Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman EDITED by Joshua Jay Cover designed by Vinny DePonto Layout by Andi Gladwin Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman Magic in Mind was prepared in cooperation with the Society of American Magicians, and the ebook will be made available for free to all members worldwide. www.vanishingincmagic.com All rights reserved. The essays in this book are copyrighted by their respective authors and used with permission. No portion may be reproduced without written permission from the authors. Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman AcknowledgEments Magic in Mind started out as a project intended expressly for serious young magicians, but the first of many lessons I learned during my two-year endeavor is this: age has little to do with learning. It was evident, early on, that this collection would benefitanyone serious about getting serious in magic. So here we are. Thanks to all the generous magicians who have allowed me to include their work in this collection. I am overwhelmed by the support they have shown. In particular, I wish to single out Darwin Ortiz, whose writings I admire greatly, and who went against a personal policy, and agreed to participate. I consider it a favor to me, and a favor to all those who will learn from his writings. Thanks, Darwin, for being flexible and generous. Thanks to Stephen Minch, whose encouragement and “pull” helped initiate the project. Irving Quant helped with the translation of “Fundamentals of Illusionism” by Juan Tamariz. Denis Behr suggested a few essays I was not familiar with. Thanks, gents. Thanks also to my Magic in Mind 3 Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman invaluable editors, Rod Doiron, Trisha Ferruccio, Jim Munsey, Ken Trombly, and Mike Vance. Thank you to Vinny Grosso for involving me in the Society of American Magicians, which compelled me to want to help their youth program with this project. Finally, thanks to Andi Gladwin, who put serious time and care into the presentation of these words. Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman “It is my belief that magic would be a greater power for inspiration and diversion in the future than it has ever been in the past, if we really wished to make it so. But do we wish to make it so?” —S. H. Sharpe Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................... 3 Introduction (Joshua Jay) ...................................................................... 11 Part One - Thinking Like a Magician The Limitations of Theory (Tommy Wonder & Stephen Minch) .... 17 On A Definition of Magic (Charles Reynolds) ................................... 27 The Illusion of Impossibility (Simon Aronson) ................................. 35 Astonishment is Our Natural State of Mind (Paul Harris) .............. 39 Approaches and Artifice (John Carney) .............................................. 49 The Search for Mystery (Jamy Ian Swiss) ........................................... 57 Part Two - Thinking Like our Audiences Processes within the Spectator’s Mind (Dariel Fitzkee) ................... 71 Why, What, and Who? A Theory of Questions (Peter Samelson) ... 83 Working with the Spectator in Mind (Derren Brown) ...................... 89 The Big Lie (Michael Close) .................................................................. 97 Magic in Mind Inducing Challenges (Pit Hartling) ..................................................... 105 Creating Interest (Eugene Burger) ....................................................... 115 7 Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman Popularity (S.H. Sharpe) ....................................................................... 123 Spectators (René Lavand) ..................................................................... 129 Part Three - Categorizing Magic The Art of Conjuring (Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin) ........................ 133 Classification of Effects (Dariel Fitzkee) ............................................ 139 Tricks vs. Illusions (Henning Nelms) .................................................. 155 Fundamentals of Illusionism (Juan Tamariz) ..................................... 159 Part Four - Effect The “Too Perfect” Theory (Rick Johnsson) ......................................... 169 Too Perfect, Imperfect (Tom Stone) ..................................................... 183 On the Structure of Magic Effects (Eugene Burger) .......................... 193 Part Five - Method The Method is Not the Trick (Jamy Ian Swiss) .................................. 201 Picking the Best Method (Darwin Ortiz) ............................................ 215 The Three Pillars (Tommy Wonder & Stephen Minch) .................... 221 Method and Style and the Performing Mode (Pit Hartling) ............ 233 Kort’s Cardinal Rules of Magic (Milt Kort) ........................................ 239 Part Six - Technique Showmanship as Technique (Darwin Ortiz) ...................................... 243 Performing Principles (Arturo de Ascanio) ....................................... 263 The Critical Interval (Darwin Ortiz) .................................................... 269 Magic in Mind 8 Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman Getting the Mis out of Misdirection (Wonder & Minch) .................. 275 In-Transit Actions (Arturo de Ascanio) ............................................... 289 Practice and Technique (John Carney) ................................................ 293 Manipulating Memory (Darwin Ortiz) ............................................... 301 Assumptions (Michael Close) .............................................................. 321 Part Seven - Presentation The Other Half (David Regal) .............................................................. 331 Doug’s Theory Section (Doug Conn) .................................................. 341 Language Skills (Ken Weber) ............................................................... 343 It’s Not the Destination, It’s the Ride (David Kaye) ......................... 353 Character (David Regal) ........................................................................ 365 Part Eight - Construction The Horrible Truth (David Regal) ....................................................... 373 Conviction (Darwin Ortiz) .................................................................... 375 The Mind Movie (Tommy Wonder & Stephen Minch) ..................... 403 Part Nine - Get Your Act Together Construction (Roberto Giobbi) ............................................................. 409 Secrets (Eugene Burger) ........................................................................ 417 The Team (Eberhard Riese) ................................................................... 439 Distraction Progression Theory (David Kaye) ................................... 445 Magic in Mind Making Contact (Derren Brown) ......................................................... 451 Lessons and Learning (Jamy Ian Swiss) ............................................. 455 9 Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman Part Ten - Originality The Tyranny of the New (Eugene Burger) ......................................... 469 Brushwood/Teller Correspondence .................................................... 477 Against Originality In Magic (Whit Haydn) ..................................... 483 Next Book Syndrome (Darwin Ortiz) ................................................. 489 Perspective on our Personal Planets (John Carney) .......................... 497 Divisive and Illusion (Max Maven) .................................................... 503 Epilogue - Art in Magic Drama as Magic (Henning Nelms) ...................................................... 509 The Hierarchy of Mystery Entertainment (Ken Weber) ................... 511 Secondhand Drama (Tommy Wonder & Stephen Minch) ............... 521 The Real Secrets of Magic (Nevil Maskelyne) .................................... 527 Meaning and Vision (Derren Brown) .................................................. 531 Final words (Joshua Jay) ....................................................................... 541 Bibliography ........................................................................................... 543 Magic in Mind 10 Downloaded from www.vanishingincmagic.com by Ray Hyman Introduction By Joshua Jay If you could spend time with one great magician, who would it be? I used to pose this question to myself often, and other young magicians ask me some form of it quite regularly. Like I was when I started in magic, they are in search of a guru, a role model, a hero. But I have come to believe that this is the wrong question. It is the wrong question because it presupposes that there is just one person, one path, one ideology that we should search for. A better answer to the question, “which great magician do I spend time with?” would be this: all of them. What if you could learn from all the greatest magicians, alive and dead? You can, of course, through their writings. But this is not as simple, to the student, as it seems. To purchase all the books by all the greats is expensive, particularly to a young magician who has entered the fray. Just those books excerpted Magic in Mind in this collection would cost approximately 4000 dollars. Even if our newbie had the money, many of the most important