INVENTARIO

His new book is re-freshing for a book inthe magic world.

and form opinions about, but my book only takes theo-ry as far as we need to enhance readers’ understanding of the practical steps to take to improve their magic.

RW: You ask in the introduction, what would be the ONE thing that the reader could change that would improve their magic overnight.

AM: Yes, and I’m not going to answer that here…

but it’s one thing that people are seldom aware of.

Most people answer that question with “more finance”,

“bigger tricks”, “more time” or something like that, but it’s actually simpler than any of that—cheaper too—

and most people don’t even realise it’s a problem. I guess the whole book is geared towards helping them change that one thing.

RW: You start the book by getting the reader to establish exactly what they’re expecting to earn from magic and you talk pretty tough about peo-ple’s prospects, even asking them to do a personal budget…can you talk about that?

AM: I think if you’re thinking of turning profes-sional, you have to go into it with your eyes open.

And you have to treat it as a business. Most peo-ple going into a business are pretty hard-headed about what they need out of it and as they say in the classics, ‘while no-one “plans to fail, many people fail to plan”. I think it’s just a good idea to know exactly what you’re in for before you start.

RW: Should it be everyone’s aim do you think to become professionals?

AM: Absolutely not. It certainly doesn’t suit every-one for a number of reasons, many of which I discuss in the book. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a professional demeanour and be a professional in every other sense of the word. I think my book will help you develop a professional edge whether or not it’s making you money, and I think magic will be better for it.

RW: Then you take us into trick theory and ask us to reconsider the tricks we do. You start by creat-ing a new list of standard effects which differs from Fitzkee, Neale and all the others who’ve had a go at it, but you have a slightly different take on it?

AM: I think any categorisation of effects needs to in-clude effects that the audience sees, not just a technical list of what’s methodologically possible. My list doesn’t categorise effects just for the sake of doing so, but it turns the list into a sort of creative springboard, be-cause it incorporates what the audience sees, so as well as neatly categorising the tricks, it can suggest different presentational approaches as well.

RW: And you claim to have solved the problem of what a “commercial” trick is.

AM: I don’t know whether I’ve “solved” it, but I do thimnk there’s been too much emphasis on the “com-mercialism” or lack thereof being an universal, objec-tive measurement and I think that’s why the term has become so muddied. In fact any definition of commer-cialism HAS to incorporate the performer’s own specific situation and environment. For instance, if you’re a per-former who mostly travels to gigs on public transport, an illusion is NEVER going to be a “commercial” proposi-tion for you, because you can’t take it anywhere.

RW: But isn’t “commercial” a term that’s usually inferred to mean it has a kind of “universal appeal”?

AM: Well, yes and I think that’s the problem…in the book, I have seven questions that all have to be an-swered “Yes” or “Probably” in order to consider a trick to be commercial or not. Some of those are about audi-ence appeals and others are more prosaic. I think it’s that mix of factors, so hopefully the book will help top clarify that term.

RW: And that’s important because…

AM: Well, I encourage people to only deal with the

tricks they do all the time. I have, and I don’t think I’m alone here, several hundred tricks, but there’s a MUCH smaller number that I actu-ally perform regularly. I think it was Eugene Berger who equated the smaller the number of tricks in our repertoire, the better magician we’re likely to be! And if you care about your audiences, those tricks, for you, will be selected from those that score highly on the “Commer-cial Index”

RW: Tell us about the Four Ps…

AM: I think you can divide any trick into four distinct presenta-tional phases—I call them the Four Ps. They are Premise, Preparation, Prestidigitation and Proof. Once you accept that, you can really start top play wioth your presentations, because sometimes you can skip or combine phases and often, if a trick is not quite getting the reaction you think it should be, it’s phase-related.

RW: Or just a bad trick!

AM: Well absolutely, yes, but even a bad trick can probably be improved with some phase work!

RW: Then you use your back-ground as an actor and writer to start looking at how to create acts and shows.

AM: I start from the very basic questions you have to ask like who the show is for and where you’ll be performing it and then delve into that murky area of why…

RW: Does magic need a reason to be do you think?

AM: I think certainly structured shows do, yes. We look at Audience Appeals in the book (giving yet another of poor old Dariel Fitzkee’s works a workover!) and I think one of the most important reasons people still seek out entertainment these days is relatability—I think we’re all looking for metaphorical versions of our own lives up there.

