Walking Down The Magic Way: By Helder Guimarães

Walking Down the Magic Way Part 1

by Helder Guimarães

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n the last issue of Quarterly we ran an article by Roberto Mansilla, titled “Fictional Magic,” that approached the vision of Gabi Pareras and tried to expose its fundamentals to the portion of the magic community that was not yet familiar with it. In that same article, reference to Juan Tamariz’s La Vía Mágica (The Magic Way1) served as an example of an opposing view of magic, named “Realistic Magic” by Gabi. To quote part of that article: It is magic that focuses on proving that what happens is true, that there isn’t a magic trick behind the effect, that the magic effect occurs “in reality common to both [the performer and the spectator].”2 When I decided to write this new article I felt that it was probably one of the biggest responsibilities I have ever undertaken. Let’s be honest and pragmatic: The Magic Way, by Juan Tamariz, is my favorite magic book and a masterpiece in my opinion. It has inspired my artistic career for over twenty years and it became a kind of father figure for my magical thinking. I think it’s untouchable. I think it’s up there with all the other brilliant magic conceptions that many followed as students. Just to write these few lines makes me excited. The following information comes from a place of true study, of reaffirmation of the masterful ideas Juan Tamariz explores in The Magic Way, and of my own personal search to use these ideas in my own work, influenced, as well, by other masters. 1 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014). 2 - Roberto Mansilla, ed. Will Houstoun, “Fictional Magic,” Quarterly (Spring 2015): 7. 55

From talking with some close friends, I believe that the influence of Tamariz’s vision in my magic is less perceived than it would be if my performance style and the techniques I use were different, more similar to the ones used by ‘el maestro’ himself. That’s where I feel that many have approached his concepts from a point that didn’t allow them room to breathe and grow in different directions. Reading between Tamariz’s lines was part of the task I undertook and I decided to search for other approaches to the same problems using the same philosophy. But, by keeping a distance from his practical tools and focusing on the concepts behind them, I feel I was able to explore things that were in Tamariz’s work that many may have missed. I really feel that The Magic Way made me a better magician. It made clear the complex mechanism for achieving the feeling of impossibility in the audience’s mind. This journey that we take the spectator on, anchored in reality, is deep and complex. But it’s also a poetic journey by itself, an art made of many little decisions, strategies and completely dependent on the performer. It made me question my way of thinking about magic and turned my focus to a type of construction that is less technical and more anchored in psychology and structure. In all this, Juan Tamariz is one of the magic world’s leading authorities. And all the seeds that are left in the pages of his beautiful work are just the tip of the iceberg. For many years The Magic Way was almost a myth. Because it was out of print for many years it was hard to publish an article about my own perspectives on the book. I felt that it would not be useful to explain my ideas with the possibility of people not having actually read the work that inspired it all. With some of the typographical errors and language problems in the first edition, as well as the demand from a new audience, there were several years when a new edition was promised with corrections made. Fortunately for us, that has now happened. I enthusiastically bought a copy of the revised edition and read it again to make sure that all the ideas that sprang out of the first edition’s pages were not anchored in misunderstanding. I immediately started to take all those old notebooks to compare them with the new edition and, luckily for me, all of them were still filled with valid ideas and comments. What struck me the most, though, was an almost completely new introductory chapter that had many, many improvements. So, I started to write about it, think about it and make sure that the elements that first had a very big impact on me were still there. They were, and now it is even easier to discuss them. 56

So, if you’re reading this article without having read The Magic Way, you should stop right now, order your copy, read it from cover to cover and then come back to this article.3 Make sure you first have a pure experience with the book so that you receive the information from the original source without further comments. Then, you can come back and read my collections of thoughts on its opening introduction. I feel this is the only fair way of reading the following thoughts. So, if you’re already familiar with the book, let’s jump right into the analysis of its new introduction.4 The Magic Way’s Introduction and the Multiple Layers of the Magician’s Objective The text starts with an Introduction that has three sections about the Magician’s Objective, how to accomplish it and an introduction to the Method of False Solutions and the Magic Way. This key text reveals a lot of vital information that enables a full understanding of Tamariz’s approach. Starting with three important questions, the opening invites the reader to start a mental journey. Let’s look at the first sentence of this text:

