Discourse in Magic

To kick off the new magic year, Jonah sits down with Woody Aragon to discuss developing taste, resonating with an audience, and expressing a message through your magic. Woody is viewed as one of the most important modern card magicians, known for his contribution to stack work.  Woody jokes that he came out of themwomb loving magic. He can’t recall a time when he was a layperson even though, where he grew up in Spain, there wasn’t a magic scene. Because access to magic knowledge was difficult, his formative years were spent recording and analyzing Tamariz performances. Eventually, he gained access to books and the Spanish magic community.  While magic may currently be his profession, it wasn’t really an option for him growing up. Woody’s family, having not come from the arts, wanted him to do something more practical than “magician,” so he took up a job in the video game industry and, eventually, worked as a composer. His career as a magician didn’t begin until he started to win magic competitions, leading to other magicians booking him for shows. Realizing magic could sustain his lifestyle, Woody pursued his dream. Developing Taste Magicians have a tendency to kill the feeling of magic as they don’t take in the external life of a trick. While lectures and books are great for learning, they fail to let you experience the effects for what they are. So, to truly develop a taste, Woody recommends watching the audience. Observe when they laugh. When they’re shocked. When they’re excited. Little by little you’ll develop a taste for what excites an audience.  The Subtext of Magic  Through your art you are creating something that expresses what you have inside of you. If you over analyze what and how you want to express yourself, you will lose it. Choose the effects and patter that feel natural to who you are. Behind every trick you perform is a message whether you acknowledge it or not.  Structure & Composition  Knowing the difference between structure and composition is a useful tool for magicians to know. Structure applies to what the audience doesn’t see; the secret moves necessary to create the desired effect. Composition applies to what the spectator sees. Together these two aspects affect how the spectator observes and feels about the performance. For a deeper insight into Structure & Composition, you can read the essay in Woody’s A Book in English.  Tamariz & Spain Tamariz was like a father to Woody; he was generous in sharing with Woody, teaching him everything he knows about magic. And therein lies the secret, Woody explains, the sharing of knowledge. Spain is about sharing and being open with magic. Whether new or veterans, magicians in Spain gather together to share and collaborate on effects, creating a dynamic that influences the progress of magic. When Woody enters other communities, he’s often disappointed by the lack of sharing between the older and younger generations. Wrap Up  Endless Chain  Hector Mancha Camilo Vazquez What do you like about modern magic? What don’t you like?  Magic is always great!  Take Home Point How do you feel when you perform magic? How do you express that feeling to the audience. What do you want to do with this feeling? Plugs Woody’s Website  Woody’s YouTube  Woody’s Instagram Woody’s Penguin Lectures 

Surprise! It’s a bonus episode to end your year with a little more magic. Jonah sits down with Paul Gertner to talk about performing on TV, putting a spin on your magic, and developing a kicker. Paul is a closeup magician with an on running show in Boston; he’s also the only magician who has appeared on Fool Us three times. The ads on the back of comics for magic tricks and other oddities fascinated Paul. While he never ordered any of the magic, he sought out magic books in the library. Soon, he was building props on his own, learning simple card tricks, and studying the world of magic. However, as a kid growing up in Pittsburgh, he didn’t know how to access these other magicians.  His first introduction to the magic community came from his mother having a chance encounter with a woman on the bus – her husband was a magician and would soon become Paul’s mentor. His mentor, Ron, would soon introduce him to the magic club and store alongside showing Paul there was a world of knowledge beyond what the library books could offer him.  Creating Unique Magic At some level, there are those with the innate ability to create unique magic. However, to truly develop good magic, obsession and knowing the ins and out of your art will make a difference. If you’re fascinated with the creating aspect of magic, then you need to be willing to play and practice with your magic. Learning the techniques and concepts while diving further into what surprises you can get out of a trick will help you develop your own twist on effects.  Now, if you’re looking to add a kicker, you need to be weary – too many kickers and “surprise” moments will get boring, and adding a kicker that requires too much thinking on the audience’s part may result in a lackluster response. You need to ask yourself “Why am I doing this?” from the audience’s perspective. Is there a moment you can call back to? Does the kicker make sense in the overall plot thread of the trick?  