But of course, not everything we do has to drip with subtext. The look on a child’s face when you make a coin vanish and reappear in their collar is all the magic that’s needed some-times. But with a formal structured act, I think it’s good to have at least a latent theme, even if only for the performer’s intentions to be clear.

RW: Then you go on to cover practice and rehearsal, scripting and range of other related materi-al to whip the show into order. Do you think most magicians don’t already do that?

AM: I’ve heard just about every justification there is for NOT doing this kind of work. People have told me they don’t rehearse because they want to be “fresh” on the night, and that they don’t script anything for the same reason. Unfortunately, when you see their shows, that’s all very obvious…it looks like amateur-night! By the same token, it’s very hard to script a mentalism performance, because so much of what goes on onstage, is up to the volunteers whose minds you read, so there’s got to be a balance.

RW: It’s a bit unusual for a professional magician to actually tip his whole act, which you have done in the section on the Com-mando Act. Why did you do that?

AM; I wanted to put together a back-up act that was more or less indistinguishable from my regular stage act and when I was research-ing that, I’d come across lots of advice, but it would ALL stop short of sharing exactly what effects were in there, except Jeff McBride’s contribution. And I’d read things like Billy McComb carrying five 50-min-ute acts around in a briefcase, but no-one ever said what they were!

So I put my act together, focusing on weight and size (which I’d NEVER done before) and built my version.

I share it because I don’t want my readers to feel the frustration I did when I was looking for help.

RW: Do you think there’ll be carbon copies of your act every-where though?

AM: Well, some tricks on the trick list are my own and most of them have original routines, so I don’t think so…but we’ll see!

RW: In fact there’s only one trick in the whole book isn’t there? And even that is quite an old one…

AM: Yes, but who knew it was such a wonderful accessory? When you do the work, even very old stuff can become gold. I was so excited by the depth of what I found with that one, old, mostly discarded prop! I hope others will be able to do the same with other props!

RW: Well, I’m sure with your book, they’ll be set on the right path. Adam, good luck with the book, I think it will do very well, it certainly deserves it.

AM: From you, Richard, that’s an extraordinary compliment. Thank you.

Real Secrets: The key to professional magic

By Adam Milgate

Published by Stevens Publishing Price: $65.00 postpaid in US.

DAGGER CHEST

Effect:

Three daggers or knives are showed on a stand, with their blades facing up. The magician explains that one dagger is real and that the other two have a retractable blade, such as those used in theatres or in the movies.

The magician explains the spectator will point at one dagger and the magi-cian will stick it in his chest, showing that it is a false one. Then, he will do the same with the other. To achieve this, the magician will mentally lead the participant to choose the retract-able daggers. As a finale, he explains, he will stab the last one on the table to show it´s a real knife.

The volunteer chooses one dagger, the performer holds it and immedi-ately sticks it in his chest; but when he takes out his hand, the dagger remains stuck. Next, the magician presses the blades of the remaining daggers in the stand and they are both retractable. Fatal mistake?

Material needed:

A wooden stand to put the three knives.

Three retractable knives or daggers, those (sold at magic stores as a gag) Six powerful neodymium magnets and a metal sheet to put under the clothes.

A NOVEL

ROUTINE BY

THE COMEDY

MINDS OF REY

BEN & QUIQUE

MARDUK.

THE DAGGER CHEST

ONE & A HALF IS COMEDY DUO RE Y BEN AND QUIQUE MARDUK . TOGE THER THE Y PERFORM THR OUGHOUT SOUTH AMERIC A AND THE USA. HERE THE Y PRESENT THEIR ORIGINAL IDEA USING THREE DAGGERS.

Preparation:

Prepare a metal sheet of about 5 x 10 cm, stick it on a piece of elastic or on a belt and put it over your chest, under your shirt. Stick firmly on each side of the blade of the daggers a pair of neodymium magnets, over the handle. Pre-pare a stand (optional) to put the three knives in a vertical position with the blades facing up. If you don´t like to use a stand, you can put the daggers on three champagne glasses.

Presentation:

Follow the instructions explained in the Effect section. When the knife handle is pressed against the hidden sheet in the chest, the knife will remain stuck to the sheet due to the magnets.You can make this effect more real and bizarre by putting a little bag of blood over the metal sheet. You have to put a tip of a pin in the dagger handle so that, when you lean it on the sheet, the pin breaks the bag (which can be done with a condom or a balloon) and the blood ap-pears under the shirt, which has to be white.

Here is a live performance by One & a Half performing this routine in the Palace of Mystery at the Magic Castle : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSGZJoImTqw

BAMBOOZLERS