3 - The new edition of The Magic Way is available directly from the publisher, Hermetic Press Inc, on their website: www.hermeticpress.com 4 - Before this, just a quick note on the dedication to Arturo de Ascanio. I feel that the dedication is sometimes overlooked but actually reveals a lot. In a simple and beautiful text acknowledging the influence Ascanio had on him, Tamariz goes so far as to call himself one of his disciples and expresses how he feels many owe Ascanio a lot for his accomplishments in the magic field. This opens the door to try to understand how some of the concepts that Tamariz developed could be related to parts of Ascanio’s magic conception. This doesn’t necessarily mean that he had a direct influence or inspiration to develop these ideas, but that Ascanio as a person and influence was important in the development of the book. If not, this dedication would probably not have been made and Tamariz would instead have left only direct references when needed. I feel all of Tamariz’s ideas are compatible with Ascanio’s concepts that are mentioned throughout the text. This relationship between them allows both approaches to coexist and to help each other to create an even richer experience. 57

When a trick or routine has been carefully studied and resolved, when it has been well performed and you manage to astonish your audience, is it already perfect?5 I feel that this sentence is revealing of Tamariz’s ultimate goal: perfection. And he is absolutely right from the start, at least in my opinion. The word “perfection” is complex to define and, nevertheless, it’s also open to interpretation. For me, this word in this context of magic conception is almost equivalent to impossibility, to one’s ability to transcend the ‘trick’ to actual magic. That’s what, in my opinion, the other subsequent questions point at: Are we done working on that trick? Are we already performing magic?6 This implicit distinction between trick and magic, between the construction of a routine and its actual impact on an audience, consolidates my vision about the idea behind the concept of perfection. These questions are followed by a negative answer and an explanation that triggers a whole approach to construction. The key sentences for me are the following: We need to know what goes on in the spectators’ minds during the course of the trick and upon its completion, and we must determine the kind of impact produced in their minds. […] Besides their not knowing how we did the trick, we must prevent them from analyzing how we could have done it.7 I feel that the core of all the subsequent information is defined in these two sentences. They are what support the development of the Method of False Solutions and the Magic Way. First, the search for an answer in the audience’s way of thinking. This already can be used to pinpoint where the construction of a magic routine should start. It’s from this understanding, this way of thinking that we should start making decisions

5 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 6 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 7 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 58

about our magic routines. To achieve this goal, the feeling and rational side of the impossibility, the deceiving quality of magic should be studied and analyzed not from the perspective of the one concealing the tricky part of it. The starting point is the experience of magic and that experience only truly exists in the audience’s perception. If we understand that, we can make wiser decisions in our creations. Also, one very important distinction is between the thought processes of an audience during and after the trick. This second part, I feel, is as important as the first. Therefore, the structure of the routine is developed not only for the experience of the moment but also for the after-thought, where the spectator may try to dismantle the illusion and find the mechanics behind it. As Woody Aragon wrote in his A Book in English, this concept is called the Comet Effect, also a Tamariz idea: And, as time goes by, when they try to remember the trick after some days, they will use their long term memory, which is even less reliable than the short term one. The result is what Juan Tamariz calls the comet effect. These exaggerated memories in which, if the audience was mesmerized and fascinated by the magic, the effect will become something short of a miracle (usually impossible to recreate in real life).8 The second sentence of Tamariz’s quote on the previous page, for me, is the key. Here, Juan Tamariz indirectly makes an important and solid claim: one thing is the spectator not knowing how a trick was done, another thing is his not being able to decipher any possible method. This means that if the spectator can create a plausible solution for what he just witnessed, the feeling of magic and impossibility vanishes. So, every possible solution that the spectator may think of needs to be proven wrong by the magician. How? Well, clearly the structure of the routine needs to enable this to happen. Not an easy task, but we may consider thinking a bit about this in a follow-up part of this article series. The direct application of these ideas and concepts, I feel, can be diverse. But these are the core ideas that generated the approach and vision contained in the pages of the Theory of False Solutions and the Magic Way.

