Magic or a Puzzle

Bev Bergeron recently wrote an article in the Linking Ring, the magazine of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, concerning magic and "puzzles." It is always refreshing to read Bev's articles because it makes you think. His basic thesis was to question whether or not the magic we are doing is presented as an illusion or a puzzle. He writes concerning the old "Princess without the Middle" routine: a girl goes into a box. Her middle vanishes and you can still see her head and legs. The audience, in the story, was less than enthusiastic with the effect. A few changes here and there and the same illusion was presented ending with the magician receiving a standing ovation.

I've long held that if the audience can come up with a solution to the effect, whether or not it is a plausible explanation, for them... that is the solution. For example, if you deal five hands of poker and the fifth hand is to you, the magician, and it has a royal flush in spades, they credit you with great skill. It really isn't magical. Or again, I recently saw an effect that backwards-engineers Max Maven's B'wave effect where instead of ending with 3 blank cards and the mental selection, one has 3 cards and one blank. In other words, it becomes a puzzle rather than a magical effect.

In the video example below the magician executes his magic very professionally and won an invitation to return to "America's Got Talent." But look at the video and then note the following:



Firstly, the fire eating is good. But audiences know people can eat fire (I do in my own act). Not much magic here.

The "Sword Basket" is an old illusion and really a classic. But is it, as presented, a puzzle? From the audience's point of view, she must be in the basket. You don't know how (at least for the audience) but heck... she's in there somehow. The second gal appears and the audience then says to itself, they must have both been in there: again... a puzzle. Now if you made a change or two, it would turn it into a first class illusion.

Andre Kole used to close his show with a pyramid motif instead of a basket. He goes inside the pyramid, he "vanishes" as seen by Tim Kole standing in the basket. Nope... no one there. Then Kole appears... and then a female assistant appears, as the sides of the pyramid fall down. There's no way, it appears, that two people can be inside of that little pyramid! The construction of the illusion is such that the pyramid appears to be separated from the table, resting on little round "feet." Those two changes alone make this a magical illusion and no longer a puzzle. It short circuits the "explaination" that the audience comes up with.

This type of thinking is what is required in order to present a magic effect. Here's another example. The age-old coin in nested boxes is a favorite trick of mine. Usually it is presented like this: Magician has a coin marked and the coin goes into his pocket. Immediately, out comes a set of nested round boxes. The spectator opens each one to find the coin in the last of four boxes. That, my friend, is a puzzle. But how about if you have the coin marked and then place it on the table in full view. The set of boxes is removed and placed next to the coin. Next, the coin is vanished and the boxes are opened to find the marked coin. Now THAT is impossible! With the first presentation the audience knows that somehow you slid that coin into the boxes. With the second presentation, the box is on the table and there is no way a coin can go into a set of boxes in full view.

Make those subtle changes and you will strengthen your magic.