Nik's Occasional Blog

Derren Brown - Svengali

2011-04-06T22:53:00.000+01:00

How do you talk about a show when you’ve promised not to tell?

I went to see it in Bradford yesterday, and my verdict is simply that fans of the impish Mr Brown will love the show as it ticks all the boxes that you’d expect to be ticked.

I found myself doing a lot of audience watching during the show and it was wonderfully apparent that the mind monger had them in the palm of his hand.

The show does feel that it has a lighter touch than previous shows, maybe because Andy Nyman’s not involved? But saying that there’s always a darker second half… There’s even a bit of ‘bizarre’ in it as well…

I’m deliberately switching off my thinking-too-much-magician-brain for this one, but with my thinking-too-much-drama-academic-brain remains on and I do feel that there are some minor problems with the dramaturgy of the show … but who am I to criticise, I am a mere brass cog in the great steampunk machine …

There I said nothing.

Well certainly very little.

Paranormality

2011-03-06T22:18:00.001+00:00

It’s been a week in which, between lurking various forums watching several pitched battles between mystery entertainers and men with sponge bunnies, I’ve been reading Richard Wiseman’s new pop-psychology book Paranormality. It was an interesting journey.

Fresh from the general grumpiness I felt after reading Sleights of Mind (see previous blog post), I didn’t hold out much hope for Paranormality. Wiseman’s stance of the ‘sceptical magician’ had me worried, were we going to get an exposure fest in the glorious name of science?

Not quite, which is a good thing.

Wiseman does go into some stuff, but it’s not problematic and is dealt with in such a fluffy, pop psyche way there’s little to be annoyed about. In fact, if you know where to look there’s some creative mileage in the waiting to be exploited by the mystery entertainer. I’ve been left with a few ideas, something I didn’t expect from a book like this. And to be honest it’s a fun read.

I didn’t like the conclusion though; Wiseman’s notion of wonder is also another man’s mundanity, Come on, there is room for ambiguity; there is room for magic.

Putting the tricks back into magic - Sleights of Mind: Magic and Neuroscience

2011-02-09T21:07:00.002+00:00

I’ve been spending the last few days trying to like the Sleights of Mind. I simply can’t. I’m not convinced that this ‘popular science’ book does any favours to the art of magic. It may have grand ideas and grand science behind it, but it trivialises magic back into mere tricks, and then exposes them – sometimes alarmingly so. This trivialisation was all the more apparent to me when I saw the cartoon style feature/advert for the book in a newspaper supplement; entitled the ‘real secrets of magic’ it concentrated solely on exposure.
However, exposure isn’t the biggest problem for me – it’s the uneasy feeling I get when I see magic turned into mere tricks – or as the authors call it ‘head hacking’. The magicians who collaborated with the authors are firmly in the ‘magic is all tricks’ camp, but no consideration is given to magicians who want to move away from magic being seen as tricks and puzzles with solutions. What is wrong with going to a performance of magic, suspending disbelief and for the duration actually enjoy the experience of magic? Having your mind read? Seeing spirit messages appear?
Similarly, many magicians structure their entire act by creating a worldview that suggests that magic happens by other means (I’m being deliberately cagey here) – there is no space for that it this book. The view of magic it puts across is cold, clinical and silly. It’s almost like watching a magician perform and after each effect someone come outs and tells you how the ‘trick’ was done. For me that’s not what magic should be about.
I find the philosophy of exposure in the final chapter worrying, and I’m disappointed how it seems to disregard other genres of performance magic(k). (Think back to some of Penn’s comments during the ‘Fool Us’ TV show.)

Even so, I doubt this book will do much harm to our art. I just find this singular view of magic problematic.

Also see my TAM 7 blog entry.

Gift Magic (2)

2011-02-07T20:48:00.001+00:00

A book all about generosity we can find in magic; how we can be generous in our performance and also how we can be generous by sharing our creativity with other magical artists. It's simple subtitle 'Performances that Leave People with Souvenir' belies a much deeper treatise on gifting magic. From gentle subtleties like the placing of a spectator's hands, to important discourse on the nature of our art. There is real milage in this kind of thinking; to quote the cover; 'subtle secrets that will make [...] performances unforgettable.'

