Close-up Magic can be seriously funny too...
Phone: (780) 977-2902
Why Close-Up Magic ROCKS! |
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(A true-life confessional in the words of an actual unrepentant close-up magic guy...) Why I Do What I Do…
“It’s never about close-up magic,” the tall teenager told me with a wet sounding sniff. “Real magic takes place on a stage before a vast audience.”
I think his name was Waldo the Wizard or Werner the Astounding. Something like that. The year is 1986…and I am at my very first Magic Convention. Waldo and/or Werner has cornered me and is proceeding to educate me about the business of making magic.
“No self-respecting full time performer does close-up anymore,” Waldo/Werner told me with yet another sniff. I briefly considered offering him a Kleenex, for both our sakes, but decided against it. “Close-up is mostly performed for children and magicians who can’t get real stage shows.”
I nod again. It makes me a little sad, because I am thinking that I really really like close-up magic, the performance that takes place right in front of the audience. But Waldo/Werner seemed to know more about it than I did.
Later that night my magic “worldview” changed. That night I found myself seated with “Bobo.”
It’s okay if you’ve never heard of him. But mention his name to most magicians, and you’ll probably be rewarded with a warm smile. Bobo wrote “Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic” – a book I purchased and inhaled. The pages were dog-eared and marked up. There were checkmarks on the effects I had mastered and notes on most of the ones I hadn’t learned yet.
So when I saw a skinny old guy, sitting all alone at a banquet table with “BOBO” written in an unsteady hand on his nametag, I squared my shoulders, hustled over and sat myself down.
“You’re Bobo?” I asked. I was trying hard not to sound too breathless.
He nodded and smiled and handed me a business card. It said “Bobo the Magician” on the front, along with some contact information. On the back was a mathematical trick…the kind most of us have seen at some point.
We sat together all night. I don’t remember what we ate. But I remember what he taught me. He started by showing me a French Drop (an effect where the coin seems to pass into one hand and reappear in another) and, despite hands long surrendered to arthritis; I could recognize the wizard sitting beside me.
With apologies to Waldo or Werner…I fell in love with close-up magic that night. There’s something…well…magical about seeing emotions streak across the face of the spectators. Laughter. Surprise. Shock. Suspicion….and then wonder.
...and why I think Close-up magic seriously ROCKS. Since then I've really specialized in close-up magic. I make it my business to find the latest effects...the kind of stuff that makes audiences say "WOW!" I’ve worked for corporations and organizations. I’ve performed at reunions and weddings. I’ve done fairs as large as Edmonton’s Klondike Days and as small as community league carnivals.
Can you see an application for the event you’re designing?
The real beauty of close-up is that, ultimately, it's a tiny little stage, a performance for a very small number of people. And close-up works anywhere people come together. It’s a dash of color, and a bright splash of…well...magic. Phone: (780) 977-2902 email: davidthiel@shaw.ca |
