P. C. Sorcar Sr.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bangalore/Father-of-modern-magic-remembered/articleshow/4179493.cms

Some discussions on Erdnase

If Erdnase was all about doing things the ``natural way" then why does he teach bottom dealing and second dealing with a very unnatural grip.

I have seen all laymen deal cards with 4 fingers on the side of the deck. I learn't magic with cards holding the deck with forefinger at front and 3 fingers on the side. It might seem that for the laymen my way of holding the deck was very unnatural.

Was it common in his time to hold the deck with 2 fingers at the front ? Dai Vernon in the Revelations video series tells us that this grip is the ``mechanic's grip" and it was used to guard against the ruse of edge marking important cards such as aces. By holding the two fingers at the front the front short end of the deck was hidden from view.

blasphemy

A shocking behaviour that I have been putting off by is a form of idol worship amongst magicians. As in any art form, magic too has its share of heroes. Magic enthusiasts tend to accept without question whatever comes from the quarters of their heroes. Amazingly they don't wait to really understand and then simply lift the spoken words as they were. Then later on they cite their heroes in defense of their own stupid acts or words.
This should not be interpreted as an outrage against the big names in magic, why should it be. My only concern are the idiots who would criticize any question against their heroes. I mean those heroes were after all humans and to this date I am yet to find a human who is always right. That simply can't be. What is wrong in being critical of everything, this after all is a rational approach to everything.

An often abused dictum is from Dai Vernon. Supposedly he said, "Be natural!". Do people really try and understand what he really meant to say? Should we simply take for granted the literal meaning of the phrase? Could it not be that he was really summing up the philosophy of the ideal body language and handling of props while performing magic and while explaining that a lot and lot was said before he summarized by saying those final words?
Unfortunately there are a whole lot of idiots who would attack you with "Oh man! That did not look natural. Remember what Vernon said".
Would some body explain to these idiots that the very nature of a magic effect is in not being natural ?

Then they would argue strongly along the lines, "Go hand a deck to a lay person and see the way he would turn a card over". You stupid idiot if you see the way a lay person handles a deck of card you might get a heart attack. The truth be told most of the magicians handle decks of cards you would never find a layman do. And why should the case be any different.

things I hate in magic

1. Patronizing Patter
2. Expectation that the spectator will be in awe of you
3. Making fun of spectators or in any way demeaning them or making them feel uncomfortable
4. Mentalists claiming that feats of Telekinesis, Telepathy and Mind Reading and other pseudo science bullshit can really be done IF you put your mind to it.
5. Fellow magicians NOT calling out the bad moves and performances of their colleagues or other performers out of POLITENESS or PROFESSIONAL COURTESY.
6. Patter line, "Have you bee hypnotized before ? "
   

Dai Vernon's birthday is on 11th June

Dr. Elliot was a Harvard Graduate

John Mendoza's Lines

John Mendoza is an adorable guy and while his skills are never amiss I like him more for his sweet and honest nature. Two of the lines that I really like right out of his patter are as follows

1. While offering a card for selection to a spectator : " Look at the card and remember it, might be a long time before I ask you. Ok ? Don't forget the card. "
2. "This won't fool you !"

Love you John

angle issues and TV/Internet

due to a lot of magic being shown on the TV and available on the internet most of the moves and effects that have come up or have become popular are those that look good from up front and then to if a single person is watching from front.

most of the kids watching youtube or TV become so impressed with these moves and end up thinking that those r the best moves possible. its a lot wiser to RELY on classic moves that were worked out in a working environment by the masters of the past.

a serious student of magic must study the angle issues involved while constructing a routine.

Magic Moment 2006

Magic Moments 2006 the 20th annual magic festival was hosted by the Howrah Magic Circle on the 9th and 10th of December 2006.
Howrah is a district of West Bengal, India.

The Chief Guest was Mr. Ron Chatburn from England. A total of 284 magicians and magic enthusiasts attented this two day long
festival. The proceedings began late on the first day but we did not care much. While awaiting my turn to recieve the ID cards I started showing off my coin skills. Sometime after that it was breakfast time ( read brunch time ).
Any ways the program started with traditional Indian dance to welcome the attendees. P.C. Sorcar Jr. arrived very late, because his mother was admitted to a hospital. Although late, we were grateful that he could find the time to grace the occasion. His speech was a mix of welcome address and recounting of some fond memories of his father P.C. Sorcar Sr. and his mother Basanti Devi.
The show opened by lady magician Avantika and from then on it was magic and more magic. After lunch it was the dealer demonstration where dealers demonstrated the latest line of products they had to offer.
Day 1 saw the lady magician competition and junior competition followed by a gala show.
The auditorium where the competition was held was not a good one and the band was blasting away much to the discomfort of the audience. The chairs etc were in a pathetic state and the venue was not something to write home about. Fellows I am not complaining about the poor standards but am trying to send the message that lots of improvement is still needed in this field. Perhaps some professional event management team should have been hired.
Day 2 saw the senior competition and this was a good day for magic enthusiasts. The senior competition was breathtaking with some stellar performances from the current biggies of India at the moment. It was lecture time now. Mr. Srinivas from Andhra Pradesh and Mr. Goutam Guha from Kolkata presented some excellent lectures and demonstrations. Mr. Goutam Guha is a really big name in the magic circles here. Though he is a not a practising magician but he is a teacher par excellence. He has trained many magicians including your truly.
The venue for the grand gala show was Sarat Sadan, Howrah. This was a much better auditorium than the last one. First it was the prize distribution ceremony and felications of the various invited guests, then it was onto the grand gala show. The winners in various categories came out once again with their winning acts and mesmerized the audiences with great quality magic.
Two days spent immersed in magic and in the company of fellow magicians, what else can one ask for.

