July 2019 Newsletter

26 April 2024

Hello Visitor

Welcome to my July Newsletter.

David Blaine

This month has seen an abundance of riches when it comes to all things magic.  But only one item can really top the bill - David Blaine's Real or Magic show at the Apollo, Hammersmith.  I must confess that I wasn't overly keen on booking my ticket for this.  I've never been a great fan of his stunts - and I feel his street magic show has a lot to answer for, promoting a format which has been copied to death and enabling average magicians with minimal presentation skills look great thanks to judicial editing, paid extras (who aren't, apparently, 'stooges') and numerous re-takes of the same trick until you get the reaction you are wanting.  Nevertheless having foolishly opted out of seeing Dynamo' stage show, I felt I really should make the effort for someone who has undoubtedly changed the face of television magic, even if not necessarily for the better.

And thank goodness I did.  Because this really was a show that surpassed all my expectations.  To begin with David Blaine is a personable, charming, natural and playful performer; none of that monosyllabic delivery that had been a feature of his first street magic specials.  There was no better title than Real or Magic, because that is what he did - he combined genuine stunts, such as water spouting, needle through arm, sword swallowing and holding your breath under water - with sleight of hand magic tricks.  One suspects non-magicians would not be able to discern the difference, thereby blurring in an entertaining way, what is actually possible with the human body.

The apparatus and staging were minimalist.  Often there were no props at all, merely using the spectators or a borrowed item.  The video work was first-class and, although from where I was sitting, I had to watch most of the show on a monitor, I didn't feel I was missing out on anything.  His opening routine, threading his lips together before producing a chosen card in his mouth, set the tone of performing a relatively standard trick while deliberately inflicting pain on himself.  This was followed by the best Smash and Stab trick I've seen (and, as I mentioned in my June Newsletter, I normally hate that trick) incorporating an ice pick; which he then pushed through his arm to prove it was real.  His most puzzling routine was the vanish and reappearance of a borrowed ring on a coat hanger inserted down his throat - yet another genuine feat with a magical twist.

From watching Blaine hold his breath for ten minutes inside a water tank you got an idea of how people must have reacted to Houdini in his original version.  Even though Blaine is in sight all the time, and not escaping from anything, the tension genuinely rackets up.  I don't think there was any faking the exhaustion afterwards, climaxing by him sitting on the edge of the stage and fielding questions about the endurance test.  This stunt, and the finding of a missing piece from a puzzle, comprised the whole of the second half.  Perhaps some people felt a little short changed, but that is not how I felt.  There was enough in the first half - and an honourable mention to his guest Asi Wind who performed Rubik Cube tricks with amusing patter - to render whatever happened after the interval, a bonus.

What is clear is that with this show Blaine has again set a new bar, leaving most other magicians floundering in his wake.   The good news is that, on this occasion, copying his format is going to prove rather harder than taking a mobile phone and a pack of cards to a shopping centre and finding a bunch of hyped up teenagers.

David Copperfield Podcast

It was perhaps unfortunate timing for Richard Young that the finale of his magisterial The Magicians' Podcast, interviewing David Copperfield, came out in the same week as David Blaine was performing in London.  Richard has always said that Copperfield is "the greatest magician of all times".  There is no doubt that he is up there.  But I wouldn't be surprised if eventually David Blaine will be looked upon as the more significant, given how he has changed the face of television magic in a way that Copperfield's spectacular illusions (mainly because they are just too expensive, and too over the top, for anybody to imitate) haven't done.  

Copperfield was very open in the interview about all his TV specials, acknowledging the ones that weren't perhaps up to par; and being modest about the ones that that worked.  You got the impression that he thought he hasn't got as much respect from magicians as he deserved, particularly in their lack of appreciation that he has rarely resorted to camera tricks.  Indeed he gave a couple of examples of prominent magicians who had accused him unfairly of using such methods. 

