Magic and Theatre

A quick thought I had this morning regarding the whole 'Is Magic theatre/art' argument. I performed "Here then There" for a friend at the Wiv fair. afterwards she just smiled and said she'd seen it before. That was it. not 'I know how that's done" she didn't but the fact she'd seen it once before, on television meant it was pointless to perform it for her. This same person loves theate. She's seen many different version of Hamllet before, and will happily go and see another/ So she's happy to sit through 3 hours of theatre where she knows the ending and even where she knows how it's done. However, sitting through 1 minute of rather good magic that still leaves her baffled is 'old hat' and nothing special because she saw the same trick done before, all be it by someone else, not as close up or even in the same style. This is sounding liek a rant, but I'm not cross with her at all. This is how she feels. This is how other people we meet in the world of magic will feel. We need to be prepared for this and maybe, for the top effects plan a twist, something new for them, or maybe an interesting follow on trick they might not have seen. In other words, pure artistry and perfect performance seems to be less important than shiny shiny.

With this in mind, time to hit the books and get some more tricks under my belt.