This is a quote you will see listed on my website. One of the main reasons I enjoy being a magician is because it is one of the few occupations that permit play. I am able to maintain my inner child while working. Essentially, I co-exist with a younger and more playful version of myself. There is an inner-child that experiences the true magic of life. There is the other part of me that executes the technical methodology to effectively produce an illusion. It is in the co-existence of the two that magical genius manifests. The development of illusions is produced through the childish acts of imagination and creative play.

     I have a relatively difficult job. As a magician, it is my job to inspire wonder into the heart of every person I meet. I have to create a moment in the present time where adults can travel back in time to their past - a place in their childhood when they believed in magic. Only then can the illusion be percieved as truly magical - In that moment where a person suspends their disbelief.

     Think about this next time you tell a magician, "Do a trick!" Sure, any talented performer, such as myself, has the ability to mystify on command. Yet, the secret to an illusion is a lot more complicated than mirrors, smoke, and trapdoors. The art of magic requires a lifelong dedication toward perfecting sleight-of-hand technique through manual dexterity. Even the simplest of gestures has been studied and thoroughly practiced to enhance the believability of an illusion. Everything in a single illusion is planned out and thoroughly rehearsed. Even the accompanying patter is scripted and refined.
~(Note: Patter is what is said during an illusion.)~

     It is said that magic is the art of manipulating objects to produce an illusion. The more advanced way of saying this is: Magic is the art of manipulating objects to produce an illusion percieved as an impossible truth to observers. Feeling like you've entered the Twilight Zone yet? Magic is very much like that. Performance magic sucks you into the Twilight Zone through a black hole, swirls you around in a vortex, and places you into some strange parallel dimension; and you are supposed to accept everything as reality.

     Laughingly, I don't blame a lot of people for being skeptical. I always love to hear comments after performing an effect like vanishing a rabbit in a box. Somebody is always guaranteed to say, "It's a special box". Well, duh! Of course it is! However, what if you percieved the same effect knowing that the box was perfectly ordinary. Perhaps it is even your own, personal, borrowed box! Heck, you can even take it home as a souvenier after the show. Wow eh?

     This is the type of magic I aim to create. In essence, I like to take my audience on a wild roller-coaster ride through the vortex and leave them stranded in that parallel dimension with nowhere to go. I attempt to leave people with nothing to reconstruct in their minds as to how the illusion is accomplished. Therefore, they have no choice but to accept it as reality. This is how true magic is conjured.

     I have just described some fairly advanced magic theory for you. However, the true purpose of this article is to describe my feelings about performing magic for children! Many magicians, including myself, perform at children's birthday parties. In fact, magicians are hired to perform at children's birthday parties more than any other gig. However, those same magicians will tell you that the hardest gig they get are birthday parties for children. This is because children have no pre-conceived notion of what is possible through physics.

     Today's children have grown up with Harry Potter, and Lord of The Rings. In a child's mind, magic is as real as it is for Harry Potter. Children do not understand why it is impossible to pull a coin from their ear, when they have witnessed Harry Potter flying on a broomstick. Their excitement and amazement comes from the discovery that their is money behind their ear, and their body's uncanny ability to produce money will make them rich!

     Another reason children's birthday parties are the hardest gigs for magicians is because the children often discover the secret method behind the magician's illusions! Why can a child figure out a complex illusion, while an adult remains baffled throughout their lifetime? Here is the big secret... Magician's secrets are often very simple. That's It! Adults often dismiss the most rationally simple explanation because they assume that there must be more to it! Children use basic common sense to decipher a simple method to create the illusion. Often, they are correct!

     For example, I know adults who are still mesmerized when I pull coins from their ears. However, a child will tell me with full-confidence that the coin was simply already in my hand. Simple right!? I must work harder as a magician to create the same effect for a child. I show the children both of my hands undoubtably empty. I shake their hands, and allow them to feel my hands to prove the coin isn't stuck between my fingers. Then, I find a lucky child, reach up behind their ear and pluck a shiny half-dollar from it! Can I truly do this? You Bet! How do you know? You'll have to trust me, which brings me to the next magic theory entitled - 'Don't Run When You're Not Being Chased'.

