A Two-Edged Sword
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Cutting Magic in Half: A Two-Edged Sword EDWARD SUMMER keptics have worked together with The irony is that an era in which magicians to great advantage. stage magic is flourishing for the first SHarry Houdini in his day and rime in decades is also a time in which a James Randi or India's B. Premanand in veritable litany of superstition has re- ours have performed a priceless service entrenched itself in the popular mind as in exposing a range of tricksters. Yet, a form of "fact." ironically, no magician worth his (or If people are confused by the appar- these days her) salt would willingly ent science of The X-Files, arc they reveal his or her secrets, including the equally confused by stage magicians? secrets involved in exposing psychic pre- The sell-out run of live performances by tenders. David Copperfield in New York City On November 24, 1997, Fox Tele- was largely attended by families. vision broadcast a one-hour program, "A Children and parents were suitably baf- Magician's Ultimate Betrayal: Magic's fled by Mr. Copperfield's performance. Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed," in One suspects that there's an unspoken which a masked performer "exposed" covenant between audience and magi- many of stage magic's sacred effects: cut- cian: the magician does his best to "fool" ting a woman in half, levitation, making the audience; the audience, in turn, an elephant disappear, and more. As a agrees to be "baffled." The goal is awe, former stage magician, part of me was Fox TV's "A Magician's Ultimate Betrayal: wonder, and entertainment. Doug immediately outraged, but another part Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed." Henning, in fact, has made it a point to 01997 Fox Broadcasting Company. of me wonders just how bad this really explain in his show that he performs was, and, indeed, if there wasn't some- illusions: there is no pretense of "super- magic as a form of classical theater. In thing beneficial about the whole thing. natural" happenings. addition to his full-evening show pre- What is the "magic" that Houdini sented in the classic nineteenth-century Although "psychic" networks post a and Randi practice anyway? Well, it's mold of Keller or Thurston, Henning "for entertainment only" disclaimer, the certainly not the trash that passes for implied covenant here is that the mentalism on the "Psychic Friends' was directly responsible for the "psychic" pretends (for the sake of the Network" or in a fakir's show in rural Broadway musical The Magic Show, FCC) that he or she is "entertaining" the India. But it is, clearly, all about illu- which contained classic illusions in a sions. "Stage magic" and "mentalism" charming framework of songs and senti- are forms of theater. Doug Henning— ment. This led to the recent revival of Edward Summer has recently written one of the finest illusionists of our time stage magic and served not only as a about the movies Fairy Tale and Contact before he gave it all up to work on the foundation for the late Harry for the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. He publishes ever elusive Transcendental Meditation Blackstone Jr. to relaunch his career, but The Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette, a Theme Park—started his career with a also created a climate in which David science magazine, at http://www.dinosaur. Canadian government grant to research Copperfield slowly but surely ascended org, and can be reached by e-mail at to the top of his profession. sumstuffi$juno. com. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER March/April 1998 59 caller, but the caller understands that the Herrmann, and Kellar will be found only the latest in a long tradition. Aping clearly explained. psychic's "gifts" are genuine. Infomercials the tone of tabloids, the creators of the compel viewers to accept the "amazing" show displayed a salacious lack of powers of these readers, keeping them Who published this terrible book? respect for die "art" of conjuring by act- telephoning at rates approaching $240 Lean closer. I'll whisper in your ear. It ing as though they were exercising some an hour! The top-priced ticket for David was Scientific American. This delicious sort of guaranteed freedom by revealing Copperfield's two-hour performance tome is entitled Magic, Stage Illusions these "sneaky tricks." Penn and Teller do was under $100. and Scientific Diversion Including Trick an "expose' of an elaborate illusion with skill diat provokes gasps and chortles of Is there a circumstance under which the genuine delight in the audience. Not so, "Magician's Code" should be broken? Fox Fox. Smarmy is the word that leaps to mind. Kind of like finding out a guilty Television apparently thought so. Can more be