All The Magic Has Gone

[barry1010]

I used to enjoy the magicians and magic shows on tv from the traditional David Nixon to the spectacular David Copperfield, the whacky Penn and Teller, the bizarre David Blaine and everyone in between.

Are we too sophisticated to be beguiled by smoke, mirrors, sleight of hand, deception and trickery?

[davebro]

dunno - I used to enjoy the street magic - Dynamo etc. Truly amazing if camera tricks weren't being used.

[ToraToraTora]

You Tube etc has killed off a lot of the mystique. Back in the day it was almost impossible to find out how a trick was done now it's a quick net search. The sad thing is though that most of the time it's actually better not to know. On the few occasions I have found out how something is done it's just been a total disappointment. I enjoy magic and now I rarely bother to try and find out how it's done.

[burlyshirley1]

I loved the old type magicians too. I remember my brother getting a David Nixon magic set one Christmas, we both enjoyed it.

[barry1010]

Yes, better not to know. Penn and Teller were guilty of showing how it was done - or did they? I like to think they were bluffing.

Was it Dynamo that levitated in the street?

[ToraToraTora]

That was blaine but that was a simple illusion.

[ToraToraTora]

A lot of the street magic is set up ahead of time, eg when dynamo walked on water he was walking on a perspex sheet.

[THECORBYLOON]

You mean he wasn't really walking on the water?????

NOOOOOOOOOO.......

[barry1010]

I thought Derren Brown went too far in some of his shows, but was it magic? In particular, the show where he woke people from their beds and sent them in to some sort of zombie apocalypse

[THECORBYLOON]

Having just posted, "The sad thing is though that most of the time it's actually better not to know." why did you feel the need to reveal the use of Perspex?

[barry1010]

TTT, I thought it obvious he was walking on perspex, very badly done illusion.

[douglas9401]

Magicians realised that they'd never be able to top the twin deceptions of Covid and Brexit so moved on to other projects.

[ToraToraTora]

barry: "TTT, I thought it obvious he was walking on perspex, very badly done illusion. " - yes it's obvious that he's not really walking on water. I used that example because clearly it took a lot of set up. There were probably divers in the water days before etc. That's the point, the "spontaneous" street "magic" is just the final stage of a lengthy set up process so it looks good on TV. It's like Tommy Cooper said, it takes a lot of preparation to look this unprepared.

[dustypuss]

Mrs dustypuss is good at magic. If I give her a twenty pound note she can make it disappear in moments. Magic!