Appearing on TV Between his multiple appearances on Carson and Fool Us, it’s safe to say that Paul knows how to perform on television. For getting on Carson, it came down to understanding what Johnny wanted and appealing to his desire to be a magician again. For Fool Us, even though he wasn’t initially supposed to appear on the show, Paul understood that he needed to play against what Penn & Teller knew if he wanted to fool them, and he wanted to fool them in a way that they’d enjoy. Developing a Show When he was living in Pittsburgh, Paul’s dream of having his own boutique close-up show didn’t seem reasonable. There wasn’t enough traffic to sustain a show like the one he wanted. It wasn’t until he moved to Boston that his dream became realistic, and he set off from hotel to hotel, trying to find a venue that met his needs. With some venues wanting too much money and other’s outright declining him, Paul was becoming discouraged but, on a whim, took a shot at the Omni Parker Hotel. Miracles and Other Deceptions is now a weekly show going three years strong at the Omni Parker. While the show had a slow start, Paul now performs his intimate close-up show twice a night for sold out audiences. Wrap Up Endless Chain  Richard Turner  What do you like about modern magic? What don’t you like? Gertner enjoys the fact that someone like Shin Lim, a closeup magician, can become a star on the same level as Siegfried and Roy. He isn’t a fan of how some magicians posting online seem to believe that a method is a trick in itself. Take Home Point Ask yourself “Why am I doing something?”  Plugs Paul’s Show Paul’s Website Paul’s YouTube Paul’s Instagram 

Happy Holidays! As the decade draws to a close, Jonah sits down to reflect on the trends we’ve seen in magic and makes his prediction on where magic is headed.

This week Ben Earl joins Jonah to discuss practice, sleight of hand, and approaching magic as an art. Alongside being a skilled sleight of hand artist, Ben is also an author and founder of Studio52. Ben’s interest in magic started when he stumbled across Expert Card Technique at his local library. The book was his glimpse into an underground subculture that he knew he needed to learn more about. However, in his twelve year old mind, sleight of hand was illegal, so he dropped the book out of the window. He didn’t want the librarian to take the book away from him or send him to jail because he was considering taking the book out.  Ben devoured the book, never connecting that the moves he was learning were for magic tricks until he saw David Blaine on TV doing moves he recognized. After showing his friends a few moves and finding a magic shop, he was addicted to the art form.  Magic as an Art  Magic has been a constant in Ben’s life as the art keeps him intellectually and creatively stimulated like nothing else. He can take a coin and make it appear or disappear with this intuitive understanding that he is just playing with bigger ideas. Methods and concepts are just tools he can use to communicate ideas and understand his own approach to the world. There is an inherent duality to magic. At times, Ben feels that he’s just performing card tricks whereas other times he recognizes he can reshape someone’s understanding of the world. Just by understanding that magic, like any other art form, has an inherent, absurd duality to it, Ben is able to step aside from one aspect of magic to focus on ones that intrigue him.  This is why he doesn’t call himself a magician per se but a creative artist; he is constantly creating, and writing, and thinking about magic, but he is only a magician in the eyes of a layperson who can only describe what he just showed them as magic. By calling himself a creative artist, he doesn’t feel like he’s attaching himself to a restrictive or reductive title. Attributing Meaning  Magic is fascinating because it isn’t real. The art form revolves around simulating the impossible with the shared understanding that what is being done isn’t real. However, like in a film, we suspend our disbelief long enough to experience something beyond our understanding of the world.  With this being said, it can be difficult to bring your own meaning into the art form. For Ben, meaning comes from moving towards the things he likes; when something feels right, he does more of it. Overtime, he discovers things that have meaning to him and what drives him to what he’s connected to. Problem solving and creating aesthetically pleasing solutions appeal to Ben which drives his magic creation process.  Approaching Sleight of Hand Sleight of hand, supposedly, is using deceptive means to achieve a certain result, yet magicians often regard good sleight of hand artists as ones where we can “see” the moves happening; you perceive in their performance that a move has happened. In Ben’s opinion, good sleight of hand is when the sleight is so perfectly choreographed into the routine that you can’t tell when or how it happened; you missed the move like you were supposed to.  To achieve good sleight of hand, you have to put into perspective what you want sleight of hand to be for the spectator. An ace cutting routine is inherently a demonstration of your skill, while controlling a card or performing a pass shouldn’t even be smelt by the spectators. With that being said, magicians are still trying to determine how to separate the performance aspect of sleight of hand from the deceptive nature of the practice. When you’re practicing sleight of hand, you are building habits and muscle memory that will eventually make a move an extension of your body. However, if you practice slouched over your desk, staring at your cards, and disregarding the other factors inherent in performance, that is how you will perform for other people. Ben recommends practicing moves in environments that stimulate social situations as to grow comfortable with compensating for environmental restrictions.  