Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and Tommy WonderInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Jon Armstrong

I didn?t see the Justin Timberlake ? Janet Jackson incident during the Super Bowl Half-Time Show. I was typing an article for Inside Magic about how perfection is so wonderful to watch and is one of the best things about being a magician.

I started this essay ? part of which is here ? during the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas after seeing Tommy Wonder and Jon Armstrong perform their close-up routines for a second time.

Their demonstration followed my prayerful watching of Peyton Manning leading the Indianapolis Colts to a victory in the play-offs. Manning was not intercepted and had a near perfect QB rating. To me, that was perfection and because the Colts were the underdogs in Vegas betting, it was profitable perfection.

Watching Mr. Wonder and Mr. Armstrong was also a chance to witness perfection. I have seen many great magicians in my life. I?ve seen many magicians that are supposed to be great but weren?t and many who were unknown but were deserving of the ?Great Magician? title. I wrote my effusive praise of these two magicians at the time of their shows and you can read the article here.

Jon Armstrong

I started this essay ? part of which is here ? during the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas after seeing Tommy Wonder and Jon Armstrong perform their close-up routines for a second time.

Peer pressure often makes me say that certain magicians or tricks are great when, in fact, they are not. I hate that feeling. I don?t want to hurt a brother or sister magician by suggesting that they are not as great as the major magic magazines would have us believe and fortunately the crowds around them keep me from encountering an awkward moment of truth.

Mr. Wonder and Mr. Armstrong had the hype and I was ready to bite my tongue, smile, clap politely and nod knowingly (but not all at the same time) when they completed their routines. But I was shocked and surprised and delighted. They were both so perfect.

Tommy Wonder

They understood exactly what they needed to do for the audience of magicians and pulled it off without a flaw or blemish. This is where the analogy to Peyton Manning comes in. Mr. Manning has the talent to read a defense as he comes to the line and call the appropriate audible to take advantage of the situation. He can do this because he is a student of the game and works hard at his profession. I suggest this disciplined study of the profession is exactly the same reason Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Wonder can do this as well.

They understood the challenge before them. I am guessing there were many like me that had heard the hype and were waiting to see something less than the most impressive close-up act ever. I also know, from talking around the bar later in the evening, that all were as impressed as I had been.

Perfection in our art is something that is rewarded, thankfully. When we, as magicians, see perfection in another practitioner, we are able to not only accept it ? we welcome it. It is what we want to see. We want to be fooled. Even better, when a lay audience sees perfection ? such as Lance Burton?s FISM act ? they too are excited. They understand that what they are seeing is perfection and the result of years of rehearsal and revision.

In the case of Mr. Manning and his quarterbacking skills, I heard the opponents complimenting Mr. Manning?s ability to read their defenses and react.

So where does that leave us? We like perfection, we enjoy watching it, and working towards it. But best of all, our audiences enjoy it too. Our audiences will be impressed by a well-performed act that demonstrates our professional care and skill. That?s the best news we can hear.

I?m getting back to the Timberlake/Jackson exposure in a second.

When I used to do talent shows as a young man, I was consistently envious of the singers and dancers. They could perform and would usually be judged much better than I was. I attributed this to the judges? natural bias for a more ?serious? act rather than a novelty act such as magic or ventriloquism.

I?m not ashamed of my many second and third places in the talent contests ? usually losing to singers ? because it served to remind me that I could be better and I really believed if I could perfect my act, it would be rewarded by the judges.

But the singers and dancers are in a different world now. I?m still working on my act. But they have to separate themselves from other singers. They have to do something outside of ?singing? to make their act memorable or special.

David Copperfield can grab headlines by performing Magic. David Blaine can command the attention of the global media by performing exactly the type of effects for which he is known. Mr. Copperfield does not need to do something other than Magic to draw attention to his show.

Ms. Jackson and Mr. Timberlake are in a part of show business that mandates they do something over-the-top in order to keep the spotlight on them. They break from singing to stripping to draw attention to the fact that they are still singing and deserving of attention.

Mr. Timberlake?s former girlfriend, Britney Spears had to engage in the same type of extra-curricular behavior ? the lesbian display of kissing Madonna during a televised event ? to draw attention to her. Ms. Spears? singing was not enough.

How fortunate we are that we can work within our craft to not only impress audiences but also keep them coming back. We don?t need to perform outlandish or questionable stunts, we can be accepted and richly rewarded by simply polishing our act. Edgar Burgin didn?t need to draw attention to him other than by performing as he had for so many years. Houdini, even with his tremendous attention to public relations, still worked within his persona as a magician/escape artist.

I hope there does not come a day when magicians are so mainstream that we will have the economic pressures apparently suffered by singers like Mr. Timberlake, Ms. Jackson or Ms. Spears. It?s nice to be in a part of show business where our diligent rehearsal and constant work to improve our act will be encouraged by our peers and appreciated by our audiences.

Mr. Copperfield and Mr. Blaine provide credibility for all of us. They are television stars and, in the case of Mr. Copperfield, an institution as important to some towns as the traveling circus once was. But neither performer needed to do anything beyond the outer-limits of what we would define as Magic.

So, in the end, Mr. Manning passed well, I won big money but also had a wonderful time watching someone who was as good as one could be in that position at that time. I then had a chance to see two close-up magicians who were also exciting because they were performing as perfectly as I have ever seen any magicians perform. Perfection is probably not something that can be attained in the activity of ripping off the top of a fellow singing star. The attention Mr. Timberlake and Ms. Jackson received and will receive will have little to do with their putative talent as singers.

We?re lucky in so many ways but perhaps most significantly, given the most recent events, in that we can be a success because of something we do with the art we love rather than the media event we create to bring attention to ourselves. That is solace to those of us who practice before mirrors every day trying to get our second deals perfect or our delivery just right.