Extraordinary Moments and Bias in Magic

[MohanaMisra]

If the words in Maximum Entertainment are religiously followed, magic should logically be composed of Extraordinary moments. But almost none of the tricks and routines explained in books like RRTCM and ECT are such 'moments'. Has there actually been a change in the style of popular magic from then to now?

If so, then does that mean those long routines or effects should become 'obsolete' in terms of magic now?

If not, then can those effects also be promoted to Extraordinary Moments? How?

Secondly, why are there more magicians practising forms card magic than any other type of magic? When, and why did we develop this bias?

 

[Scodischarge]

If the words in Maximum Entertainment are religiously followed, magic should logically be composed of Extraordinary moments.

I disagree with this premise. If I understand you correctly, you're saying that in Ken Weber's (author of MU) opinion everything termed "magic" should consist solely of Extraordinary Moments, with no Tricks or Puzzles.

That's not what Ken Weber says. On page 41-42 (of the revised edition) he writes:
"Overwhelmingly, professional magicians perform tricks.
That's not a pejorative statement. Tricks have the ability to thoroughly and satisfyingly entertain. The pantheon of magic's elite thrill their audiences with wonderful tricks.
[...]
Superb Tricks, with the occasional Extraordinary Moments -- those should be your goals."

As you see, Mr Weber doesn't claim that magic should be composed only of these Moments.

But to get back to your original question: Why don't classic books like RRTCM and ECT teach any Extraordinary Moments, but only Puzzles and Tricks?
I believe there are two main reasons: 1. It's oriented towards beginners and is (correct me if I'm wrong) solely based on sleight-of-hand and maybe a set-up deck. There's only so much you can do with no gimmicks and only basic sleight-of-hand skills, so it seems logical that it's difficult to create anything else than Puzzles and Tricks.
2. It's difficult to achieve Extraordinary Moments with card tricks. Other people can explain the "Why?" behind this better than I can, but this has been my (limited) experience, which fits with what I've heard from others.

If so, then does that mean those long routines or effects should become 'obsolete' in terms of magic now?

Certainly not all of them. Again two reasons: 1. There are still some very neat tricks in the books, that are baffling to the onlooking layman, and 2. because from time to time, somebody comes along and puts a new spin to the trick. Vanishing Inc.'s Principia is an example of this. In one of the effects taught, Harapan Ong puts his own little touch and final ending to Poker Players' Picnic (the first effect in RRTCM, I believe).

If not, then can those effects also be promoted to Extraordinary Moments? How?

Again, people like @RealityOne and @WitchDocIsIn can answer this better than I can. But if you read through Maximum Entertainment, you'll find traits of Extraordinary Moments: they're very direct. They're quite visual. They're easy to follow and not needlessly complicated. Looking through the book you'll find a lot more than that, but that's just what came to mind.

Another question you could ask would be: How do we keep Extraordinary Moments (EM) from becoming Tricks, and Tricks from becoming Puzzles?
Mr Weber provides (part of) the answer in his book: Don't belittle the magic. He tells the example of Michael Ammar performing a floating candy trick (an effect with the potential, as he says, to be an EM), but after that he pops this floating candy into his mouth laughing and saying, "Isn't that neat?".
Don't treat your magic as less than it is, or your spectators will follow suit.

Another aspect of this is the performer's attitude: Does he present the effect as puzzle, or as magic? An example of this can be found in today's Vanishing Inc. newletter: "Challenge: Can you figure this out?", is the large headline, followed by the description of a seemingly impossible magic effect.
"Can you figure this out?" Seriously? Of course one might argue that, as it's a newletter from magicians to magicians, and everybody knows that everything done is possible somehow, this isn't too bad. But isn't this headline an example of too many performer's attitude these days?
Anyway, this topic has been endlessly discussed many times already, and my aim isn't to further dig into this can of worms I so thoughtlessly opened. My goal was simply to provide part of the answer to the question we should all ask yourself: How do we keep Extraordinary Moments from becoming weaker?

 

[ChaseC6]

To answer your second question, card magic could be so popular for many reasons. I think part of it is because of how widely available learning materials for card tricks are. Think about it, when you Google "magic trick tutorials" what comes up is tutorials for card tricks. Even when it comes to books there are more books on card magic available than any other type of magic. And most of the time, books on card magic can be bought on Amazon for $10 when books on other types of magic, take mentalism for example, sell for $65 dollars on some obscure magic site (this isn't necessarily a bad thing as it protects our methods from exposure) but for a layperson it makes it more difficult to learn, so many resort to card magic. However, I choose to perform card magic for a different reason. That is card magic is more versatile than other types of magic. With cards, you can perform teleportations, transformations, transpositions, mentalism, and many other effects but you can't do all of that with other props. This is just my opinion though and I am no expert by any means. ☺

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I will answer the questions in reverse -

Card magic is popular because card magic is popular. You could, if you go by what Ricky Jay said, blame it on Hofsinzer calling playing cards "the poetry of magic". But generally speaking, it's cheap to get into and there seems to be a huge variety of tricks (though laymen can't really tell the difference between many/most card tricks), and there's a lot of community that is perfectly happy to buy card tricks and show them to each other. Poker Player's Picnic was mentioned above - I still perform a variation of that trick to this day.

