Magic: Meant to be Seen Live

This past Tuesday, I saw three magicians and a comedian perform on the top floor of a Chinese restaurant in Harvard Square.

I really enjoyed it. Steve Kradolfer and Joe Howard, two of the magicians that night, had great acts: They were very professional, very good at their art, and had a lot of fun with the audience. They were, in short, what I imagined when I pictured going to see a professional magic show. Steve did a wonderful Cards Across and some things with rope. Joe's cups and balls routine was a classic, and he did this classic effect due justice.

My favorite performance of the night was Joel Acevedo's, whose torn-and-restored card to orange was one of the more original acts that I've seen. I've seen torn and restored cards before, and I've seen (amazingly-performed) objects appear in fruits. Joel put both of these classic tricks together AND still managed to make the entire act all about his volunteer.

Check out the Mystery Lounge in Harvard Square if you're ever in Cambridge.
It's a Tuesday night show with different magicians working on a rotation.

Granted, it looked like his volunteer had been drinking one half of a scorpion bowl (which, a friend had explained to me, means a whole lot of alcohol, which tends to lead people to do things that they don't remember and probably don't want to remember anyway). There was one moment in the performance when the volunteer had seemingly accidentally tore a playing card in half. As a magician, I knew that that was part of the show. Though Joel acted like the volunteer had messed up, I thought it was obvious that his carefully-scripted instructions were supposed to subtly tell the volunteer to tear the card in half.

So I was surprised when, after the show, a friend asked me, "What do you think he would have done if the audience member hadn't accidentally torn up the card?"

It was in that moment - even though I don't know the guy and didn't get the chance to speak with him after the show - that I was really happy for Joel. Those are the kinds of comments that comes with a great magic show.

Then there are comments like this one (from Yelp's reviews on this show in the Hong Kong Comedy Club):

"I hadn't been to a magic show since I was a small child, so perhaps I am just easily amused, but I had a great time."

This is, of course, a compliment. But it's a compliment with a caveat: Yeah, it was a magic show. But it was good! Despite the work of everyone from David Copperfield to David Blaine and their attempts to make magic cool, it's still hard for people to overcome the image of everyone's uncle making a coin appear from behind your ear.

It still amazes me how surprised parents are at their own surprise when they see a magic show seemingly geared towards their kids. I guess the thing is... it's hard to appreciate magic unless you see it live.

Magic isn't meant to be seen on a screen, where audiences can just assume that something is happening off camera that they can't catch. Magic, as an art form, is meant to be seen live.