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When executed properly, magic is a performance art that creates an aura of awe and wonder around the performer. The observer enters a state of mind where, for a short time, infinite possibilities open up and anything can happen. In the best cases, this actually leads to a euphoria that gives the observer a rush -- a high -- which is all too quickly replaced by the real world.
What is happening here? I have no idea.
But I do know that wherever that euphoria is possible, great things are possible. Art can be created. People can be emotionally moved. It is the same impact that keeps us listening to music, reading words on a page, going to plays and movies. Whenever there is an endeavor that can create this euphoria, the practitioners usually set out to systematically discover the underlying principles of the art that give rise to this feeling, then to exploit them to improve the art, giving the public something deep and fascinating.
Not in the world of magic. Instead, its modern practitioners set out to find more clever ways to shove women into boxes and cut them up -- the new version of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, except magicians were never so cruel to the rabbits.
How incredible that the profession has spent so much time retreading the same fifty-, hundred-, and thousand-year-old tricks while the rest of the world has exploded with creativity and reinvented itself many times over. But this has been discussed to death, including by the very magicians who perpetuate the stagnation; usually, their answer is to try and find new things to make disappear, or new things to stick through the tongue. Few step back to find a new context in which to perform magic.
The good news is that for anyone who wishes, it is very easy to distinguish yourself and to accomplish something unique. To make art, if you choose. |
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