Hi
I have been trying to get a better understanding of performance character. So read the book Magic and Showmanship since many peapole on the Café seem to thinck the book is good.

So Magic and showmanship on page 50 to 53 he discusses the role of the counjurer.

Henning states that We have seen that the counjurer is not limited to imperdonating a magician. Actually,,except when performing for children, the role of a magician has little to offer. Audiences expect ”Real” magic to have s purposee,but its difficult to find any plausible porpose for most routines even when a fantastic atmosphere has been firmly astablished.

He then goes on to list a few suggestions of roles the performer could play.



So he seems to suggest that either you make do magic with a belivable pressentation or you make the magic seem out of your control or in your cotrol but your abilities are limited, beacuse if you really could do magic you would fly like a bird or produce food for starving children.

So to me this seems limiting. Now what do you all thinck about Hennings opinions on this subjekt, do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? I would like to seem like I am in control of my magical abilities when I am performing, is this possible whitout admitting that you are performing sleight of hand? Am misinterpreting what he is trying to say?


When you go and se a movie you know what it going on the screen is fake but you don't thinck about that during the movie and you become completely immersed in the movie.

Is this same suspension of disbelief poosible in a magic show that's pressented with a fantasy or surreal pressentation?

Most of the effects we see in a magic act have no other purpose than to entertain.
Let's take a look at Fred Kaps's FISM act for instance:
1. What real world purpose does vanishing a cane in a newspaper have?
2. What real world purpose does being able to pull a handkerchief through a candle flame have?
3. What real world purpose does making a jumbo coin penetrate through a handkerchief have?
4. What real world purpose does pouring salt into your hand and making it disappear and then reappear have--especially when you let it fall on the floor when it reappears?

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his poem "The Rhodora":
"Beauty is its own excuse for being."
Similarly, many magic effects can be their own excuse for being.

I know some people find the dancing cane boring, but when David Copperfield does it, it's beautiful.

And 9 out of 10 magicians probably find card manipulations boring. What is the purpose of making cards appear at the fingertips? But the lay audiences I performed for loved card manipulations. They've seen their uncle or brother do too many boring card tricks where you use counting or mathematics to find the cards. But a good card manipulation act can evoke a sense of wonder and delight.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez