I Create Magic Because....

[RickEverhart]

In the November 1990 Issue of Genii, magician Jay Scott Berry is quoted saying, " I create magic, not to fool people, but to instead allow them to believe. The belief in the magic is the magic itself."

I feel this is a very powerful statement which has a ton of truth behind it. Too many times I think creators of magic are trying to pull one over on their audience, trying to trick them, or make a puzzle out of the magic rather than trying to entertain and allow the audience to just have fun and suspend their belief for a moment in time.

 

[Craig Browning]

Jay and I go back some 30 years (before his FISM win) and this has been part of his philosophy all along; his earliest acts being deliberate tied to "Pagan" or esoteric symbolism and associations -- the fantasy of wonder and magick. It reflects a lot about who Jay really is as a human being and I think that's the real rub here; so few of us choose to do magic that serves as an extension to who we are, our beliefs or life-philosophy. When we choose to do this the magic we do becomes more natural and in my experience at least, more fixating -- enchanting -- in that we are not "trying" to create something that "doesn't fit" us.

We see reference to this in books on theater and character creation all the time as well as in creative writing courses, we can only create realism when we draw from what is naturally a part of our own life, life experience and varied interests -- our "art" is a form of self-expression and through that expression we cultivate rapport. With rapport we gain that level of support from our patrons that is empowering in that they want to be enchanted vs. when that connection is weak due to the fact that we're simply doing tricks.

I look at guys like the late Martin Nash or even Fred Kapps and how they connect with their audience and draw them into a unique experience that makes the magic far more than trickery and the public appreciation being more than just based on skill. It can be a challenge to find this "hook" as it were, but once we do the sky is the limit.

 

[RickEverhart]

Thanks for the added input Craig. I remembered you saying you were good friends with him. The article was a good read. It must have been heartbreaking for him in his early days trying to lecture to 300 people on his "philosophy" and having 270 of them walk out of the lecture.