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Remember those salad days when we thought we could all be Houdini or, well, Dorothy Dietrich? (there just aren’t that many noted female magicians from which to choose; even the ones on display in Vegas seem pressured to veer burlesque). Kid magicians are a dime a dozen. I know I certainly thought I was one–always filching hardboiled eggs and begging my mother to buy me dramatic kerchiefs. The easiest tricks to learn were always thanks to some bullet-pointed recipe, and usually came out with variegated results.
If any of us ever advanced beyond the parlor (and please, please out yourselves if so!), we’d jealously guard our secrets, and anyone who blabbed would be blacklisted. As a recent Slate article revealed, it’s not quite the chummy, collaborative world of haute cuisine…
Magic journals
are not available at newsstands, and even Prince Charles had to perform an examination before being accepted as a member of the Magic Circle. A magician who steals from another, or reveals secrets not widely known by nonmagicians, will not be entrusted with new ideas or recommended by other magicians.
Further spurring the IP-rights-for-magicians movement:
In one notorious episode, a series of 1990s television shows with the self-explanatory title Breaking the Magician’s Code won big audiences by revealing the secrets behind classic illusions. One magician complained that the shows were “peeing in everybody’s cornflakes”; another compared them to destroying Santa Claus. But the magicians’ social sanctions were powerless to prevent television executives from exposing their secrets, and legal challenges to the program did not succeed.
I’d never tell a magician’s secret; it’d be like refusing to call someone by her stage name. It’s just cruel. Have any of you ever culled enough legerdemain to be thusly ripped off? Or, more likely, if you were a kid magician, what was your signature act?
I dated two magicians when I was younger (not at the same time), so I learned quite a few secrets -mainly just by watching. I still won’t spoil anyone’s fun by explaining them. In fact, when I watch a magic trick, I try to turn my mind off the “how” and just enjoy it.
posted by Miss Cellania on 12-21-2007 at 9:17 pm
“…and usually came out with variegated results.”
Striped….hmm.
posted by Crypto on 12-22-2007 at 2:39 am
I was forwarded this blog entry by a friend.
I’m the Technical Director for Master Illusionist Lyn Dillies. Ms. Dillies’ show, The Magic of Lyn, is one of the largest touring illusion acts in the country. She has been performing for over 20 years and we just got back to our home base here in MA from shows in western Colorado. She is in the magic archives as the first illusionist to produce 2 live elephants in front of a live audience.
There is most definitely a code which most magicians (and magician’s assistants/tech people) respect. My stock response when someone asks how something is done is to just smile and say “it’s magic”.
Which can be difficult and it requires a lot of self-discipline and the frequent biting of one’s tongue. But it also makes going to places like the Magic Castle in Hollywood (where Ms Dillies performed last summer) that much more special, because you are surrounded by magicians and others “in the know” and can swap stories and speak more freely about the particulars of the craft.
SZ
posted by Steve Z on 12-22-2007 at 10:02 am
Back in high school I had a teacher who was also a professional magician. He taught a couple of us many illusions and together we broke some of the illusions of television mentalists.
I don’t know about the rest of our small group but I’ve never revealed what we learned.
posted by Mike on 12-22-2007 at 11:06 am
My mom’s childhood friend is a magician. Apparently he’s been in French Vogue or something.
posted by natalie on 12-22-2007 at 10:46 pm