How Great Magicians Make Magic Last

I’m not the first person to identify that magic has a serious flaw. The late Max Maven referred to it as the fragility of mystery.

Basically, magic can’t last because the longer it lasts, the more chance there is for the mystery to fall apart. So, while the moment can’t last, I believe we can’t try to stretch that moment out as far as we can. I think most of us at least want to try to do that.

So, I have identified a few different ways to do that. While they are not perfect or easy to implement, I believe they are worth the effort. Today, I want to talk about the one thing that has made the biggest difference, and that is my approach to a big, clear trick.

A Big Clear Trick

I was at my friend's birthday party, and I showed her this trick I had been working on. It got a great reaction, and I felt very proud. That was until a few weeks later when I heard her attempt to retell it. The details were muddled, and she kind of forgot the plot. But she ended this attempted story with the phrase, “Just trust me, it was amazing.” Since that day back in 2015, I’ve been obsessed with magic that can be retold in simple stories. 

After reading a book called The Power of Moments, I realized that for our magic to be memorable, it needs to be very clear and feel very big. Because we aren't just performing for our friends - we are, in a weird way, performing for their future selves. So we want to make the details clear, and we want the effect to feel truly impossible!

To make the effect feel clear, we should avoid performing a bunch of magic back-to-back. Most of the time, I perform only a single effect. Most gigging magicians will give the advice of creating three trick sets to a routine together. I think casual magicians should ignore that advice and shoot for what TV magicians do on Talk shows. Wait to be asked to do a trick and then blow them away with one effect!

I also spend a lot of time working on the trick, beat by beat, to make it simple for them to understand what is supposed to happen. Basically, can you write the trick as a short story without it getting confusing? Even better, can it be described in two sentences?

Now that you have a clear trick, how do you make it feel bigger? For me, this is where being creative is a must. Sometimes, you can change the prop. Instead of doing something out of this world with the standard red and black separation, do it with trivia cards. Sometimes, it is sending them a prediction days in advance.

The simplest way of thinking about it is: would this make for a good short story?

An impossible object. 

Confession time, I’m a sucker for an impossible object. I love them. And I’m constantly trying to figure out what I can do to create really cool objects my friends can keep. As of writing this, one of my friends is currently 2 years into an any card at any number that involves a deck inside a bottle. 

But your impossible objects don’t just have to be objects in bottles. In the States, you can find rings made out of quarters. I have a business card that I can tear into rings and link them. And I’ve put a lot of work into rubber bands over the last few years. 

Honestly, linking rubber bands might be one of the strongest tricks you can perform. I just hate rubber band magic because you look like a dweeb wearing bands on your wrist. But having an office job has benefits outside of health insurance. I get an excuse to have rubber bands around me. So, I developed a three-part trick that plays out over two weeks. While I won't explain every detail, I think you will get the overall picture I'm going for!

Part one: You tell your friend that you are working on a trick with two rubber bands. You say that you are trying to get them to link together and want their help documenting your progress. You show them two bands and link them together! You try to get them to take a photo after the link, but they unlink before they can take the photo.

The method I use here is the one where you have the bands held between your hands on your fingertips of the index and pinky fingers. I'm sure if you google "linking rubber band magic trick," you will find it!

Side Note: All my research leads me back to Dan Harlan as the first person to do that method of holding the bands on your fingertips back in 1988. So I wanted to give him all the credit in the world!

Part two: After a few days, you tell the same friend that you can make the illusion last a bit longer. You get the bands in the same position, and you link them! You have them take the photo. You seem excited about the photo, and you offer them the bands to keep. As soon as they look at them, they are unlinked. You look frustrated and say that you’ll eventually get it to be permanent.

The method I use here is Chris Kenner's Missing Link.

Part three: after a few more days, you offer your friend one more demonstration of the linking bands. This time, you pull two bands out of a silver bag, hold one, and make a rubber band gun with the other. You shoot the band off of your hand, and it flies across and links to the other band. You hand it to them for them to look at. The bands are actually linked. No cuts or slits. You hand them the silver bag and give it to them as a gift. When they take the silver bag they notice a radioactive warning sticker on the bag. You refuse to talk about it.

I use Rory Adams' Target Practice method.

Although I’ve only performed this full sequence twice, it is still my favorite thing I've done with rubber bands. It is definitely one of my favorite impossible objects to give as a gift!

Making Magic Last

To me, magic is about creating moments—moments your audience has the opportunity to remember forever—stories they can tell to others. Magic brings texture to their lives and can make them feel a little more special. At least idealistically, that is what it could be.

I've already paraphrased Max Maven once in this article, so let's do it again. He once levied the criticism that magicians from the 20th century took the profoundness of magic and trivialized it. I think that trend has only gotten worse. A lot of magic doesn't feel special. It can bleed together after a while.

While I advocate for big, clear tricks and impossible objects, I also advocate for us to make magic feel special again. Not in some romantic sense where we think we have to have symbolism in our magic. But in the way that we care about how our audience will remember the trick.

Magic is indeed a fragile thing and it is doomed to never last forever. But we can make those moments special.