Magic and music

I was talking to my friend Marc Oberon the other day about the relationship between magic and music. Marc often performs his routines to music, not only to fill the silence and to cover the sound of any machine that shouldn’t be heard, but because a soundtrack complements and enhances the magic. The emotions evoked by the trick or illusion are echoed and intensified by the music; the emotions evoked by the music are reflected in the magic. A mutually beneficial symbiosis, with magic leading and music supporting.

What about the other way round? We got talking about Alice Cooper, the famous rock star, who does all sorts of dark illusions as part of his stage act, including hanging himself. And then Marilyn Manson, who also does a few (I’m told) and Arthur Brown, the god of hell fire, who doesn’t exactly do magic on stage but is certainly well known for some of the special effects he has used over the years. It’s interesting to note that Marilyn Manson is great friends with Rudy Coby and Arthur Brown with Simon Drake.

It seems to be musicians who want to give the impression of having Satanic powers who tend to use magical effects in their acts. Arthur Brown made the point (see his website godofhellfire.co.uk) that, if he’s going be to “singing about putting spells on people, and devils and gods and unseen forces, it's important that I look like a devil and can do the things I claim.” That makes sense.

But it’s not only this type of music that goes well with magic. Many other singers have introduced an element of illusion into their concerts: Shania Twain, Kate Bush, Bobby Brown, to name but three.

What is it about magic that makes it a good accompaniment to music? Other art forms combined with music can prove to be just a distraction (do you remember the opera-singer/flower-arranger combo on Britain’s Got Talent?) - so why does magic work?

I find this a fascinating question but I haven’t yet come up with an answer. It’s been over a week since my conversation with Marc and I’m still pondering. Anyone else got any ideas?

Listen and learn!

I recently spent a day with my friends Marc Oberon and Iain Moran, at Marc's beautiful house in Nottingham, and I came away buzzing. Watching them demonstrating their different styles of close-up magic is always fun in itself but I particularly relish the discussion around it, the evaluation of each trick, the suggestions, the tweaking and reworking, the synthesis of ideas.

Marc Oberon, on a rare day off

If you're a new magician, I encourage you to spend as much time as possible hanging out with experienced, established members of the profession. Apart from the fact it can be so much fun, you can learn tons from just listening to them talk and tossing ideas around. As I've said in my Ten Top Tips for Becoming a Good Magician, get involved as much as you can. Join a magic society if there's one near you, go to conventions, frequent your local magic shop. Of course, not everything experienced magicians tell you will be useful (or even true) but soaking up their ideas and distilling them into your own will save you a lot of time and, for me, anyway, it's a very stimulating process.

Magic in fiction

My sister and brother-in-law are vicars and we sometimes talk about how sad it is that clergypeople on television are so often portrayed as perverted and sinister and/or spineless and grovelling. (The Vicar of Dibley is an obvious and welcome exception.)

I find it interesting also to see how magicians are portrayed in fiction. I don't mean magick fiction, because that's not really my cup of tea and I don't read it (although I do like magic realism but that's another story, as it were). I mean books and films about conjurors.

There seems to be quite a lot of variety as regards fictional magicians: some are rather foolish (Mitchell & Webb's Magicians, Adam Klaus in Jonathan Creek), many are ruthless (the rivals in The Prestige, Henri Lambert in The Magician's Wife, the magician behind The Magician's Tale), some are weak and a bit annoying (Marty Quick in 52 Ways to Magic America, William Wilson in The Bullet Trick), a few are downright criminal (The Vanished Man) and others are just weird (as in The Spirit Cabinet). The magician tends to emerge as more of a hero if he's based on someone who actually lived (Carter Beats the Devil, The War Magician).

In many cases, the magician's whole life is shrouded in mystery, and the fact that he has made a career out of conjuring is just an extension of - and a metaphor for - his living a life of illusion (Jennifer Johnston's Illusionist, Parsifal in Ann Patchett's The Magician's Assistant). I like this angle - as, I believe, does my friend Marc Oberon. He has lent and given me several books about magicians and is a somewhat mysterious character himself.