After being asked to create magic effects for a 1991 production of The Invisible Man at Theatre Royal Stratford East, magician Paul Kieve found himself in a theatrical niche which blossomed into a career. Not only has he worked on big budget productions including The Lord Of The Rings, The Witches Of Eastwick, Theatre Of Blood and current touring show Batman Live, he also has the honour of being the person to have taught Harry Potter magic.

Now working on West End show Ghost The Musical, the theatrical illusionist tells Caroline Bishop about the art of making a person vanish live on stage.

Ghostly experience

I had seen the film Ghost and I remembered being fond of it. But I suppose I had a memory of it as being a bit cheesy. But when I watched it again and read the script, the thing that really sprung out straight away was this immensely powerful story and how it’s like a spine through the piece. I just thought, this is going to make such a terrific musical.

Ghost The Musical uses optical magic and effects, meaning you actually see things on stage; you see someone’s hand pass through a solid coke can, you see somebody walk through a door. They’re not suggested – you don’t put someone behind a curtain and then the curtain falls and they’re gone – you see it happen before your eyes. They are the sort of effects that I was fascinated by as a kid, and so was Matthew Warchus. They are the most difficult to achieve in terms of sight lines and shape of the set.

A disappearing art

The whole point of why I think I like doing magic within a story is you get the impact of someone suddenly appearing and vanishing, it’s not just a magic trick, it’s actually Sam appearing, the dead boyfriend of Molly appearing before her for the last time after two and a half hours of story and emotional investment by the audience. On the first preview Matthew came up and said ‘I’ve never seen somebody crying and applauding at the same time’. There’s a very interesting thing happening there.

It sounds a bit pretentious to say it, but magic is an incredibly profound form, it’s at the centre of religion and the centre of existence. The magician originally was a very powerful figure. You don’t think of magic as provoking an emotional response. On its own it can’t really do that but if you put it into a story suddenly that ‘appearance’ becomes the appearance of a dead soul and the ‘vanish’ becomes the final departure into the afterlife. But as a performer, having done my time doing close-up magic at corporate functions, nothing could be less magical than going up to a group of pissed lawyers at a Christmas party and have them try and grab a pack of cards. I feel quite lucky to have the opportunity to work at this end of the scale.

Starting out

I don’t think you think far ahead as a kid. I just said, I am not going to go to university, I am going to become a professional magician. I was so obsessed with it and so sure of myself that that was what I was going to do that no one was going to persuade me otherwise. I left school and of course then it’s like oh right ok, how do I go about doing this then? At that time there was a circuit in London that you could work in, there was one called Xenon in Piccadilly, and you could work there as an act and you went on and did a five minute spot at about 01.30 in the morning to slightly drunk disco dancers, between Gloria Gaynor and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. You had to work to disco music because people wanted to carry on dancing.

My act was always visual and quite compact, with lots of things happening. My big dream at that time was to work in Las Vegas and do that sort of circuit and be a spectacular illusion act.

I was in a double act for about five years, we travelled around the world, and then I was asked to do The Invisible Man at Stratford East when I was 23. Ever since then I’ve done more behind the scenes than in front of it.

Luck vs hard work

I love that phrase ‘a lifetime of preparation meeting a moment of opportunity’. When Stratford East called me in at that age I was absolutely petrified. I can remember being virtually ill doing The Invisible Man because of the responsibility, and [writer/director] Ken Hill was quite a hard task masker, but it was brilliant training. I ended up working with Ken Hill over a period of three years on different versions of it. But at the point they phoned me up I had already spent six or seven years completely absorbed in this field of visual illusion and even though I wasn’t experienced at working on stage plays I was lucky that Ken Hill was confident enough to trust me.

Harry Potter was an amazing one to get. I remember meeting Daniel Radcliffe on the set and him being very keen to learn magic, and I started what is a very long friendship. I met him in 2003, when he was 13. He was incredibly focused and enthusiastic. He wasn’t naturally the most dextrous kid. But he was incredibly determined and fascinated and engaged, and a very fast learner.

I think I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t had to constantly clamour for work and look for lucky breaks. I’ve worked virtually my whole life. Ever since leaving school in 1985 I’ve more or less kept in work. It’s time for me to retire really!

Magical exploits

I did Theatre Of Blood at the National Theatre [in 2005]. Working with [designer] Rae Smith – who won the Tony for War Horse – is one of the most joyful things because she’s such an incredible facilitator. Jim Broadbent played a hammy old actor who murders his critics one by one in the style of Shakepearean plays, and I did all the murders. I didn’t ever think I would get the chance to put a live poodle in a liquidiser at the National Theatre. We didn’t really do it, but the shock and horror of the audience as we apparently did it… It’s just interesting how easily you can shock an audience; they gasped and laughed at the same time. There was so much stage blood used in that show that the whole of the backstage of the Lyttelton smelt of candy floss.

I was on holiday in Cuba and The Lord Of The Rings was running in the West End and I got a text from Matthew [Warchus] and it said ‘Bilbo didn’t vanish! What happened?’ It was like, ‘well I forgot to mix the potion in the glass at eight o’clock in the evening!’ Of course it was a very complicated thing and I bet somebody just didn’t plug a light in or something. That was one of my favourite ever messages.

The job comes with a lot of responsibility – not like being a brain surgeon, let’s get it in perspective – but my stuff only works when all the details are there and there’s a very high chance that it won’t work because of that. It is fun and I enjoy the challenge of it, but it’s fun that comes with quite a lot of anxiety because I want it to work and also people come to me more and more expecting something that is unique. I can’t necessarily churn out something I’ve done before and it’s also meant to look astonishing and baffling.

But I think I am blessed that I have something that basically was a childhood interest and fascination and I feel very lucky that I have the chance to put these things on stage.

The post The Feature :Backstage: Paul Kieve appeared first on Paul Kieve.

