The Alphabet of Magic (Part 1)

After I wrote On Building Routines, Ernest of The Story Circle dropped me a line on the comment section: Let me quote him:

Good day, Sir Leo! Thanks for this article of yours. Surely it will help every magicians who have read this like me. Just like to request if you can write or make an article on the “basic notes or alphabet of magic”? Thanks again Sir Leo! Waiting for more articles that will help magicians like me.

By the way, is it ok if I can share this to fellow TSC members?

Magically,

Ernest (The Story Circle)

My response was a promise to write the article he requested.  Today I’ll fulfill my promise.  I hope Ernest and many magicians in the Philippines will find this post helpful.

In the original article, I wrote that learning the basics of performing  magic is like learning to write.  To be able to build routines, a magician must know the rudiments of magic, just  as  a kindergarten pupil must master the alphabet to learn how to write on his own.

The following are my alphabet of magic:

Sleights - this refers to the manual dexterity of the performer.  It is employed to produce a magical effect.

Thus if a performer drops a ball accidentally during a multiplying ball sequence, then he still lacks dexterity. Or if  he performs a flawless French Drop yet fails to deceive the audience, then he has not yet acquired the amount of dexterity to mislead the mind.

Remember, a magician employs sleights to produce a magical effect. He is not to use it to impress people with his skills.  Sleights, therefore, should pass close scrutiny. It should misrepresent itself (say, a false shuffle should look like a genuine shuffle). It should fool the eye and the mind (like a Retention Vanish that leads people to believe the coin really goes into the right hand).

The more sleights a magician knows and can execute skillfully the more versatile his ability to build routines.

Misdirection - for me, misdirection is all about control.  It is the ability to control the audience’s attention.

Control it to where? you might ask.

Well, control it from the “dirty” moves. Control it from  the trick’s  solution. Most importantly, control it toward (not away from) the crucial bits of action.

I agree that it is important to guide the audience attention to protect the the secret of the trick. However, it is also important that doing so clarifies, not obscures, the effect.  Otherwise, the audience will not appreciate the magic.

For example, if a spectator  looks away while you are showing a production box empty, then he will not be impressed when later you produce a rabbit from it.

If an onlooker is distracted while you put his chosen card in the middle of the deck, for heaven’s sake get his attention back.  Take the card out from the middle of the deck and put it back in when he is watching again. If you fail to do that, the card rising to the top of the deck will be a non-event to him.

Psychology of Deception- while sleights are manual dexterity, psychology is mind skill.  The performer uses this to boggle the audience’s mind. His tools are crafty dodges, cunning and psychological ploys.

This does not mean a performer is to launch himself to the study of NLP, hypnosis and stage induction. Rather, one must only understand how and why deception works.

For example, why does an illusion box that can produce four girls has walls and a base that look very thin? Why does a thread disappear in front of a  Mylar background even in a fully lighted stage? Why does a drawing duplicate that is not millimetrically the same as the original a more convincing indication of your psychic power than a photographically accurate facsimile?

If you have answers to them, then you are on your way to building a good foundation in the psychology of deception.

In the next articles, I will continue discussing movement, music, staging, script writing, acting, and speech.

To be continued…

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.sirleodini.com