Jan 22 2009
Random - Theory of Magic
… here’s something I’ve been pondering for a while.
Magic is, in and of itself, an inherently theatrical form - it requires a performer and an observer. And the two share a common reality, at least for a moment. That reality requires rules and guidelines.
Most of the time, the unspoken rules of reality are what get broken when the magician performs - things vanish, appear, change form, float, are destroyed and recreated, and so on.
In the “real world”, this would be really scary stuff to see happen! Well, ok, flying would be utterly cool, but everything else would cause most “normal” people to flip out and / or alert the authorities.
… now, one of the common “food for thought” questions that floats around in the Magic community is,
If you could do real magic, what the heck are you doing performing on a stage? Why aren’t you using your amazing powers for (good / evil / personal benefit, etc)?
… I have some answers to propose:
I - I’m Not That Good
Not every person who has special powers can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Some of us can only heat up a cup of tea or maybe fall more lightly than they would normally. Some of us can predict the next commercial to come on the TV. Not brilliant stuff in the mundane world, but on stage we can create a set of circumstances which might make this ability look much more interesting than it would otherwise.
II - Everything Has a Price
Reality doesn’t like being messed with, and charges a steep fee. As energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but only converted from one fom to another, anything “magical” that one does has to be paid for somehow - energy, time, something. It costs less to fly in a theater than it does to fly from Chicago to Los Angeles without an airplane. It costs less to turn a single dollar bill into a $100 bill than a dozen, plus if you turn it back into a $1 bill you get some of that expenditure back.
III - I Got Tired Of Being Shrieked At
- Making a ball float on stage: entertainment.
- Making a ball float in the playground: cause for screaming and possibly being beaten with sticks.
IV - I Can Get Paid For Doing It On Stage
Pretty self-explanitory, yes?
Anyway, those are part of the “subtext” of what I do on stage in my act. I’m going to be playing around with these a bit more in the coming months…
Unfortunately my true magical power is being able to urinate in powerful streams of day-glo colors while my testicles emit a sonic hum that sounds strangely like Andy Williams singing Moon River.
It actually looks and sounds really awesome, but every time I go for the zipper, there is screaming and yelling and the snatching up of small children.
Alas therefore I am stuck doing cheap parlor tricks.