As a designer of stage magical effects there is something constantly inspiring about the great magicians who appeared during the heyday of variety, treading the boards in places like The Hackney Empire, just down the road from where I live. The inventiveness and creativity of these past masters never ceases to amaze me, and the magician I most wished I’d seen performing is David Devant.

Born David Wighton on February 22nd, 1868 in Holloway, his father, James, was a painter whose work appeared in The Illustrated London News. It was from a biblical painting with the French inscription ‘David devant Goliath’ that young David got the idea for his stage name.

As a young man he was a frequent visitor to, and consequently a performer at, Maskelyne and Cooke’s Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly. This was ‘England’s Home of Mystery’ run by John Neville Maskelyne – the most influential of all Victorian magicians. To be booked at the Egyptian Hall was to be recognised as a master.

When Maskelyne moved to St Georges Hall in Piccadilly in 1904 Devant, who had already proved to be a top attraction and astute businessman, soon became a partner and the names Maskelyne and Devant became synonymous with mystery

Devant was hugely popular with the public, and he is still admired by magicians today for his creativity. He had wonderful dreams and did all he could to bring them to life using whatever methods that would make them most vivid.

In The Artists’ Dream a man painted a picture of his late wife. When he falls asleep she materialises from the canvas. ‘Educated Goldfish’ seemingly plucked lettered tiles from the bed of their tank and lifted them to the surface of the water to spell any word chosen by audience members. Any drink called for was poured from the spout of Devant’s ‘Obliging Kettle’ and given to the audience to consume. It’s not hard to see why Devant’s magic had so much popular appeal!

One of his greatest achievements was ‘The Mascot Moth’. He claimed the idea came from a dream of chasing a giant human moth, trying to tempt it towards him with a candle. As he approached the figure the moth vanished. Devant became determined to recreate this and the result was the most baffling stage disappearance probably ever presented.

Devant realised the strength of incorporating his illusions into short magical plays. This idea was at the heart of his philosophy on magic. He believed that the magician was ‘a story teller and should hold the attention of the audience by telling them the most impossible fairy tales, and by persuading them to believe that these stories are true’

Another reason for Devant’s success was his informal, witty and charming performing style in a day when magicians were often lofty and pretentious. His motto was ‘All done by kindness’ a caption which appeared occasionally on his publicity posters.

Devant was also a cinema pioneer. Having attended the first showing of the Lumiere’s Cinemaographe in London, Devant instantly spotted the public appeal and, unable to afford the original, quickly approached Hatton Garden based, Robert Paul, who had developed his own projector. Within days he was showing ‘Animated Photographs’ at Egyptian Hall. Devant later became the agent for the films of Georges Melies, a French magician considered to be the father of film special effects. Devant was also the subject of probably the first film of a performer made in the UK, made by Paul on the roof of the Alhambra.

It seems particularly cruel that he succumbed to a degenerative disease that took away his dexterity two decades before it took away his life. Devant retired in 1919 and spent his last years at the Putney Home for Incurables. In 1935 he published an article in The Windsor Magazine which described some of his secrets and was subsequently expelled from The Magic Circle, (despite being the the first president in 1905), although was re-instated within the year.

At the height of his career, Devant lived at 1, Ornan Court, just off Havistock Hill, an address which now displays a English Heritage Blue plaque in his honour. On the occasion of the unveiling in June 2003 I managed to persuade a resident to let me, accompanied by a couple of Devant’s ancestors, look around what would have been the magician’s substantial dwelling (now a series of bedsits). It was breathtaking to ponder the imaginings which originated in that space and which were brought to life by David Devant, the greatest British magician of all time.

Timeline:

1868 Born in Holloway
1893 Engaged to appear at The Egyptian Hall,
1896, March 19th – Devant shows the first Animated Photographs at Egyptian Hall – the first Englishman to show films in the UK
1905 Becomes first president of The Magic Circle
1912 Appears in the first Royal Command Performance
1919 Career cut short by illness
1936 ‘Secrets of My Magic’ is published
1941 Dies at the Royal Home for Incurables, Putney
2003 2nd June – Blue Plaque unveiled at Ornan Court NW3

The post My Favourite Londoner: David Devant appeared first on Paul Kieve.

Francis White, sawing a woman in half

Known for his mischievous sense of humor, Francis White was president of The Magic Circle in London from 1958 until his death 31 years later. Magicians historically possess an eager eye for publicity, but what drove an otherwise dignified man to balance his daughter on what at first appears to be an ironing board and hover a tree saw over her belly on her wedding day is anyone’s guess. Perhaps The Magic Circle had a particularly convincing press officer at the time or, more likely, White and his daughter together imagined (correctly) that it was a unique opportunity to capture this comical, unlikely image.

If White had attempted to complete the act in such a way, it would most certainly have been “for the last time” (as the press caption notes) because he appears to be attempting the act without any kind of special apparatus.

“Sawing Through a Woman” caused a sensation when its inventor, P. T. Selbit (not averse to mutilating his pretty female assistants in the cause of stage magic) first presented it at the Finsbury Park Empire, London, in January 1921.

P.T. Selbit's original "Sawing Through a Woman"

Selbit enclosed his assistant in a plain coffin-like wooden box. After a preliminary effect of passing glass sheets through the box (and seemingly his assistant), a full size cross-cut saw was employed to rip through the center of the crate. When the splintered box was re-opened, the assistant was seen to be in one piece — the saw having also seemingly passed through the center of her body without causing harm. The box appeared far too small for the assistant to have avoided the saw; and in any case ropes had been tied firmly to her wrists and ankles, threaded through holes in the sides of the box and held firmly in place by audience volunteers throughout the demonstration. It was a sophisticated piece of stage magic, the effect being that a saw had somehow passed completely through her body—hence the title “Sawing Through A Woman.” A later invitation to subject suffragettes Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst to this ordeal was not accepted.