Gift Magic

2011-02-04T21:59:00.000+00:00

I'll probably blog about Gift Magic soon, in the meantime I wanted to share this from one of the chapters;

I would say that as magicians, as artists, it is important that our giving is not only created, but performed. Indeed, magic is a performing art. It is odd to have to underscore this fact, but again, in our market-driven magic subculture, we see many people refer to themselves as magicians when all they do is produce product to buy and sell. We have become too tolerant of the extension of the word "magician' to people who are essentially salesmen. They might "perform" on the download, on the DVD, or at the magic lecture, but it is just a means to the ends of market values. I think it might be time for us who care about magic to be a little more discriminating about who we call a magician. Creating a download, selling a trick, demoing a trick, teaching a trick so you can sell it, probably doesn't make a person a magician. On the contrary, a magician, a magical artist, is someone who performs, he or she is a performing artist. They perform hopefully inspired and creative artworks in an inspired and creative way. They seek to "give on" in their own way the gifts they have received from other people, other artists, and artworks.

- Hass, L. ed., 2010. On Giving, Magic & Giving Magic. In Gift Magic. Theory and Art of Magic Press.

Gift Magic is available from Theory and Art of Magic Press.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

2011-01-31T20:34:00.001+00:00

Being a meandering ramble about not going to Blackpool Convention and my ongoing attempts at not being drawn into the passive consumerism of magic buying.

It’s going to feel strange not going to the Blackpool Convention this year. I won’t be going because I have another project on at the same time, and besides the whole FISM thing doesn’t really appeal to me. But, my main reason feeling a little sad about not going is that I’ll actually miss the Dealers’ Hall. It’s a chance to really see how stuff works, by this I mean how effects really perform when properly demonstrated and most importantly whether the effect is something I’ll actually use. So many effects these days are hyped beyond belief and priced beyond belief. The carefully angled video looks great, but in reality you’re going to pay around £25 for a DVD of a single old unusable technique and you’re going to be disappointed. The snake oil salesmen of the online magic shop will have you believe that you can heal the world with their latest effect. You can’t, and a fool is easily parted with their money.
Perpetuating the flimflam is the snake oil salesman’s hidden assistant the friendly reviewer, who for one reason or the other will happily invent positive things on whatever forum they can get on about the effect. I really dislike that kind of dishonesty. Of course, some reviews go the other way, being uncomfortably venomous about a particular product due to having some axe to grind somewhere. This is just as dishonest.
Review the product in an honest way. The key here is to be genuine; if you are genuinely excited by something great, if you genuinely dislike something great – say it like it is.
That’s why I like the Dealer’s Hall, because a snake oil salesman can always spot another snake oil salesman and the façade drops. More often than not I’ve found honesty in the madness of the crowds (and if you’ve ever been to Blackpool you’ll know what I mean about crowds, and if you’ve been in the Ruskin Bar you’ll know about madness) and I’m able to make rational decisions on whether I’ll actually use the product and whether it is any good.
In many ways I might be a dealer’s nightmare, I don’t buy stuff for the sake of it or to simply own it. I don’t perform a different effect each week (badly) for my mates down the pub and I only buy what I think I may perform. Ironically, I have still managed to collect a box of junk that I know I’ll end up never using, but I’m sure it’s less than most. And I still yearn for a time when I can afford a truly beautiful piece that is more treasured artefact than performable effect. Perhaps I just don’t have as much disposable income?
I like to think I’m carefully selective.

I don’t really know why I started this blog post, but in the haze of a recently passed migraine attack I began to ponder all things to with this magic lark. Perhaps what I’m calling for from dealers and magicians alike is more honesty, less hype and more quality. And there is quality out there and some great artisans of effects (you know who you are.)
I honestly don’t know, perhaps I’m just lamenting because I’m won’t be endlessly circulating the stifling Dealer’s Hall looking for that little gem I’ve never wanted.
Perhaps I’m simply a bit grumpy tonight, oh I don’t know why these things bother me so.

The Magicians – BBC One

2011-01-01T21:02:00.001+00:00

Let's start the year with a hastily written bit of rantage ...

The Magician is a maker of miracles, the Magician should have a privileged position on the stage, the Magician makes magic happen. We often talk of bad magicians diluting the mystery of magic by simply performing tricks poorly for all and sundry. But what happens when good magicians sign-up to a format designed to cheapen their otherwise great magic into mere tricks?

