Visions, The Online Journal of the Art of Magic

Momento
by Tyler Wilson

Tyler Wilson was unknown to me until I read his deviously devastating book, "Dominatricks". As soon as I saw the cover, I knew this Wilson guy had my sense of humor. Reading it, I fell in love with his entertaining style of writing ("entertaining" sounds so much more palatable than "warped", doesn't it?). I also knew I wanted him writing for Visions. As luck and some film negatives would have it, Tyler agreed. I think you'll get a kick out of Tyler's thinking like I did. -Shane.

It was a dark and gloomy statutory holiday. You were blowing genetically-related minds at a family get-together when disaster struck; your right fingertips were inadvertently splashed with spiked punch. This made it impossible to snap your fingers for the magical moment in your Scotch Tape & Soda routine. The aforementioned gloom made it impossible to cast a shadow as a last minute replacement, and waving was completely out of the question based on your family's political views. What did you do? What did you do?

The topic of magical moments is an interesting one. It is only surpassed by card controls among statistics to "use your favorite method." Is that really the best advice, however? It certainly isn't for card controls, but let's leave that topic for another time and right now examine magical moments.

Just so we're all on the same page regarding the terminology, I'm using the term "magical moment" to denote an instant in time when the magician outwardly creates the impression that the magic is occurring. As already mentioned, the most common magical moments include snapping the fingers, waving the hand, or the Michael Ammar-certified casting of a shadow. In their basic form, they are, for all intents and purposes, interchangeable. They're quite generic, safe, and quite irrelevant to the routine at hand the vast majority of the time.

The main purposes for the magical moment differ from the perspective of the audience or the magician. For the audience, magic is quite often done behind cover of some sort, whether it be a sequined curtain, a sequined coin purse, or a manly card box. This means there isn't much to see apart from the starting position of the props and the final (magically arrived at) position. To remedy this, a magical moment provides an opportunity for the audience to focus on something they can sense. Be it a visual or audible moment, the audience is thrown a bone.

For the magician, the magical moment allows a separation between when the real method takes place and when he wants it perceived to have taken place. Darwin Ortiz calls this type of thing "Time Displacement". I call this type of thing "Common Friggin' Sense". Whatever you call it, it's a fantastically deceptive method to throw the audience off the scent. Creating a magical moment after the dirty work has already been executed allows for an unbelievably clean revelation. Similarly, a magical moment before the secret method has taken place creates a false impression that the trick is essentially over. This has the ability to drop the audience's guard in order to casually pull off any remaining work on the magician's part.

Since this is all old news, let's look at other ways to exploit magical moments.

For starters, magical moments are probably the easiest way to create a premise or presentation for a trick. The Ambitious Card plot is a pretty clean slate, so here are some alternate magical moments which singlehandedly alter the premise. Try swapping the finger snap out and pinch your left forearm instead. Now you can claim that you just awoke from the weirdest dream where you had placed the spectator's card into the centre of the deck, but now that you pinched yourself to wakeup, you realize it never happened (now showing the card to still be on top); rinse and repeat. A different magical moment could involve closing your eyes for a couple of seconds. After opening them up, you could claim that the spectator must have undetectably ran through the deck and placed their card back on top; all within two seconds. This presents an interesting opportunity because it allows you to apparently experience the wonder as well; the spectators don't know how it's getting back to the top, but you are seemingly unaware of that fact and are blown away by the their unbelievable stealth skills.

Apart from defining premises, magical moments are an excellent way to help define your character as well. Are you overtly slick and suave? Try running your fingers through your hair to effect the magic. Are you a skilled technician? Perform an apparently dexterous move or flourish to add credence that you're actually doing what you're claiming to do. Are you a Nigerian with Tourette Syndrome? Start shouting that you need the spectator's f#*@ing bank information!

One of my favorite uses for a magical moment is to accomplish some dirty work at the same time. Is there an action you can perform that fits the premise and your character, but will also allow you to ditch an unneeded item? Do it. Milk these moments like a racecow.

One last thing I should mention about magical moments: don't use them.

(M. Night Shyamalan, eat your heart out)

More accurately, I suggest not feeling obligated to use them for absolutely everything. Visual tricks, by their very nature, create their own magical moments so adding anything else in would seem superfluous and just plain wrong. Faster paced routines can also lose their flow if too many magical moments are jammed in.

So think about your magical moments. Think about what they should be. Think about where they should go. And think about whether they are even needed at all. I am a f#*@ing barrister!

Tyler