Howard Thurston with an improved version of the Sawing a Lady in Half illusion

It was the magician Horace Goldin who, inspired by Selbit’s sensational act, later the same year created “A Woman Sawn in Half”, the version that was to enter the public consciousness: the separation of a long box with the head and feet of an assistant visible at either end. Goldin originally presented the illusion using a male assistant, but only when an attractive female became the victim did it surpass the success of Selbit’s invention. To magicians, however, this version seemed less sophisticated because of the large size of the box and the suspicious depth of the tabletop on which it rested. But the payoff—separating and subsequently restoring the two halves of the partially visible lady—proved more satisfying to an audience, perhaps because the illusion was one of visible miraculous restoration rather than the suggested solid-through-solid penetration effect that Selbit had offered. When the divided lady was seen to be “alive at both ends,” as the publicity announced, Goldin was truly presenting before the audience’s eyes a “living miracle” (a title he adopted for a later, more gruesome incarnation of the effect).

By 1963, the illusion and all its successive incarnations had became so iconic that all Francis White needed to do was to grab any old garden saw and (in this case, far from) any old lady in order for the public to understand what he and his daughter were suggesting.

Horace Goldin in a greatly exaggerated publicity photograph for his original Sawing a Lady in Half illusion

The post Alive At Both Ends: sawing a woman in half appeared first on Paul Kieve.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” – Albert Einstein

Introduction:

Magic, wizardry, sorcery – the manifestation of the impossible has appealed to human beings since the beginning of time. It is hard to imagine for us how magical such daily occurrences as the rising of the sun, the stars appearing in the sky and the tides of the ocean would have been to people who generally believed that the world was flat and at the centre of the universe! Magic was used to explain almost all of the universe, and formed entire belief systems. Today as sophisticated scientists, mathematicians and philosophers we see magic very differently, what we consider unexplainable and impossible is very different. But despite our relative sophistication man woman and children all respond to magic today in a way which connects them to the wonder our primitive ancestors felt as they puzzled over the mysteries of the universe. We still have the ability to experience the sensations of wonder and astonishment. That is why the art of magic is so important in an age where more and more things are explained to us and de-mystified.

The only art form that actually deals with the idea of the impossible & miracle is magic. Art forms such as music and painting deal with the subject in a representational way – but magic is the only one which confronts its’ spectators with the physical manifestation of the impossible. This is why it is such a fascinating subject and will appeal to mankind as long as he walks the planet.

Now you may not think that the magical world as portrayed in “Earthsea” has much to do with today’s wizards – modern master of magic such as David Copperfield and David Blaine, but their routes are the same. There was a time when the magician was the head of the tribe – the Shaman, where his power was held in awe. Only 400 years ago the authorities were so afraid of the power of unknown forces that innocent street magicians were put to death as witches! Magic still has a power and ability to connect to a time when all impossible acts were attributed to forces beyond our comprehension.

In the last few years of this new Millennium, magic has become incredibly popular again in popular culture – through the writings of J K Rowling and the subsequent films, and through the film trilogy of The Lord Of The Rings. In this respect Ursula K Le Guin was ahead of her time writing an amazing series of books about a young boy who becomes an incredibly gifted wizard. It is absolutely timely that these amazing stories be made into a wonderful TV mini -series.

The idea of this course is to explore the history and work of what we would term magicians, conjurers, illusionists – in a sense the real story and history of magic. It is an amazing world with a s many secrets, stories and strange personalities as appears in any work of fiction. If you get through this course and pass its various tests you will be able to say you are on the road to being a certified wizard. It is a winding road and, as Ged in Earthsea discovers, learning the basics of the art is only the start of the journey. I hope you will be inspired to follow the links and further reading and explore this amazing world further – it has certainly given me a lifetime of wonder and adventure.

1 Of Dragonlords and Archmages

In days long past the idea of magic and religion were inseparable. There are references in the Old Testament of Moses turning a wooden staff into a snake before the Pharaoh Ramses – and his feat (attributed to divine miracle) was apparently copied by the court conjurers. The ancient Egyptians had such an astounding understanding of astronomy and science as to be almost magical. The Abu Simbel temple in upper Egypt was aligned so that 3 out of four statues set almost 200 feet back in the temple would light up on only two days of the year – Summer solstice (the longest day of the year). And what of the statue that was not illuminated by the suns’ powerful rays? This was the figure of the Egyptian God of Darkness – Ptah. Ancient Greek temples were designed with hidden mechanisms that automatically opened doors and let out roaring sounds as fires were lit outside. The first recorded wizard is the magician Dedi who is described to have cut the head off a goose and then restored it again at the time of King Cheops – builder of the great Pyramid. He apparently performed the same gruesome act with an Ox but declined the invitation to perform it with one of the Pharaoh’s prisoners!

During the 16th Century in England and Europe there was an increase in the persecution of so called witches. In these darkly superstitious days even innocent street entertainers performing simple conjuring tricks were put to death unfairly for practising the dark arts of witchcraft. The word “conjurer” which today implies a harmless performer of magic tricks, stemmed from the suggestion that dark forces were conjured up to make the magic happen. Because of the ignorance of the courts towards the methods behind even the simplest of tricks, an English man named Reginald Scott wrote a book called “Discoverie of Witchcraft “ in 1584. It was the first book in the English language to describe methods behind magic tricks and illusions One of the feats described in the book was the so called “Decolation of John The Baptist“ a remarkable illusion in which A disembodied head and decapitated body were gruesomely displayed on a draped table.

