Magic and the magic effect: What are they? What are they composed of?

What are their

characteristics?

By Marcus Olivero

Introduction

This essay does not contain any explanation of any given specific magic trick. It contains
theory, ideas, concepts and definitions that I regard as particularly important for any magician
that considers himself serious in the study of magic.

Before you start reading I would like to tell you a couple of things: first, this is the
start of a series of essays that I have in mind; second is that none of this would be possible
without all the wonderful people (magicians and non-magicians) that I’ve had the luck to
meet in the course of my life.

One of the masters that magic has given me, Ricardo Rodriguez, once told me that he
organized the course topics of his magic school, partly, in a way that he would have liked to
be taught when he started. I thought this idea was wonderful, so the objective of these series
of writings is no other than to explain things to myself, in a way that I consider convenient,
or useful, all the concepts and ideas that I have learned across eleven years of doing magic.

I am going to approach things in the order I consider most appropriate and in the way
I consider most convenient, always trying to be honest with myself regarding the ideas I will
write about.

I will try my best not to write anything without having it thought through carefully
and without concluding that the reasoning behind it was solid enough, at least to convince
me.

I am aware I run the risk of making a mistake, but for the same price I also risk giving
some material that might prove useful to someone, as It could have been to me when I started.

There are not many things in this world that give my life as much meaning and
passion as the art of magic. I hope that you, reader, can feel the emotion I felt when I
discovered that magic was much more profound, complex and fascinating than I thought
when I started.

Without further a-do, here goes the first of my attempts to clarify for myself a few
things regarding illusionism, prestidigitation, or as I prefer to call it, magic.

What is magic?

In the artistic sense, magic is a branch of the performing arts that tries to simulate, by
secret and unperceivable means, either impossible or extremely unlikely events. These
incidents take place in the present, and despite they are only simulations, they are lived as
realities manifesting themselves in front of the spectator, since they don’t know the causes
that run behind the magic effect.

Magic, beyond the artistic definition, carries a very high anthropological value.
Magical thought is a structure or way of thinking present in all human beings; it manifests in
multiple dimensions and has been determinant to the development of mankind’s thinking
structures.

In the dramatic sense, magic is represented as a symbol in the shaman, the magician,
the wizard, among other representative images.

Magic as a performing art occurs in the present, that is to say it has its maximum
potency live, in direct contact, in the here-and-now of the spectator.

Other performing arts use secret or quasi secret methodology or technology to achieve
similar ends, for instance: characters in a theatre plays that can fly with cables or ropes;
special effects that we see in movies; etc.

The biggest difference between magic and these other ways of using “Secret
methods”, is that in the context of magic it is necessary that the spectator has the feeling that
there is NO method or decipherable trick behind it, rather, that whatever is happening is
happening because of the acting upon of mysterious, secret forces. With this I am not saying
that the spectator necessarily has to believe in supernatural forces or powers, but our goal is
certainly giving him no answer other than the magical or supernatural solution. The method
has to be unperceivable, undecipherable and unthinkable; the spectator must not be able to
find a logical explanation for what just happened.

Our spectators are aware of the existence of many technological methods responsible
for special effects and practical theatrical effects, then, why is magic different?

An answer is that magic, first and foremost, happens in the present time of the
spectator, and in conditions when it seems not possible for the magician to employ
conventional or technological methods to achieve the results he or she achieves.

Magic tries to develop counterintuitive methodology for the spectator, that is to say,
it makes impossible things happen by means opposite to the possible solutions that the
spectator might think for any magic effect. In that way, the spectator, even knowing that there
is a method, is incapable of pointing it out or even imagine it. We could say that a method is
better or worse in the measure that it goes unperceived by the spectator.

Considering all of the above we can conclude that maybe the most important factor
for the correct manifestation of magic is the feeling or sensation of absolute absence of a
secret method. The fundamental phrase goes: the method must not be seen, felt nor intuited.

With the correct application of a secret method and with an interesting interpretation
that can generate the magic effect, now we can ask in particular:

What is the magic effect? (Also called magic trick, magic illusion, magic game in
Spanish, etc.)

The “effect” is the minimal magical unit, it is the smallest bit where magic can distill
from. There are many categories to differentiate effects, and these categories change
depending on the author and his analysis.

