Tuesday, October 7, 2008

POOF! The secrets have disappeared!

This is a guilty pleasure, but I loved watching last night's premiere of "Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed," shown locally on the My9 Network.

I ate the original series up a decade ago when the Masked Magician exposed some of the grandest magic tricks of the day on the FOX Network. Hence, I made sure to record this new reincarnation of the series last night.

I've long loved magic — both watching it and trying to perform small cards tricks and the like. I still remember going to a small magic show when I was like 5, attending it with my family at IBM in East Fishkill. To this day, I find myself glued to the TV when Criss Angel or David Blaine do something cool and newsworthy.

My senior year in college, I went to a David Copperfield show at Albany's then-Knickerbocker Arena — I'd seen all of his CBS prime-time specials as a kid — and was blown away at how, for example, he disappeared on stage and rematerialized seemingly from out of the floor directly behind my ninth-row seat!!! A dozen years later, I still have no idea how he did that one.

So ... when I have the chance (for the first time, 10 years ago) to see how they do all those amazing illusions, I was hooked! Now, with a new, 13-episode season showing how they do about 120 even better tricks, I'll be doing an illusion of my own: magically appearing in front of my TV for the next dozen Mondays to watch the show!

Now, I know many old-school magicians don't agree with revealing the secrets of the trade — a decade ago, the Masked Magician's motives were to inspire his brethren to come up with newer, more elaborate illusions — but I love the "duh factor," as I call it. I like being totally mesmerized by an illusion one minute, and learning how (many times) it's so simple to pull off, as if Duh! Why didn't I think of that?!

Nowadays, though, all you need is an Internet connection to learn the basics of the craft. Whereas I'd often take out magic books from the library when I was a kid, now I just log on to YouTube (many times, when I can't sleep) and learn card tricks and other beginner's tricks from 7- and 8-year-olds!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Everyone LOVES the new series too! We all gather around the TV every Monday night to watch it.

The only down fall about the show is I WISH IT WAS LONGER!! I know it's already one hour but to wait an entire week for the next episode...I wish it was every day!

The show is great and The Masked Magician performs magic with such intrege. He is the most captivating magician if all time.