Pick a Card…
Posted by The Powers That Be, Saturday, 18 October 2003 at 1:08 am, EDT
I gave magicians a hard time once; talked of them in vaguely dismissive terms in my foreword to The Imagineer. I forget the precise words I used, but the inference was clear: charlatans to a man.
There’s been much talk in this vein of late, what with David Blaine suspending himself over London for 44 days, encapsulated in a glass box with no food. Silly bastard.
For my part I was lying through my teeth. The idea of the stage magician versus ‘genuine’ practitioner suited me in the foreword to a book about the miraculous, it was a nice hook to hang an introduction on. Truth be told, I adore magicians, would desperately like to be one.
As a child I would thrash away at my Paul Daniels compendium set making the same orange sponge ball disappear time and time again (until, eventually, time and negligence performed the feat for good and I was left with a set of meaningless plastic cups and vases). David Copperfield thrilled me with his shocking spectaculars - walking through the Great Wall of China, making The Statue of Liberty disappear, all illusions that made me hate that sponge ball for being comparatively inadequate.
Like many childhood desires (ability on the piano, comprehension of science) my butterfly-like mind with its impatience and intolerance for failure dismissed my attempts to seriously learn the ‘art’. Rather than gently practising sleight-of-hand and card manipulation over and over until my cumbersome fingers did what was asked of them I would get angry at my perceived inability within half an hour and give up. It seems typical that as we grow older, more patient and dedicated to the developing of skills, we have so little time in which to develop them.
I had a second chance later when I needed to learn some brief magic routines to use as filler during my time as a Ghost Tour guide in York. I now have the most basic knowledge of a few close-up illusions and can, on a good day, do incredibly naughty things to a deck of cards while shuffling them.
In recent years there has been a revival in popularity for magicians on our television screens, due, in no small part to the previously mentioned Blaine with his superb close-up magic. Derren Brown (the most exciting and skilled performer for many years in my opinion - whatever that’s worth) finally got the audience he’d deserved. Magic was the new rock and roll…
For a while…
What is it today with the fickle nature of the masses? I’m reminded of my intolerant attitude as a child, throwing something down because it had angered me with its complexity. The attitude towards Blaine at the moment is bordering on the violent, the ‘cage’ being attacked, the ’stunt’ being dismissed as ridiculous by the vocal majority. Derren Brown produced his fascinating and thrilling ‘Russian Roulette’ special which was criticised before airing and ‘debunked’ after. Why? What is it about you bastards that will insist on raising something up before burning it down?
It was this attitude that sparked The Imagineer in me all those years ago; this desperation to engender the ghost of childhood; that joy of spectacle that is beaten out of us all too soundly through adolescence. Magicians also seek to do this, drag your emotions back to the incredulous shock of innocence, make you believe (however briefly) in the existence of more beyond this. They are fantasists in their own way.
It seems we don’t want fantasy any more, has this world become that perfect? Good, I’m glad, just surprised I didn’t notice.
Off to drag my old text books out, beat The Devil’s Picture Book into submission, see if I can’t achieve a little magic…
G.
Spread the love, it’s good for your skin:
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Listen to: Tubular Bells Vol.3- Mike Oldfield
Yeah, I know, reeks of ‘cash-in’ but this is my favourite of the three in many ways; probably because it is, in my mind, the soundtrack to The Imagineer, every track evokes a chapter or moment. An album that sounds like magic. |
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Read:Mr. Punch - Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean
This is the third week running for Mr. McKean, this just won’t do, an embargo must be put in place for awhile I feel. Still, this haunting tale has the loss of childhood innocence at its core, the point when magic fades and real life kicks in. Now if that’s not a perfect choice for this week I don’t know what is! We shall hear much of Mr. Gaiman in these pages, only fair to warn you… if there’s one man who manages to hang on to magic it is he… |
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Watch: Derren Brown - Inside Your Mind - Derren Brown
New DVD or Video containing material from the ‘Mind Control’ series plus extra stuff. A consummate showman and illusionist this takes the old ’svengali’ routines and gives them an exciting spin. Oh… and if the whole ‘papers said he cheated and used blanks’ crap surrounding the Russian Roulette special is concerning you: A blank bullet fired against the skull would cream your grey matter across the walls with just as much gusto as live ammunition. Don’t fret… it’s just the spoilsports again… watch this and believe for ninety minutes. |
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