Now I will give you listed all the magic effects in the categories that I understand
thanks to my colleagues and masters:

● Production: Where there was nothing, now there is.

● Vanish: Where there was something, now there is not.
 ● Transposition: Objects A and B switched places magically.
● Levitation: Gravity is defied.
● Transformation or metamorphosis: the object changes in its color, form and/or
nature.
● Divination: Access is gained on information that shouldn’t be known.
● Prediction: Events in the future are predicted with certainty.
● Penetration: A solid object passes through another without mutually harming
themselves or the other.
● Coincidence: An extremely unlikely event takes place here and now.
● Restoration: A destroyed object is recomposed.
● Anomalous behavior: And object behaves in unexpected, incredible ways.
● Transportation: An object moves from place A to place B instantaneously.
● Multiplication: And object is divided in multiple objects of the same
dimensions.
● Animation: An inert objects manifests life-like behavior.
● Telepathy: Thoughts are sent or received among two or more individuals.
● Syntropy: Disorder is reordered without apparent cause.
● Sympathy: What occurs in an object is replicated mysteriously in another.
● Invulnerability: The magician or an object resist damage that would normally
harm them.
● Superhability: Capacities that exceed that of a normal human being.

Understanding the magic effect as the minimal magic unit, we can start to organize and
understand what makes a magic effect be received better or worse than another.

A magic effect can be divided into parts, to observe the different parts of the effect
we can recur to what I like to call the Ascanio diagram.

Arturo de Ascanio, one of the fathers of the Spanish School of Illusionism, coined a
nomenclature that proves extremely useful when thinking about any magic effect.
 According to Ascanio, all magic effects can be divided into five phases: The
expositive phase, the initial situation, the magic gesture or moment, the final situation, and
the corroboration. To better understand what he meant, I will try to explain each of the
mentioned phases:

Expositive phase: The moment in which we make first contact with our public, we present
the elements to be involved, the theme and tone of the performance.

This is the initial stage of the magic effect, where we introduce some or all of the
elements and where we present the theme and tone of the act. The theme corresponds to the
matter that the development of what the effect is about, and the tone is the gravity with which
said matter is communicated. It can be a comical tone, a dramatic tone, or more inclined to
another expressive dimension.

Initial situation: It is the reality BEFORE the magic happens.

This is the stage in which the conditions of reality PREVIOUS to any magic effect
are established. The goal of this stage is to leave the current state of things clear to the
spectator so it is amazing when we reveal the result of the magical gesture or moment.

The initial situation depends exclusively on the effect and its nature. Different effects
demand different initial situations. For example: for a card transformation trick to be amazing
for the spectator, the most important thing is that the person is CONVINCED of the state of
the playing card BEFORE the transformation, in a way that when the card transforms it is
evident that it was a different card before and therefore, it is impossible that it is another card
now.

Magical gesture or moment: That which causes the magic.

The magic gesture is the symbolic or mystic action that the magician employs to make
magic happen.
 In the mythological sense, the magic gesture can have verbal components (Words or
sounds) or somatic components (Gestures), but in general it serves the purpose of indicating
to the spectator the exact moment in which the magic occurred.

The magic gesture within the interpretation of the effect has the function of creating
or supporting a sort of fiction in the spectator, and he or she can accept the gesture as a causal
factor in the absence of evident methods that explain the magic trick.

This action also contains within itself an anthropological charge and it can hugely
enrich a magic effect.

Final situation: Reality AFTER magic has happened.

This stage corresponds to the state of reality POSTERIOR to the magic effect.

In the final situation a fairly substantial change is perceived without any evident cause
other than the magic gesture or moment. The examples of the final situation also vary
depending on the effect. For example, in a transportation, if the initial situation is “The object
is in A”, then after the magic gesture, the final situation should be something like “The object
is now in B”.

Corroboration: Phase in which the spectator confirms that what appeared to happen actually
happened.

To achieve the goal of the corroboration, what you do is communicate, subtly or

explicitly, that the final situation of the effect is not temporal, or that, if it is temporal, at
least in the present is real and it seems unchangeable.