Results of the various competitions are as follows:-

Day 1 ::

Lady Magicians' Competition
First Prize -- Soumita Bag
Second Prize -- Sneha

Junior Competition
First Prize -- A. Mohanty
Second Prize -- Sagar

Day 2 ::

Senior Competition
First Prize -- M. Yona
Second Prize -- S. Kundu


Mr. Yona's performance deserved the first prize. Onstage he portrays Charlie Chaplin in a magician's avatar. Very confident and smooth performance. Clearly the experience shows in his act. He used the whole stage and made his presence felt. Magic, I feel is really about personality and entertainment and not so much in mere secrets or clever gizmos and contraptions. Mr. Nayan deserves a worthy mention of his performance in the senior category. I liked his act where he portrays a heart broken
fellow trying to rediscover his lost love. He performed to the tune of classic Raj Kapoor songs and he did a jolly good job at it. The first prize winner in the lady magician's category Soumita is a charming young girl with lots of skills. She is so small in stature, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this young gifted first amaze the audience with skillful card manipulation. Bravo !!!

The best part of the convention for me was the offstage sessions with enthusiastic magic nuts from all over India. Mr. Sandeep Golani is very skillful with this hands and amazed the onlookers with his skill with cards and coins. His artful deciet as he bends spoons in the spectator's hands is praiseworthy. It was like swarms of bees looking for honey. All over the place one could see cards, coins and sponge balls wowing the onlookers. It just did not stop and thank God that it continued.
Mr. Arun Bonerjee does the best rendition of the spirit key. His presentation is a thing to watch. Cardician Shekhar was at it again when he graced us with some wonderful card magic. Mr. Sarang and Prince S. Lal were trying to one up each other with sponge ball magic and coins. It was a great opportunity to watch some great magic and learn from the biggies.

I could go on and on but my limited journalistic abilities won't allow me to go far. So its good bye for now and I hope to see you all again later.

card manipulation -- too much proving???

although card manipulations can look pretty if done properly, but the very nature of the manipulations make them a non-magical effect and more like jugglery. perhaps to a first time viewer it might appear like a very very perplexing puzzle but any ``experienced" audience would probably pass these on as mere digital dexterity and juggling and not magic. i think the amazement factor is lost upon the audience and upon that very loss the magical nature goes too.

difficult to perform for kids

its one thing to sit in front of the mirror and practice endlessly and then perhaps recording a lone performance with a webcam and uploading to mvd or some other place and then feeling proud, its an ENTIRELY different matter to perform for real ppl in the real world.

its more difficult i think to perform for kids. recently i had a run of bad luck with the kids at the local "chaay ki dukaan".

i feel more comfortable with cards but carrying cards is not always possible and mostly i have coins or other small objects around. many months back i began with simple coin vanish and other things. the things i did were more of less the following

1) cranium vanish
2) 2 coin transposition / 2 coins coin across
3) wither vanish ( fitz palm )

it was a hit. mostly because they did not know what to expect and then when i did the magic they were all amazed. now i was running out of material to do for them also.

many weeks passed and every day these kids would request me to perform more magic for them. however i had no new material to show them and i would honestly admit that i haven't learn any new stuff. then one day i realized that its important to show ppl the learnt stuff. so began the BIG REALIZATION that i was a wuss, a wimp when it comes to magic.

these little guys caught me on so many occassions.i feel ashamed admiting it here.

there was a lesson in it for me. i have now learnt to digest getting caught. its very important to get critisized and although they don't say that i was bad they just laughed out loud when they catch a secret move.

but i won't give up i have to continue performing for them and learn more. ......

fist thru flourish

just learned the the fist thru flourish was also created by Vernon.
oh what a great man he was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suhani Shah

blatantly copied from The Hindu :-(
http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/23/stories/2005072301420200.htm

" Give me sponsors, and I can make the Taj Mahal disappear", says the young magician.

HUBLI: She flies in the air, makes a car disappear, cuts herself in two, and reduces a five-and-half feet tall man into a boy two-and-half feet tall. She can even drive a car blindfolded and is just 14.

Meet Suhani Shah, who entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's youngest magician when she was seven. She is now mesmerising the residents of Hubli-Dharwad through her magic.

Debut

Ms. Shah's trip along the magic corridor began at the age of seven, when she was studying in the second standard at Mount Carmel School in Ahmedabad.

