Is magic going to another level? More and more people are asking if Derren Brown and John Edward are real. Leading me to believe that magic is taking a turn toward 'realism'.
Passing off our 'tricks' as being the real thing. Or at least hinting that just maybe it could be real. Even David Blaine tapped this vein. Does this also mean that magic is going backward in time? To a period where magicians were thought to have real powers? What does this trend say about society? And are we leading society to these conclusions about us? or are we merely responding to what society expects form us?

Much food for thought here.

Chad

In a society that is increasingly becoming more and more complex, people just want something to "beleive in". There is a huge rise in spiritual (religion) trends right now, especially amongst the young. This happened at the turn of the century 9and into the 20's) where there was an increase in the interest in spiritualism and such. Great new innovations were sweeping the world (telephones, automobiles, electricity, etc.) and things are no different today.

Magic goes through these little trends too and lately it is a trend towards mental effects. Next year (as it is already waning) will be something else, perhaps a new trend in classical magic (which has not happened in the last decade or so and is due again any time soon). With such a trend towards things so "classical", it would be the next logical move for magicians trying to stay current with trends. (Not to mention the tux look is coming back in style too).

PSIncerely Yours,
Paul Alberstat
http://www.stores.ebay.ca/abstagecraft

The history of magic seems to be littered with people who seemed to 'do it for real'. In fact, arguably there would be no performance magic if all the witchdoctors, alchemists, swamis, mountebanks and cheats hadn't been doing it 'for real' in the first place...

What about the Davenports with their Spirit Cabinet? Or, in more recent times, Uri Geller who is still 'doing it for real' after all these years? Actually, I suspect that (for good or bad) Uri is a major influence on the current generation of magicians who are trying to put a touch of 'reality' in their acts.

best wishes
Huw

The frauds, hoaxers, and their ilk have been, and probably will be, with us always.
Randi tries to expose current ones; Houdini tried to expose the ones of 100 years ago; and so it goes, back into the mist of time.
Sure, there are people today who claim to "do it for real" and people who want to believe them.
But those two classes have always been around.
cheers,
Peter Marucci
showtimecol@aol.com

I guess this goes together with your post about "real" magicians...
My strong belief is, that the success of the mentioned magicians has nothing to do with "realism" or "level" of any sort.
it has nothing to do with magic at all. It has something to do with successful marketing. for his "Plerophia" routine DB uses a very old principle already known in the 1940s. this is also true for some of his other work. what he does (and others do as well) is refitting the material and act for the 21st century. It takes an outstanding personality and a lot of skills to do this succesfully. there is a film coming out "XXX" with Vin Diesel, where he plays some kind of special agent (it is not out here, and I do not know if it is a good film, but I guess it serves my purpose nevertheless). James Bond might have been cool in the 1960ies and up, but today it takes more to lure the young audiences into the cinemas. Nobody believes that secret agents look like tatooed body-builders and nobody believes (the very weak minded excluded here) that magicians do the real stuff. Poeple always loved and always will love the excitment, the adventure and the unknown. the secret at any time is give them what they need - marketing.
I hope you will get my point, since this is a real test for my english skills.

I think that this "new line " of magic come because today the Real fame become with the TV.
And if you watch TV you see that people like a lot oversized special FX and strange misteries.
The special FX in magic belong to great stage illusion and it's not cheap to do.
The misteries could be done with less money.
And with the launch of tv it is easy to become famous.
I think that the story that people seek the "real thing" because a return of mystic and spiritual times is a bit false.
In the history the great part of people believe in spiritual/mystic etc etc...
In our time the number decreased a lot but remain a lot of people that believe.
The main thing is that when science and other sources tell everyday that some thing are impossible and explain how do it ,the people stoned in theirs idea of "I want it to be REAL" simply often avoid to speak.
But they see the shows...

More and more I suspect that the hoax is the highest possible level of magical artistry, and that it is the hoaxers who are the real magicians, as opposed to the 'wink and a nod--it's all just tricks' type performers. It's just a feeling I have that magic, or what is usually called that, isn't the least bit magical to me.

--Christopher Carter