secret. Pity. learned here than "how it was done"? Nonetheless, as members of a society diat values (to some extent, certainly) From time to time, people come for- rationality and freedom of expression, it ward and "expose" stage magic. Penn Photography. It contained four hundred is easy to forget other cultures that don't. and Teller, the bad boys of modern illustrations which, in their detail, rival India with its fakirs is the saddest and magic, outraged magicians by exposing some of the Fox network's videography. most frightening example, but tales of Last reprinted in 1977, it exposes nearly such classics as the "cups and balls" each belief in witchcraft diat result in the mur- every illusion that any professional and every evening to a packed house. der of old men and women still emerge magician of the day performed. Their intention, however, is an intrigu- from modern Africa. We have only to ing one: Explaining to the audience in Expose, apparently, was not such a look back a few centuries at the Salem advance that it is all a "trick," they pro- dirty word at the turn of die century. It witch trials to see die pattern of igno- ceed to totally fool the same audience. A was de rigueur for Blackstone or rance and credulity that required so many splendid evening of entertainment Thurston to sell little books in die lobby years of tragedy and education to over- becomes a cautionary model that serves that taught die eager fan a few card or come. It is ironic, but perhaps not unex- as a useful seed of skepticism in day-to- coin tricks. Many readers may also pected, that Doug Henning went from a day life. Penn, on occasion, delivers a remember fondly die magic books of fine career in entertainment to belief in a mighty oration (and that certainly Walter Gibson, a man who rivaled Isaac supposedly genuine form of "levitation." describes it perfectly) on the dangers of Asimov as the most prolific author of all credulity when dealing with charlatans times. Gibson, who for decades penned The culture diat produced his "guru" is of all kinds. a novel a week that enthralled pulp- steeped in superstition and lacked, until magazine readers with the florid adven- recently, any mechanism to counteract But is this something new? Not at all. tures of "The Shadow," wrote exemplary die effects of centuries of belief in magic. In 1897 a book filled with blatant "how-to" books of basic conjuring skills. Mr. Premanand's exemplary work in exposes appeared. Here is the opening In addition, nearly every major city exposing the fake methods of Indian paragraph of the preface: houses a "magic shop" where die devo- fakirs is finally beginning to make a dif- tee can purchase the secret of just about ference. Thanks to his work, combined It is believed that the present work occupies a unique field in the exten- any effect that tortures your brain. widi other efforts at helping "ignorant" sive literature of magic. There are peoples to financial self-sufficiency, already a large number of treatises on Fox's TV poverty, disease, and superstition are natural magic and legerdemain, but show is giving way to knowledge. Fakirs, very litde attention has been given to the expose of s t a g e illusions, which are after all, perform the sword and of great interest as they are so largely basket trick "exposed" on die Fox based on ingenious applications of television show as proof of their scientific principles. Optics, power over life and death. They mechanics, sound, and elec- tricity have all been pressed can inspire enough fear in a small into service. In the present town to extort large amounts of work great attention has been money diat might better be paid to elaborate tricks, and r*£^ZP\ spent on food or sanitation. in many cases the exposes / \ \ have been obtained / A \ \ While this television spe- cial might be an outra- from the prestidigita- / ** \ \ geous "spoiler" for teurs themselves. J \ / Many of the ^-* ? \ " , Americans, in a small best illusions of Bengali village Robert-Houdin, such an expose' Michael Boychuck r SO March/April 1998 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER requires the courage of a true patriot. the performers do EVERYTHING! from A to D without going through Some years ago, James Randi What delights me endlessly, is skill both steps B and C. No way. Once you know exposed both die Philippine psychic in manipulation and in performance. It that, it is pretty hard to be fooled by for- surgery racket and an American faith is knowing how it works that gives me tunetellers or homeopaths. healer who used "mentalist" methods to die confidence to say that a trickster Mind you, I'm still sitting here and bilk his desperately ill religious followers with alleged "special gifts" is, at best, a gritting my teeth, but if Fox's "Magic's out of their money.