For my first post I thought I would start a bunch of questions. I will start with “Why perform magic”? Is it to perform something unexplainable? Are magicians trying to recreate the child-like awe we lose as we turn into adults? Am I just showing off some skill that most other people cannot perform? If the role I am playing is a “magician," what does that mean? Am I magical? Are the props magical? Does the magic just seem to happen around me and my audience watches it along with me?
Why answer the questions “What is magic and why do I perform it”? Once that is done, us actors playing the role of a magician, will know what we want our participants to experience. There are some of us that want to recreate for our participants that feeling of awe we had when we first had a magic trick performed on us. For some, magic can be a tool used to navigate social settings and situations. It can give introverts, which a lot of us are, a comfort tool to use to talk to new people.
My reason, I believe, a lot of us perform magic, is because it has to do with control. I believe that a lot of magicians are grown ups dealing with childhood issues through magic. Childhoods where we did not have control over a lot of things and learning that I can make a coin vanish because I am in control of it with sleight of hand and people enjoy it is a very rewarding feeling. The response I get from the audience’s reaction feeds my craving for dopamine. I couldn’t control not having friends, lack of emotional connection with anyone, or fulfilling my own needs; but being able to control the ace of spades as a shuffle a deck of cards replaces those feelings.
Is this true for all magicians? I would say, “No” but having hung around plenty of magicians and comedians during my past 20 years performing, I would say I am about 90% correct.