Discovering your Path  Magic is an overwhelming art form with various avenues to explore. You, unfortunately, can’t do all the moves and tricks. Rather than trying to cover up your magic gaps, Ben recommends embracing them as a part of who you are. The difficult part is finding the right path for you and what you want to explore in magic. Writing, teaching, performing. These are just some of the paths in magic people can explore, and they may not all be for you, but just enjoy the process of discovering what is magic to you.  However, be aware that you’re being trained to be a consumer. Magic is a small community, and there is material constantly being released. With everyone buying and reading the same material, Ben sees people approaching magic with the same influences; they are all talking and developing the same material, rather than exploring different territory. By not reading the latest book or playing with the latest gimmick, Ben is able to control his influences and approach magic with a more objective viewpoint.  The Shift The Shift is the magic book Ben always wanted to publish — everything he loves about magic is embodied by this book. From effects to technique to theory, Ben breaks down each of these aspects of magic into detailed sections, giving his thoughts and insight into how he approaches these foundations of magic.  The font, the layout, the images. Every minute detail of the book was carefully considered, Ben explains. Even the title, The Shift, was chosen as the book is meant to represent a shift in thinking and the reader’s approach to magic. Wrap Up Endless Chain Chris Kenner What do you like about modern magic? What don’t you like? For Ben, the level of access to magic is both a pro and a con. Because incoming magicians don’t have to experience the difficult journey of seeking out information, they lose a valuable aspect of the discovery process. However, magic is seeing a rise in skill and connectivity among the community.  Take Home Point  Ben reminds the listeners to take joy in what they do.  Plugs The Shift  Studio52 Ben’s Website  Ben’s Instagram Ben’s Material 

This week Jonah is joined by R. Paul Wilson to discuss scams, the ties between magic and film, and the exposure of magic. Alongside being a magician with a vast knowledge of cons and scams, Wilson is also an author and filmmaker.  At eight Wilson was hooked on magic after seeing his first trick. Around the same time, he watched his first film about scams. Since then, his life has been intertwined with these passions.  Growing up in Edinburgh, however, made finding material to learn magic from difficult. Eventually he stumbled across a book on card tricks which turned out to be Hugard’s Card Manipulation series. As his interest in cards tricks developed, he realized that the moves in the book could be adapted to playing card games.  Cons & Scams Not wanting to turn to a life of crime, Wilson needed to find a different way to share his interest in cons and scams; he had all this knowledge just nowhere he could (legally) use it. His chance to use his knowledge came in the form of shows like Takedown and The Real Hustle. Suddenly, he had the opportunity to pull off cons and scams he had only read about.  Working on these shows helped him realize why certain seemingly obvious or convoluted scams worked on people. Wilson explains that, while you may not fall for one scam, there is always something that will appeal to you. To protect yourself from falling victim, he explains that the best you can do is learn the general principles behind scams and understand that anyone can fall victim to a con in the hands of a skilled con artist. It’s human nature. Just be willing to step back from a situation and realize that you might be falling victim to a scam.  When you have an appreciation for something that is highly illegal, you need to find a different way to share your interests. For Wilson, The Magic of Film Filmmaking is magic to Wilson. Film is an environment where magic is conducted as you are creating an immersive world to tell a story. By cutting together sound and images in a certain ways, a filmmaker has the potential to create a compelling illusion.  The seeds for cinema, however, were cultivated by magicians. The thinking of magicians led to filmmakers exploring and discovering tricks they could do with the format. If magicians had ignored the motion picture phenomen, Wilson believes film would have taken a different path to get to where it is today.  Creating Magic When Wilson creates an effect, he goes down a rabbit hole of “it’d be interesting if…” and follows the trail. Of course not everything turns out to be perfect — some ideas are written down or set aside. His goal when creating is to develop something strong but useful; he doesn’t want magicians shoving his work to the back of their drawers.  