Why magic should frighten you | David Alnwick | TEDxNewcastle

if any TV sitcom goes on long enough I guarantee at some point there'll be an episode with a magician maybe one of the main characters performs as a hobby or maybe there's a guest character who does magic these people will never be the charismatic hero of the story they will be the punch line in pop culture media magic isn't cool despite magic as a practice having existed for literally thousands of years it doesn't hold a fraction of The Prestige held by music or acting or painting or dance when those artists wish to express their heartfelt sincere truth they do so in the form of an album or a gallery or a recital or a play growing up the only time I ever saw a magician Express their heartfelt truths the only time was on TV talent shows many people myself included believed Darren Brown to be the greatest living magician and yet he does not refer to himself as a magician like Houdini before him who referred to himself as the handcuffed King and prison breaker Darren uses the tools of a magician to present a different genre of performance psychological illusion or mentalism both Brown and Houdini understood the stigma attached to the title magician I have no qualms about admitting to people I'm a writer and an actor but as ridiculous as it sounds I have often struggled confessing I'm also a magician some of my earliest and most happy childhood memories involve showing card tricks to my granddad but as a magician throughout most of my life I have never felt comfortable calling myself an artist when I was 14 years old I made an accidental Discovery and although I didn't understand it at the time I've since come to realize that moment not only changed the direction of my life but my understanding of magic as an art form the problem it has and the solution it's a solution so obvious other art forms have been adopting it for millennia magic like comedy and horror is a genre a style of art comprising of a series of techniques designed to elicit an emotional response most would agree the chief emotions evoke through magic are amazement and wonder but is that all magic is capable of when was the first time you ever saw a magic trick was it an Uncle's card trick at a family party have you scrolled Patrick's on Facebook or Tick Tock maybe it was some hopeful on a talent competition desperately trying to impress a panel of Judges with sleight of hand and a heartfelt life story if you're struggling to remember I'll tell you you were barely eight months old and someone lent over your helpless body and covered their face with their hands you not having any sense of object permanence witnessed a truly impossible disappearance for a few moments you existed in static limbo uncertain and curious before the hands were removed and your mother's face returned how did you feel would the word be amazement what if it wasn't her face Studies have shown if you cover your face in front of a small child then switch for someone they don't know and uncover the result is not giggles and smiles or is a much deeper emotion often associated with experiencing the power of a God it is a combination of both amazement and fear there was a time when practitioners of magic did more than entertain they made the rain they cast illusions on their enemies they whispered into the ears of Kings and now they perform coin tricks in restaurants to diners waiting for their dinner in 1587 a man called Reginald Scott wrote a book called the discovery of Witchcraft it is credited as the first work on Illusions and what would become Modern Performance magic did he write it for the benefit of conjurers so they might get better at their tricks no he wrote it in a desperate attempt to prevent hundreds of women and men being tortured to death after having been accused of sorcery did it work sure logic always trumps fear doesn't it barely four years later a book was written in the defense of executing witches a book called The demonology a dissertation on ritual black magic and who wrote it the king of England James the first a name you might recognize from the front of every Bible the King James Bible you see James was a fiercely Pious man who truly believed in the evils of sorcery so much so he personally supervised the torture of many witches can you imagine thinking that of magic instead of top hats and rabbits your thoughts jumped to demons and malevolent Spirits hell bent on stealing your Immortal soul before magic ever amazed people it frightened them but can it still frighten them in a world where everyone knows magic is just a trick when Scott wrote his discovery of witchcraft he lived in a world where people believed in Magic no longer do we believe but if you want to know how a trick is done all you've got to do is scroll down to the comment section and I promise someone's going to tell you is this Magic's problem we no longer live in a world where a secret can be kept I don't think so any Magic based performer who allows Their audience to leave the theater believing in some untruth about the way in which the effect was achieved being a psychic or some other more subtle falsehood is I believe immoral art should not rely on a permanent lie nor does