Magical Musings: Issue III - Magic, a dying art...?

Magic, a dying art...?

A couple of days back, I received a call from an English daily. The journalist asked, "My story is on Magic as a dying art. What's your opinion on this?" "Magic is a dying art… what do you mean?" I countered.

"Magic was at its best in the ancient days, and is now on the verge of dying," she said. "I disagree," I said.

Yes! Traditional Indian Magic is on the decline, due to many reasons. The itinerant jadugars of India are relegated to perform in villages and smaller towns, if at all...

Do you think anybody in a city will stop to watch the Indian basket on the street-side? That is IF the jadugar finds some empty space by the city roads, where vehicles ply more on the pavements than the streets! Sad, but true.

Then again, how can we say the art of Magic is dying when the number of magicians is increasing every day? We have more than 500 "accredited" magicians in Karnataka, 750 in Kerala, 250 in Tamil Nadu...

Again, is there a major event today that happens without magic? Is there a problem in getting people see magic shows by top magicians of the country? No. In fact we would agree that magic is at its popular best. At the top of mind recall.

So why does the media think magic is a dying art? That’s because we are telling them so! Think again, what do we gain by saying magic is dying? Nothing. Do you really think anybody would be interested in what is not “popular”? No.

Take the example of a movie. When somebody says, “this film has no takers,” will you go to watch it to support the director/producer? No. But if they say "that movie's great," we will go and see it. That is the secret of publicity.

Magic, after 5000 years, remains the ultimate of all arts. Magic is simply the most popular of all arts, no matter the age. Let’s please project it as such.

PS: The journalist, needless to say, was not very happy with my inputs.

Published in VMN: May 15, 2005

Magical Musings: Issue II - Publicity Killed the Rabbit

Publicity Killed the Rabbit

In every second magic-related article we read in the Indian newspapers, we are told of a world-record holding magician, one with a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The readers take pride in reading that an Indian magician has done the country and its magic proud. But a day may not be too far when one such incident brews up a lot of trouble. Especially since most claims are false.

It is fortunate that the Indian media is generally lethargic in its duty to verify the authenticity of a story. The press blindly carries any story we give them in writing. The recent case of the boy going to receive an international award from NASA is a case in point.

This is indeed sad because a visit to the relevant page on the Guinness website reveals the 22 different magic-related records [see http://snipurl.com/e2x4]. It is very clear that most of our claims DO NOT even exist. Unless we were claiming to have a copy of the book at home!

And for the worse, in this age of copyrights and patents, such a false claim can lead to serious troubles too. With the Guinness and other record books being copyrighted, any false claim to a mention in the said books can be treated as a copyright violation, and do more bad than good.

The PR world firmly believes, “Publicity good or bad, is good publicity”. But this is not necessarily true for us in the world of entertainment, essentially as one brash statement may lead to dishonour in the eyes of our audience. And thus kill our career.

In this age of the Internet, we should remember that information is only one click away… for those who want it.

Published in VMN: April 15, 2005

Magical Musings: Inaugural Issue

I thank the Academy of Magic for the opportunity to share my thoughts on magic, communication, and related subjects through Vismayam Magic News (VMN).

The day after the tsunami, there was this magician in UK who had predicted the tsunami. As usual, the envelope was opened a day late.

Asked how he did it, he said: "I can't say. I am sorry it is such a sad and tragic story." The poor soul.

We magicians have to owe moral responsibility for actions we carry out. A prediction of this nature defeats the very purpose of staging a “prediction”. The one question all will ask is: “Why predict a disaster, AFTER lives have been lost?”

The simple answer: Because it is a magic effect, and NOT precognition.

This kind of prediction fails logic, and loses ALL magical properties. Worse, it can be seen as being sick and sadistic.

Does that mean we should stop performing headline predictions? For you NEVER know when disaster is going to strike... unless you are a 'real' psychic!

No. We can still use this excellent publicity gimmick. Only, in such calamities, we HAVE TO AVOID including that event as the prediction. "Predict" some other headline... not the bad one. Stick with some good news....

At least that way you have an "out" that this was what you saw... and did not "foresee" the other (calamity). That way, at least you will NOT have lynch mobs looking for you.

Just a thought. And I may be wrong.

Published in VMN: March 15, 2005

The Beyond Magic Blog

While I am already having more than a couple of blogs that I try to update on a regular basis (Nakul@LiveJournal | IndianMagician@BlogSpot), I feel a need to maintain a blog that could be associated with my website. One that relates to Beyond Magic my show, and the magic/mentalism articles published by me (like my Magical Musings column @ Vismayam Magical News) .

May be this blog will also contain any articles, reviews, feedback that I receive about my show from my esteemed audience, and of course the media.

As you can see, I am not too sure what this blog will contain... May be a place to host my press releases, and media coverage? Who knows... Only time will tell.

So, here goes... Let me start with the first three Magical Musings published at Vismayam Magical News published by The Magic Academy, Trivandrum.

Nakul