The BBC pulled it out of their hats with the terrible show The Magicians. There is no need to have celebrities being paired with magicians, there is no need to use a weak competition format, and there is no need for Lenny Henry as host.

A magic show should feature the magician, effects should not be introduced as tricks, and it is not a bloody competition. Why did the beeb not give us a Magic Show? What happened at the meeting when the show was pitched? When does the ideas machine collapse?

“I know let’s do a magic show … but wait let’s add celebs and a competitive format, because let’s face it, our audience is stupid and we could trick them into thinking it’s reality TV – I mean that’s still big, isn’t it? Let’s get Lenny Henry to host, I mean he can put them up in one of his cheap hotels, right? In fact, let’s keep the whole thing cheap, right down to the gaffa tape. And just to make it really cheap let’s use dialogue from the Eurovision Song Contest Presenter’s Joke Book. “

The Magicians isn’t about the magicians. If it was it would be great as the magicians on there are great performers. The Magicians is all in the format, and the format sucks.

What a way to start a new year.

Ok rant over.

The Mystic Menagerie Issue 2

2010-09-20T22:00:00.001+01:00

The communication orb seemed to throb gently in front of the Magician, its diffuse blue glow straying into the flickering half light of the candles guttering on the table. A table strewn with the paraphernalia of arcane and occult practices. A shape began to slowly emerge within the crystal orb. The Magician leant forward, as across the ether the latest issue of Mystic Menagerie was forming, sent on its way by a force known only as the Internet.

Blimey, just went all ‘old school’ bizarre there. But I couldn’t help it. My name is Nik Taylor and I am a Bizarrist. There I said it. While I spend most of my time trying to work out what it means to perform Bizarre Magick, I don’t think I’m alone in seeing a resurgence in this genre of performance magic(k). Indeed some would argue that it never went away ...

These days we are seeing a number of new initiatives to revive the darks arts; Doomsday 2010 at Whitby demonstrated the range and scope of creative energy in the world of the bizarre and now we have the ‘occasional e-zine‘ The Mystic Menagerie. I suspect many of you would have downloaded the first issue simply because it was free. If you didn’t you should. I hope most downloaders were pleasantly surprised with the content.

Issue 2 - Front Cover

Well, now issue 2 is released and for sale exclusively from www.lebanoncircle.co.uk and it does not disappoint. Dan Baines’ Corpse Candle is worth the amazing cover price alone; A great idea for creating ‘spook lights’. This item is covered in great detail and fills eighteen pages! It has step by step details with accompanying photographs showing exactly how to make and operate the lights. I’m certainly going to experiment with these for a project I have in mind next year.

This issue also features strong effects by Graham Yates and Paul Prater. Key to these effects is framing and the performance of the story is the thing. In this sense I would argue that these items fall into a form of traditional bizarre magick where established effects are taken out of their comfort zone and given a new lease of life as part of a grander narrative. Anyone familiar with Invocation and New Invocation will know that this can be done very well or very badly. I’m happy to say these two effects fall into the former category.

Freddie Valentine edits the e-zine and contributes a number of short articles concerning the performance of the bizarre, often raising many of the eternal questions about our art. I particularly liked his collected review of Black Hart products. I really welcome this kind of thing, as I remember my first visit to the Black Hart catalogue and thinking, ‘hmm, where do I start?’. This article would have answered those questions.

Bertoneski sticks it all together and contributes a great little postscript entitled ‘The Bit at the Back’ it’s like a Stumbleupon or a Digg for bizarrists and has loads of stuff you’ll want to follow up.

The Mystic Menagerie Issue 2 is well worth a download. I can see this one going from strength to strength and I hope it gains support and a strong readership. Great stuff.

Doomsday

2010-05-09T13:15:00.007+01:00

It's great to have a note in my diary that says May 8th is "Doomsday". No I haven't been privy to some new research into the Mayan calendar, but rather lucky enough to get one of the sought after tickets to the inaugural Bizarre Magick UK Doomsday Gathering in Whitby. The setting itself was rather bizarre; Sneaton Castle, part of St Hilda's Priory and the Order of the Holy Paraclete, an Anglican religious community. The black garbed, pentacle wearing bizarrists raised a few eyebrows, and there was a sense that we were indeed the dark tricksters on site.

