In this blog, I intend to share what I have learned about magic. The types of magic, where to learn magic, the process of learning magic and how to perform magic.
If you intend to learn magic, you will first have to choose what kind of magic do you want to learn and perform. Weird as it may sound, there are people who only intend to learn but not perform them.
These are merely curiosity seekers who are merely interested in the know-hows, or perhaps worse, people who seek to expose tricks where professional magicians spend their time and money to learn, and perform to earn their living.
On the other hand, it could be hobbyists who love magic but are too busy to put in the necessary time to master the tricks well enough in order to perform them. Enough said! As an introduction to those who are new to magic, magics are categorised into the following:
Stage Magic
Stage magic are magics performed on a stage to a big audience easily from a number of 50 to hundreds. We are largely familiar with such magic when we first watched magic shows broadcasted on television. Such acts rely heavily on props and more often than not, require a stage assistant. Some common magic props are the magic wand, hats, doves and rings. Hypnotism followed by levitation and sawing of a lady assistant are common stage magic we have witnessed regularly since childhood.
Close-Up Magic
Close-up magic are performed to a very small number of audience most suitably on a one-to-one basis. Unlike stage magic where the magician is kept at a distance high up on a stage, far away from the audience, there is a lot of interaction between the magician and the audience in a close-up magic.
A close-up magician is usually engaged by organizers of dinner-and-dance or a cocktail party to entertain the guests. The magician would have to walk around and mingle with the guests, strike up conversation with them and entertain them with magic tricks. This is the kind of magic that non-professional or hobbyists are interested in learning after all they are not professionals given a stage to perform their magic.
Being a hobbyist myself, we are not seeking to perform magic for a living except to entertain ourselves and our friends. However I would not deny that at a certain point in time, a hobbyist may have refined his/her skills well enough to perform them in public. One such type of close-up magic is card magic as playing cards are easily accessible and affordable too.
Having said so, this does not exclude the very fact that card magic is a type of magic that can also be performed on stage. Conventional stage magicians usually performed a few standard routines of card magic because the effects of these card magic routines are more suitable for audience sitting afar to view them and they do not require personal interactions.
Parlour Magic
Parlor magic is quite similar to close-up magic except that it is meant for a slightly bigger crowd of 10 to 20 audience.
The magic tricks employed could be those used for close-up magic as well. The difference depends very much on how the magician manage his/her audience. Parlor magic is suitable for small parties such as children’s birthday parties. It is a mixture and also somewhat a magic performance between close-up magic and stage magic. The audience size is relatively smaller so it allows interaction with the audience occasionally like close-up magic does.
The magician also has a small and perhaps even elevated stage for him to stand upon for the audience to look upon.
Street Magic
Street magic as it is called are magic tricks performed to strangers on the street. In performing street magic, you may approach just one stranger one-to-one or perhaps a group of people. In the process, you may even attract a big crowd. The magic tricks employed are usually that of close-up magic. In the event that you manage to attract a big crowd, make sure that you are not performing tricks where the execution of your sleight of hands are proficient enough where it cannot be seen from all angles.
Illusions
Illusions are magic tricks usually involving some disappearing act followed by some reappearance somewhere else. As the name implied, an illusion act is merely an … illusion. Famous acts such as “The Disappearance of the Statue of Liberty” and “Crossing of the Great Wall of China” by David Copperfield are examples of illusions. However, the employment of camera tricks in an illusion is frowned upon by professional magicians.
Illusions are magic tricks usually involving some disappearing act followed by some reappearance somewhere else. As the name implied, an illusion act is merely an … illusion. Famous acts such as “The Disappearance of the Statue of Liberty” and “Crossing of the Great Wall of China” by David Copperfield are examples of illusions. However, the employment of camera tricks in an illusion is frowned upon by professional magicians.
The famous escape artiste, Harry Houdini, is an illusionist. He made an elephant disappeared from a stage and he escaped from many endangered situations. Such performances are examples of illusions.
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