8 - Woody Aragón, A Book in English (United States of America: Emílio Paz de Aragón, 2011): 342. 59

These are the essential pillars of one type of magic construction, the one that is now referred as Realistic Magic. By starting it with the audience’s experience in mind first, I feel that the generosity of the artist is deeper. The giving quality of the magic performance will gain an importance that can only be achieved by prioritizing the spectator’s journey above all. But this, literally, goes even further, when Tamariz says: Going even further, the spectators should not even want to figure it out. Besides being astonished, they should be dumbfounded, caught in a hallucination, feeling amazed, spellbound and totally fascinated by the mystery they have witnessed.9 In this paragraph, many ideas worthy of mention emerge. First, the goal of having an audience wanting to live the mystery. This means that, rationally, the audience is aware of the secretive nature of magic but they decide not to dissect the experience they have just had. The audience itself needs to prioritize the experience over knowledge to maintain the emotional quality of the experience and stop the rational quest for answers. Although the answer of how to achieve this is not given at this point, the book itself tries to answer that same question using the Method of False Clues as one example. In this comment, there is a list of feelings an audience should have with magic. All of them are connected to something that is greater than normality. But without the considered normality as a point of comparison, these experiences would not exist. So, let’s try to define this normality in magic. Again, my view is that normality in magic was explained best by the great Pepe Carroll in his book 52 Lovers, when in his article “Conflicts,” he claims: In Magic, the conflict is: Individual versus the Laws of Nature. If the individual is victorious in his confrontation, he is called a Magician.10 These laws of nature are the normality. The normality that we deal with every single moment without even thinking. The normality that governs the possibles and impossibles of reality. This idea and definition by Pepe Carroll was probably influenced by Juan Tamariz, since both were close

9 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 10 - José Carroll, 52 Lovers - Vol. 1 (Madrid: Editorial Frakson, 1988): 12. 60

friends and worked together for many years, sharing their thoughts. Also, tied with this, is the Vernon concept of being natural. The natural actions make the normality easier to understand and, if possible, even more normal. That’s why many routines lose strength due to the excessive use of flourishes in the wrong moments. The less the magician does, or at least seems to do, the stronger the feeling of magic will be. In a follow-up article in this series, we will analyze this. Then, the first controversial moment of the introduction of The Magic Way for me: The shock of the mystery suspends any ability to analyze, as well as the desire to do so.11 This, I feel, needs some deeper thought. Let’s understand what this can mean. Shock can be defined as a sudden or violent disturbance of the mind, emotions, or sensibilities. Mystery is defined as anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown. My reasoning and perception tells me that these two concepts aligned together could not work well. I feel that no mystery is shocking. If you know that there is a secret or explanation behind it, you’re not shocked in the presence of something you don’t know. You’re shocked only when what you are witnessing is truly impossible, when it breaks the laws of nature you grew up with. This disruption in the mind and emotions caused by an impossibility can literally suspend the ability to analyze. But this feeling, this moment, is quickly overcome by reality and rationality kicking in. So, we need to stop the desire of pursuing this analytical path. How? A question to answer when we talk more about the Method of False Solutions in the second part of this article series. For now, I would replace the word ‘mystery’ with ‘impossible’ and add a few more ideas to that sentence. My version of it would be: The shock of the impossible suspends any ability to analyze. The subsequent desire to do so also needs to be stopped.

