This article was taken from the January 2012
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Magic tricks depend on secrecy. So it might seem
counterintuitive that Marco
Tempest — a Swiss-born magician living in New York — has gone

open-source. He reveals his methods, talks to his audiences
online and asks for feedback. “If someone has a good idea, I put it
in my show and give credit,” says Tempest, 46.

His illusions embrace screens, augmented reality,
robotics and software (which he makes available to download for
free), and familiar magic props. In his “magic projection” trick
(pictured), balls appear to move between the real and virtual
worlds.

He describes his act as “sustained magic”. Rather
than a moment of revelation, in which, say, the correct card is
called, there is a continuously magical experience. “It’s not what
you’d expect from a magician, but it works. For [an illusion
involving three iPhones] I removed all the ‘big magic’ such as the
iPhones disappearing at the end,
because you just end up going, ‘How did he do that one?’, instead
of, ‘Oh I’ve never thought that deception could be something
good.’” Still, traditional magic is woven into his shows — only
unannounced. “When the audience isn’t really sure — ‘was that a
shuffling thing or the computer?’ — then it’s working.”

Tempest used to be a conventional magician. But he
decided that, in the web era, this would be a dangerous career
decision. “The audience will figure out your tricks on the
internet,” he says. “If the only thing you’re offering is, ‘How did
I do that?’, it’s over. Magic is about having a relationship with
your audience. So this approach is perfect.”

Tempest’s top tech tricks

Three-iPhone routine:
Using sleight of hand and video across three iPhones, Tempest tells a story of
deception.

Magic Slate:
Projection mapping and position detection let Tempest draw figures that come to
life.

Cards revealed:
As Tempest performs a card trick, AR annotations show the viewer what he
really sees.

Phonecam magic:
Tempest takes to the streets and performs illusions filmed
with his phone’s camera.

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Multi-faceted Shropshire student Laurence Abel is hoping for a career as a magician, or a comedian, or a journalist . . . he’s not sure which. He combines his three passions here, as he describes the terror of stand-up comedy and magic.

It was nine years ago, aged 15, that I first took to a stage and uttered the words: “Good evening, my name’s Laurence and I’m your magician for the evening”.

Then . . . nothing. Silence. The words I’d planned left my head and a lifetime passed.

Eventually, they returned. “We all play the lottery…” and the show went on.

Every performer, at one point or another, has to face stage fright: at the age of 15, I was unprepared for its paralysing effects.

I’d be ready to force a card on someone, show the top two cards of the deck as one and conceal a five metre ball of rainbow-coloured tissue in my hand during my dramatic finale. I was not prepared, however, for the dry mouth, memory loss and belief that everyone in that room was there to prove that magic was just an immature hobby.

The strange thing about stage fright is the only way to combat it is to go on stage over and over again. It’s like having a fear of dying and being told the only way to get over it is to die every night.

I have never been lost for words since that fateful first performance at Shrewsbury’s Lord Hill Hotel in early May 2003, but apprehension towards a performance is something that will never go away. It stems from a feeling of the unknown and with a trade such a magic, when audience participation is so important, there will always be a fear that an audience will be non-responsive or too rowdy.

The best way to describe the feeling before a show is to explain the journey. All day is spent preparing, the box is full of stainless steel rings, handkerchiefs, scissors, hammers, cards, padlocks, chains and confetti. Every pocket is stuffed with something that the audience hopefully won’t see.

The worst part is the car ride, there is no going back when you’re in the car. I always wish the journey to never end, not because I don’t want to perform, but because there is such a need to impress and always a fear that I will not live up to the expectations of the audience.

The great thing about being based in Shropshire is also the worst – unpredictability. In Shropshire, seven days could mean seven totally different shows; I could be performing in a field at The West Mid Show, a comedy tent at a booze filled festival, a medieval fun day at Hawkstone Park and Follies, table magic to diners at the Golden Cross Hotel, little Billy’s 4th birthday party, a 50th birthday party and a comedy club all in one week.

The answer to combating fear is confidence, and the way to gain confidence is to be ready for every possibility. What if I’m prepared for a theatre show to 200, and there is only five people sat around a small table in a pub? What if I’m expecting 80 per cent children and on arrival there are 80 per cent adults? It is this not knowing that makes it very hard to relax before a show, the only way is to have too much stuff.

