I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating. 100 years ago, or so, I had the opportunity to visit the Magic Castle and watch Slydini perform. It was like seeing the Stars of Magic jump off of the page. He performed his coins through tables, his paper balls to box and coins across if I recall correctly. I was absolutely blown away.
I attended the performance with a college friend that had only recently taken up magic. As with many beginners, he hit it very hard and was thrilled to learn each new secret and was rapidly developing an adequate performing style. Not unexpectedly, he had never heard of Slydini. The next day we were discussing our time at the Magic Castle. I asked him what he thought of Slydini. After I described who he was, he immediately said "Oh, the guy that kept throwing things in his lap"? Please understand, he wasn't being mean or disrespectful. He just wasn't fooled at all. I was devastated. Someone had dumped on a magic hero.
Over the years, I've thought of that incident many times. What does our audience actually see? Certainly, Slydini's performance was a technical success, at least from a magician's standpoint. His Han Ping Chen was a thing of beauty. The moves to his lap were well covered with his famous brand of misdirection. Nonetheless, my friend wasn't fooled. He wasn't even entertained.
I'm sure my friend wasn't the only one in the audience less than impressed with Slydini's performance. It was a polite and appreciative audience and he got the response that a legend of his stature deserved.
I guess that is one reason why I wince so strongly at statements like "it just blows right past the layman". No it doesn't! Your audience may not call you on it or embarrass you while you are performing, but so many times I'm fully convinced that few people are actually fooled and the magician is merely tolerated.
Secret Agenda – A book you must have
Recently I have spent some time with Giobbi’s book called Daily Agenda. The name and the structure he has chosen is somewhat unfortunate and trivializes much of what he is doing, in my opinion. There was a blog earlier this year that was going to track his writings on a daily basis, but like many of us with good intentions it seemed to die on the vine.
If you haven’t seen this book, it has short articles for each day of the year. They run the gamut from jokes to very deep thoughts. He might spend three or four days on the ambitious card, the handling of a break, or simple reviews of obscure methods. I particularly have enjoyed his references to some of the favorites moves and tricks of Fred Kaps. It’s too bad that Kaps died at such an early age and so little of what he did was captured. His choice of material and methodology seems to have been impeccable.
Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this book. You’ll thank me.