Sadly, I couldn't get to the Friday's shenanigans, but judging by Evie, Tristan and Lyndon's demeanor coupled with rumours of pendulums, spirits and pot-noodle, a good night was had by all.

On Saturday Alain the Storyteller (Frank Allen) opened, and closed, the proceedings with a wonderful ceremony that demonstrated why he is one of the best bizarre performers in the UK today.

The day was MC-ed by Michael Diamond who introduced our first lecturer of the day; Roger Curzon. Roger's lecture took us through some very workable material, and introduced new takes on some established effects. His performance was warm and humorous and a great start to the day.

We then had an extended lunchbreak to chat, browse the dealers and be told off by the nuns for sitting on the wrong side of the refectory!

Breaks were plentiful throughout the day and this added to the friendliness of the event. It felt like you had plenty of time to have a cup of coffee, socialise and eat holy ginger biscuits. I had great chats with Frank, Paul, Ashton, Dan, Roni, etc. etc. The sense of community was excellent.

The afternoon started with a lovely tongue-in-cheek performance by Brian Maxwell. This was followed, after the break, with a very interesting lecture by Robert Allen. I spoke to Robert at length about his approach to developing a bizarre/storytelling piece of theatre, his lecture helped illustrate his thoughts and he agreed to talk to me further about his approach (I feel a case study for my research coming on).

Steve Murray then took the stage for a performance set involving the cleansing of a witch and the divining of spirits. Steve's act showed some strong creative thinking in subtly linking several effects into a whole concept.

The final act was Leslie Melville (William Warlock) who gave us excerpts from his new gothic storytelling show. I was entranced with the simple beauty of his spirit glass!

The day was simultaneously exciting and exhausting. I've learnt many new secrets (mostly involving Morrisons or Wilco) and have come away several ideas for future projects.

My diary has a new date, Doomsday II.

Too Many ideas, can I find the time?

2010-03-21T21:43:00.003+00:00

I'm about four weeks behind on an article I'm trying to write, but I think that's to be expected considering it's been a hectic 10 week term! I know I need to get my head down and finish it, but, as usual, I have several ideas I want to play with next. The trick will be to keep focused on this task before moving on.

However, I must admit I am doing a bit of multi-tasking as well; I'm in the process of carefully scripting some effects, preparing something about magic and the researcher and kick-starting my mindfulness practice again. Only then will I be allowed to think about the next two projects I have in mind.

Things are going to be quite different for me in the second half of this year, so I'm going to need to be a planning ninja.

I'm also going to try and blog some of this work a but more regularly, but most of it might be put in the 'private area'.

Which reminds me, I'm off there now.

Back to the Magick

2010-01-30T13:43:00.004+00:00

Wow, it's been a busy/hectic/intensive three weeks. I've been working with a great bunch of students on their third year perfromance. Here I am on stage with them in rehearsal.

This was always going to be three weeks away from my magick research, but it's back to the dusty tomes with a vengeance. And to kick-start it all Dr Todd will be performing in the very studio you see above. Box office tells me that the show is a sell-out, which is great news.

Looking across my desk I see that I have about 11,000 pages of research material to get through and an article to write. (I've made a plan)

On another note, we have a new kitten at Taylor Towers™. I left it to the students to name him and they chose Houdini. So Houdini it is, already shortened to Houdy most of the time. He's currently trying to chew my mouse cable, and yesterday he somehow managed to send a tweet! (I haven't yet decoded the message.) Here's a photo for all you cat fans out there.

Right, time to prepare for the closing night!

An Evening of Metaphysical Magic

2010-01-02T14:56:00.004+00:00

It's going to be an exciting year with the first Magic event of 2010 scheduled February. We are very happy to welcome Dr. Todd who will be bringing his show An Evening of Metaphysical Magic to The University of Huddersfield on the 4th of February. This is an event not to be missed so book now!

An Evening of Metaphysical Magic
Deja vu? Coincidence? Statistical Probability? Or something more?

Date: Thursday, 04 February 2010
Time: 19:30 - 22:00
Location: Milton Theatre, Studio One. The University of Huddersfield.

An evening of brain-boggling investigations into the universe, reality and the inner workings of the mind.

Tickets: £5.00 / £3.00 (concessions)

For further details and to book contact The Box Office: miltonboxoffice@hud.ac.uk

Here's a link to the event on Facebook.

