talkmagic.co.uk

What is the obssesion with magnets and mirrors!!!!
I let my mum see the video for stratosphere on oenguin magic and daytona magic, I haven't got the effect right yet but she was desperate for me to show her it so I just let her watch them and she says "It's all done with mirrors"
Why must everyhting either be put down to mirrors or magnets, okay not everything but half the explanations I hear from people about how magic tricks are done involves some complicated theory about mirrors or magnets. Why?!?!?!?!

the its all done with smoke and mirrors dates back to the days of theater where ghosts where shown on stage by utilising a mirror reflection principle, not sure about magnets.

also most of the tricks that have been exposed have been based on mirror misdirection, hope this helps.

I mentioned this somewhere else ages ago but most folks seem to think it's all mirrors, magnets or trap doors (as if we'd stoop so low!!). I used this to advantage by showing them Dice Thru Mirror and telling them in advance that it is actually done with 2 mirrors and a trap door and this usually keeps them quiet enough to carry on without such interruptions for a while! Dice Thru Mirror is available from emagictricks and magicbox and it's one of my personal favorites.

True Theories From My Non-Magician Friends.
My friend thought that David Blaine's Levitation was all mirrors.
Apparently he finds a floor with pattern tiles. Then mirrors flip out from his heals, while he stands on tip-toes. I was like, "Yeah, good theory, maybe". I heard everything for how that was done including magnets...
Strong magnets implanted into the floor and opposing poles on his feet.
Oh yeah, and rocket boots... What next? Tiny fairies hang on to his ears and lift him from the floor.

"I'll tell you how it's done," I say, "Magic..."

according to monkey magic you drop from ze great hight.

On reflection though, as many effects involve none of the above explainations, surely it's no bad thing that people are so quick to jump at the 'smoke, mirrors and magnets' solution...
...unless you're doing a trick that's achieved by using smoke, mirrors and magnets of course.

Mathew.

Yeah, at least they have a theory that's consistantly inaccurate. Some magicians have suspicious looking props around the performance area to allow for theories in how a trick was done that throw the audience off the scent.

I don't really like to do that, though. People who "know" how a trick was done will assume so even if they don't know the real method. It just deadens the effect to give them another explaination for an illusion other than magic.

One theory suggests that if people even start to try to work out how you did it straight away then the effect wasn't magical enough in the first place.

Quote: "One theory suggests that if people even start to try to work out how you did it straight away then the effect wasn't magical enough in the first place."
Very true, but with shows like "Celebrities Guess Magic's Secretest Secrets" on TV more and more people are being re-educated to see magic as a puzzle rather than an experience....
Just my thinks,
Mathew.

That's true. Many are too desensitized to understand it's an art and not a challenge.

I think that lay people dont appreciate all the hard work that goes into putting on an act. Its tough enough trying to entertain everyone.
In the long run, if they just want to moan then why are they bothering watching and paying for your services?
I really couldnt care less about the theories, im getting paid arent i!

A very good point, perhaps those of us doing closeup (most of us here I think) should bill ourselves as closeup entertainers rather than magicians. That way we can engage our audience with our personalities and then when the magic comes it should not be a pick a card type trick but more like magic in disguise (ask me what when I've thought that bit through more) so that the surprise and astonishment of the effect catches them unprepared to think about a puzzle, from then you just have to keep them off balance.

Of course this would require more than just a couple of minutes of tricks then moving on, you would have to have long enough to move the conversation in the right direction for your first trick to make sense, but it might be worth thinking about.

iv'e always concidered myself an entertainer rather than a magician.
for me its the joy on kids faces and adults incredulity that spurns me on, the cut and restored rope is a classic for this and i perform it as a curiosity rather than a puzzle.