doublefacers

Warning : I tend to talk in stream of consciousness.

I don’t know why I rather see something as simple as a coin vanish performed well. If you ever seen Alex Gieser do any of his coin magic you will know what I am talking about. No patter, No misdirection, just pure magic. I guess I have to define what I mean as magic. Many consider that presentation and patter is above the sleight of hand. The old saying of “The magician is an actor playing the part of the magician.” has always rubbed me in the wrong way. What is a magician? How does the actor know what he is suppose to represent. Its like telling an actor to act like an alien from outerspace. Does this mean that the actor is trying to act out what he “thinks” a alien is suppose to be? I somehow think that’s why they want to put more thought in presentation and patter since that’s what they know. But what if you are presenting to a person from another country? What if you can’t use the power of language? I can’t stand when magicians say that magic is a sub-set of theater. If anything magic is its own art. Magic can use theater to help create a better illusion (sometimes), but magic isn’t some bitch to theater.

I feel a reason that many people need to use patter or presentation is that magic at its core is illogical. Logic tells us that in order to get from A to C, you have to go through B. But magic creates something that can make it “seem” like A can get to C without B. this is the sense of magic for me. You create a situation that can’t be possible logically unless you know the method. With the method it does not defy logic at all. Think about it. Magic is the only thing on this damn planet that creates this. It is such an amazing thing. Now back to why people want to use presentation… Magic creates a blank spot in your mind. Paul Harris describes this as feeling like a baby. Your mind doesn’t know how to categorize what just happened. It doesn’t last for long though, the mind HAS to do something about it, thus it will creates one of the two emotions, amazement or frustration. That’s is why you get people who are just amazed or hate you. I had women cry before by just doing some card tricks. Its a card trick for fuck sake, but yet it hits them hard.

Now to my point. Many times presentation and patter is to “soften” the blow of magic. How many times do you see magicians make jokes after the magical moment. They don’t like that tension that it creates. A main reason that I stopped perusing magic as a job was that I felt both of the emotions, amazement and frustration, were equally valid. You can’t leave your customers frustrated as they leave the restaurant if you were doing magic there. That isn’t your JOB. You are suppose to entertain them. But magic at it’s core is not to entertain. You can USE magic to entertain, but at it’s core its something different. I remember reading on the magic cafe about someone asking how many phases for an ACR. Someone said “as long as they are entertained”. That’s fucking bullshit. Just because they are entertained doesn’t mean its good magic. Its like saying a comedian that plays the guitar is a good guitarist. That’s stupid.

But the problem is that you can’t get paid for just doing magic as it is. People want drama, people want stories. Its how we are built. That is why I do magic on my own terms. When your life and well-being isn’t dependent on magic as a job it will open magic as an art to a bigger arena. For me it is to simplify my magic. My dream card trick is to show a joker to the audience and say that it can change to any card they name. They do and I wave the joker and it changes to the card, and then back. That’s it.

Alright, enough ranting. Here is a color change I have been working on for quite sometime. It is called the “Be Kind Change”. Anyone who can actually read through this whole thing should deserve a little treat.

Password : The Boldest change or switch that is executed with a card in one hand for the card on top. Its the “_ _ _ change”

Be Kind Change from Tony Chang on Vimeo.