Magical Musings

I was away over the weekend. I attended a magic lecture by magician, Allen Okawa. Allen is a friend of my late-friend Roger Klause who was a major influence on many magicians worldwide through his ideas and tutelage. My friend, Sid introduced me to Roger in 1998 on my first trip to the USA as well as my first magic convention.

Thai organiser Sid and Hong Kong-based professional magician, Sean McFarlane chat about magic

I enjoyed Allen’s variations on some of the classic plots in magic, mainly on cards, coins and novelty magic (for instance with cowry shells). He was entertaining, too, and that is as important in performance as in lecturing. The younger audience in attendance also left with a shift in their perception about magic. Magic is more than showing tricks to each other; it is about experiencing the human condition through each illusion. Art evokes emotions, deeper thought, and feelings.

Allen Okawa strikes a pose with lecture-attendee

What came across as important, too, was the naturalness in the way he handled an object or tool. Anything arousing suspicion destroys the illusion, and the art is in creating the illusion. A magical presentation is about theatre, and how the actor plays the part of the magician convincingly. David Copperfield, Lu Chien and David Blaine are actors on television and/or stage who display their art, as artists, through their playlets. Each act is a recreation and dramatisation of humankind’s ability to defy the laws of nature: produce, vanish, destroy and restore, and transport (across time and space) objects, livestock and people.

How much magic do you enjoy in your life?

Mesmerised by a Magician’s Mystical Ways

‘Perhaps there is truth, and there is illusion!’

Perception is reality! In The illusionist, that reality is created on-stage by the mysterious magician, Eisenheim who returns to Vienna after his disappearance for 15 years.

First screened in Europe and scheduled for limited release in the U.S., The Illusionist was welcome proof that art-house quality need not be limited to art-houses. Set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, this stately, elegant period film benefitted from a crossover release in mainstream cinemas, and showed considerable box-office staying power. It may have also been helped through the allure of Seventh Heaven alumnus Jessica Biel, who rose to the occasion with a fine performance.

Certainly, with the acting tour-de-force of Edward Norton (Primal Fear; Incredible Hulk) and Paul Giamatti (Sideways), this film is a heavyweight for this genre. This is an intriguing story about a celebrated magician, Eisenheim (Norton) whose private parlour performance offends the Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), a vindictive (and suspected spousal abuser) lout who aims to marry Duchess Sophie (Biel), Eisenheim's childhood friend. With this backdrop of romantic rivalry and Eisenheim's increasingly enigmatic craft of illusion, he is investigated by Chief Inspector Uhl (Giamatti), who is under Leopold's command; The latter is not to be trusted, as Eisenheim and Sophie draw closer to their inevitable reunion. The twist at the end is like a carefully crafted chess game, where the audience is also checkmate in the process.

Cleverly adapted by director Neil Burger from Steven Millhauser's short story Eisenheim the Illusionist, and boasting exquisite production values and a fine musical score by Philip Glass, The Illusionist is a very well made film. The illusions were consistent with the era, and associated superstitions: ghostly apparitions, mind reading, stage illusions, and spiritualism. My favourite re-enactment of a classic of illusion: Celebrated French magician, Jean Robert-Houdin’s The Orange Tree. Rating: A-.


Photo-credits: Amazon.com