The book also described an incredible wizard called Brandon. His most famous feat was to draw a picture of a bird on a piece of paper. When he stabbed the picture with a knife, a bird perched on a nearby rooftop would instantly fall down dead. It is perhaps not surprising that such feats would be considered witchcraft – but the cruel secret lay in the fact that Brandon had fed the bird with a poison called Nux Vomica some 15 minutes before the demonstration. The effect of the poison would be a delayed death for the bird . In Scott’s day one of the most popular tricks was seemingly cutting off your own nose and replacing it again, and the book describes a number of trick knives which enabled the conjurer to apparently perform such actions. After the death of Queen Elizabeth 1st and the ascent to the throne of James the First, the book was ordered burned by the common hangman. It is one of the rarest books in all of magicdom.

There have been many remarkable magicians through the centuries, but perhaps none more astonishing than Matthew Buchinger, The Little Man of Nuremburg. He amazed audiences with his superb conjuring skills in the 18th century. He was also a skilled marksman, portrait painter, calligrapher, played more than half a dozen musical instruments some of he invented himself), and danced the hornpipe. He was also married four times and fathered 14 children. This may not seem remarkable but for the fact that he stood only 29 inches high and possessed no feet, thighs or arms. He was one of the most famous human beings of his day

Ivan Ivanitz Chabert the incombustible wonder performed in the 1840‘s. His most famous act was to take a raw sausage and steak into an oven and sit there until they were cooked! He emerged unharmed and ate the cooked food for his dinner with a tankard of ale!

There was a great change in of magic in the 19th century with the appearance in France of Jean Robert Houdin – considered to be “the father of modern conjuring” . Houdin ditched the traditional wizards look of a conical hat and cape, he dressed in elegant tailcoat and took magic off the streets into the drawing rooms and theatres of Paris. He became internationally famous wrote the first truly studious books on magic, and in his own somewhat self-proclaiming memoirs wrote of his great achievements.

A young man named Erich Weiss, son of an orthodox rabbi ,who had moved to Appleton Wisconsin from Hungary at a young age was so influenced by reading Houdin’s book “Secrets of Conjuring and Magic” that he adopted his name with the addition of an “I”. He was became the most famous wizard of all time – Houdini – literally translated “Like Houdin”

The construction of new Vaudeville theatres in America and England lead to a huge wealth of magical performers during what is known as the “Golden Era” of magic. The most famous names of this time in addition to Houdini, were Harry Kellar, Howard Thurston, Chung lIng Soo, Ching Ling Foo!, The Great Lafayette. In the UK the Maskelyne family ran a permanent theatre o f magic in London for over 60 years David Devant, P.T. Selbit and Horace Goldin.

In the 1930’s the popularity of cinema caused a decline of variety and magic diminished as a popular art form until the growth of television. One of the great magicians who spanned this in-between era was Robert Harbin nicknamed “a wizard if ever there woz” He recreated great stage illusions that could be performed not only on the stage of a theatre, but on a cabaret floor with an audience all the way around him. His most famous creation was the “Zig Zag Girl” invented in 1965 and the most copied stage illusion of all time. In the 1970’s a young Canadian magician named Doug Henning entered the scene with a totally fresh style straight from the 70,s. Henning became a star and his first television special in 1975 was watched by more than 50 million viewers. Henning paved the way for today’s most famous names in magic – David Copperfield and David Blaine.

2. Fog weaving – magic and science

“True magic, the summoning of force that draws the magnet… drawn from the immense fathomless energies of the universe” Ursula Le Guin

Magicians have always had a fascination with science and have often been the first to utilise new technologies for magical purposes. Robert Houdin, the 19th Century French magician started life as a watchmaker, and his fascination with mechanical and scientific principles abounded in his inventions. One of his most famous illusions was known as the “light and heavy chest”. In this feat, a small box no bigger than a carry-on piece of hand baggage was placed on a small table. Even though Houdin could lift it with ease, the strongest man in the audience was unable to budge it off the table. The chest had an iron plate fixed on its’ base and Houdin was secretly using an electromagnet which attached the chest to the cast iron table.

Nowadays audiences would guess quickly that electro-magnetic force was the principle in use but in Houdin’s day it was virtually unknown. Houdin is also supposed to have installed the first ever intruder alarm in his home and was one of the first people to create an electric light bulb. He also attached all the clocks in his home to a central operating mechanism so that if he was hungry he could wind all the clocks back – the result being that his cooks would make dinner earlier! One of the strangest pieces of magic which used a scientific principle was P.T. Selbit’s Mighty Cheese. Again a demonstration of strength, a giant cheese of about 18 “ (??) in diameter was brought onto the stage. A number of strong men were invited to join the magician (and the cheese!). They were unable to lay it flat on its’ side and it frequently threw people to the ground as it struggled. The secret lay in the fact that a gyroscope was hidden within it. This was cranked up in the wings on a bicycle mechanism to set the gyroscope spinning before being taken on stage.

Walford Bodie in the early part of the 20th Century utilised the little known difference between current and static electricity to be able to withstand supposedly 20 million vaults. He also dubiously claimed to be able cure the sick and the paralysed utilising something he described as “Bodic force”. He became so famous with his electrical stunts that he was parodied by another famous Variety performer – Charlie Chaplin – who adopted his famous bushy moustache .

chapter2_trick

3. Shadow quest – on the raising of spirits

“No Wizard should conjure up the dead … for they can not be sent safely back to where they came from” ….“Earthsea”

In the mid 19th Century two girls known as the Fox sisters claimed to be able to produce mysterious knocking sounds around them which were attributed to spirits from the other world . They became famous and taken so seriously that their manifestations lead to the formation of the spiritualist movement. In later life they revealed themselves to be fakes – the mysterious rapping’s were actually caused by their strangely double jointed toes that could be clicked loudly and echoed on the wooden floors of their home! But by this time the spiritualist movement was in full swing and the sister’s confessions made little difference.

