talkmagic.co.uk

In the past six months, I have come across more references to magic than I can possibly imagine have occured in the past six years.

I purchase Carter Beats the Devil in Ireland over the summer, read and love it. This reminds me how much I used to love magic. Then I hear that The Illusionist and The Prestige are coming out. In addition, Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson, in addition to appearing in The Prestige, starred in Scoop, a Woody Allen movie where Woody Allen plays a, drumroll please, magician!

I find a copy of Mark Wilson's in one of my college teacher's bookshelves. I read a review of a mystery book in Entertainment Weekly and, when I flipped through it at the bookstore, found it not to be of my tasting but interesting because, wow, the next book in the series is about the murder of an amateur magician.

Jeremy Piven played Buddy "Aces" Israel in Smokin' Aces, a movie so over the top that it displaces the music of Jim Steinman (Total Eclipse of the Heart, Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hells, Tanz Der Vampire) as the textbook example of the subject.

In Arrested Development, one of my favorite shows of all time, GOB, my favorite character, is an illusionist.

A magician came to my college to perform. That never happens.

I rented a movie called Magicians last year which was a horrible B-film in almost every regard except for the supporting role of Alan Arkin. Now, I'm twenty years old, and I had never before seen him a film role that I remembered. I start telling people that the movie sucks, except for Alan Arkin, who is an acting genius, and then of course, Little Miss Sunshine comes out and he wins an Academy Award.

Now, my question to you is, is everybody experiencing this rise in the public awareness of magic? Or is this something specific to me? Am I getting signs from the universe, or is the universe returning to magic as a popular form of mass entertainment?

I think that once you start getting "tuned into" something, you just notice it more. All those references and more were probably around before yet magic had to special connection to you. Once you get hooked on magic, everything becomes magical.

Anyone who has read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will start seeing "42" everywhere...

Yeah, but a lot of places where 42 appears (Lost, for example) are references to H2G2.

I was always into magic as a child, and though I completely believe your hypotheses--the greatest example of it being a word's elucidation followed immediately by multiple occassions of the word, for me at least--I really believe that magic is experiencing an uprising, either that or I am at the center of a stastical anomaly.

I still would have picked up on it. It's as if magic left me for years and then suddenly returned with a vengeance.

Magic has always been about but I think I know what your saying about it becoming more popular again.

I think this could be down to Street magic becoming more popular and magic evolving from a guy on stage wearing a suit and producing flowers. To street and more fashionable people preforming tricks with everyday objects.

I think the 'less is more' approach has made magic more accessible to people and is something they can relate to more.

In saying that with all the new inventions coming out these days. I still love my time tested material. You'd be very hard to pushed to get me to swap my TT, cards and RRTCM. For a few DVD's and gimmicks.

Yeah, I have a mad soft spot for people who pull rabbits out of hats.

Personally, I don't see a rise in awareness at all.

I've been into magic pretty much all my life, and it's always been the same... magic shows, magic performers, famous people who are ALSO magicians of a kind, seeing magic books on people's shelves where you wouldn't expect them...

I don't think anything has changed.

Way back when I was around 12 years old, I remember going to secondary school and being delighted to find out that my art teacher was also a part-time kid's magician.

Then, later on, I also discovered that a girl I'd known for a good few years had a 'magic' uncle.

It doesn't surprise me what you've said. And I agree that subjective immersion can cause self-awareness.

If you're looking for a 'everyone has/does it' textbook example, look at Apple Computers.

Back in 1987 when I first started using them for artworking, NOBODY had heard of them. As years went by and I became a super-Apple-fan, and got my first iPod, NOBODY had heard of them (yes, I was an early adopter and got one of the first batch in the UK).
Now, every man and his dog has an iPod, and knows the Apple brand.

The same is true with mobile phones, I guess.

But not magic.

Granted there is a much higher public profile for magic these days, and there's barely a day goes by when I don't see ANOTHER reference to some kid doing some trick on YouBoob. But this isn't an increase in magic awareness, this is simply the mass availability of magic in the media—mainly the internet.

When I were a lad (cue: Hovis theme) magic was very hard to come by unless one could travel or had the right contacts. There was no internet to feed on, and photocopied book & trick lists for mail order were about as close as I got to sitting at home and choosing my wares.

I see what you are saying, but I guess you are just snapshotting the 'now' in your own context, and not basing the judgement on your time BEFORE magic.

Yeah like so many things the internet has opened a whole new world for so many people. You can pretty much get anything these days.

I'd be interested to know about the magicians views on the internet. In terms of how you feel it has affected magic and it exposing a lot of tricks?

Is it good that more people have access to magic and thus more people can learn? Or is it bad that magic secrets have become so widely available these days?