\n
Hiding the Elephant\uff1a How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear<\/p>\n
Review of book from Publisher’s Weekly\uff1a<\/p>\n
The success of a magician “lies in making a human connection to the magic.” Create an illusion in the audience’s mind\uff0c and they’re hooked. But to understand magicians\uff0c we need to understand the art of that creation.<\/p>\n
Steinmeyer\uff0c who has designed illusions for Siegfried and Roy and David Copperfield\uff0c presents a cultural history of magic’s golden age (from the 1890s to the 1930s)\uff0c some legendary tricks (including the Levitation of Princess Karnak and Harry Houdini’s Disappearing Elephant) and the fierce rivalries that dominated the craft.<\/p>\n
Steinmeyer reveals certain secrets\uff0c which rely on engineering\uff0c artistry and sheer chutzpah\uff0c but he hasn’t betrayed anyone; most of his information has been published elsewhere.<\/p>\n
What he adds is context. Magicians advertise deceit\uff0c then perform it. Unlike political chicanery\uff0c which Steinmeyer dubs dishonest trickery\uff0c magic is a kind of pure trickery. Audiences pay for a ruse\uff0c not a lecture on fraud. Do we believe movie special effects are real? Of course not\uff0c but it doesn’t detract from our enjoyment. Similarly\uff0c while many 19th-century spiritualists were rightfully debunked as frauds and charlatans\uff0c audiences loved the antics. Some\uff0c such as the Davenport brothers\uff0c were a magnet of controversy and a wild hit\uff0c successfully mixing “religion\uff0c agnosticism\uff0c science\uff0c superstition\uff0c and fraud.”<\/p>\n
Steinmeyer diagrams famous tricks\uff0c celebrating their science and ingenuity. Readers meet characters as colorful as their acts. Buyer beware\uff1a If you want to keep your illusions\uff0c go to Las Vegas. But for magic lovers who revel in learning the magician’s art\uff0c this book part research study\uff0c part salute is a find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hiding the Elephant\uff1a How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear Review of book from Publisher’s Weekly\uff1a The success of a magician “lies in making a human connection to the magic.” Create an illusion in the audience’s mind\uff0c and they’re hooked. But to understand magicians\uff0c we need to understand the art of that creation. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[56],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-27100","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-ebook","first","instock","downloadable","virtual","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product\/27100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_brand&post=27100"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_cat&post=27100"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magicstore102.one\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_tag&post=27100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}