A decade later (?) The Davenport Brothers from America toured the US and Britain with a spiritual manifestation act. This consisted of them being tied securely in a cabinet – yet they were able to move objects and cause tambourines to rattle and be thrown from the top of the cabinet. A young British man named John Neville Maskelyne caught a glimpse inside the cabinet during a performance at Cheltenham in England and realised their secret. The Brothers were not in contact with the spirits at all but were cleverly releasing themselves from their bonds and re- inserting their hands into the ties before the cabinet was opened, thereby effecting the supposed spiritual manifestations. Maskelyne created his own escape trunk as a result – and this was the origin of the escape act which Houdini was to make famous. Both Maskelyne (who was to become the most famous magician in England) and Houdini devoted a great deal of time to the revelation of fake spirit mediums, and both wrote books on the subject.

Houdini’s quest in revealing the methods of fake mediums came from a heartfelt desire to genuinely contact the spirit of his dead mother, who he dearly loved, and who had died when he was on a tour of Europe(?). It was during this quest that he came to realise how many fakes spirit mediums there were. He believed there were two types of mediums – those who were bordering on criminal and set to exploit the grief of the families of recently departed loved ones for financial gain, and those that were essentially well meaning and believed in their own ability but were still unable to make true contact with the spirit world. In over 30 years of investigating Spiritualism, he became convinced that he had not seen one single example of true contact with the other world. This was despite a firm belief in the afterlife and a desperate desire to contact the spirit of his mother.

In the introduction to his book “A Magician Among The Spirits” published in 1924 he wrote “I believe in the hereafter and no greater blessing could be bestowed upon me than the opportunity, once again, to speak to my sainted mother who awaits me with open arms to press me to her heart in welcome”

His mission to expose the charlatan mediums made him very unpopular with the spiritualists, and he fell out with his life long friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself an ardent spiritualist, over the subject.

Houdini demonstrates a method used by fake mediums to make bells ring

Houdini agreed a code with his wife Bess, which only she knew, so that after his death she would know if he ever came back to contact her. If anyone could escape from the other world, after all, surely it was the Great Houdini!

Houdini died on Halloween 1926 after suffering from peritonitis caused from a ruptured appendix after a challenge to punch him hard in the stomach was taken a little too enthusiastically. Every year on the anniversary of his death a highly publisised séance was held in order to contact the spirit of the departed Houdini. The code was never received, but the séances kept the Houdini name before the public for many years and in many ways kept his name alive beyond the grave.

Poster illustrating Carter The Great's Spirit Cabinet

Magicians also imitated the Davenport routine as honest entertainment. Great posters still exist of the amazing spirit cabinet routines of Carter The Great, Thurston and many others. Variations of the spirit cabinet are still performed today by magicians such as David Copper field who featured a routine which he called the “Berkely House“ on his 1995 TV special “Unseen Forces“.

The idea of contacting the other world is not something that should be taken likely, and there are many spooky stories of haunting and strange occurrences which have taken place in sites where traumatic deaths have occurred. Whether or not these are the work of spirits from another world, or the creation of overactive imaginations, still remains to be proven. The Magic Circle – the famous magic club in London, has an occult committee to investigate strange happenings, and in all the decades it has been running not one single example of a true paranormal event has been recorded.

4. Sleights and wondering jugglers

“Manhood is patience, mastery is nine times patience ”Ursula Le Guin

You may have heard the popular expression “the Hand is Quicker than the eye” in reference to conjurers. In fact this statement is not really a true indication of how great sleight of hand magicians work their wonders. Rapid hand movements draw attention to an action. What a great sleight of hand performer has mastered is a combination of incredible skill with the hands, together with a mastery of “misdirection” or – if you like, attention direction – being in control of where an audience is looking and when. Mastering dexterity on its own results in a display of just that – dexterity – as in the performance of a great juggler – where all the skill is there to be admired. In order to make sleight of hand look like magic, the skill has to be concealed – hidden behind natural actions to such an extent as to be invisible.

Sleight of hand magic goes back many centuries. In my collection of magic books, I have a volume called Hocus Pocus first published in the 18th century which includes quite a few sleight of hand tricks which are still popular today. In the first chapter the author, Henry Dean, describes the characteristics of a good performer of “Legerdemain” or sleight of hand..

1. “He must be one of a bold and undaunted resolution, so as to set a good face upon the matter”

In other words he must be very confident with what he or she is doing)

2. “He must have strange terms, and emphatical words, to grace and adorn his actions: and the more to amaze and astonish the beholders”

In other words, he should use his patter, or words, in such a way as to increase the impact of his magic)

3. “He must use such gestures of body, as may take off the spectators eyes, from a strict and diligent beholding your manner of performance”

I.e. He should use gestures and actions which distract the audience from your secret actions.

These rules are as true today as they were when Henry Dean first wrote them in 1722!

Caricature of Max Malini

Sometimes the real secret lies – just as in the magic in Earthsea, in stillness, or in patience. One of the most famous sleight of hand performers of the past century was a man named Max Mallini. He was a short man with very small hands, but he was able to amaze audiences around the globe because of his amazing mastery of misdirection and understanding of their psychology. One of the reasons he astounded people so much was the extent he would be willing to prepare a trick. He would famously wait until the end of a long meal before seemingly miraculously producing a huge block of ice from under his hat. Now I don’t know how he got it there, but one things for sure – the trick required a great deal of preparation and a lot of patience as he waited for the right moment to perform it! One of his students asked him once how he could get away with doing a certain trick which required him being prepared beforehand “I Vait” Malini explained in his thick Eastern European accent “how long do you wait for” his student enquired “I Vait, I Vait a Veek” replied Malini.

One of my favourite stories about Malini was in connection to one of his most famous routines known as the card stab. Not one for you to try at home, but Malini would have a playing card chosen by a spectator. This would then be shuffled back into the pack and the pack would be spread over the table. He would then be blindfolded and he would stab downwards with a sharp knife, impaling one card on the blade. On lifting it up, it would prove amazingly to be the chosen card.

