The language of magic

My friend Iain Moran has just come back from Italy, where he performed magic at a dinner party and gave a lecture to Italian magicians. He did all the former and most of the latter in Italian and, as his teacher, I feel both proud and impressed.

Helping Iain to prepare for this trip got me thinking about the importance of language in magic. Often there appears to be no need to speak at all, since the trick is visual and can be readily understood without words. However, the reason for speaking in these cases is not to explain or to amplify - or even to entertain - but to provide verbal misdirection. The seemingly throw-away comment has to be carefully honed in a foreign language so as to achieve the desired effect.

It's always more polite if, when visiting another country, we can make some effort to speak the language. As I have learnt, it can be difficult for a magician to do this because there's already so much to think about when performing magic that delivering the patter in another language requires a great deal of brain power. But, as with the magic itself, it gets easier with practice - and it is so well worth it. Whether you need to communicate what the trick is about or whether it's for misdirection, if you can speak to your audience in their own language, they will really appreciate it. (This is particularly true if you're a native English speaker!)

If you're going to France to perform or watch magic, there's some language on my Paris Magic website to start you off.

Never assume!

It's Mothers' Day and I'm remembering a magic lecture I went to a few years ago. The magician produced a bunch of flowers (or something - I can't remember the effect but it's not the point) and said, "At this point, I always say, 'You can give these to your mom'. Everyone has a mom and everyone's happy to celebrate her."

This is just not true, even in America. I looked at my friend Iain, whose mother had recently died, and along the row to another friend, whose mother is so critical and controlling that it's as much as he can do to tolerate her, never mind celebrate.

As magicians, playing to crowds of people we've never met, we need to remember that everyone is an individual with a story - and how easy it can be to alienate someone with a casual, well-intentioned remark.

Awkward situations may arise when we're ad-libbing, as happened to Michael Finney at the 2008 IBM British Ring convention. He misunderstood what a volunteer from the audience meant when she said she was a carer for her husband, and started making jokes about women waiting on their partners. Fortunately, Michael realised before he went too far but it was slightly embarrassing and a lesson to us all to check, particularly in an international context, what the person means before we start being funny.

This sort of thing has happened to most of us (I've done some awful ones) but what we can prevent more easily is gaffes in our scripted patter.

The power of the mind

As mentioned in my first post on this blog, in some cultures the power of suggestion can be strong enough to kill someone. Even in Western society, where we like to think of ourselves as sophisticated, developed human beings, a figure of authority can wield a great deal of power.

I'm talking about this because the reason I've been a bit slow off the mark commenting on the Blackpool convention (see next post) is that I spent most of yesterday at the hospital. As it turns out, what I'm suffering from is relatively trivial, if uncomfortable and disfiguring. But the first nurse who looked at me expressed alarm and gave me the impression I could be in mortal danger. A pall of gloom instantly descended on me and I began to think of how I might cope with having the sort of unexpectedly dire illness that carries people off in 24 hours. OK, I may have over-reacted but you see it in the news and you know it happens. And the point is, it hadn't occurred to me I might have anything serious until the nurse put the wind up me. When, after a few hours, I saw a doctor who told me I was going to be fine, I instantly felt much better, long before I started taking the medicine.

As magicians, we need to remember that people may respect our opinions and/or be afraid of our powers (not mine, obviously, but those who have significant magical skill). Don't underestimate the effect you can have on other people's lives. Use your powers for good.