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The Sleight Stuff
_____________________________________________________________
The Sleight Stuff
Young Magicians Stun and Delight Audiences
By Kristine Hartvigsen, photography by Brett Flashnick – from Lake Murray magazine
See Also: The Many Faces of Magic
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“Sponge balls or scarves ” … Discuss.
Drop in on a meeting of the Columbia chapter of the Society of American Magicians and you’ll likely hear passionate discourse on the merits of sponge balls in the same vein as, say, “paper or plastic.”
“Many have commented on my handling of sponge balls, “ says a straight-faced Joey Vasquez (stage name ” Joey V “), a founding member of SYM and talent scout for the South Carolina Association of magicians (SCAM). “Love them or hate them, sponge balls can constantly garner a strong response.”
Nods all round.
Like boys playing in a sandbox, many of these young magicians sit Indian-style on the floor of master magician and self-proclaimed “mentor at large” John Tudor’s West Columbia studio, dealing cards and testing out of various sleight of hand illusions. Instead of pails and shovels, their toys are the latest finds in magic props, from tiny balls and coins to wands and magic flowers.
There is no question. These guys are really serious about a performance specialty they call a close-up magic, which is just what it sounds like – routines using small objects performed up close with the audience, such as producing a coin from a spectators ear, card tricks – that sort of thing. But a couple focus on stage magic, such as levitations, or even larger illusions.
A youth program of the Society of American Magicians, SYM with is open to young people from seven to seventeen or interested in magic performance. Celebrities including Steve Martin, Johnny Carson, and Woody Allen were all members of their local SYM but growing up. For those who did not aspire to become professional magicians, SYM helps build confidence and offers life training benefits such as public speaking skills, improved hand-eye coordination, discipline, and exposure to different cultures and the arts.
Wonder Boys
Vasquez, twenty-six, may not sport the proverbial elongated nose, but he regrets that, but though he is a group founder, he never was a real boy magician.
“I was eighteen or nineteen when I started. I never got to experience what they were going through”, he said. “I have to channel all my energy and revert to how they might think.” Vasquez and Tudor are adult mentors of the SYM group. At the group’s monthly meetings, they usually open by showing a video about a pioneering magician before beginning their own wisdom-sharing the presentations and demonstrations.
“It’s all about a transfer of knowledge from one person to another”, Vasquez explained. “For some of these kids, their only social interaction is the Magic Club meetings. I’ve seen completely introverted young people come out of their shell. It’s a very positive Art. I was that shy kid once.”
Several of the young magicians actually grew up watching Tudor perform in a variety of venues, including Magic Theater on SC-ETV, The Magic is in You, an award winning educational video, appearances on PM magazine on WIS-TV, in the Disney film, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, and live performances at the Koger Center, the Township Auditorium, and other local stages.
“The first time I saw John was when I was about nine years old at one of his magic shows”, said SYM member Brandon Wagster, now sixteen. “I didn’t get to know him until I won a magic competition years later. He has been the biggest help. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
Wagster’s specialty is card illusions, but he also performs with Chinese fans and creates whimsical balloon art. Performing since the age of twelve, Wagster has already received many top awards, including first place at the 2005 SCAM competition.
“Brandon has developed such a high level of precision throughout the years”, Tudor said. “We used to call him the Gothic youth minister.”
Wagster’s one that lament: “People don’t let me play card games with them anymore.”
Houdini dot com?
Were he alive today, with Houdini “text” tips to his magic protégés? Could he “escape” the World Wide Web?
To be sure, just about every member of SYM has his own website to facilitate professional bookings for performances at parties and other events. They’ve learned how to deftly market themselves on multiple levels.
Wagster (www.wagstermagic.com) is the youngest member of SYM. He caters to every detail of performance, even perfecting his facial expressions in a mirror.
“A magician is really an actor playing the part of a magician”, he observed thoughtfully.
The young man, who is now home schooled, is grateful to his parents for their encouragement and the occasional “small business” loan.
“My parents are one hundred percent supportive of me”, Wagster said. “I did theater for along time. They were a little worried at first. But my parents have loaned me money when I needed it to buy props.”
At seventeen, Matthew McCoy (www.mccoymagic.com) not only is an accomplished stage magician, but a veteran actor whose resume includes community theater roles in Beauty and the Beast, Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Wizard of Oz, and Thoroughly Modern Millie, as well as credits for playwright, producer, and director for a three day run in April of The Many Faces of Magic at Workshop Theater.
Many Faces of Magic was McCoy’s brainchild. The Irmo High School senior conceived of the fund raising show to all augment Workshop’s ongoing capital campaign for construction of the new theater on the Elmwood Avenue. It’s a dream he won’t be here to witness. He’s been accepted to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where he will be moving this fall to pursue a degree in theater and possibly a career in magic.