Once Malini performed this routine at a very elegant house, and made a large stab mark in an extremely valuable 17th Century table. “Look what you have done to my beautiful table” said the host in horror. “That’s true my friend – but you will be able to tell everyone that the mark was made by Max Malini” he replied.

Cardini with Swann - his wife and assistant

Sleight of hand is also used by stage performers too, one of the most famous of the last century was a performer who became known as “Cardini”. He was born in Wales as Richard Pitchford and his act involved the most amazing manipulation with cigarettes, billiard balls, and playing cards. One of his great innovations was the character he adopted and the way he presented his magic – he portrayed a tipsy English gent who appeared to be as surprised as anyone else at the seemingly endless quantity of playing cards, cigarettes and billiard balls that seemed, rather inconveniently, to be appearing at his fingertips. Cardini invented many techniques which have become standard in magicians repertoires today. If you have ever seen any magician producing endless playing cards at his fingertips, you have probably seen work which was originated by Cardini. He became a huge star on the vaudeville stage.

Many people find sleight of hand close-up magic the most amazing type – because it happens right before you eyes without the assistance of special lighting or elaborate boxes! David Blaine has made a huge impact with it recently, performing on the streets of New York. Lets look at a couple of examples of close – up card tricks that you can do at home…

5.Illusions of seeming

“Illusion fools the beholders senses – it makes him see and hear and feel that the thing is changed. But it does not change the thing” Ursula Le Guin

There is nothing more fascinating than knowing that our own eyes are deceiving us. Although we trust everything we see as being reality, the process of vision and perception is a complex one and our eyes do not always show us things that truly exist. To begin to understand how our eyes can be deceived, we need to understand the nature of vision. This is a process which involves the reception of electromagnetic energy, which travels in waves, by the eyes. Many different sorts of information travels in wave form and they vary greatly in length. Gamma waves are very short and measure only 4 ten-trillionths of an inch. Waves used to transmit international broadcasts are over 17 miles long. In between there are waves used in infra red, X-rays, short wave and regular radio signals.

The wavelengths that our eyes respond to are known as the visible spectrum – longer than x-rays , but still pretty small! They measure between 1/16 millionth of an inch to about 1/ 32 millionths of an inch. So don’t expect to be able to measure them with a household tape measure! The eye’s receptors are sensitive to these waves in much the same way as a television set is designed to be receptive to much longer waves. The receptors in the eyes, known as “rods” and “cones“, convert this energy into nerve impulses which are transmitted to the brain. There are around one hundred million rods and six million cones in one eye and they transmit information to the brain via around one million separate nerve fibres, The Brain connects these impulses with other mental processes to make them understandable. This process is known as perception.

This amazing interpretation of information can easily be disturbed, and there are many examples and ways in which the brain can be tricked into seeing things that are not really there. This is an immense and fascinating area and taps into the areas of science, biology, psychology, and perception.

Here is an interesting example of how the brain can see something that is not really there – have a look at this picture – our Brain “sees” a large white triangle which is not actually in existence – this is the brain interpreting visual information and trying to make sense of it. This process is still not fully understood

Optical illusions have been used for centuries in decoration – the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Rennaisance artists such a s Michelangelo all knew how to arrange colours to make spaces look more spectacular, ceilings seem higher and hide the entrances to secret rooms.

We can actually experience the sensation of the brain trying to make sense and interpret visual information. How many faces can you see in this picture?

There are three different ones but the brain can only see one at a time. You may have trouble in finding the third! Different personalities see differing faces at different times. When you stare at this picture, note how your brain literally switches between images – it is actually impossible to see more than one face at one time.

The artist MS Escher built his career on representing impossible 3 dimensional images in the 2 dimensions of his drawings. Have a look at this impossible staircase and allow your eyes to go up the steps one at a time until you reach the top. On second thoughts don’t wait until you reach the top- you may be staring at the screen for ever more!

The famous optical illusionist Jerry Andrus has actually managed to build a couple of these impossible objects in 3d. Here is a picture of him with an impossible cube. How do you think he was able to do this?

Andrus also created one of my favorite optical illusions – an amazing rotating spiral which causes something he calls the Spiral Aftereffect. This effect is based on a odd phenomenon called the “waterfall effect” so named by the Greek scholar Aristotle in 350 BCE, who noticed it as he sat gazing at a waterfall and realised that his eyes memorised the falling motion of the water and therefore affected other things that he looked at straight afterwards.

Stare into this rotating spiral for about 30 seconds – then look at the back of your hand and you will get a nasty shock!

What keeps our eyes going after we stop looking is an after-image. After-images are a natural side-effect of sight. After we expose the rod and cone receptors (which were mentioned earlier) to light, they take a few moments to return to normal. A faint image may briefly remain in our mind’s eye. This spooky image we sometimes “see” is known as an after-image.

The most famous and greatest optical illusion of all which relies on the principle of retention of vision, or after image, is cinema. When you watch a film, you are not aware that in fact you are viewing dozens of different still images every second. The illusion of movement comes from your brain momentarily retaining the previous image and linking it to the next. This principle had it’s origins in a Victorian toy called the Thaumatrope, a small disc of cardboard which was cut and spun on two pieces of string.

Another interesting tie-in between Cinema and magic is that great magicians such as David Devant from the UK and Carl Hertz from America were amongst the first to display cinema to a public audience as entertainment.

Georges Melies, a magician who ran the Robert Houdin theatre in Paris, was one of the first independent film makers. He originally filmed the performances of magicians as an experiment and then discovered that he could create far more impressive illusions by stopping the camera, moving the actors, and then re-starting. This is what is known now as “stop motion” photography. Melies built amazing fantastical sets and directed and starred in his own films. He is considered to be the father of the Science Fiction film and the originator of film wizardry . His most famous work is “A Trip To The Moon” made in 1902.