11 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 61

Following this, a few different lists are presented. The first list has things that should be achieved during a magic performance, the second has things that must be prevented, and the third, with a final recap, looks at how to achieve/prevent what we want as magicians. Let’s start with the first list and analyze, one by one, each idea: They should not be able to figure out how you did it; the trickery, the secret, the actual solution.12 I feel this is similar to a comedian’s intention to make someone laugh. It is the essential thing to have a simple sense of satisfaction. If an audience understands how you did anything the feeling of the illusion is broken immediately and there is no possibility of achieving any higher ground. So, I would say, in this magic conception, this is the first layer any magic performance should achieve: deception. They should not believe that any possible solution is the right one. All solutions should be rejected and regarded as impossible.13 This is a second level of deception, a higher one. The spectator needs to realize this. We need to propose solutions and find answers that prove him wrong. This will lead the audience to a state that, no matter what they feel could have happened, they were rationally proven wrong. If no possible solution survives, then it has to be impossible! This is the rational deception taken to a higher level. As explained in the “Fictional Magic” article, when talking about Realistic Magic: As there are no natural ways to explain what happened, it’s magic. Consequently, the illusionist is not showing magic, but proving it.14 Although I feel this is more complex than apparently meets the eye, let’s use this idea as a basic starting point and keep this in our minds. 12 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 13 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 14 - Roberto Mansilla, ed. Will Houstoun, “Fictional Magic,” Quarterly (Spring 2015): 7. 62

They should not be able to analyze it in the cold light of the day, because of the magical atmosphere that surrounded the trick and the emotional impact produced by the incredible, astonishing effect.15 In conjunction with the previous goal this means that the rational side of a person is not the only one affected by the experience but rather that this, in conjunction with the emotions produced to achieve the feeling of impossibility, must generate a state of mind that is not fully rational and not fully emotional. A balanced mix that allows the spectator to feel the impossibility and also to think about it under the influence of this feeling is the goal. They should not want to figure out the trick because of the sensations of wonder, joy and pleasure produced by the experience of entering and feeling immersed in the Magic Rainbow.16 This is, in my opinion, a personal goal more than a general goal. Of course we want magic to produce joy and wonder and many positive feelings. But should we think that those are the only feelings that we can produce with magic? Would you like to see only comedy movies, or are you willing to have a similar experience that focuses more on action or drama? As a fantastic artist, Juan Tamariz has his personal goals and visions, and, therefore, for him the goal is the Magic Rainbow. As an audience member, I love it! I am in awe and have totally felt it and experienced it. But, I think of the Magic Way as a much broader concept and this allows me to search for other emotions that may not necessarily even be positive ones. I feel, with this point, that the goal is more having the spectator understand the overall experience and cease to search for an answer that will destroy that feeling he had. This means that he understands the feeling is the goal, and not the rational deception.

15 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 16 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 63

From the second list of things, the ones to prevent, here are my thoughts: Excessive focus on the secret of the trick, because it makes spectators think too much and wonder why, instead of experiencing a magical sensation.17 I feel this is the balance I expressed before. If we focus too much on the rational side of the magic equation, the audience may end up watching it as a puzzle to be solved instead of an experience to be lived. The use of the word ‘secret’ instead of, for example, ‘impossibility’ is also revealing and intentional. ‘Secret,’ in this context, is synonymous with possibility, with method, with something that is being held away from the audience by the magician. Too much focus on this turns magic into an unsolvable puzzle in the best-case scenario. The wonder is lost in a completely rational journey that may be gratifying for some people and frustrating to others. By avoiding this, the magician is avoiding an exclusively rational experience. This rational experience is only fulfilled when the one taking the journey finds the secret. I feel this is the reason some magic is only interesting for magicians, like when there is no magic atmosphere and only this fooling and unsolved quality. Another one of the things that should be prevented: Devising too many actions to stop false solutions or to prove their impossibility, thereby delaying the effect and making the trick confusing and boring.18 This is the first introduction of the false solutions idea in the book. The concept is mentioned in the process of explaining something that could be damaging for the magic atmosphere. Therefore, the false solutions as a valid method are only good according to their specific application and not as a general concept that always works. In the same vein, the excessive actions that prove the possible ‘impossibility’ can also be counter-

