Rule 20: Dramatic Licence to Thrill

In 1911 Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant, two of the premier magicians of the day, published Our Magic. In the first section, The Art in Magic, Maskelyne outlines 24 rules for magic performance. After well over 100 years, are these rules still relevant, and do they apply to more than magic?

20: When Magic and Drama are combined in one presentation, the stage-procedure should, primarily, be governed by the dramatic requirements of the case, rather than by the normal principles of Art in Magic.

It’s far too easy for magicians to become blinded by the power of an individual effect, or to become a slave to the idea that their audiences want to see increasingly impossible feats. But by doing that they lose sight of what I think is a simple fact: people enjoy a story. And that’s all that drama is; a story. So it’s really important, when using a dramatic narrative, to remember that that narrative becomes paramount. Crowbarring an effect in because you like it, or because it works in another setting, is only going to deaden the overall presentation.

This same challenge can face so many other people as well. As I child I regularly attended church services. I genuinely looked forward to the homily, not because I was keen to find out more about the bible, but because I wanted to see how well the priest would manage to expand on the reading.

I’m going to pause here as I don’t want to cause any offence. In a moment I’m going to be using the phrase ‘magical moment’, but I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to reduce what Jesus - or indeed any religious figure - might mean to a person of faith to the same level as pulling a bunny from a hat. I’m simply drawing a comparison between the most important part of two very different presentations.

Back to the homilies of my childhood. Sometimes they worked beautifully, with parallels being drawn between whatever reading from scripture we had just had and our own life and experiences. Other times - and these were the ones I most enjoyed - it clanged like a bag of spanners. There’s a comedy stereotype I’ve seen in a few places where the priest will say something along the lines of “I opened the bag of crisps and low and behold, despite the pack saying they were salt and vinegar, it was cheese and onion. And, when you think about it, that’s a little bit like Jesus, isn’t it?”. For a great take on a priest crowbarring an idea into a story, this from Gavin and Stacey is classic.

Of course it all goes wrong, yet on top of that the basic idea the priest is trying to present; that the bread is the holy spirit, the mayonnaise/butter is the father, and the filling is the son, is awful, but it’s funny because too many of us can imagine a priest coming up with something not dissimilar.

For a magician, the issue is often forcing the magical moment into the story. During these homilies the problem is often the reverse, choosing a story that didn’t suit the magical moment. Either way, if the story is wrong, your effect will be lessened. You might still get away with it for various reasons, but it could have been so much better.

In order to follow this rule you first need to decide if you want to be led by your story or your primary magical moment. (Don’t forget that your magical moment can be made up of a number of effects.) It won’t change the eventual outcome - that the rules of dramatic art will supersede the rules of magical art - but it will mean you’ll know if you need to find a story that will enhance your primary magical moment, or a primary magical moment that will enhance your story. Almost every magical routine I’ve ever seen is built around finding a story to enhance a magical moment.

It may be that not every magical moment is right for storytelling. This is certainly true in the world of scientific lectures as well as the world of magic presentation. However, once you decide that you are going to use drama as your vessel, dramatic power becomes your primary concern, otherwise everything else simply will not work.

 TFT

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