If you sit down with the intent of creating something new, Wilson warns, you have to be wary that you’re not treading on already trodden ground. You probably aren’t discovering something new, and, if you think you have, you have to be willing to check to see if it’s been published elsewhere.   Our Magic Our Magic came from Wilson growing weary of people outside of magic trying to show what the inner world of magic; they would come into the world for a small period of time and give their basic perspective on the art. But, if you’re not a magician, how would you really know what world built on keeping secrets is like? He wanted lay people to hear what magic is from really strong magicians, so he approached Dan and Dave with a proposal for a documentary.  In the film, very little magic is shown on the screen. This was a deliberate decision as Wilson didn’t want to boil magic down to a few effects that may or may not hook the audience. Instead, Wilson interviewed people who could speak about magic without needing to resort to a trick to make their point. His goal, at the end of the day, was help the public develop a respect for the art.  Wrap Up Endless Chain Ian Kendall  Tom Frank  Mat Ricardo What do you like about modern magic? What don’t you like? Wilson doesn’t like how easily information is disseminated nowadays. He’s not against sharing magic online, he just wants there to be some level of direction for incoming magicians, so they have an appreciation for where the material has come from. Take Home Point  Wilson reminds listeners of the importance of being open and sharing. Magic, like many thing in life, is genuinely about sharing yourself with your audience.  Plugs Wilson’s Website Wilson’s Twitter Wilson’s Instagram  Penguin Magic  Vanishing Inc.  However, he asks that you forget about his material and go read a good magic book. Any book that interests you. Just read it cover to cover. It’ll change the way you approach magic. 

Javi Benetiz joins Jonah this week to discuss movement, meaning and the importance of experiencing life. Javi is an award winning sleight-of-hand magician from Spain, who brings his passion for life into his magic.  The moment that drew him into magic, Javi recalls, happened when he was four years old; his father did a colour change that has stuck in his memory ever since. Between seeing Tamariz on television and his older brother’s own interest, Javi began to practice magic. It wouldn’t be until reading Ascanio’s books that he began to see magic as a beautiful form of communication; Javi could feel the passion behind Ascanio’s words and fell deeper in love with the artistic side of magic. Treating Magic as an Art Magicians often refer to magic as an art, but they don’t always treat it as such. While some magicians don’t consider why they are doing a trick, others fail to value their own and the audience’s time. Javi explains that what the audience doesn’t see is the time and effort magicians often out into their effects; by not properly presenting tricks and considering you spectator, you are doing yourself a disservice to the effort your out into the effect. In terms of bringing meaning to your effects, Javi explains that it’s not what you can say with magic but knowing what’s right to say for you. You have to be interested in what you’re saying as you cannot produce something others will be interested in if you don’t care about it yourself. At the end of the day, the magic should about you building a connection with the audience and bringing them into your world.  Movement in Magic  Drawing on what he learned while working in advertising, Javi explains that good design makes life easier. Movement in magic has the same purpose. Whether you’re physically moving or moving the spectators mind to a specific point, movement should make following the magic easier for the spectator and the magician.  After all, we are our bodies, not our hands. By only focusing on exact technique and not adapting the moves it to our entire body, we lose part of our expression alongside the clarity movement can bring into a trick.  A Positive Attitude  You need to be you, and you need to believe in you. By constantly putting yourself down and not believing in your ideas, you cannot develop in your art. That being said, however, Javi reminds the listeners that you also have to be critical. If you’re an over believer in yourself, you face similar troubles. At the end, it’s about believing and pursuing in what you think. If you don’t, you make it easier for people to change or not care about your ideas.    Wrap Up Endless Chain  Miguel Munoz What do and don’t you like about current magic? Javi enjoys that magic is seeing new ideas. With media, magic is seeing young people try creative things. It’s now not a question of where we are taking our ideas from but where are we taking the ideas to.  While Javi enjoys watching this trend, he dislikes the direction magic seems to be growing towards. The focus is more on “How did you do that?” then creating a sense of the impossible.  Take Home Point  Be totally passionate about your magic and learn everything you have to learn to be what you want to be.  Plugs Javi’s Website  Javi’s Instagram 