17 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 18 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 64

productive to the achievement of magic feeling. I would not only agree with the sentiment expressed, but also add that many actions will create a feeling of suspicion, placing the focus on a possible clue about the secret which will make the magical sensation vanish. Boring and confusing are words that should never describe a magic routine. This ties in with the theoretical ideas of Ascanio, for example: The magic effect is the difference between an initial situation and a final situation.19 For this difference to happen, and for there to be a contrast, the initial situation needs to be clear. So, the starting point for any magic feeling should be a clear initial situation. This can be tied with Vernon’s classic saying, “Confusion is not magic.” This clear quality is directly related to the effect we intend to create as well as the method we choose to achieve it. The possibility of something that is unclear becoming boring is high, although I feel this quality is not exclusive to bad magic construction. I’ve seen good magic that has everything it should have to be perceived as good construction but is not. Many factors play a part in this. Continuing with the list: Suggesting solutions the spectator may not have thought of himself.20 This, once again, ties with the idea of focusing on the secret. By offering possible solutions that the spectator has not thought of, the rational emphasis is brought to the center of the audience’s attention. This will bring forward, once more, the puzzle quality of magic, losing the potential of focusing the attention on the overall experience. I feel, however, that we can definitely do the opposite, and show things that will cancel further solutions from occurring. Having seen Juan perform several times, I can attest that many little details that cancel possible solutions from arising are given after the end of the routine.

19 - Jesus Etcheverry, The Magic of Ascanio - The Structural Conception of Magic (Madrid: Páginas, 2005): 59. 20 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 3. 65

After the first two lists, another appears that I feel is, for lack of a better word, incomplete. I find myself reading and re-reading this third list, which enumerates ways of achieving what was proposed before, and noticing that it was made specifically to shift the attention to one approach in particular, the Theory of False Solutions that is presented afterwards. To me, this amazing application of the conception just analyzed is only one viable option. But I believe there are other options as well, some of which can even combine the two distinct visions: Realistic Magic and Fictional Magic. This third list, that starts to showcase how one can achieve the previous set of goals, starts with a sentence that I believe to be true for any magic conception or artistic creation: An essential artistic balance; that exercise in tightrope walking needed to achieve harmony through the beauty of every work or art.21 The tightrope metaphor is ideal to make the reader aware of the choices he will need to make. Having placed the reader in a position to think and, maybe even more importantly, be aware that he is making conscious decisions, is key to working inside the Magic Way. The use of subtlety when cutting off the paths toward the unreal solutions. Suggesting rather than explaining. Displaying rather than demonstrating. Encompassing in a single phrase or gesture as much of what we want to convey as is possible.22 Many new ideas appear here. First, the introduction of how to prevent people from thinking of solutions that are not possible. The concept of subtlety is not necessarily easy to grasp, especially in this context, but without any doubt we can say that the way Tamariz sees this in action is not by explaining to people that those thoughts are wrong. The subsequent ideas for suggesting and displaying make this even clearer; the possible explanatory thoughts should not be stopped rationally but rather emotionally. Also there is the idea that one single action or phrase could have multiple purposes in this approach, meaning that with a single gesture one can stop multiple false solutions at the same time. All these

21 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 4. 22 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 4. 66

ideas are pointing more and more to the use of a single strategy, the Method of False Solutions that is soon to be proposed. After these last explanations of how to achieve the goals, the author explains once again the same ideas with different words: Minimizing through condensation and subtlety the part of The Method that concerns the magic secret (the False Solutions).23 Here, for the first time, is the clear introduction that the focus on the False Solutions Method should be condensed and use subtlety. It is very important to understand that the focus of the performance is not on this. Method needs to exist, this needs to happen. But, the whole performance does not revolve around it. It’s one element to create a better magical atmosphere, but we can’t just rely on this to achieve that higher goal. The last point further emphasizes this: Highlighting, in turn, the elements of beauty and shared pleasure, as well as the emotion and mystery of the path along the Magic Way that leads us into the fascinating experience of The Magic Rainbow.24 Again, don’t focus the attention on the rational element, but focus on the emotional experience that is being created during the full experience you’re giving the audience. These ideas of “elements of beauty” and “shared pleasure,” as well as other conceptions like “emotion” and “mystery,” evoke the feeling of magic rather than the proof of magic. That said, this proves that magic exists. It’s there, and it needs to be there for the magic to be real. It’s just not the only thing. All these ideas are taken strictly out of the text, with some knowledge of the remainder of the book and support of other visions. Although the chapter just analyzed is virtually new to the book itself, most of the ideas it contains were already clear in the first edition of The Magic Way. The enhancement of other parts that were not as clearly described or explained on the first edition, I feel, is the result of years and years of experience that can now be boiled down to simple and direct sentences that express a very clear viewpoint

