe it is just us. But it is a significant bias or prejudice. We know everything, we’ve seen all the significant magicians of the last two hundred years, we actually suggested to Houdini that he keep his dressing room closed to French-Canadian students, and we sure as heck will not be fooled by a young man regardless of his talent.

Our pride and prejudice was thrown to the ground like un-chewable candy from a stale pi?ata. He began strong and built on this base.

Fork Bending:

He does not teach the fork bending routine but it is based largely on Banachek’s version from Psychokinetic Silverware including the very neat permanent twist conclusion. From the outset, then, we knew we could respect Mr. Tait. He performed the fork bending about as well as we’ve seen — including on Banachek’s outstanding DVD — and he did not expose a secret he did not own.

So where would this talented and ethical young man take us next? The first part of his lecture should be considered a warm-up or ice-breaking session. (We realize “warm-up” and “ice-breaking” should not be offered as identical descriptions but something is wrong with our brain — we’ll tell you about that later).

His performance of a three-sided Kennedy Half was nice and showed an understanding of close-up performance far beyond his years. This will sound lame but it will be the best way for us to describe it.

There is a portion of the routine in which Mr. Tait has already loaded the coin he is about to produce from his empty hand. In a move reminiscent of Bob Cassidy’s “thumb across…
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The Incredible Mandy Davis

There are magicians introduced at conventions or lectures the following way: “This magician needs no introduction . . .” and then the emcee spends the next five minutes introducing us to the person we have paid to see. Mandy Davis, on the other hand, is a magician for whom no introduction should be necessary but since she is British, we feel obliged to offer a proper introduction.

Ms. Davis’ biography on the Magic Circle website begins, “A female magician – a rare thing indeed! But not the only difference.”

There are few female magicians, and even fewer female magicians who have passed the performance examination for entrance into the most exclusive sanctum of the Magic Circle. In many ways, our craft is still one dominated by men and/or boys. There may not be active discrimination against female practitioners but, unfortunately, there is rarely active encouragement of their chosen path.

Ms. Davis was reminds us of another very talented magician who happens to be female, Trixie Bond. The two performers share the same enthusiasm for our art and their excitement is contagious. They are often correctly credited with encouraging magicians of all ages and skill-levels to continue in the profession. It would be sexist to suggest they lack some of the cut-throat, jealousy often found among mid-level male magicians but we’ll say it anyway.

Ms. Davis has been professional since 1996 and is a member of Equity, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, until recently Chairman of her local magic club, Associate of the Inner Magic Circle of the prestigious Magic Circle and well-known for her amiable style and incredible work.

But what prompted us to steal some of her very precious time? Number one, we’re selfish and care only about what makes us look good. Having an interview with one of the top magicians working today makes us look great. Number two, we knew she’d be too nice to decline.

Recently, Ms. Davis took on the position of Editor of ‘Secrets’ the magazine for the members of The Young Magicians Club which is part of the youth Initiative of The Magic Circle. Peter McCahon held the position until his untimely and tragic death in Mid-December. Ms. Davis accepted the offer to continue Mr. McCahon’s excellent work.

Inside Magic: What convinced you to take this on?

Where do I start? I suppose with the very first job……….

I was approached about five years ago and asked if I would write the bi-monthly newsletter which was a double-sided sheet. The editor of the YMC magazine at the time was doing the newsletter too but was getting too busy to do both. The magazine at the time was a black and white almost-but-not-quite-photocopied journal.

After taking on the newsletter I decided to go to a one off workshop to see what YMC did. I discovered that they had an excellent one hour workshop on the back of another magic event but it was only good for members with considerable knowledge – beginners or unskilled card workers were left staring into space and bored……..

So I started to nag about having workshops for…
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