Horror

2009-12-20T12:24:00.003+00:00

It's been a hectic term at University and as usual my thinking about magic took a back seat (I really need to get this work/magic balance sorted out). I'm currently forming some ideas on bizarre/horror magic (deadline March 2010) as well as being in the early stages of planning a series(?) of seances with Start Nolan (deadline All Hallow's Eve 2010). Oh, and I'm still in dialogue with the publisher concerning the 'secret project', so far documents keep bouncing backwards and forwards.

I did find time to attend Tabula Mentis VI and had an inspiring day. I'm hoping to be able to get down to London for the next one, but I'll see what the new year brings.

Remember Dr. Todd is performing at the University of Huddersfield on the 4th Feburary 2010; Be there!

Lavater - The Shadow of History

2009-10-14T15:10:00.003+01:00

For one night only - 13th November 2009 - 7.30pm.

The noted physiognomist Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) returns for one night only to reclaim his place at the centre of European culture, armed with magic lantern, silhouette apparatus and a curious tale of photographic experimentation in his Zürich cellar. Lavater was a contradictory figure of the late Enlightenment – a churchman who believed in magic – and his influential Essays on Physiognomy created a fashion for silhouette portraiture that outlasted his arcane, deterministic theories, and establish him as a significant prototype photographer. This presentation includes lantern slides, audience involvement and live photographic experiment.

Simon Warner is a photographer, artist filmmaker and researcher into the history of photography and visual media. With a NESTA Fellowship he has created a series of impersonations of European cultural figures: Goethe, Daguerre, Lavater and Herschel. His Lavater presentation was included in the Arts Council England touring exhibition Alchemy . Recent projects include Victorian photography residencies at the Brontë Parsonage and Florence Nightingale Museums, and silhouette drawing installations for The Last Tuesday Society and The House of Fairy Tales. Simon is currently artist in residence on the No.36 bus between Leeds and Ripon, courtesy of Harewood House, PSL [Project Space Leeds] and Transdev Harrogate & District.

Invocation

2009-09-22T13:10:00.001+01:00

I’ve had a fascinating time indulging in a close reading of Invocation/New Invocation magazine the seminal publication for Bizarre Magick. The Invocation edited by Anthony Raven (Bob Lynn) ran for 16 issues from July 1974 to April 1978. Then as the New Invocation for 61 issues edited by Masklyn Ye Mage (Tony Andruzzi) from October 1979 to February 1991. After which Docc Hilford took the helm for a further 22 issues.

I’ve only been able to examine the Raven and Mage years as the HIlford issues are yet to be republished (apparently Deceptions Unlimited are working on an edition), but the issues I have looked at tell of a remarkable time in magic(k) performance. A real movement away from the entertainment magic of the day, giving some original thinking on all aspects of bizarre performance. The publication shows us the development of this thinking, from the bizarre to the goetic to the ‘sound gothic revival’.

Max Maven states in his forward to Volume 2 that ‘[here] you will find a wide range of material....Most of it is crap.’ I rejoice in this crapness as many of the effects represent a vibrant period of experimentation on subjects then untouched by magicians. Issue 61 serves as a footnote to all that hard work with its series of essays that represent a state of the art photograph of the genre.

Invocation and New Invocation represent a history of delightfully subversive magickal thought, but shouldn’t be seen in isolation. The reader must return to the pages of Magick or the various books published by the regular columnists. Bizarre magick is a complex and exciting phenomenon that ‘gave back to magicians their identity’ (Minch). Elements of the bizarre are still with us today, and just as popular.

Electronics for Magicians (review)

2009-07-26T14:15:00.003+01:00

Electronics for Magicians by Jon Thompson

At The Amazing Meeting Seven this year there was a fascinating presentation by Steve Bauer who talked about winding up the estate of Jerry Andrus and in particular the incredible and eccentric inventions and gizmos found in the Andrus house, called the Castle of Chaos. I like to think Jon Thompson has a similar gaff, filled with electronic bits and bobs, and the air heavy with the smell of melting solder. That’s how an inventor’s place should be like.

Now I haven’t played with electronics for many years. In fact my soldering iron is gathering dust on the shelf and my bags of resistors, transistors and capacitors are lost in the Narnian depths at the back of a wardrobe somewhere. However, after reading Electronics for Magicians I’m going to dig all my old kit out.

