Magician as Actor or Actor as Magician: It’s Never Easy

“It was hard to know what to focus on during rehearsal,” he
confesses.

“If I tried to do the trick right, the acting would go to hell. So
for a while I had to focus on the magic and forget the acting, which was
frustrating.

I sort of felt like an observer watching myself
sometimes.”

Mr. Adams hit the wall all who practice and perform magic hit: he it as an
actor, however.

He found performing the magic in way that made it appear to be relaxed and
second nature was tougher than anticipated.

“Even though they weren’t
complicated tricks,” he says. The tricks would look fine at home in front of the
mirror, not so fine at rehearsal.”

The other end of the Magician – Actor spectrum is San Francisco actor
Christian Cagigal (rhymes with “magical”).

Mr. Cagigal began as a magician and worked his way into acting.

He recalls when he was 11-years-old. “Whole winter vacations melted away as
he stood in front of the mirror with a pack of cards and a library book.

“I was
the pipsqueak only child with glasses and no friends. It was a form of
expression,” he says. Big guys at school would say, “Hey, magic man, show me a
trick.”

The reporter noted with a sense of sadness, “Magicians never tell, and actors
who learn tricks for a show are sworn to secrecy. Even co-actors who help with
the tricks often don’t know all the details.”

Mr. Cagigal wanted to learn acting to help his magic, “to bring more soul to
his magic performance.” This path took him through San Francisco State where he
earned a B.A. in Theatre Arts.

Mr. Cagigal suggests there is a decided difference between the aims of a
magician and that of an actor:

“Acting is about being open, honest, present in the moment, not
hiding,” he says. “Magic is about deceit for your entertainment pleasure. It’s
about the illusion of honesty.”

We thought his insight on this
difference was outstanding:

“As a magician, I’m always aware and always four steps ahead of the
audience,” he explains.

As an actor, he says, “I play director. Where do I have
to go emotionally? Is what I’m doing helping the audience get what the writer
and the director want to say?

What’s the image being given to the audience, and
how do I fit into this grand scheme?”

Also, as a magician, he is comfortable being in two places at once.  He or she needs to be in the
moment, as well as engaging in purely technical activities.

This gives him an
advantage, as he can deal with lines and direction and hitting marks while
staying calmly present.

When he came to acting he found he had to train himself
not to over-plan what he’d do onstage.

And that’s where acting helped his magic
act, aiding him in connecting with his partner, which is the audience, and
playing with them–”bringing a little chaos into my magic in a good but scary
way.”

The consultant to the stars, Mr. Sonkin has worked with a number of actors
hoping to find their magician character.

He is a performer at the Magic Castle
in Hollywood, the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach; and most recently was
involved in bringing magic effects into Seussical the Musical in Solano
County.

What does a magic consultant do? He tries to match the tricks to the actors’
abilities.

He looks at the size of their hands (for tricks involving hiding
things in the palm), and he notes whether they can play a musical instrument
(which means good hand-eye coordination and a sense of rhythm and timing, all
useful qualities in magic) and whether they have dance, movement, or martial
arts backgrounds (suggesting enough body awareness so that if Sonkin says, “To
mask this illusion, you’ll need to turn three-quarters,” they’ll get it).

“Magic
in its purest form is a dance?with your hands,” he says.

“Acting and magic are
both illusions; when done well, you don’t see the homework.”

Mr. Sonkin works with actors to use magic as part of their acting rather than
divide their time on stage between playing a magician and a character.

The article quotes British actor-magician Ian Saville on the similarity
between the role of actor and magician.

“The central thing in magic is misdirection, which is…very similar in some
ways to some of the things that Stanislavsky was talking about,” he says.

“The
circle of attention for the actor is similar in some ways to the way the
magician manipulates the direction of attention of an audience.”

The deception is impossible without the skills and practice necessary “to be
completely natural in their movement; thus they have to observe others and
themselves in real life, to see exactly how people do normal, everyday
things–just as actors must observe those tiny details of human activity.”

Mr. Cagigal says actors are instructed to avoid watching themselves in a
mirror. Magicians, on the other hand, are advised to use the mirror intensively.

“Look in the mirror,” says Cagigal. “See if you can fool yourself. After all,
fooling yourself–into believing in the circumstances of the script is what
acting is all about.”