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When I say "Magic to tell a story", I mean a FULL, proper story. I don't just mean a dance and some vanish, I mean a full 30 minute story on a stage.

Do magicians ever do this? I had a plan in my head once, where the whole of the play was about a man who trained to become a Wizard, and the play included illusions where the body of his lover was sealed inside a coffin before it was set on flames and so on... not presented as a magic trick, the person "burried" never reappears, but the audience is left wondering how the actress could have survived the burning.

Do people use illusions to tell tales? I've never seen one, but I'm sure they exist, and can you reccomend any titles to me


Tom
xx

They did The Invisible Man as a stage show. He wore a hat and everything.

So what you mean is not a 'Magic show with a story' but a play that uses magic. Have you ever seen Phantom of the Opera on stage ? It is more or less what you are talking about.

jim

I watched Harry Potter the other day

Hoffman wrote about 20 magical plays. Devant wrote loads, maskelyne, cook, Errr.. everybody else i cant think of at the moment.

modern days... Apart form Phantom, and Invisible man, and Love never dies, and Kats and kings.( My favorite magical show of all time by the way) Abracadaver.. great piece, which was staged by some bloke called Ali something.. Bingo? Bungle,, What ever.. oh and then there's the tommy cooper play thats touring.. There might be magic in that.

oh and if i remember rightly, in vegas there was a couple of guys who used cats in their show.Siegfried and Roy... oh, and that show that Michael Ball was in, oh, and the magic show with Doug, and Merlin with Doug, and ....

I guess what Im trying to say is yes. Its been done before.

Lawrence wrote:I watched Harry Potter the other day

Hahahahahaaaa! That made me spit coffee onto my desk, narrowly missing my laptop!!

Mr_Grue wrote:They did The Invisible Man as a stage show. He wore a hat and everything.

That brightened my day.

Do people use illusions to tell tales?

doesnt every illusion have/tell a story?

Teller created a version of Macbeth a couple of years ago that I believe used magic. Details here. Sadly it looks like it's over and it isn't available on DVD

some bloke called Ali something.. Bingo? Bungle,, What ever..

I do hope that was sarcasm!

I watched Harry Potter the other day

Ha!

The Magic Boy toured Ireland last year. It was a story told through magic, by one of our leading playwrites, John Breen. I trained the actors in the magic, and they did quite a good job. It was an entertaining show.

Most of what Orson Welles did in the field of magic was, or involved, story-telling.

kolm wrote:Sadly it looks like it's over and it isn't available on DVD

Wrong!

It IS out on DVD with a special edition softcover copy of the play. I watched it a good 5 times so far and memorized my favorite parts! (often times, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths; win us with honest trifles to betray us in deepest consequence)

http://www.amazon.com/Macbeth-DVD-Folge ... 023&sr=8-1

Enjoy!

OOH thanks for the link. Will order over the weekend.

And as to Eshly's question there is a book, not entirely sure if it's what you're looking for as it is for more of an intimate setting and does not use grand scale illusions but it may give you ideas. It's called:

Garden of the Strange by Caleb Strange.

It's one of my favorite purchases not because of the tricks but because the stories and thought processes behind the effects are so refreshingly unique and it's a wonderful book. The routines are very ambitious and at some points impractical and verging on pretentious but... The good outweighs the bad.

Garden of the Strange is a supurb book, totally impractical to peform but a brilliant read. Once you dig past all the impracticalities of the rountines there are also some very good ideas to be got out of it too.