talkmagic.co.uk

So, what do we all think about the famous quote...

"A magician is an actor playing the part of a magician".

Comments?

Liam.

Is it true that "A magician is an actor playing the part of a magician".

A fairly frequentally asked question ever since Robert Houdin first made the statement.

The role of the magician and the role of the actor certainly have many similarities, but just as you would not call an "Actor" a magician, you also can't merely call a magician just an Actor.

Actors play many roles, and though they may melt into a single persona for the duration of a film or play - this persona is soon forgotton. Whereas a magician is more likely to play the same persona throughout their entire life, and even to some extent live that persona in their real lives.

When anyone performs magic, right from a child showing their parents a magic trick from their very first magic set, to a wizened old conjurer who has performed professionally their whole lives I would say that we are all actors - and the better skills we have in that area, the better magicians we are.

Without being actors could we be considered anything other than con men and cheaters? After all we lie all the time. We make up stories about finding manuscripts that reveal long lost yogi techniques that allow us to see without our eyes. We claim a ball is under a cup when it is not. We claim a spectator has a free choice of card, when in fact they don't.

We are all actors playing the role of a magician - although many magicians will also have additional skills to that of the actor, that will allow us to do magical things.

If I was to perform professionally in any way, then in addition to learning new coin and card slegth of hand, one of my priorities would be to read more books on the art of performance and Stage Craft.

damn i hate all these deep and profound threads???!?!? waaaayyyy too intellectual for me.... ( i admit i had to look up intellectual in a dictionary to see if it was spelled right... hehe)

The programme on Sky last week revealing the secrets of so-called psychics made mention that the performers were actors - at no time did they use 'magician' to describe them.

This suggests that, either it was a cunning plan to avoid the backlash of another magician revealing magic secrets (which they were) or they were quite sure that an actor can play the part of a magician. How about Jerome Flynn playing the part of Tommy Cooper on stage, is he an actor playing a magician - or actor trained in a few bits of magic playing the part of a magician/comedian?

IMHO you have to have the ability to to the trick/routine in the first place because no amount of acting will properly cover up total lack of talent (OK, I know there are exceptions to this but you know what I mean!) but any magician worth his/her salt will be acting the part - even if it's a very laid back persona.

I'd go a bit further in this respect - we're in the very old and very original branch of special effects of one kind or another and any effect worth doing has to be done to he best of the performer's ability otherwise it just doesn't work.

You only have to look at some magicians out there to see how much a role "acting" plays in improving the performance. Derren Brown, for instance could be a straight actor (apart from the head nodding ), he has the immediate charisma and more importantly the gift of eloquence that fits his role perfectly. Even if you just looked at it from a cards point of view, and not his metalism act where basically he just talks, he still uses speech and inflexion, volume, pauses etc to dictate the tempo of this tricks and to create off beats and "down" moments where he can easily misdirect and perform sleights....

Jeff Sheridan on the other hand is a fantastic magician but he chooses to do his act silently. He isnt a confident speaker, which comes across in his lectures so to try and "act" in such a way wouldn't work for him. Of course, in essence, any sort of performance is acting but there is difference between silently performing magic (very, very well) compared to adopting a persona to create mood and atmosphere...

....I know...I'm waffling

Hey hey!

some excellent posts!

quality reading! thanks guyz!

Liam.

Hey hey! some excellent posts! quality reading! thanks guyz!

Thats's all well and good Liam - but isn't it just a little cheeky of you to start a thread like this and then not give us your views?

Come on, lets hear what you have to say on the subject

My thoughts?

I don't know... I think the statement is not particularly true, and I'd like to think that the thought that an actor playing the part of a magician would be better than a magician playing himself... particularly in the real world.

I realise that acting ability is of an advantage at times, but I think that you run the risk of losing your character, when you are acting. Instead, why not be yourself, so that you live out your persona?

Perhaps my thoughts are biased thou... I mean, I consider myself a good magic performer, but not a good actor, by any means.

Hmmmm...

Liam.

i supose then i would have to consider myself an actor playing the part of a mgician then.

after all i dont have a basement full of rats at home i dont have a basement at all, and though i have had a few ponds in my time ive yet to come across fish that change colours acorrding to your mood?.

as a childrens entertainer which i prefer to call myself, you have to do quite a lot of acting and be a competant magician otherwise you dont get rebooked, as im on my gap year at the moment I'm more myself except when im online were we are someone else yes we are, so yes I'm an actor who does magic, hollywood here i come

Montz wrote:My thoughts?

I don't know... I think the statement is not particularly true, and I'd like to think that the thought that an actor playing the part of a magician would be better than a magician playing himself... particularly in the real world.

I realise that acting ability is of an advantage at times, but I think that you run the risk of losing your character, when you are acting. Instead, why not be yourself, so that you live out your persona?

Perhaps my thoughts are biased thou... I mean, I consider myself a good magic performer, but not a good actor, by any means.

Hmmmm...

Liam.

How can you possibly class yourself as a magician if you dont act?
acting, in what ever way it's done, is only sucessful if you project part of your own personality . There are hundreds of examples of this in action. Take Obiwan Kenobi.He is Alec Guinnes,His twinkling eyes,and wry smile make the character.

you have to look at the original quote in full to get the meaning behind it, and its that meaning that is relevent to any performer who wishes to suceed.

the original quote follows with an explanation.
we are but mortal beings, who pretend to be wizards, fantastical beasts with the power to do anything. we are not meer jugglers.
Those are not the exavct words, but i hope that you get the Gist.
we pretend .We show the card raises to the top of the deck, but alow the audience to think that it happened by non natural means.

by not acting, we might as well give a full running comentary of every method as we use it.

Dale

To me an actor can protray someone he is not. Are we portraying who we are in our performances? I for one, do. My style and attitude are portrayed everytime I perform. So, if I am indeed an actor, I am playing the part of myself.