Say that a playing card transforms into another: the nature of the transformation generates a
necessity of checking the card because it is intuitive for most spectators to think that there
must be something hidden in the cards that makes them change.
In this case, the corroboration would be the phase in which it is confirmed, by means of
touching the card, or by seeing that through time it doesn’t go back to being the previous
card, or by any other means, that magic really happened.

This phase allows the spectator to rest and accept that the magic effect actually happened.
Generally, a relaxation of the spectator occurs in this stage, since the sensation after the magic
effect is usually that of an “end”.

Taking into account the phases or stages of the magic effect that Ascanio presents us,
now we can have more clarity if we think in the definition Ascanio had for magic, which is:
“Magic is a contrast between an initial situation and a final situation”.

This is a pretty useful phrase, because through the idea of “contrast” we can start
somehow to measure and compare two similar effects and it becomes easier to rank them to
determine what is “better” or “worse” for our ends.

To understand the idea of contrast we only have to think about things this way:
Between the initial situation and the final situation there has to be a noticeable difference.
Before, the card was A, now, it is B. It’s different. Before the deck was shuffled, now, It is
in order.

Our perception of things or facts in the final situation is different than what it was in
the initial situation, and the bigger and more noticeable this difference is, the bigger will be
the contrast between the initial and the final situation. To sum it up in one phrase: contrast is
the degree to which the initial and the final situation are different.

I will use a couple examples to try and clarify myself: Let’s assume I want to
transform a playing card. In transformations, the idea of contrast is particularly easy to grasp
because we are talking, essentially, about visual contrast between what the object looks like
BEFORE magic happens (Initial situation) and AFTER magic happens (Final situation). The
bigger and more evident the visual contrast is, the greater chance there is that the effect will
be perceived, increasing also the impact of the effect (It’s easier to notice something goes
from small to big, from dark to bright, etc).
 For other examples contrast becomes a little more abstract. In the case of divinations
contrast is less evident, but it is sort of like this:

● Initial situation: Someone is thinking of a card.

● Magic gesture/moment: The magicians looks into the eyes of the spectator.
● Final situation: the magician NOW knows the card that the spectator is
thinking of.
● Corroboration: In this case, corroboration is the confirmation by the spectator
that the card is actually the card that he or she is thinking of.

With that example we can say that contrast, or the fundamental difference between
the initial and final situation is the knowledge of a given information; then, the more complex
and evidently impossible to access the information is, the more contrasting the moment when
the magician reveals he knows said information.

Now, let us analyze a magic effect with all these concepts in mind. A great example
of everything we talked about done right is H. Trixter’s torn and restored piece of thread,
interpreted by Juan Tamariz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnsr5-3l0ng

This classic of magic excels by its clarity and impossibility. The Ascanio diagram for
it would be sort of like this:

● Expositive phase: First contact with the public is made, the thread is presented
and we cut a piece.
● Initial situation: The thread is clearly torn into pieces and we make a small
ball with them, we leave the ball suspended on the thread. In a phrase it would
be simply “The thread is broken”.
● Magic gesture/moment: In this example, the magic gesture is blowing, which
dissipates the “suggestion”.
 ● Corroboration: You hand the thread out for examination (The video cuts
shortly after the final situation, but knowing Tamariz, I am sure he hands it
out).

In this case, contrast is evident: in the initial situation the thread is broken, and in the
final situation the thread is recomposed; all phases achieve their purpose.

The expositive phase introduces the element and presents it as innocuous; in the initial
situation we can see and hear the thread being broken; then the magic gesture occurs and
then; in the final situation, without anything suspicious happening, the thread is whole again.

Next time you approach an effect, think: “How contrasting are the initial and final
situation?” and think in ways of making it more contrasting.

Well then, if we consider “contrast” as criteria to differentiate and rank magic, then
we have to also consider the “clarity”.

If contrast is the noticeable difference between the initial and final situation, we can
say that clarity is the degree to which the spectator can perceive, understand, and interpret
what is happening.

Routines with too many effects one after the other generally lack clarity. The spectator
cannot really understand or interpret what is happening at all times. Taking this into account,
we can find necessary for our effects to be sharp, easy to grasp, to understand. The spectator
has to immediately be able to describe what he lived.

