Magic is Medicine

The magician, Jeff McBride, is known to proclaim that, “magic is medicine.”

Magic is indeed good medicine if we understand medicine to be something that makes one feel better.

The late Brian Flora said that he believed that magicians were of more value than most professionals. I agree. In fact I wouldn’t have left the corporate world to become a full-time professional magician if I didn’t believe in the value of what we do.

Magic reminds us that anything is possible. It invites us to dream. Magic gives us permission to hope. It shows us that our understanding of the world has been too limited, too restricted. Magic says “yes” when we are surrounded by a chorus of “noes.”

But if magic is medicine, then (by extension) magicians must be doctors.

Magic is powerful medicine, but it is the wise doctor who knows when to use each type of medicine.

I would not be a very good doctor if I dispensed medicine arbitrarily, without understanding the patient’s needs. Yet I often see inexperience magicians performing the wrong magic for the situation, as if all magic were the same.

The importance of being sensitive and aware is most acute when performing close-up magic. When working from the stage, a magician must attend to the audience as a whole, creating an experience that aims to address the collective body. But when performing up close, for an audience of 2 or 3 people, then the needs of each group are likely to be different and diverse.

The other night, I performed magic for a reception at a corporate event and encountered several different situations, each requiring their own diagnosis. Here are three different scenarios:

Three men in their 30′s were relaxing quietly and drinking beers. I judged that they were all of approximately equal status (had one been a VP and the others his subordinates, I would have taken a decidedly different tack). I sensed an air friendly competitiveness amongst the three, so I decided to harness this energy, and challenged them to a game of Three Card Monte. Each would try to guess where the Ace was, and with each inevitable miss, the others would laugh and taunt their peer — only to be razzed when it was their turn and they too failed to find the Ace.

The choice of magic generated lots of friendly teasing between co-workers and evoked laughter and fun.

Later I met a young man and young woman, both in their 20′s. I noticed that there was a romantic connection between the two and knew that I had to act carefully. The Three Card Monte that had served so well in the previous situation would be an unmitigated disaster here.

In fact, if I were to perform any brain-busting bit of magic, I risked creating an awkward situation, in which the young woman would turn to the young man (whom I sensed she admired deeply) and would ask him, “How did he do that?” The young man would either have to admit that he didn’t know (and thus be diminished in the eyes of his ladylove), or he would have to fabricate some claim that he saw it go up my sleeve (or other such folderol) in order to save face.

So instead of challenging them, I asked the woman to name a card, and I asked the man to give me a number from 1 to 52. When the card she named was found at the location he gave, I congratulated them on being in sync and said that it showed that they were very compatible as a couple. Then I took a cocktail napkin, twisted it into a paper rose, and gave it to the young man to present to his sweetheart.

Finally, I approached a group of 4 women in their 40′s. I could sense that they were not interested giving “magic-boy” a moment in the spotlight so that he could show them how clever he was. Instead I said, “If you’ll shuffle the deck, I’ll tell your fortune.” I handed the deck to one of the women. When she handed it back to me, I began to concentrate and one card wriggled its way out of the deck. After I had interpreted the card and revealed the future, the other women besieged me with demands that I read their fortunes as well.

Three different situations. Each requiring careful diagnosis to ensure that the magic left everyone feeling better.

If magic is medicine, let us all be a good doctors.