While in Spain, Jonah sat down with Fernando Figueras to discuss presentation, honesty in magic, and being a magic coach. Alongside being known for his rich and emotional presentation style, Fernando is also a magic coach who focuses on developing magicians’ practical performance skills.  At nineteen, Fernando was attending university for computer engineering. When he began to develop an interest in magic, he may have practiced his hacking to get into “secret” magician forums. As he delved into these forums, he began to realize magic went deeper than he first expected. He was hooked.  Fernando was never alone when learning magic. Rather than him sitting alone with a book, he attended clubs and sought out people with an itnerest in magic to develop his own skills. People warmly welcomed him, eventually becoming his ‘Maestro Amigos,’ or his mentor/friends, who lived and learned in magic with him.  Performing Magic in a Group  Fernando’s introduction to performing magic was alongside a group of magicians. Rather than a traditional approach to a magic show, Fernando and his friends created a weekly show with Monty Python-esque style of routines; at any given time, there would be at least two magicians on stage with each new scenario being woven into the preceding act. The plots were simple and their close team dynamic allowed them to create entertaining shows.  The overall goal of the show may have been to have fun, but Fernando points out he learned a lot from that experience. Roles. Blocking. Misdirection. Forgetting your ego and working with someone else to let them pull off a miracle.  Campus Magico For the past five years, Fernando has hosted a week long workshop at a cottage near Madrid, Spain. With class sizes limited to fifteen students, attendees will spend ten hours a day immersing themselves in the study of emotions, movement, creativity and metaphor in magic. There are no tricks, only practical instruction that students can apply to their overall performance.  Campus Magico started out of Fernando’s desire to share the experience he had learning magic in Spain: Magic, beer and fun. He explains that the students who have attended the workshop often leave with a new perspective and approach on magic; they realize that buying magic is not the way to improve, but deeply studying and dissecting tricks.   Crafting Reactions If you want genuine reactions, you need to be honest. Magic is an art in communication, and, through this art, you will be communicating a piece of yourself. If you’re not honest with who you are, or you don’t know who you are, it can be difficult to perform genuine magic. Fernando acknowledges that you will change as a person and feel different things at different points, but you have to be aware of these changes and how they affect your approach.  When you’re considering what sort of reaction you want from your audience, Fernando asks what is your definition of ‘reaction?’ It’s a given that you want the audience to be surprised as surprise and fascination is inherently embedded in magic; if you simply perform a trick without putting yourself into it, you didn’t really do anything to get a reaction – the trick did.  You cannot fully control the reactions of the audience; they’re going to react based on their mood and what they are willinging to take in from your magic. By being honest in what you want to express, you can let your emotions flow through your tricks. With that in mind, however, your magic should not turn into a group therapy session.  Wrap Up Endless Chain    What do you like about modern magic? What don’t you like? Fernando appreciates the level of dedication Miguel Munoz put into his FISM act; he had the honour of watching it evolve over the years as Miguel continues to polish it.   Take Home Point Try to know yourself.  Plugs Campus Magico Fernando’s Instagram 

Jonah has returned from Spain and, as souvenirs for his listeners, has brought back a number of episodes with some amazing Spanish magicians. First up is Juan Rubiales, who sat down to discuss mentors, bringing emotion into your magic, and loving yourself. Alongside being a skilled magician, Juan is also a talented caricature artist.  After being shown a magic trick at fourteen, Juan decided to perform it for his ill grandfather. Upon finishing the trick, Juan witnessed his grandfather smile for the first time in a month. Driven to recapture and share that feeling he had upon seeing his grandfather’s reaction, Juan knew he was meant to become a magician.  Not aware of magic clubs or meetings, he began to search out people who could teach him at bars. He was obsessed with learning the art. It wouldn’t be until he met a performing magician that he discovered the world of magic in Spain when he was invited to a magic club twenty minutes from them. Entering into the club, Juan was greeted by the likes of Juan Tamariz alongside those he was not familiar with at the time, but he would later learn were skilled in their own right.  Driven by Magic  After seeing his grandfather smile, Juan knew he was meant to be a magician. Magic was something bigger than him, and, to truly feel like he was living, he needed to share it with others. He landed his first reoccurring show at a theme park after showing a higher up a trick; the director proceeded to fund a stage show for him, letting him perform it multiple times a week.  However, eventually, he left it all behind. Magic had stopped being about sharing his passion for the art and quickly became about the money. Shows had just become a way to earn a paycheck for Juan, and he hated that this was true. So, he quit magic.  