This ebook is excellent for people new to electronics and people who know the pain that a burn from soldering iron can give. It provides perhaps the clearest introduction to the world of electronics I have read for a long time (So clear that I am considering buying a couple more copies and ‘censoring’ the magic out them and giving them to a couple of technical theatre students of mine.)

Components, circuits and the possibilities for magicians are explained in good depth and plenty of ideas are given as to how to use them in practice. A couple of projects are given, but as Chapter Seven suggests the key here is your creativity in using the electronics to your own ends. I’m certainly inspired to make, create and invent.

http://stores.lulu.com/booksbytomo

Recommended.

Leaving Las Vegas

2009-07-12T20:39:00.001+01:00

I really enjoyed the Amazing Meeting 7 this weekend, and I didn’t need to go to Las Vegas for it. OK, so I would have gone to Vegas if I could, but the power of the interweb allowed me to watch it all online.

I was particularly fascinated by the panel discussion on Magic and Scepticism. A bit of a circular debate, but central to it was the problem of ethics in mental magic. More specifically do we need to tell the truth when we perform? Do we add disclaimers, and do we lie in our disclaimers? The Panel, unsurprisingly argued for the truth teller. Questioning the performances of Banachek and Derren Brown and hoping that everyone would come completely clean eventually. To paraphrase Penn “we do F***ing magic tricks”.

I’m still not sure as to where I stand in the debate. Ethics is something I wrestle with whenever I write or perform. But I appreciate that “lying” has a place in all performance work, but there are degrees to this and a scale as to what may or may not be acceptable. I’m certainly uncomfortable when spectators are drawn in beyond the level of seeing me as a trickster and we slip into the realm of the pseudo-psychic. Hasty re-writing and looking at my audience management is usually needed, but sometimes it’s purely because the spectator is in a position to want to believe.

Magicians do have an ethical responsibility, but we are also Magicians this often means juggling a complex performance persona.

Spiggie xxx

2009-07-08T21:08:00.002+01:00

We lost Spiggie today.

Sleep well my little monster xxxx

Fortune Telling with Playing Cards

2009-06-28T20:46:00.003+01:00

I found some wonderful fortune-telling cards today.

As far as I can tell it's a Nile 68x deck from the US Playing Card Co. c.1904, but distributed in this country by Foulsham & Co as The Gypsy Bijou Deck. BUT Foulsham & Co. also had a deck out in 1910 called the Gypsy Bijou with was very different having 36 illustrated cards. The art work on my deck box is the same, however the words "Made in the USA" appear on my box, whereas the 1910 box didn't have that printed on it. So did Foulsham briefly sell the Nile 68x as the Gypsy Bijou deck around 1904, before making their own deck in 1910? The Box I have looks a lot like the original Nile 68x box, but with a Foulsham label.

I'm not sure of their UK history, but I'm loving these cards.

monstrous media/spectral subjects

2009-06-26T13:12:00.002+01:00

Hoping to get a good lot of writing done for monstrous media/spectral subjects conference in July.

Myself and Stuart Nolan are presenting a paper and performing around the subject of bizarre magic.

Stuart has started a thread at Magic Cafe, but it seems to have moved on to talk about gothic youth culture, rather than the gothic.
The Thread can be found here:
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=318667&forum=14&17

Believe it or not this was my first post on Magic Cafe!

As a fellow presenter and performer at the said conference, I though I’d chip into the thread. (And as my first post)

I think it's really important not to blur Gothic (youth?) Sub-culture with Gothic (literature based?) themes. Yes, you can argue for a cross-over, but the themes of excess /transgression/the sublime should be separated for the purposes of analysis.

The meta-language/meta-narrative dramaturgy of the bizarre performer is perhaps the most complex in magic, but it simultaneously and delightfully simple.

The construction of the performance text of the bizarre magician, in my mind has very little to do with the construction of the performance text of a band like the "Sisters of Mercy" (Who are the best and only true goth band ever )

But inevitably going back to Goth (youth?) culture and ‘embracing the butcher’; this died as soon it became commercial, in much the same way as punk. So-called Goth bands borrow more freely from a wider circle of themes derived, in the main, from commercial sources.

Yours being delightfully ambiguous and circling my arguments,

Nik

Blogger? Oh yeah.

2009-06-07T21:48:00.002+01:00

In the midst of twittering I've realised that I have neglected my little blog here.