     It is basically the same effect, but children take a little more convincing. Adults tend to take your word as truth. Why is that? Adults assume, children suspect. Adults don't require as much justification and convincing because as far as they're concerned, you're not under suspicion. Adults don't know what is going to happen, therefore they have no reason to suspect anything. This theory in magic is called 'Don't run when you're not being chased'. In other words, the magician doesn't have to tell the spectators that it is an ordinary deck of cards or that my hands are empty. A good magician will simply allow the spectators to assume this. It is often in that moment of assumption that an audience is deceived.

     However, children know that you are going to do something of a magical nature. They suspect something sneaky. Children have come to regard the magician as someone who is not trustworthy because he is there to trick them.

~(Note:This is why a lot of magician do not like the word 'trick'. Myself and other magicians prefer to call magic tricks, 'effects'. Contrary to popular belief a magician's goal is not to trick you. Instead, we aim to entertain you with our illusions. How can something so frusterating to figure out be entertaning? Well, you're not supposed to try to figure it out. Magic is supposed to inspire the idea that things which seem impossible may not be so. All it takes is a little magic.)~

     I compare children's view of a magician to that of primitive societies' view of witches. Society considered witches to be people with supernatural powers that could not be trusted. Witches were believed to bring death, curses, and evil to the towns they lived in. It was also believed that witches were somehow in collusion with satanic rituals and dark occult practices. Perhaps they were. All I can say about the persecution of witches is that many innocent people died; some of whom were the finest performance magician's of their time. With the simple word of "witch" many men, women, and five dogs were condemned to death.

     Even today, I occasionally run into a church youth group and perform a little magic. The same thing is being heard centuries later. Youth group members say such things as, "You're a witch!" They scream, run away, make crosses with their fingers, and refuse to allow me to reach behind their ear for that coin. I cannot help but to laugh when this occurs. All I did was make a coin disappear.

     Of course, not all youth groups are like this. Some are very receptive to my magic as performance art. I have made a unique observation while performing for various churches and youth groups. African American churches and youth groups tends to respond more actively to my magic. In fact, African Americans respond more emotionally to magic performance than any other culture.

     My theory behind this is that a lot of African American culture is rooted in magick practices such as voodoo. Therefore, any magic witnessed by an African American is subconsciously perceived as real magick! This is why I love to perform for African Americans. They are the best audience because they believe without question. They are like children, in that they know magic is real!!!
~(Note: David Blaine agrees with this theory and often uses African American spectators on his television shows.)~

     Look at me, going off-topic again. Well, if nothing else you've gained more insight into the world of magic as I view it. Perhaps now you understand that children are skeptical of the magician's effects. The magician's illusions become tricks. In children's minds', tricks are puzzles. Puzzles are meant to be figured out. Puzzles often have a simple solution which is overlooked. Basically, that is a recap of everything aforementioned concerning children's understanding of magic performance. The following paragraphs illustrate my main point!

     I certainly do not mind performing magic for children. It can be great fun, and I consider it a challenge to create and reconstruct effects so that children also see no other explanation other than real magic. We want our children to believe in magic. Children believe in Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, but not the magician's magical powers because children know that it is a trick. Adults also know that the magician's performance is an illusion, but adults are willing to dismiss that fact temporarily to engage themselves in the belief that such magical things are possible in this world. I want to place the magic back into the lives of children and adults alike. Afterall, that is how I became interested in magic. From an early age, I beleived that magicians were bringers of wonderous entertainment. I cannot describe how excited I was in seeing magicians perform.

     The problem with performing magic for children is when the children are very young. Once, I was performing at a banquet when a woman approached me and asked me to perform some magic for her three-year old child. I told the woman of course I would, but it would be pointless. When she asked why, I told her an abbreviated version of what I have described in this article:

     I will leave you with this quote that illustrates the disenchantment of children.

"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business." ~Tim Robbins

Q&A

Q: At what age should we hire a magician for our child's birthday party?

A: It depends on the growth and development of the child. On average, at five years old children are prepared to watch a magician perform!

I hope this article has helped you in learning more about children's entertainment and the art of magic in general. For More Information About Michael Gambit's Birthday Party Shows Click the Following Link.

© 2002 Michael 'Gambit' Matson

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