Harry Potter Crap

One of the best pieces of advice I had ever received was from Shoot Ogawa, who told me, "Be aware of what's popular - go out and see popular movies, watch popular T.V. shows, listen to popular music. These things are popular for a reason - a lot of people like them. If you want a lot of people to like your magic, then you are wise to incorporate aspects of popular entertainment." Now, I'm paraphrasing (this advice was given to me about 6 months ago), but the message is clear: if know the popular culture, you can make your magic that much more appealing and that much more, well, popular.

It's easy to find examples that illustrate the accuracy of Shoot's wisdom. There's a clear trend among the most popular magicians throughout history: Jean Robert-Houdin in the 19th century, who, unlike his wizard-robe wearing peers, wore a fashionable upper-class tuxedo; Houdini in the 1920s, who appealed to his generation's need for escapism after the Great Depression by actually performing escapes; Doug Henning in the 1970s, who acted and dressed like the Hippies of his generation while spreading their message of rainbows and free love; and David Blaine in this century, who's toned down close-up magic appeals to the voyeuristic, reality-TV generation.

Despite the obvious historical trends, many magicians allow themselves to remain blissfully unaware of the mainstream (just look at the way many magicians dress!). But here at Pagliacci, we'll help you keep up with current pop culture!

That being said, we turn our attention to Harry Potter, which is immensely popular, especially after the release on Saturday of the new book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. There's a huge market for magic acts that emulate Harry Potter and magic stores have begun to fill the need magicians have for tricks to use in these shows (check out these links: link 1, link 2, and link 3).

However, what's really great about this new Harry Potter book is that author J. K. Rowling explores the contrast between Muggle (read: non-human) magic and the real magic wizards can perform. Here are some excerpts from the book (don't worry - there are no spoilers here):

Harry left Hermione dabbing her black eye with paste and followed Fred toward the back of the shop, where he saw a stand of card and rope tricks.

"Muggle magic tricks!" said Fred happily, pointing them out. "For freaks like Dad, you know, who love Muggle stuff. It's not a big earner, but we do fairly steady business, they're great novelties." (p. 118)

Mr. Weasley was delightedly examining a pack of Muggle marked playing cards. (p. 123)

" --- and if you want people to help you, Ron," added George, throwing the paper airplane at him, "I wouldn't chuck knives at them. Just a little hint. We're off to the village, there's a very pretty girl working in the paper shop who thinks my card tricks are something marvelous...almost like real magic...." (p. 328)

You notice that "a very pretty girl" thinks that George's tricks are "marvelous" because they look "almost like real magic"? That's an important lesson in itself - if you really want to entertain, amaze, and astound your audience, you need to ask yourself, Is this what real magic would look like? If I could do real magic, would I be doing what I'm doing now? Certain tricks - like the Ambitious Card or any trick where you lose a card only to find it again - seem rather pointless. Making money appear, on the other hand, or reading somebody's mind do seem like worthy applications of your "real magic."

Betcha didn't think you'd find all these lessons in a post about Harry Potter?