I was at Hawkstone Park and Follies one bank holiday afternoon, when I realised the importance of having every act ready all the time. After a day of performing tricks to children all day, a group of 20 adults arrived all doting on one child. They wanted a show; I couldn’t perform the children’s show because the adults would be bored, and luckily I had 20 minutes of material that would suit all ages.

I altered the patter accordingly, so that all were entertained and when I linked my final steel ring onto the chain of six, cries of encore broke out. Now that, while it boosted my ego, was a complete nightmare – they wanted more, I had no more but I was being paid to please. I looked down into my case and all I saw was a packet of modelling balloons. A plan entered my mind. I’d make the child, a boy called Peter, a giraffe from my balloon. It would be the perfect end to a nice afternoon for my audience.

“I will mould this into any animal Peter names,” I exclaimed, a rather stupid thing to announce as I can only make giraffes or dogs.

“A griffin” is the response. Now I’m panicking; I’ve lured everyone into a false sense that I can do anything and have no idea what a griffin is.

“Are you sure you don’t want a snake” I say. “Griffin” replies the Peter. “A worm, caterpillar how about an electric eel” I plead. “I want a griffin and I want it NOW” Peter screams. I decide to make Peter a griffin dressed as a giraffe and send him on his way, he is unsure, but the adults find it hilarious.

On the way home in the car, I feel undefeatable. I thought on my feet and came up with a fantastic routine, never again do I need to feel nervous. Then I remember something horrible, that completely original idea of dressing a Griffin as a Giraffe to save my bacon wasn’t quite as original as I thought.

It came from my dentist. As if by magic, that apprehensive feeling comes back.

* Laurence is a former student of Coleham County Primary School, Wakeman School and Shrewsbury College. As well as his magic act, he works as a cameraman for Southampton football club, and will be volunteering as a press officer at the Olympics for the beach volley ball events. You can follow Laurence on Twitter @gibbonsgob, or email kaneandabel@live.co.uk

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David Gonzalez/The New York Times

Side Street

David Gonzalez reports from corners of the city in words and pictures.

Xavier the Magician does not think rabbits are exciting.

“I want people to go ooh and aah,” he said. “Maybe when I was in fifth grade a rabbit was exciting. I did go aah for a rabbit once.”

Xavier — born Ernest Gutpon — was a 10-year-old in Brooklyn when a magician performed at his school in 1964. He stood on stage, before a picture of a rabbit. The magician rolled up the picture, and when he released it, a real rabbit appeared.

So did Ernest’s future. He devoured books on magic. He learned card and coin tricks. In the Air Force — while friends were making wives and liquor disappear in their spare time — he honed his act to the point where he got a job working his magic behind the bar of a local tavern near the California base where was stationed.

Back in Brooklyn in the late 1970s, he managed to get a part-time job teaching magic at a community center in East New York. He was also starting to spend time at Tannen’s Magic Store, the 34th Street mecca that was like graduate school to him. It was there that he met a Panamanian magician named Theo.

Theo had a bird act.

“I was fascinated by those birds,” said Xavier, who became Theo’s driver and assistant. “Before that, all I had heard about magicians and animals was about rabbits.”

Soon enough, Xavier had a bird act, too. He bought some white doves — for a while he tinted their feathers with red and blue food coloring — and worked them into his routine. He now keeps four of them caged in his Bronx apartment, where they have even his house cats, Muffin and Biscuit, spellbound.

He hopes for the same effect with his audiences.

“So many people have never seen a magician in person,” Xavier said. “They may have seen one on TV. But when I walk up to them and show them a trick in person, that takes it to a whole different level.”

Last week, about 100 children and adults packed the auditorium at the Enoch Grand Lodge on Nostrand Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where Xavier was the special guest for the yearly Christmas party. Gifts were piled neatly up front. The kids fidgeted in their seats.

An older woman in the back of the room leaned over to a friend.

“Maybe these kids don’t like that Jingle Bells stuff,” she said. “It’s a different world.”