Francys Carlyle (The guy who Invented the card to pocket we all do) established an
interesting criterion to rank magic: A good magic effect must be easily described by a
spectator in a few words. I believe that this criterion essentially measures clarity.

All magic effects considered “Classics”, in general display great clarity and maximum
contrast.

Up until now we have visited the topics of what is and what composes a magic effect.
The more relevant terms to understand are the ideas of “Effect” “Expositive phase”, “Initial
situation”, “Magic gesture/moment”, “Final situation”, “Corroboration”, “Contrast” and
“Clarity”. If we have these terms clearly defined in our head, we can then take any magic
effect and deconstruct it to its minimum parts to really analyze it.

In my experience, magic effects that comply with the structure coined by Ascanio are
easier to understand and interpret; the spectator has a clear notion of what happened and that
facilitates magical impact.

I have also observed that magic tricks in my repertoire that did not comply with said
structure were less impactful. I experimented with many of these effects and after I adjusted
them to match the structure, they gained in power.

To conclude, and in reference to the Ascanio’s structure to organize magic, I can say
that its utility seems evident to me after trying for a few years to apply it as faithfully as
possible to my magic.

I think one of the reasons why this structure is not known as “Standard” or “Canon”
in the magic community is simply lack of diffusion and study. I knew the book of Ascanio
and had read it without considering much its content, I thought that so much order was a little
unnecessary, that was a mistake and this is my reasoning why:

This structure, coined by Ascanio, is not something invented by him, rather

discovered by him. In that sense, his structure applies to most magic effects, and you could
almost say that it applies to all magic.

It is very difficult or almost impossible to find a magic effect that cannot adjust to this
structure, we could change the name of each phase, but the fundamental idea seems correct.
All or almost all magic checks on: Having a situation A, having a sort of magical gesture or
moment, and without apparent logical reason, the situation has changed to B.

The biggest contribution of Ascanio was putting this structure into words and point
at very important things; among those things is that the most important part for an effect to
have an impact is the initial situation, not the final.

Ascanio says that the emphasis has to be focused on the initial situation, that the
magician must make crystal clear that the thread is in fact broken (Initial situation) for it to
be amazing that it is recomposed (Final situation).
 He also pointed out the importance of concepts like clarity and contrast, which are
words that have a descriptive function. They help expand the universe of our dialog regarding
magic; and they also help us have more control over the magic we perform.

Having said all this, Ascanio is not as much a theory as it is a language, a frame of
text, a tool of thought. With this I do not mean that it is carved in stone, but before we break
the rules, we better understand them, and before we throw away a language, we must first
know what it means and what it is for.

Magicians can benefit hugely from this way of seeing things, for that, I take the time
to explain them the way I would’ve liked that they were explained to me when I started doing
magic.

Acknowledgments and ONE reference.

Well, before we get cheesy: “The magic of Ascanio Vol 1” is a must-read. Hopefully
my approximation might have awaken some curiosity on magicians to go back and check out
this wonderful book. Most of the concepts that I approached in this essay were coined by
Ascanio, who we owe far more than just a couple of techniques named after him.

Now, for the cheesiness:

First I would like to thank the two pillars that have shed some light on my magic way:
the masters Ricardo Rodriguez and Juan Esteban Varela. The passion of these two men is
only exceeded by their humility. I cannot be any more thankful of having landed so close to
both, I must be a very lucky magician. This essay is, in part, the result of many hours of me
listening to them talk about magic.

I also want to thank the great group of friends, magicians and non-magicians, that life
has given me. From Venezuela to Chile I can only say that I am lucky to have so many great
individuals around me. My friends, who are also my masters, have made the life of this artist
much easier than it would be without them. Thank you all that have been there for me. You
are too many to be named, and for that I am happy.
 Lastly and most importantly, I thank my family, my mother, my brother and sister,
my grandmother, who worry a lot about me, love me a lot and have protected me since
forever. Also my grandfather and father, may them rest in peace. All of they are responsible
of anything good that I could offer, I hope that someday I can pay back all that you, my
family, friends, masters, have given me. I will try my best.

For any doubt or question I will leave my contact down below, I will be more than
happy to talk about any of the topics that are or are not in this essay.

Until another essay.

Marcus Olivero.

@MarcusMagus (Instagram)

Marcusmagusinfo@gmail.com