Georges Méliès Trip To The Moon

Sadly, the films of his day were not valued highly and many originals were melted down during the First World War to extract nickle (?) from them. Meilies himself destroyed many more in a fit of fury. Today only a quarter (?) of all his films survive.

The brain also relies a lot on memory to interpret information, it makes assessments and adjustment of distance and size of objects. If you look at your face in the bathroom mirror, and then allow the mirror to steam up, if you trace your finger around the outline of your head you will probably be surprised to find that the reflection is no bigger than a large orange. When you see your friend down the other end of the street, although they appear much smaller in size than when they are standing next to you, the brain knows that it is not because they have shrunk, but because they are in the distance.

This interpretation of size and distance is one which some scientists have used to explain what is popularly known as the “moon illusion“. Scientists for centuries have puzzled over why the moon when viewed close to the horizon looks far bigger than when it is up in the night sky. It is generally thought that this is in fact an optical illusion. When the moon is viewed next to objects that we can “scale” it against, the brain decides that is actually a much larger object located far closer to the viewer.

Occasionally this property of the brain can be fooled in a big way. In a remarkable experiment invented by Aldebert Ames, two people stand at the opposite end of a completely distorted room. At one end the room is tall and wide in all direction, at the other the room is less than half the width and height. All lines are kept completely straight between these two ends resulting in a sloping floor and ceiling, and a back wall which becomes narrower and shallower. Despite all this, there is one spot on the outside of the wall that if a spectator peeks through with one eye, the room will appear completely square, with floor and ceiling parallel. What is even stranger is that if two people of the same height are put at opposite end, the brain will see one as tiny and the other as a giant. If they walk to their respective opposite ends of the room, the brain will see one of them shrink and one of them grow – because it is interpreting what is a distorted room as a rectangular one and correcting the information accordingly.

To finish this section – here is a fun idea which plays on this idea of size distortion. You will need to print this Size Distortion Illusion and carefully cut out the two figures. Which one is larger? Try swapping them around and you may be surprised.

6. Foretelling – tricks of the mind

The idea of soothsaying or foretelling the future and reading the mind has always been a great part of magical folk lore, and the within the world of Earthsea this is no exception. Wizards of all ages have claimed to be able to read peoples secret thoughts, and even predict future events! The most famous soothsayer in history was the 16th Century French astrologer named Nostradamus who made many predictions about world events partly based on the positions of the stars. He originally studied medicine and healed many people struck down with the plague. He was a brilliant intellectual and upheld the belief that the world was round and circled around the sun more than one hundred years before Galileo was prosecuted for the same belief. His works are still in print, and people argue even today about the accuracy of his prophecies.

As far as the lighter side of magic as entertainment, one of the most common ways of supposedly reading someone’s mind is to ask them to pick a card, return it to the pack and then concentrate on it. The magician is then able to reveal the identity of the card. There have been literally thousands upon thousands of this kind of card trick but one of the most unusual versions was performed by so called “learned pigs”. Very popular in England at the early part of the 19th century, pigs would apparently be able to push forward a secretly chosen card from several laid down on the floor. In my magic library I have a wonderful book called “A Rich Cabinet with Variety Of inventions” published in 1780, and it shows a wonderful woodcut of how a magician can seemingly impossibly tell the name of a playing card in a pack. The engraving shows the wizard holding up a pack of cards and away from his face in front of a candle. He is able to tell the name of the card by looking at a reflection in a small drop of water on the table top!

From "A Rich Cabinet with Variety of Inventions" - 1684

In this sections webinar you will learn a simple version of how to guess a chosen card from a pack – and perhaps will start you on the fascinating road of card magic.

The great French magician Robert Houdin performed an amazing mind reading act known as “second sight” with his son in the 1840‘s. His son could apparently divulge any object held up by people in the audience, despite the fact he was securely blindfolded. The act relied on Houdin transmitting the information from the audience to his blindfolded son seated on the stage by the way of a special verbal code. Depending on exactly which words Houdin used to ask a question of his son, hidden clues were transmitted as to the answer of the question. Each starting letter of a sentence would indicate another letter and spell out the name of the object. This lead to some rather strange questions such as “ Here is a name. Do you see it? Hurry up, Have you got it” Would spell through the code the name Anna. As you can imagine, the act took years to perfect and must have been astounding to witness, as the code was very cleverly hidden.

Here is a great trick you can try at home which relies on a visual code from an accomplice to transmit secret information. The effect is that a pack of cards is shuffled and nine cards are layed out in a square on the floor. This all happens while the magician is out of the room. A card is secretly selected by one of the other people. On returning to the room, the magician is able to instantly reveal the card to the spectators. The amazing demonstration can be repeated many times and becomes more and more baffling to the spectators.

The secret lies in the fact that the person dealing the cards is an accomplice. When the cards are dealt onto the floor or on a table, the accomplice simply places his or her thumb on the back of the pack of cards in an exact position to indicate what position the chosen card is. If the thumb is rested at the centre of the pack, the magician knows that the card is located in the centre of the square of nine cards. Centre right means the card is on the second row (centre) on the right. This works easily and clearly for any of the nine positions. Try it with a pack of cards at home and you will see how quick you can spot the thumb position of your accomplice. Do try this – it will really amaze your friends! Oh – and remember to keep the secret!

Alexander - the greatest mind reader of the last century

The greatest mind readers of the last century include Alexander The man Who Knows – a hugely successful performer who could apparently read peoples minds. He would always wear a large turban, as depicted in this wonderful lithograph in my collection form around 1920.

The original turban exists today and is in David Copperfileld’s amazing magic museum in Las Vegas. The turban holds the secret to at least some of Alexander’s amazing acts. There are hidden electrical wires in the turban which allowed people off stage to send information to Alexander who was seemingly isolated on the stage.