As to the bulk of you question -

Magic books originally didn't teach much in the way of presentation. It was assumed that the magician would create a presentation themselves, so the things taught in the books were generally just bare bones enough to get the point across and the rest was left to the person learning it.

A good show absolutely needs texture. Tension and release in a variety of forms. It's not possible for every routine to be an Extraordinary Moment. If every routine is a big thing like that, it quickly tires the audience's minds and they just stop reacting. There needs to be moments of comedy, moments of humanity, maybe sorrow or fear as well. Long, short, visual, cerebral, so on, so forth.

Taking a trick and turning it into an extraordinary moment is generally accomplished by working with it and exploring the plot and high notes of the routine until the really powerful moments are discovered and encouraged. It needs a script that clearly lets the audience know what they are experiencing and allows them to realize why it's incredible.

Ideally it will be easy to summarize, as well. If someone can't explain it in more or less one sentence, it's probably too complicated and not coming through clearly. "A man used his imagination to hold his wife's hands together from across the stage." "The coin that was inside a ball of yarn, inside a box, was engraved with a random woman's mother's name." "He was just standing there on stage, and then he flew!" So on.

 

[RealityOne]

If the words in Maximum Entertainment are religiously followed, magic should logically be composed of Extraordinary moments. But almost none of the tricks and routines explained in books like RRTCM and ECT are such 'moments'. Has there actually been a change in the style of popular magic from then to now?

I think there are some pretty good tricks in Royal Road including Designed for Laughter, Intuition with Cards and Ewephindit. Are they extraordinary.... some could be with the right presentation. But back then, everybody played cards -- be it poker, blackjack or canasta. Royal Road was designed for the beginner amateur magician -- something to show your friends or family when you play cards. As Dariel Fitzke wrote in his review in the April 1948 Genii, "I feel that there is no better way of starting as a card trickster," and that "the beginner at cards will find The Royal Road to Card Magic of great value. And many advanced card men will discover useful information as well." Expert Card Technique (which was mostly written by Charlie Miller) was designed more as a technical treatise than a collection of effects. I think a better representation of the "extraordinary moments" of the time were published beginning 6 years later in the Stars of Magic (which ran $1 to $8 per issue). That series included the following effects:

Vernon's Triumph
Vernon's Cutting the Aces
Vernon's Ambitious Card
Vernon's Traveller's (precursor to Invisible Palm Aces)
Francis Carlyle's Homing Card
Slydini's Flight of the Paper Balls

There also are hundreds of amazing effects in Anneman's Jinx that still can provide extraordinary moments today. Additionally, the Tarbell series had many amazing effects and still today remains an encyclopedia of magic methods that you could base several careers on.

If so, then does that mean those long routines or effects should become 'obsolete' in terms of magic now?

I think that much of the presentation is outdated. It is the difference between a 1950s television show and a 2020 television show. A lot of the presentation was, for lack of a better word, "patter." Mindless drivel said to accompany the effect. I think magic took a transition with two performers -- Henning and Copperfield. Henning's character was unique and sort of broke the mold. Copperfield just took presentations to the next level -- it was no longer "patter." The next transition was David Blaine with his mysterious stranger character -- letting the magic speak for itself. What you have seen since then is the explosion of "visual" magic that needs no presentation. It is what Paul Harris called "a moment of astonishment." I would argue that without more, that moment is short-lived.

If not, then can those effects also be promoted to Extraordinary Moments? How?

Maybe. There are some effects that just aren't that good and can't support a good presentation. Some are just tricks or puzzles.

What I think makes an effect extraordinary is that the presentation provides an answer to the question of "why?" It answers why the spectator should care. It gives the effect context and meaning.

Larry Haas talks about this in his book Transformations. He talks about turning tricks into presentation pieces through the selection of props and presentation. As Ken Webber says, "Emotions generate real magic." His advice is that it is you who makes magic trivial and it is you who can make it extraordinary... through your presentation.

Secondly, why are there more magicians practising forms of card magic than any other type of magic? When, and why did we develop this bias?

I think the difference is practicing vs. performing. If you looked at live performances, I suspect you would see a significantly lower percentage of card tricks. Card tricks don't require a lot of equipment and many can be performed using a couple of sleights. On the flip side, there are may people who just love to explore what they can do with cards, learning advanced techniques and being more concerned about their technical ability than their ability to entertain.

And, as others have said, learning card tricks can be less expensive than other types of magic.

Don't treat your magic as less than it is, or your spectators will follow suit.

This reminds me of a Derren Brown said about Eugene Burger in Pure Effect ''Now,' he stated in a voice that sound like a Russian Orthodox mass played backwards at low speed, 'I want you to pick a card....' Magic was afoot."

A good show absolutely needs texture. Tension and release in a variety of forms. It's not possible for every routine to be an Extraordinary Moment. If every routine is a big thing like that, it quickly tires the audience's minds and they just stop reacting. There needs to be moments of comedy, moments of humanity, maybe sorrow or fear as well. Long, short, visual, cerebral, so on, so forth.

The show also needs to have a flow. It can't jump around, but you need to guide the audience's experience.