Everything in life has a dual character -- in every force in life lie the powers for both construction and destruction.

The fire that warms your home can destroy your home. The water that feeds your tissues can drown you. So you see, in the same thing lie the forces for both good and evil.

So it is with your Magic. All depends on whether you use it in a fine, skillful manner, or whether you abuse it and make light of it. Used properly, this great Art can mean tremendous success and happiness for you, but abused, it can mean your downfall.

Your audience, if pleased, will applaud you and heap praises on you and talk about you in a way that may "make" you. The same audience, if displeased with your appearance, your manner, your language, your performance, can hurt you. It is up to you, then, to please your audience. Study how to do this and you need never fear that you will not be successful.

What the Public Wants

People want illusion. They rush to the movies, to the theater, because they want to be entertained in an unreal world, a world of fancy. They want to live in their imaginations for a while and to forget life with its hardships. They find the theater a retreat where they can withdraw from everyday life and see things that are near the ideal.

Artists, writers, producers and actors work to produce the ideal. In the theatrical world all is illusion. There, people live through the troubles and experiences of the characters and find that in the end there is harmony. The lovers fall into each other's arms and live happily ever after. All difficulties are adjusted and everything has a pleasant outcome. The audience is pleased and happy that all is well. Each one has forgotten his own troubles and feels that his affairs will also have an agreeable ending.

This is a great factor in the explanation of the magician's power. He deals with the unreal. His art is so far removed from everyday life that the spell he casts over his public is tremendous. His is a world created entirely of fancy and not fact. He gives the people illusion. And that is what the public wants.

Another thing that the public is intensely interested in is mystery and the supernatural. These will never lose their fascination and, as they are the very stuff of which Magic is made, the Art of the Magician will never fail to hold people spellbound. Magic will never die, and the Magician with his power to produce supposedly supernatural effects will ever continue to thrill the public.

Keeping Up With The Times

Change in the Character of Magic

The character of Magic, like that of everything else in life, has changed with the changing world. At one time a great deal of cumbersome apparatus was used — many trick cases and trunks and long table drapes. The Magician, too, was encumbered with voluminous robes. Robert-Houdin, whom I have mentioned before as the founder of the modern school of legerdemain, did away with all the gaudy, clumsy paraphernalia of his predecessors. From his time sleight of hand came into its own and this, of course, does not require much paraphernalia. Many Magicians acquired great skill in manipulating small objects, such as coins and cards, and made a great success of it. T. Nelson Downs is a King of Coins in the magic world. Manuel is another clever coin expert. There was a craze at one time for coin acts in imitation of Downs. Special acts were also built around the use of cards. Howard Thurston was once famous for his card act.

This was the beginning of the development of impromptu and vest-pocket Magic, which of recent years has come into such popularity. The demand for Magicians to perform at clubs, in homes, at social functions, has required the further development of this type of Magic. In such cases the performer cannot have an elaborate preliminary set-up. This has necessitated the simplification of apparatus and the creation of effects which permit the use of paraphernalia which the Magician can carry about with him and for which he can use ordinary objects.

This simplification of paraphernalia and of effects has made the Art of Magic even more astonishing by reason of its impromptu and apparently makeshift nature.

This type of work has developed the suit case act, where the properties are carried in a suit case and are taken out and replaced as necessary. (See Lesson 10, How to Present a Program.) At such a performance the Magician is ready for work when he opens the suit case and has completed his act when he closes it.

The important thing in Modern Magic is not necessarily elaborateness, but novelty, surprise, something spontaneous and effective; and that is what the Modern Magician must give. Individuality You Display Must be Suited to the Times

This brings us back again to a discussion of Individuality — an Individuality suited to the times. Robert-Houdin was the first Magician to discard the old clumsy robes and to appear in a dress suit. He did the Art a good turn by making departure from the old order. Since his time, however, many performers have worn full dress, and not with such good effect. On the stage with a full evening show a la Thurston or Houdini, the dress suit is permissible, providing the performer is the type that can wear one. In view of the change in style, you are much safer in appearing in a Tuxedo for dress wear, thus avoiding any possibility of friction with the audience.

For the informal performance the business suit will do very well. There is no need for you to try to display individuality in dress or appearance until you know just what you will accomplish thereby, and whether it is of positive benefit to you.

Take mustaches, for instance. At one time there was a craze for Magicians to wear mustaches and goatees. It arose through imitation of a hero, the usual foundation for fads. This hero was Alexander Herrmann —Herrmann the Great. This great magician wore a mustache and a goatee. They enhanced his appearance and were well suited to him and gave him individuality. Those who imitated him, however, must have in many cases appeared ridiculous. Today we have Laurant, LeRoy, and Brush who wear distinctive looking mustaches and with effect. However, there are some would-be magicians who feel that they must have mustaches, regardless of suitability, to make them individual and great magicians. If these fellows don't grow them, they paste on big black mustaches and utterly disregard their complexions and color of their hair with the result that they present a ludicrous figure.