He was also keen to stress how innovative his magic has been over the years, both in method and effect; pointing out additions to illusions - such as enabling them to be done surrounded, in among or over the heads of the audience - that are completely new.  Occasionally he put Richard on the spot to ask him what he thought was different, or better, about a particular trick.  Which he also did when Richard asked him how he wanted to be remembered.  Richard gave a wonderfully effusive response, including the phrase "the greatest magician of all time", which you could tell seriously chuffed Copperfield.

During the interview, when Richard asked him about his appearances in the UK in 1994 and 1995, David Copperfield said that "there was some article in a magazine recently that he had got bad reviews".  He said he "got great reviews but personally they attacked me". 

Now it is possible that that 'magazine' was in fact me - as in my May Newsletter I wrote that his Earls Court show had been "panned by the critics".  Copperfield has a point; the critics did acknowledge that his magic was wonderful.  However they seriously went for his patter and presentation, hence my summary of his overall reviews. 

All in all the David Copperfield episodoe was a great end to Richard Young's century of podcasts. 

The Magic History Gathering

Always one my favourite events of the year at The Magic Circle, The Magic History Gathering took place on 8th June.  In the morning my personal highlight was a dissection by Anne Goulden of the Maskelyne playlet Will, the Witch and the Watchman.  This was a complicated farce involving seven characters, including a gorilla, that ran for many years both at the Egyptian Hall and St George's Hall at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.  Using a trunk and a cage, various illusions were performed during the course of a rather contrived plot, including vanishes, appearances and transformations.  A perfect use of graphics by Anne made the story understandable, if not exactly accessible, to today's tastes.

Tim Reed opened the day talking about the Paul Daniels magic shows, tracing the route he took to become a television star.  Tim has by far the largest collection of Daniels memorabilia in existence and it would be great to see some of his more unusual and rarer items at a future talk.  Michael Colley had researched the letters sent to the magazine of The Magic Circle, The Magic Circular, during the 1st World War and followed the experiences of those who survived the ordeal and, sadly, a few who had died.   Perhaps unsurprisingly the percentage of those killed relative to those who served, was the same for The Magic Circle as it had been for the general populace.  One magician, cashing in on the war, wrote a book called Tricks for the Trenches and Wards. 

Richard Kaufman finished the morning by demonstrating some of the amazing trick cards created by Theodore DeLand.

After lunch Matt Tompkins, the author of The Spectacle of Illusion, talked about one of the very first experimental studies using magic to test the recall of spectators.  Richard Hodgson and magician Samuel Davey put on hoax séances in the 1880s and then asked the sitters to recall what they had supposedly seen.  One of those attending was Alfred Russel Wallace who, along with Charles Darwin, developed the theory of evolution.  He wouldn't accept that he had in any way been tricked - as he believed the evidence of his own eyes.  He therefore concluded, despite evidence to the contrary, that the séance had been genuine.

Will Houstoun, who did his PhD on the subject of Professor Hoffmann, offered us some little known facts about the author of the seminal work Modern Magic.  Apart from his books on magic he was a prolific writer of short stories.  Will showed that Hoffmann earned a pretty good living from his writings, having obtained access to the very detailed records of his main publisher, George Routledge.  He also pointed out that while Hoffmann might have sold some sixty one thousand copies of his books on magic, his contributions to the Children's Encyclopaedia sold over seven million.  Amusingly Hoffmann was annoyed when his name was only spelt with one 'n'; something that us Hoffmann pedants have great pleasure in pointing out on plentiful occasions.

The penultimate talk was on Fred Kaps by Dick Koornwinder, who took us through some of the highlights of the Dutchman's career interspersed with a few video footages.  He famously was on the same Ed Sullivan show as The Beatles.  Kaps was paid $3,000 for his appearance; The Beatles $10,000 - so, man for man, Kaps did better!  Finally there was John Gaughan on the Automaton Chess Player, as originally built and shown by Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1770.  John for many years has been re-building an exact replica of the machine, sorting through the myriad of false trails left by previous exposers.  Unfortunately his video didn't work so we didn't actually see his own Turk in action. 