Xavier — dressed in a silver jacket with matching loafers — stepped into the room and placed a cage with his birds on a stand. He bent over a boombox and hit the play button, filling the room with sounds of “Mister Magic,” the ’70s hit by Grover Washington Jr.

He worked the room, pacing wordlessly. In between rope tricks and magic rings, he brought out the birds. In a flash, he turned one into a floating piece of tissue. With another, he wrapped it in a small blanket and made it disappear. Kids watched, their hands to their mouths.

At the end, he let the birds perch on his hands and walked toward the audience. The children surrounded him in wide-eyed enchantment, reaching over one another to pet the birds.

They went “aah” — just like magic.

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By Suzanne McTaggart

Published on Wednesday 28 December 2011 10:07

It’s been a great year for Sebastian Walton – in fact, you could say it’s been magic.

The teenage magician only started practising tricks with cards and coins in the summer of 2010, but he’s already becoming well known on Leeds’s magic scene.

Since first appearing in the YEP in April, the 15-year-old from Alwoodley has secured gigs at weddings and performed for parties at everywhere from Pizza Hut to the Malmaison Hotel.

He has also starred in a show at the Great John Street Hotel in Manchester and appeared at several charity gigs at the Leeds Irish Centre, as well as a Leeds Lions event in Headingley last month.

The Leeds Lions show could be described as his biggest challenge so far, as another magician on the line-up had to pull out due to bereavement and Sebastian was asked to fill his time slot.

Sebastian, a pupil at Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School in Meanwood, said: “My show was originally 10 minutes but about two days before the event, I was asked if I could do another 20 because another magician, who was a bigger name, had to pull out.

“It all went fine though and the audience was brilliant.

“After the first story in the YEP, I was asked to do a party at Pizza Hut, then a wedding, and from there I just got more and more bookings.

“I like working out how to do the tricks and I’ve come up with a new card trick of my own recently.

“But my favourite thing about it is seeing the reaction and the smiles on people’s faces.”

As well as joining the Leeds Magic Association (LMA) and the Northern Magic Circle, Sebastian has showcased his talents at a ‘Stars of the Future’ show at an International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) convention.

He also became the first magician to perform at the Point Resort Hotel in Orlando during a holiday with parents Graham and Noreen, after the manager spotted him doing card tricks in the lobby.

Some of his new tricks include hiding a coin in a banana and turning torn magazine pieces into money – and he’s displaying several of them on his new You Tube channel, sebastianjackmagic.

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By
Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 12:52 PM on 17th December 2011

Teenager Dean Lahan is a wiz at card tricks – even though he has lost nearly all his fingers.

The schoolboy wows his classmates with his magical skills, using techniques he has specially adapted to his disability.

Dean suffered childhood meningitis which robbed him of all the fingers on his left hand and half those on his right, as well as his right leg.

But he has built up a stunning repertoire of close-up card and coin tricks.

Amazing: Dean Lahan is skilled at card tricks despite losing his fingers

The 14-year-old pupil at Stockport School in Greater Manchester has now been named one of his town’s outstanding students for his cheerful outlook and tireless fundraising.

He has raised hundreds of pounds through charity events after teaching himself magic using books and YouTube videos.

Dean, who hopes to be a professional magician, said: ‘I saw some people doing magic at my twin brother and sister’s christening.

‘The next day I got a deck of cards and started practising. I looked at videos of people doing tricks on the internet and adapted them to myself. I’ve been building up the tricks I know and people seem to like them.’

Self-taught: Dean learned magic from reading books and watching online videos

Although Dean uses a prosthetic leg, he is an active member of his local Army cadet force, and enjoys swimming and other outdoor pursuits.

He also speaks to fellow students about his disability, and last year received a Diana Award for promoting disability awareness.

He organised a non-uniform day at his school to raise £1,000 for toddler Harley Slack, who lost his limbs after falling victim to meningitis.

Headteacher Pam Roberts said: ‘He has shown a huge commitment in the field of disability awareness and has had a vast impact on staff and
students’ attitude towards disability.

‘Dean has shown no fears and expects no special treatment, which will help other students with disabilities to be welcomed to the school without fear or prejudice.’

Adapted: Dean uses techniques which take account of his disability

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