McCoy’s commitment transcends the purely creative. He is equally devoted to the sound management and hard physical work involved in bringing a production to the stage. A day before the Many Faces show opened, McCoy was interviewed while multitasking at painting a set and providing verbal instructions to stagehands and lighting people.
“I like being in charge. That is always been my nature. I am bossy,” McCoy conceded. “It is extremely stressful, but it is a team effort. Everyone has a role.”
There is no job too small for McCoy; he is a student of all trades that impact stage production.
“If you want to do stage magic, it is a big job,” he said. “You have to be a Renaissance man.”
McCoy has a close bond with Tudor (www.tudormagic.com), who has helped McCoy refine all of his skills and who edited the Many Faces script for him.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned from John is deal with real-life situations, ” McCoy said. “He has shared the knowledge and history at the business side of magic and how to treat people. There is always drama with magicians and performers.”
Fairy dusting the competition?
Sarah Straney (professional name “Sarah Dippety”, www.sarahdippety.com), is the lone professional female in the male-dominated magic scene in South Carolina. A Seattle native, Straney started out as an actress and moved to Columbia ten years ago. She is a familiar presence supporting the SYM.
“For me, I didn’t get interested in the magic so much as the performance,” she said. “I started doing storytelling, and someone suggested that I learn some magic, because kids enjoy magic.”
In addition to her business performing for children, Straney teaches drama at Excelsior Academy, an organization for home schoolers. She bring her young son, fifteen month old Darius, to SYM meetings and performances. Darius seems to have caught the bug.
“What I do works well with having a kid,” Straney said. “Darius loves to interact. I have these dreams of Darius growing up to be a performer and performing with me. We would be just like a little traveling theater troupe.”
Straney performs three to four times a week for birthdays and other children’s parties. Her most popular character is the British accented “Fairy Godmother.”
“It is so much fun for me, “she said. “I love the fairy godmother character. I really enjoy being a character from another land.”
Straney also is developing material and new characters to appeal to broader audiences and boys as well. Of course, that comes with its own trials.
“One of the challenges for a female magician is creating a costume that I like but also makes the audience think of magic,” Straney explained. “Men tend to wear top hats and tuxedos. I don’t want to look like a woman in a man’s clothing.”
Straney can only speculate on why there or so few women in magic performance.
“Magic really is like math or science or engineering, “she said. “There are very few women in those fields. That may be part of the reason there aren’t many girls or women in magic performance. Magicians, as hobbyists, are kind of like math geeks.”
The cape off his back
Tudor clearly would give anything to help these youngsters, but he claims it’s not entirely altruistic.
“Working with these kids feels good. I enjoy giving back,” he said. “And my own skills have increased exponentially.”
Tudor’s studio is an ideal setting for magic practice. It’s like a magic Wonderland, replete with a trained bunny in residence.
“John has tons of stuff, tons of magic related stuff,” Vazquez mused. “I have termed some of it magic junk, pieces of gimmicks, taped together this and that, nuts, bolts, stands – you get the idea.”
Vasquez believes that all magicians have a strong responsibility to support their craft.
“I see magic all the time. I am completely surrounded by it,” he said. “But for someone who may see a magic show only once or twice in their life, magicians have an obligation to give the best performance they possibly can. One bad performance could turn someone off from magic.”
In handouts distributed at a recent SYM meeting, Vasquez waxed philosophically.
“As magicians, we’re guarding an empty box,” he wrote. “We really can’t do what we propose to do, but we all know that the fun is in the method, and it will always be that. Method equals final effect. This is a performance art.”
Vasquez urges the young magicians to avoid labeling themselves, such as “close up magician”, “mentalist”, or “stand-up performer”, or “stage magician.”
“I want to be a general practitioner,” he said. “I want to be able to sit down with a deck of cards and wow my or audience. I want to be able to get on a big stage and wow my audience, too. Look at the overall performance picture.”
A recreational skateboarder for several years, Vasquez feels it is important to make distinctions between the execution of tricks and magic effects.
“I think, as magicians, what we do has been trivialized a bit. I don’t like the work ‘trick’. What skateboarders do and what jugglers do, those are ‘tricks’. I think what magicians do has greater meaning. We can do things that seem not possible. It transcends the world of ‘tricks’. I like to call it performing a magic ‘effect.’”
You can see Columbia’s Society of Young Magicians soon; they’re booked to perform a show on July 5th at Trustus Theater. It’s the first time in the group’s history that a show they produced has been booked in two major local theaters (Trustus and Workshop) in the same season.
“I think that what we do is so strong and so important that it can affect an audience,” Vasquez told the young magicians at a recent meeting. “I have always tried to change what people think magic is. I want to perform a magic effect. That is more intriguing than a trick.”
© 2009 John Tudor