it have to in order to make its audience feel do you feel any less knowing the actor playing Macbeth can't really see a dagger floating before them the handle toward my hand magic does not need your belief to amaze or to frighten you so what does it need horror and Magic share almost identical methods to produce a reaction from Their audience there's countless articles and video essays on the internet comparing the techniques used in creating a jump scare to that of a magic trick both use misdirection tension and for many years Horror like magic was a sideshow a ghost train not an art form in recent times public opinion has changed now thanks to the like of Stanley Kubrick Jordan peel Stephen King John Carpenter Prestige horror is a respected medium how can magic learn from this how can magic reach such elevated Heights in horror films we the audience feel for the characters and the horror puts those characters in danger in a good horror film every scare has dire consequences for those characters we don't fear for ourselves we fear for them horror evolved beyond the ghost trains and sideshows because it learned how to tell a story when I was 14 I took drama classes in school and one day our teacher told us to prepare a story to perform the following week I spent all weekend writing and practicing and come Monday morning I sat cross-legged in front of the whole class holding a dinner Fork I'd pinched from our kitchen at home as I spoke I played with the fork passing it between my hands my story was a ghost story about a small boy you had a friend his parents couldn't see his friend would join him for dinner every day and the boy insisted his mother put out an extra plate by the empty chair in the beginning his parents were willing to play along but when they awoke to find rooms tossed ornaments broken and chairs stacked at top tables they decided to intervene but their son told them it wasn't me it was my friend the next day at dinner the mother refused to set out an extra plate she wasn't going to play along anymore at this point in the story I took my fork and placed it down on the ground in front of me so my whole class could see I told them how the mother sat down to eat but when she did something happened and my whole class watched as that fork slowly slid across the floor it was a simple trick I'd hoped it would get a round of applause or a gasp of Amazement from my teacher instead they stared silent apart from a few who screamed I believe stories to be the most fundamental particle of art they mimic the way our brains learn information for sensory stories have elevated film writing acting dance painting even music magic is more than a means to an end it is a tool you can use just as Picasso used a brush just as Dickens used a pen just a Spielberg used a camera a tool to tell a story stories give magic the two things it needs to gain back the reverence it so painfully deserves just two things how and why magicians are quite obsessed with trying to get their audience not to think about how a trick is done and instead just appreciate it for what it is but this is impossible Magic by its very nature invites the question of how so tell them don't tell them it's sleight of hand we all know that no one cares tell them it's fairies tell them you sold your soul to the devil for a deck of cards that'll never lose tell them you're performing occult rituals from the demonology you're not trying to get anyone to believe you merely asking them to suspend their disbelief the how is the beginning of story it's the it's actually but on its own it doesn't matter and magicians must make magic matter to do that you've got to tell them why why perform such magic don't say you want to entertain them don't drone on about spreading Wonder to people's lives this is a given we experience art to be entertained to be emotionally affected I'm talking about why why did you sell your soul to the devil for a deck of cards that'll never lose do you need the money are you gambling with your life what are the stakes why perform the demonologies occult rituals to prove they work to contact the other side are you trying to steal someone's soul might sound far-fetched but hell so does Star Wars and I defy anyone here who wasn't shaken to hear Darth Vader say to Luke no I am your father why should magic strive for anything less to be clear I am putting my own theories to the test I'm currently touring the UK with my own show a ghost story told using magic in it I claim to perform black magic rituals from the demonology and I have discovered that allowing magic to tell a story frees it from the confines of mere amazement it allows you to express your personal truth in a means befitting an artist I believe magic can do so much more than amazing I believe magic can thrill you entice you excite you provoke you challenge you romance you inspire you but above all else I believe magic can and should frighten you my name is David anik thank you so much [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 41,286

Keywords: Creativity, English, Entertainment, Film, Magic, TEDxTalks, [TEDxEID:38497]

Id: ukEvHXnkTxY

Length: 12min 46sec (766 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 17 2023