Shame really as I quite enjoyed writing here, perhaps I've re-discovered you Mr. Blog?

I'm a very busy chap at the moment, deep into PhD research, re-designing the Viz Suite, looking at sideshows for the L*** P***** project, preparing a new bizarre magic act + writing a paper with Stuart and finishing up what's been a busy academic year. Hardly time to catch my breath really.

I need to be organised !

So maybe I will write more, but for now ... it's Twitter lol

Define Magic

2009-04-04T09:31:00.007+01:00

Can you define "magic" in 120 characters or less including spaces?

An event so extraordinary that I don't care how it occurred, I just lose myself in the wonderment of its effect. MurrayMoss

Recreating reality KellyJS

A trick or illusion that is considered magical by observers. E Gibbs

An act that defies or broadens our perceptions of how the world works. D Calvert

sufficiently advanced technology Harry Harrold

A suitably skilled display of some sorts which incorporates an illusion and beguiles the masses. yetidave

Completely fake but gets people squeeling like a demented pig if performed correctly. Ruth J

Magic = making something impossible out of what you have. Ie something out of nothing or v little Tittch

being able to do the impossible Iain

The art of astonishment Replicant

Magic is the beguiling offspring of true effect and false cause, created to masquerade as an impossible whole. Tomo

taking the practical and making it look impossible magicdiscoman

The illusion of impossibility M Jay

Making the impossible possible wiffyboy

Magic is The Most Beautiful Art Form, which is created from within the circumstance, and which happens in the moment G Williams

watching your head grow and then shrink. C Ellis

Magic. A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. A Ratcliffe (via W Churchill)

How Magic Began

2009-02-09T12:38:00.003+00:00

It's been a great morning organising and writing the script for a performance I'm delivering in March. It's a "performed paper", to lay-people, all about my research into Performance Magic. I'm talking about lots of things in the paper, but a key focus will be Ali Bongo's book of Magic from 1981 and the magic I performed when I was a kid.

This was, and still is, my favourite book on magic. The Introduction, which also begins the performance, sums up magic beautifully;

How Magic Began

Thousands of years ago, one of the first cavemen discovered that banging two flint stones together produced sparks which would light a fire. To the other members of his tribe he would have seemed like a great magician, able to create fire, just like the lightning which came out of the sky.

Ever since, people have been trying to make things happen that are contrary to the laws of nature. This constant search for the strange and curious was the beginning of all scientific knowledge we have today. Many of the first wise men and scientists used their knowledge to make other people think that they had great and mysterious powers. Other men found that they could use the same secrets to amaze people and make them laugh. These were the first magical performers. In this book, you will learn some of those secrets, and will then be able to baffle and amuse your friends with magic.

Magicians make things happen which seem impossible to explain in scientific terms. For instance, no scientist has yet been able to rub a silver coin on his elbow and change it to a lump of gold, or cut a ribbon in half, and join it again perfectly – unless, of course, he also happens to be a magician, and has learned the secrets you will read about in this book.

But there is much more to the wonderful world of magic than just learning secrets. You can be a performer, and have fun entertaining others. You can enjoy making your own magical apparatus, and feel a great sense of satisfaction when it all works. You can also invent new tricks, collect old magic books and apparatus, and meet other magicians through special clubs and societies.

Because magic is so popular, you will find all kinds of people make it their hobby. Wherever you go, magic will bring you many friends and a lot of Pleasure. (Ali Bongo, 1981)

Great stuff!

Good Monday

2009-01-26T16:39:00.002+00:00

It's been a good day of writing today, and lo I am pleased.

I can tick another step of one project, and await news from the publishers.

And I can happily say I've moved on with my presentation project nicely. Although, it may have another title. I'm thinking of calling it Ali Bongo and Me, although at this rate the title is changing weekly.

So just checking in with my blog, before going downstairs to play some banjo.

Excellent

Multi-tasking

2009-01-19T14:41:00.003+00:00

Spent the day working on a couple of projects - separated with a cheese on toast lunch (does that count towards your five a day?) - Mainly thinking about the structure of my up coming performance in early March. I don't really want to blog too much about it, because it's still in those planning stages and I'm in a kind of "circling" the wagons research mode at the moment.

I have a different research deadline next week that requires a different academic head on so I've made some notes on that and will need to mull.

Can't find my reading head!