Joseph Dunninger was one of the most successful performers of this kind of entertainment in the US, and was one of the first to become famous as a solo mind reader. One of his most amazing stunts to attract publicity was to drive a car to any destination whilst apparently blindfolded. Dunninger never claimed to have supernatural abilities – he called his abilities “telethesia”. There is no doubt that although Dunninger used many tricks in his performances, he also had a thorough knowledge of human psychology, and was expert at influencing peoples decisions. He pointed out that a mind reader has to use many more skills than a magician – and can also get away without being one hundred percent correct all the time. Indeed it sometimes added to the impact if, on predicting a newspaper headline, he would get one or two words wrong. This seemed to make the predication more genuine.

Kreskin was a more recent famous name in mind reading, again an expert in psychology. He became a famous name in the US through his amazing live shows and impressive television appearances.

Most recently, David Blaine has made an impact with seemingly psychological magic. His most memorable demonstrations include revealing a thought-of person by showing a tattoo of them on his body! His card predictions have also amazed millions of people throughout the world.

7. Marvels and Enchantments –

The greatest magical feats of all time…

Sawing a lady in half – first performed by a British wizard by the name of P.T. Selbit (Percy Tibbles) in 1921. His act created an overnight sensation and was imitated all over the world. In Selbit’s version the woman was completely enclosed in a slim wooden box, her body secured inside by ropes tied around her neck, hands and ankles. Members of the audience held the ropes on the outside to check she didn’t move. Although Selbit was the first to saw through the box, he was not the first to show the lady in two halves – his effect was more of a penetration of the saw through her body.

PT Selbit - Sawing Through A Woman

This was up to a portly magician by the name of Horace Goldin to achieve. He placed a lady in a much larger box with her head and feet out of the ends. He then sawed her in half and demonstrated that she was separated by pulling the boxes apart. He later developed a version with no box which he called the “living miracle” – a lady laying on a table with absolutely no cover was cut in half with a circular saw. Goldin maximised the impact of the illusion by having an ambulance parked outside the theatre with a banner along the side saying “In case the saw slips”. Modern versions include what is known as the slim line sawing in half where the box seems impossibly small. This was invented by a Turkish magician by the name of Zati Sungar in the 1950’s. Modern improvements have made the illusion even more astonishing – The Pendragons (USA) created a version with a tiny glass box, and David Copperfield is apparently cut in half when an escape goes wrong!

The Bullet Catch: The most dangerous feat of wizardry of all time. At least a dozen magicians have died attempting to perform this spectacular act. Robert Houdin was a able to quell a native uprising in North Africa against the occupying French by performing this feat – the tribe believed he had true magic powers after seeing it.

Chung Ling Soo and the bullet catch

Attributed to Alexander Herrmann, it was also perfumed famously by a magician named Chung Ling Soo – the David Copperfield of his day. He was one of the victims of the trick – it went wrong one night and he was shot dead on the stage of the Wood Green Empire in London in February 1918. Today an incredibly spectacular version of the trick is performed by Penn and Teller in their Las Vegas show at the Riviera hotel. Definitely not one to try at home.

Levitation: Levitation is perhaps the most viscerally symbolic of all the feats of magic. The idea of being able to fly is a universal dream. One of the earliest accounts of levitation (which also ties into the feats purportedly produced by the spirit mediums) was an Indian street trick where, after being covered by a large blaket, the fakir was revealed suspended in the air, his arm resting on a wooden stick. Robert Houdin took this basic trick to another level and suspended his son from a pole – a feat he attributed to the magical properties of ether – hence the title “ethereal suspension”. The next major breakthrough in Levitation creativity was Nevil Maskelyne on the stage of the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, who suspended his business partner George Cooke horizontally during a short magical play called “Trapped by magic” . He then proceeded to pass a solid hoop over the floating mans body – and ingenious idea to prove the absence of any attachments. This amazing mystery is still just as amazing today as when it was first performed. The most famous modern levitations as performed by David Copperfield in his incredible Flying routine, and by David Blaine – who made a great impact by seemingly levitating himself off a sidewalk in New York.

Carl Hertz - Indian Rope Trick

The Indian Rope Trick: It is generally thought that this most famous of all Eastern magic tricks is in fact a myth. The effect was supposed to be thus: The fakir would throw a piece of rope into the air – it would travel so high that the top would be impossible to see. Then a small boy would climb the rope, pursued by the fakir who would clench a large dagger between his teeth. When out of sight up the rope the sound of hacking would be heard by the audience, and apparently pieces of the boys’ body would drop down from the sky a few moments later, the magician would descend from the sky, assemble the pieces of dismembered body and throw them into a basket. Within moments the boy would step out unharmed. According to Dr Peter Lamont in his book “The Rise and Fall of the Indian Rope trick” the illusion was a myth started by a reporter in a Chicago newspaper in the 1880’s. However this is there is no doubt that the idea of being able to climb into the clouds goes back to very ancient legend.

8. Beyond arts of illusion to the works of real magery –

This online course is meant as a basic introduction to the art of magic. Magic is a fascinating subject and is incredibly braod in all its areas. It has only been possible to give a breif overview of some of the vast amount of information, with just a short summary of the works of some of the world’s great magicians. I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed this course, and will be inspired to look further afield to expand your knowledge.
Some web sites links:

www.magicweek.co.uk
www.magictimes.com
www.stageillusion.com
www.magicgallery.com

Further information, bibliography, a list of magic shops and magician’s clubs. Conclusion as to why magic is a great hobby and profession.

Further reading:

• The Illustrated History of Magic – Milbourne Christopher
• Mysterious Stranger – David Blaine
• Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women – Ricky Jay
• The Royal Road to Card Magic by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue
• Hiding The Elephant – Jim Steinmeyer
• Masters of Deception : Escher, Dali, & the Artists of Optical Illusion by Al Seckel

The post Legend of Earthsea: online wizardry course appeared first on Paul Kieve.