Magical Musings: December 2005 - Mesmerising Indian Magic

Mesmerising Indian Magic

Mazma – the street magician’s competition was a welcome change from the trade-of-the-mill magic conventions. Many traditional magic tricks, historically acknowledged to be India's contribution to the world of magic, were performed, mostly with devastating effect.

Legendary effects like Indian mango tree, open air levitation, Indian basket trick, took the center stage alongside the gory, and thereby scary, effects like knife through neck and decapitation of the tongue.

For me, the most amazing performance was without doubt the magic of 83 year old Samjunath Vadi from Gujarat. How he transforms a brick to a live slithering king cobra inside of a second, and in the heat of the moment, is nothing less than a miracle. He has to be simply the best magician in the world, one that David Copperfield would be proud to take lessons in misdirection from.

There is no one (nor do I think there will be anyone) worthy of conjuring up snakes and scorpions from thin air as he does. In my opinion it was an injustice to his greatness, and wizardry, that he was compared to the other performers.

This is not to take away anything from the prowess of the other performers. This is a solemn acknowledgement that Vadi is one of the very best performers in the field of magic -- one that could share the nuances of real misdirection with the masters of magic.

Of course, getting to know and exchange views on magic and mentalism, especially Indian magic, with Magician Ramana (Wouter Bijdendijk) from Holland was great fun, and saw the blossoming of what I hope will be a good friendship.

It was an honour for me to be associated with this historic event, even more so as a jury member, and I thank the Magic Academy for giving me this opportunity.

Published in VNM: December 15, 2005