The Ugly Side Of Beautiful
When performed with great craft, thoughtful choreography and a natural and effortless demeanour, a carefully crafted piece of sleight of hand can appear impossible, magical and ultimately beautiful.
I love watching magicians perform material that has been crafted with care, understanding and with attention to fine detail, using every element of craft to elevate the effect to a level worthy of performance for an audience. For some magicians, this process can take months, sometimes years. Thousands of hours of practice to become proficient at the technical skills required before the true process even begins. The level of thought given to every word, every move, every nuance of their performance is tried and tested and refined over a long period time until it is certified ‘audience ready’.
The ugly side.
This is the side that the audience don’t get to see thus will be unable to truly appreciate the effort and application required to create a three minute piece, never mind a full act. All the hidden moving parts that each play their part to bring a vision to life. Like a piano. When the keys are touched by a master pianist this block of wood with hammers that vibrate a series of tuned strings becomes the vehicle for beautiful sounds and recitals. However, strip it apart and all you are met with a tangled web of metal strings and wooden blocks that tell no such story and the hours upon hours of practice are invisible to the listener.
The ugly side.
Methodology is one of magic’s most interesting and intriguing components. Some methods are ingenious in their simplicity while some are complex and convoluted. The last decade or so of study and practice (in the performative term) have taught me that some of the great magicians of past and present will go to great lengths to create a single moment of astonishment, at times preparing for and carving out a situation in which to perform that never materialises.
There is a difference between performers who perform ‘tricks’; store bought and regurgitated staples of most magicians repertoire and those who craft and create original presentations and design there own miracles from the ground up to truly create moments of astonishment.
The difference between a microwavable dish and a meal served in a fine dining establishment. Ok, both might fill you up but there’s a clear difference in taste and nutritional value, right? It’s a shame there isn’t a critical class in magic that can hold a light up to this. (I’ll no doubt cover this in another blog post)
When thinking about the lengths one might go to, one story that has stood out over time is of the great Max Malini, a magician born in Poland who would go on to live in New York City and become one of the most sought after performers for high society throughout the world in the early 1900s. The story goes that he was invited to a very fashionable dinner party for Lords and Dukes in England. Prior to the meal he prepared a live chicken by hypnotising it (chickens can be easily hypnotised by putting their head under their wings and rocking them back and forth) plucking it’s feathers and covering it in oils. He placed it on platter and garnished it. He instructed the staff to bring it out when dinner was being served knowing that they would ask him as a guest to carve the first slice. When they carefully pulled back the round lid of the serving platter he made a magical gesture, poked the bird with the knife and it jumped off the tray and ran the length of the table, much to the amazement of guests.
There’s another great story of a time he turned up to a stately home to perform and on arrival when staff offered to take his jacket he refused, pulled out an old winding screw driver and hook, screwed the hook into the wall and hung his jacket on it. After astounding his audience for the evening he made for the front door where he proceeded to unscrew the hook leaving no holes in the wall. Not a single mark.
The flip side of simple methods are the extremely complicated methods, sometimes mechanical, sometimes made from gaffer tape and cardboard, often hidden behind tables and under stage props.
The ugly side.
The moving parts that if seen would not only ruin the effect but shatter the appearance of effortlessness and expose the hidden mess of mechanics making the ‘magic happen’.
I enjoy watching magicians, especially on film, where these kind of hidden wheels are in motions yet they look natural and effortless. A skill in itself. They are the proverbial duck on water; calm on the surface but paddling ferociously underneath despite the fact they have entrusted the success of their performance into the arms of this piece of chicanery. It’s fascinating for me to see how this has been further developed in contemporary magic and seeing some of the ‘ugly side’ being used boldly on TV shows such as Britains Got Talent and America’s Got Talent, two of the biggest stages in the world now for aspiring acts.
With magic being such a secretive art form there’s very little opportunity to discuss the aspects I find most interesting, such as the ugly side. I’ve always said that an evening breaking down the methods and thinking behind the show would be far more interesting that the show itself.
The next time you watch a magician ask yourself this:
Are you watching something beautiful or are you really missing out on something ugly.
R.