Brian Dreger has another Brian Dreger question…
I don't know much about magic/magicians except, as a kid, I was fascinated by magic & ventriloquism…but everything I knew pretty much came from adverts in comic books.
I'm curious about how someone becomes a magician. Do you have to apprentice with someone? Can you just study a bunch of books in a very good library? I've heard Penn Jillette — and I think even you — talk about being fascinated by a great magician because, although you know how the trick works technically, you don't know how they accomplished their specific variation.
How does one learn all that? It seems impossible that you can learn it from books. I mean, it can't be like learning to tap dance.
Well, in a way it is. Being a great tap dancer requires years of practice, practice and more practice…and so does being a great or even a good magician. I mean, I could teach you a dozen card tricks that each take about ten minutes to master but about all they're good for is impressing the easily-impressed.
And you can learn a lot from books. Every good magician I know has a serious library. Actually, these days, it's books and videos. You can learn a lot that way. In fact, if you see a terrific magician do a unique trick on TV — not the cups and balls, not the linking rings, not the torn-and-restored newspaper, something that looks newly-invented — there's a good chance you can purchase a tutorial by that magician via some online magic dealer.
Then, you have to practice, practice, practice before you perform it for your friends and relatives. Come to think of it, one of my early heroes of magic, the late Don Alan, advised, "When you believe you've practiced enough and are ready to do the trick for friends, practice six more months before you do." Remember you can only perform it for them once.
Don Alan became a hero of magic to me in 1961 (I was nine) with a syndicated TV show he did called Magic Ranch. Another was Mark Wilson who, beginning a year earlier, starred in The Magic Land of Allakazam on CBS Saturday morn and later on ABC. Yet another was Chuck Jones the Magic Man, not to be confused with Chuck Jones the Cartoon Director. The Magic Man had a local show on Channel 13 where he showed Felix the Cat cartoons and, in-between, performed difficult magic tricks and taught simple ones.
I got to know all three men but never thought of pursuing their careers. I loved magic but I loved comic books and cartoons and writing-in-general more. I had to pick at least one to not pursue, lest I devote insufficient practice to all. So the magic had to go. I still love it but not enough to practice, practice, practice to the exclusion of my other interests.
You don't have to apprentice with anyone to become a magician, though that wouldn't hurt. Heck, once you can perform one trick, you're a magician, kind of. To be a real one, you just have to have some talent, have some skill, have some sense of showmanship…and want to do it badly enough to put in a zillion-and-a-half hours.