Her parents arranged for her debut performance at the Thokorbhai Desai Hall in Ahmedabad on October 22, 1997.

"That was the starting point. There has been no looking back after that," she said. She has to her credit more than 4,000 shows in the country and abroad. Ms. Shah aims to make her shows be different from the traditional magic shows.

Apart from performing some 40 illusions on the stage, her shows include sizzling dance numbers performed by professional artistes.

"My show is a three-hour extravaganza packed with entertainment. There are fashion sequences, dances and everything that will keep the audience enraptured. In keeping with the time, I have made the shows more westernised. Even the costumes are different," she said.

And Thursday's show was proof to it.

On Thursday, barring one or two hitches that mostly went unnoticed, Ms. Shah left the audience at the Sawai Gandharva Hall in Deshpande Nagar here spellbound.

Ms. Shah has won several awards. It's no wonder that the All India Magic Association has conferred on her the title of "Jadoopari."

"Give me sponsors and I can make the Taj Mahal disappear," she said confidently. And this teenage magician has pinned her hopes on doing it one day.

update

was back at kolkata for some days. it was just a short visit but it was a nice one. i met mr. arun bonerjee and prince sil. prince sil was badly injured while performing his famous bullet catching trick. he is safe although the injury caused has left him with some loss of vision in his left eye.

Street Magic in India

Its a pity that most modern magicians have forgotten a most potent tool in magic -- Misdirection. In this age of magic dominated by T.V. there is really no place for magic done with misdirection for its not possible to misdirect a camera ! But one has to see the Indian street magicians to witness miracles and the modus operandi is nothing more than simple sleights and powerful misdirections. Please read the following article to know more about the street magicians of India.
http://indianmagician.blogspot.com/2005/12/mesmerising-indian-magic.html
Thanks Nakul !!!

Indian Magic

Well this is yet another achievment of an Indian magician that I came to be aware of thru the Net.



Salil Kumar Kundu, who performs as "Solyl Kundu, The Magician", is from Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), the capital of West Bengal in India. He also edits ``The Gimmick" which is a magazine for the magicians.

Sal Piacente

When they say that sometimes the strongest effects are produced with the simplest means, I can not help but agree. I guess simplicity must be the corner stone of elegant magic and believe me it is. Sometime back when I watched the performance of the ``4-5-6 Packet Trick" I was blown away ! This is an example of how REAL magic should be done.
There is a saying in Hindi and it goes like this: ``Ghar Ki Murgi Daal Barabar" and it came resounding back to me when I read ``The Three Pile Trick" in the Royal Road to Card Magic(RR).



The RR is a prized possesion and this post is just to remind you all including myself that magic after all is a performing art and its best to stick to simple methods and maximize the achievable effect with better showmanship and presentation.

Richard Osterlind

When I originally started out in magic, I pretty soon realized that mental magic is pretty hard hitting. The way non-magicians react to mental effects is proof of this fact. Although I am of a reserved nature, I have a BIG ego and to make matters worse I have what is called, the gift of the gab. I can act and pretty seriously too. I reckon this is all you need to be a good mentalist.
I recently had the good fortune of watching the Mind Series videos of Richard Osterlind. The methods used are remarkably simple and yet the effects he achieves are remarkable. And by effects I donot simply mean the actual end result of a trick but the effect those tricks( or acts ) have on people.
I am a researcher and like puzzles. What I think I really like about puzzles is the elegant solutions that make them such charming things to know. So I really despise those effects that have a mundane simple solution. Though from an engineering point of view that is precisely how it should be. A simple method that creates a powerful effect is exactly the stuff powerful magic is all about. And I completely agree, this is how it should be. However from a personal liking point of view I donot like magic that has too uninteresting a solution. I know I am treading fuzzy grounds when I say uninteresting, and I won't even take the pains of clearing the notion.
Any ways the reason I started this topic was simply to tell u that I was completely blown away by the paddle moves in Volume 7 of Osterlind's videos. So simple a move and yet mind boggling effect. I hardly used paddle move but now I am going to try and perfect it to look as good as Richard makes it look.

Levitation

I stay away from effects involving levitation of small objects using the IT. There are some good effects possible like the Hummer's Card. However there is one objectionable side effect of many a levitation tricks. There is ALWAYS a noticeable ``wobble". This to my mind gives away the secret. If ever a system can be devised that can do away with this mid air wobble then I guess we have something on our hand.
Notice that Hummer Card does not suffer the same problem.

Magic In India

Though I hardly know much about the scene of Magic in India, I can say that Magic in India has suffered a lot. Not that we don't have talent here, we do. The fact remains that Magic does not offer a viable career option. There is no close up scene, no table hopping here, no trade shows. T.V. in India hardly pays attention to Magic as a form of entertainment. Most magicians in India have to have a day time job to support themselves.
We don't have enough innovative artists in this field. Two of the names that I can think of A. P. Sreenivasan
















and Arun Bonnerjee










{the guy on the left in above photo}

Its impossible to buy good magic DVDs or books here. We have to import all of these material. Because of this the standards are never raised and Indian Magicians blissfully unaware of the international developments miss the train !

{ more later...}