Overall it was a good day with the occasional snippet of information filed away for future use in some trick or as an adjunct to further historical research.  I think it is fair to say that it never quite reached the heights of last year with the rousing emotional finish of the re-united relatives of Servais Le Roy and Talma family brought together by Paul Kieve and Laura London.  But that was always going to be a hard act to follow.

Dickens & Maskelyne

A rather surprising Dickensian connection came out in Anne Goulden's talk on the playlet Will, the Witch and the Watchman.  The only female character in the playlet was called Dolly and the name seems to have come from Dolly Varden in Dickens's Barnaby Rudge.  A famous painting of the time by William Frith might have been the inspiration for the character. 

Radio Magic

I've always been fascinated by radio magic so was intrigued what Jamie Phelan had to say on the subject, given that he has his own two hour show on BBC Sounds devoted to performing magic.  To be honest I'm not sure exactly how you can listen to the programme, googling didn't actually bring me to any link which was helpful in this regard.  I did get to his website but the 'Radio' link just seemed to have extracts from the show, rather than how I could listen to a new show.  There was a nice quote from Paul Daniels on his homepage - "You're Funny, You Look Good, All Your Tricks Work, If You Were Anyone Else I'd Hate You".  Which was kind of impressive, although I have subsequently found out he was his nephew (by marriage), so maybe not quite so impressive.

Jamie gave a talk at The Magic Circle that had plenty of information about radio magic, with some admirable pointers along the way.  For instance he spoke about the difference between 'Tension' and 'Surprise' tricks a useful distinction.  Performing standing up, rather than sitting down, was a good way of keeping the energy going.  Having a chat with your guests in a music or news break and telling them to react enthusiastically and verbally show their pleasure, was another excellent tip.

Where I would fundamentally differ from Jamie, in my admittedly limited experience of radio magic, is the need to explain everything that happens during the course of the trick.  He seemed to think this was important, so the listener 'saw' exactly what was happening in the studio.  However the result was an overload of information much of which, one felt, was a distraction from the magic itself.  The great advantage of radio is that the props, which are often necessary to perform the trick, are hidden from the listener; this means, choosing your words carefully, you can build up much more of a miracle in the listener's mind than is happening in the studio.  For example, you can tell your guest on air to 'think of any word'.  The listener doesn't have to be aware that you are actually asking them to think of a word from a book you happen to be holding.

To be fair to Jamie, he does have to fill two hours - so one can see why he needs to kill time by describing everything in intricate, and endlessly repeating, detail.  But, on the evidence of his talk, the results don't exactly make for riveting listening.  Even if I could find where it was on, I'm not sure I will be tuning in.

Researches Beware

As someone presently embarking on an extensive amount of research, I have a certain amount of sympathy for the feminist writer Naomi Wolf who was trying to prove in her latest book, Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love, that executions for homosexuality escalated from 1835 onwards in Victorian England.  She scoured the records from the Old Bailey and listed examples of men who had been sentenced with the phrase 'Death Recorded' to substantiate her claim.  Unfortunately she was confronted on the Radio 3 programme Arts & Ideas, by the presenter Matthew Sweet, that actually 'death recorded' was a phrase used to exempt someone from capital punishment.  Ooops!

She added to her error by citing an article by AD Harvey called Communications, Prosecuting for Sodomy in England at the beginning of the 19th Century in her defence.  Unfortunately this turned out to be the same AD Harvey who had published an article in the Dickensian Magazine, under the name of Stephanie Harvey, purporting to be a letter from Dostoevsky stating that he had met Charles Dickens when he came over to England in 1862.  This was a deliberate hoax that was only uncovered several years afterwards, thereby throwing most of Mr Harvey's previous researches into question.  Double ooops!

Quote of the Month

"The people are awesome, the press is rough".  David Copperfield talking about performing magic in England in Richard Young's 100th podcast.