Mind Numbing MagicInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Today we get a taste for the extreme in our Art and the relative fuzziness of the border surrounding magic. There were a couple of stories in the news today that blended in with the cold blooded beheading of three innocent men by terrorists.

On one side of the globe, we have a Pakistani ?Black Magician? convicted of murdering one child and soon to be charged with two more child murders. Here in the states, a very interesting concept hits the tube with the premier of T.H.E.M. (?Totally Hidden Extreme Magic?). The show promises to be a combination of ?David Copperfield and Hidden Camera.?

Finally, we have the venerable Head Chopper or Guillotine illusion now seen in the reflected glow of the over-played video of beheadings. Sounds like an uplifting article? It gets better right at the end.

Read On . . .

The question before the house: is there some common thread between a story of a child murderer who uses and teaches Black Magic, the new show T.H.E.M., which premiered on NBC last night, Bizarre Magic and violence in mainstream magic.

Before we connect the dots between these strange islands of thought, let’s define our terms. Murder is the taking of a human life. (Note, Murder is not defined here as the taking of “an innocent human life.” One may justify the murder by suggesting there was an absolute need to kill but it is a justification not nullification. Killing Hitler was justified but it still would be murder.)

Black Magic is not Magic. It is more a kin to necromancy or witchcraft or spiritualism than Magic as magicians use the term. Bizarre Magic is not Black…

Read On . . .

Black Magic is not Magic. It is more a kin to necromancy or witchcraft or spiritualism than Magic as magicians use the term. Bizarre Magic is not Black Magic but is a style of Magic that may make allusion to necromancy or witchcraft or spiritualism but is not a serious claim by its practitioner that he or she possesses powers based on these supernatural practices.

Violent Magic is the use of props or people to simulate a violent act. It is usually practiced against women and can range from sawing her in two, four or eight pieces to impalement or immolation.

Imdad Hussain a Black Magician, sold amulets and spells to folks in Pakistan and apparently had a following of students desiring to learn his secrets. When three children were found to have been savagely murdered, the authorities of the small town of Ore, immediately suspected the deaths were some how related to the practice of Black Magic. It took the police a few months to gain sufficient evidence to prove Hussain?s guilt but in the end, the magician admitted his role in the gruesome murder of a six year old identified only as Shan. The children ? all under 10 years old ? were killed for their blood to be used in Hussain’s tricks.

The producers of T.H.E.M. have attempted to mix illusions with everyday life to cause bystanders to gasp and ?freak? on video tape. The show?s debut was last night on NBC and unfortunately, it appears the show may have made its last appearance last night as well. The special was to be a series but somehow was moved to the summer schedule and shown as two specials back-to-back. The premise is genius: do outrageous magic tricks in real life and film the reactions. In one sequence, an electrician accidentally stabs a screwdriver through his arm. In another scene, a young man on a date has flies come out of his mouth to the horror of his friends. One of the criticisms of the show, however, is its dependence on camera trick or editing. (The producers point out that it is difficult to use hidden cameras in the same way as one not fixed in position).

We can purchase a Head Chopper or Guillotine for use in shows through our local dealers or on the Internet. The appeal of the effect lies in the suspense felt by the audience member locked in the stocks as he or she awaits the magician to plunge the shimmering blade through his or her neck. The magician may play up the suspense with jokes about the victim losing their head or aborting the countdown to starting the blade.

It is ironic that in an effort to avoid watching the video of Nicholas Berg’s beheading by turning to magic magazine this month, you could come across two ads for Head Choppers. The trick loses all of its appeal when juxtaposed against a real beheading. It is doubtful whether any magician currently working is performing the Head Chopper presently and it is difficult to guess when feigning the act of beheading a volunteer from the audience will become “fun” again.

Maybe, though, beheading, death by fire, impalement, sawing in half and other forms of Violent Magic should never be popular. Maybe it is never appropriate to shove a screwdriver through one’s wrist and show the blood oozing from both the entrance and exit wounds. Maybe, now, magicians can break away from the type of magic performed in the Egyptian Hall where the severing of heads or limbs was shown daily.

The violent deaths of three children for their blood were murder. If the magician had merely simulated the deaths of three children, it would still be simulating murder. At some point, the Black Magician Hussain was able to desensitize his followers so that he could order them to kill the children. We have to hope there is a natural tendency against murder that must be overcome with some sort of coercion or brainwashing. There is a complete disconnect between the acts of a mainstream Bizarrist and Hussain. Similarly, there is a complete disconnect between Hussain’s acts and a mainstream magician using a Head Chopper, or sawing a woman in half, or burning her alive, or shooting a ribbon through her stomach.

But even though Hussain and the Bizzarist and the mainstream magician know their acts are different, their audiences may see very little difference. The audience watching a woman be impaled on a gleaming spike, or a Bizarrist using the “spirits of the dead,” may have the same reaction to the presentation of the Head Chopper.

This goes beyond the concern that children will copy what they see in shows and try to repeat the tricks with disastrous results. That’s a reality but not the point. Like the constant replay of Nicholas Berg’s murder eventually made it slightly less shocking, the simulated physical violence on women or audience members, or the devout presentation of spiritualism, can have the same soul-numbing effect desired by the Black Magician Hussain. Once the soul is numbed, it becomes acceptable to kill children to get the much needed innocent blood.

Magicians do not need to participate in the soul-numbing; there is plenty available in the media and in real life. The image of woman as victim is already well-portrayed by struggling B-actresses in Hollywood films. The notion that Satan or the dead can provide powers or answers to the living does not need to be part of Saturday afternoon show at the library ? we have syndicated television programs showing just that.

Magicians have many talents but one of the greatest is the ability to adapt. When there is no microphone, the entertainer does not stop the act, but goes on. When props misfire, the failure is made part of a greater success. As magicians, we can change from where we were two months ago and where we should be.

It is not a matter of being politically correct. It is a matter of being responsible for our act’s affect on our audiences.