Set Your Stage in Keeping With the Times

Dealers in magical supplies have greatly influenced the stage settings of magicians, particularly of novices in the field. The dealers sell certain stock sets and apparatus. The result is that there has been too much sameness in stage settings. When the curtain rose or parted, there stood the old familiar magic tables, the same apparatus. This has grown very monotonous and uninteresting to the audience. Other magicians went to the other extreme of too much display and gaudiness in striving for individuality.

The pendulum is now swinging back again, however, to simplification of stage settings with better effect. It is not necessary to overdo special costumes and gorgeous scenery in these times. People like simplicity with artistic effect. You may make your stage setting colorful and unique, if you like, but keep it simple. Do not use old, cheap looking effects in your settings, and remember always to suit the occasion and the audience. Let good taste and modernism guide you.

Making An Impression

How to Make Your Appearance.

The first impression which your audience forms of you is very important in your future success. You must, of course, be very careful of your magical properties. They must be kept in good condition so that they will be attractive and convey the impression that you have high standards in your work. As to your personal appearance, I believe it is unnecessary for me to reiterate that you must be neat and careful about your clothes, your hands, your hair.

When you enter, walk in briskly. Do not shuffle along unless you are doing a comedy act and do it for effect. Walk directly to the center of the stage without looking at your audience. Do not bow and scrape and nod as you come in. Do not notice people until you are at the center of the stage. Then turn and face your audience and direct your attention to them. If you are to perform at a dinner or some other special occasion, do not get the attention of the guests until the time for your performance arrives. Only at this psychological moment must you make the audience notice you and keep their attention focused on you until you are through.

Always study your opening very carefully, for remember, you will sell yourself or harm yourself at the first moment of your performance.

Excercise Magnetism on Your Audience.

Keep your eyes! on your audience most of the time. Talk directly to them. Now and then for effect you may pick out one or more spectators and direct your attention to them. Talk convincingly to them and impress them, and you will find that this is a means of impressing everyone in that audience.

Talk distinctly and convincingly. Talk loud enough for every one to hear you and give enough force to your words to send them straight to the mark. Be careful of your language. Use judgment in what you say, and above all, speak correctly. Put expression into your voice and face -- avoid a monotone and a blank look. Put LIFE into your performance.

Create Interest in Your Spectators.

Your problem is to arouse and to hold the interest of your audience. Be snappy in your work and your audience will be interested in watching you. If you give a slow, long-drawn out program your spectators will fall asleep -- and that spells tragedy. You must not, of course, go to the opposite extreme and work so fast that your audience cannot follow you.

The next factor in creating and holding interest is attention to what the public demand is — what they want you to give them. The wise magician, just like the wise merchant, studies the trend of the times and the kind of things people are clamoring for. He then capitalizes on this. He presents to the people the things they want and are willing to pay for and presents them in attractive packages, that is, in a pleasing form.

Study your program from the standpoint of the particular occasion and the particular audience. Try in your effects and in your "Patter" to come within the experiences of your spectators. Do not do things and say things that are absolutely foreign to their own lives and that they will not understand. Enter into their own lives and their own knowledge a little and they will give you their understanding and appreciation. You will then have their interest and the success of your performance is assured.

Maintain A Healthy Attitude Toward Magic

You know from your own experience that it is always the unsuccessful fellow or the one who bears a grudge who is a knocker. So it is in Magic. The man who has made no mark in the profession or the man who is an out and out failure is the one who says that Magic is dead. That man sticks to the same old hackneyed program; he dresses the way magicians did years ago; his patter is stupid; and even his work is so poorly done that school boys ridicule him. His language is improper. He irritates his audiences instead of pleasing them. And then he goes about knocking Magic. His outlook is not healthy and he will never succeed until he wakes up and changes his attitude.

The man who knocks Magic has not had the proper foundation. He does not know the principles of Magic. He does not understand Magic as a Science. He does not know the proper way to present his effects. He does not know SHOWMANSHIP. He has not the slightest conception of the psychological nature of his work. How, then, can he succeed? He knows something is wrong and it does not occur to him to look within himself for the difficulty. No. Instead he knocks his profession.

You never hear the successful Magician knocking Magic. He finds it tremendously ALIVE and full of opportunity and big financial return. He is well known and admired. He is in demand. He will not discourage you for he has gained success and knows that you can. He is a BOOSTER. He, perhaps, has been discouraged himself many times by the knocker, but determination led him on until he reached the goal of the GREAT. You must not let the knocker discourage you or plant any doubts in your mind if he should come your way. You know that you stand head and shoulders above him with your SCIENTIFIC TRAINING in MAGIC. You are enthusiastic and inspired, you are enjoying a rare opportunity in studying this course. Let nothing dampen your spirits. Keep your outlook healthy and you are bound to succeed. We come now to the new effects in this lesson. They are easy to perform but permit of excellent SHOWMANSHIP.