It wouldn’t be until two years later that Tamariz would bump into him and ask where he had been. After explaining the situation, Juan was invited to dinner with Tamariz where the two spent five hours discussing magic. Juan left that meeting with a new passion for magic and a promise to himself that he wouldn’t perform magic in a place he didn’t want to perform. Mentors Juan has had the opportunity to learn under a few mentors in Spain,  including Juan Tamariz. His mentors, however, showed him more than just magic. They taught him about life. About sharing emotions, and about understanding the audience.  If you’re looking for a mentor, Juan recommends finding someone who not only has more magic experience than you, but more life experience. A mentor should help you grow as a magician and as a person.  Being Yourself  Under his mentor, Juan learned that if he was going to truly express his emotions and soul through his magic, he would need to accept himself. Conforming to what others expect of you and hiding away what makes you you only stifles the effect of your magic. Everyone picks up ways to act from others, so it’s imperative to sit down and work out who you are. Asking friends and family to answer a few questions about you can help in sorting out you personality traits. The most important part about magic, according to Juan, is not the magician but connecting with the audience. The magic happens in their heads, so you need to be able to connect with them at a personal level to truly share your magic. Figuring out who you are is a key component to creating this connection.  To bring your personality into your magic, you have to be ready to fail. Choose a trick you love and have a connection to and fail. Then keep working to improve it, diving into research if necessary, to make it something you love performing. The failure will hurt but the effort will be worth it when you eventual perform a beautiful effect. Wrap-Up Endless Chain What do you like about modern magic? What don’t you like? Juan likes what magic online is doing it. Not only is it showcasing magic to a larger audience, but it’s giving those who are interested in magic another way to enter the art. Juan isn’t a fan of magic on television that relies heavily on stooges and editing. He’s fine with it as a form of entertainment, but he wouldn’t refer to it as magic. Take Home Point You must do the thing that you love. Don’t look at other people, just be yourself.  Plugs Juan’s Instagram  Juan’s Twitter  Juan’s Facebook  Juan’s Website Juan’s Material 

While Jonah’s away in Spain, Ben Train has infiltrated Jonah’s computer (he really needs a less obvious password). Instead of his original list “10 Weird Facts About Jonah,” Ben has decided to give you some tips on how to start your own show. So, without further ado:  Build a Team: You can’t run a show alone! Find like minded individuals who want to help create and run the show.  Find the Show’s Purpose: Simply put, what is the show about? Are you putting on an open mic or a classy parlour affair?  Learn Your Audience You can’t please everyone. Learn who your audience is so you can better design and market your show.  Pick a Name: And make it memorable. You need a name that is interesting, expresses what the show is about, and is unique – you don’t want your audience to confuse you with other brands that have the same name. Find a Venue A free venue to be exact. Find a place that serves your show’s needs. A lot of venues will gladly welcome free entertainment.  Create Graphics Anywhere you advertise needs a graphic. Remember that some of the places you advertise on will require different dimensions.  Take Photos A picture is worth a thousand words! Take photos of visual magic and the audience to share on social media. Investing in a photographer i Invest in Production Value  Start with a mic. Not only will your audience be able to hear you, it’ll raise the perceived professionalism of your show.  After that you can consider purchasing lights, speakers, backdrops, etc.  Sell Tickets  You’ll probably rely on friends and family starting out. But, once you put together a good show and start advertising, you will start to draw the public’s attention. Just be realistic about your audience numbers! Produce a Good Show  Flashy graphics and photos will only get you so far. You want people to not only experience an amazing magic show, but you want them to tell their friends about it.  At the end of the day, you need to just go out and do it. You’ll learn as you go, and you might even find that some of Ben’s advice isn’t right for you. Just give it a shot! And let us know if you’re putting one on – Ben promises that Jonah will personally come down to perform on your lineup. Shout out to the Magic Lab in Boston which has its debut show December 5th! 

It’s a minisode this week! Jonah recently sat down with math tutor Vanessa Vakharia on her podcast, Math Therapy, to work through his math-related traumas. If you hate math, this is the perfect podcast for you! If you’re interested in hearing the full episode or still need more math therapy, you can find the full episode list on the Math Guru website. You can even find the homework Jonah was prescribed to help him come to terms with his math trauma. The following clip was pulled from Episode 3: A Mathemagical Crisis.