23 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 4. 24 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014): 4. 67

on how to approach magic, helped by what others have also seen and made of the less tangible version of the original text. Then the book starts to dive into the Method of False Solutions, and the explanation of the Magic Way along the way. For me, the excessive focus of the text on the Method of False Solutions didn’t let the Magic Way have its own voice. For me, they are two very different things, and they should be acknowledged as separate things. The Magic Way is the full experience you’re providing the spectator. The Method of False Solutions is one strategy to allow you to achieve the rational deception within the full experience you’re creating. Because of the way the book is written, it seems that both of them are less independent than they actually are. This is something to be explored during the second installment of this magical journey.

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Juan Tamariz “Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle!”

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Walking Down the Magic Way Part 2

by Helder Guimarães

F

ollowing on from my latest article in Quarterly, I’d like to continue my analysis of the theory presented on the Magic Way, answering a few questions that my last piece left open.1 At a very basic level, these are the three main questions for which we still require answers: * How can every possible solution that the spectator may think of be proven wrong by the magician? * Is it true that the less the magician does, or at least seems to do, the stronger the feeling of magic will be? * The shock of impossibility is quickly overcome by reality and rationality kicking in. How do you stop a spectator from pursuing the solution to what they witnessed? In The Magic Way, all these questions are answered through the use of the Method of False Solutions. This is the main intention of this book, and it’s not only obvious from the title, but also from the quantity of information that composes the book itself. The book is divided into two different parts. Part One is based exclusively on the Method of False Solutions and, Part Two is mainly composed of routines that employ the Method of False Solutions to achieve the Magic Rainbow.2

1 - Helder Guimarães, ed. Will Houstoun, “Walking Down the Magic Way Part 1,” Quarterly (Summer 2015): 55. 2 - The Magic Rainbow, as written by Tamariz himself, is achieved at the end of the Magic Way when the spectator will “feel the gorgeous flutter of mystery and immerse himself in the emotion of the magic produced.” 49

The Method of False Solutions is the answer to the questions posed above as Juan Tamariz sees it. But, as I said in the first installment, this is just one option inside the Magic Way. There could be other options with which to achieve the same results, as will be suggested in the following. Let’s slowly analyze how these goals are achieved by the Method of False Solutions and how it’s possible to expand into different approaches while still using the philosophy of The Magic Way. In Part 1, Chapter 1, we are first introduced to the idea of analyzing how spectators react to a simple coin vanish and reappearance, with a false transfer as a basic method and different approaches being presented and analyzed. The table gives us six different scenarios that range from the title “Bad Magician” to “MAGICIAN.” Although vague in language, we can appreciate that each one of the presented versions differs from the previous one by adding more details. This detail-oriented approach is a key component of composition, which little by little can turn the experience of a simple trick into real magic. All the details presented in each version enhance the vanish beyond the previous version. The last one, which would be considered the perfect solution, is an example of the Theory of False Solutions in action, where the spectator follows the whole procedure dismissing a lot of possibilities, but stays with the hope that the coin did not really vanish, until the last moment when he is proven wrong and the coin is gone. This serves as a simple introduction to Chapter II, where I believe the main heart of The Magic Way lies. Chapter II of Part 1 is a poetic/theoretical essay that follows the visual scheme of the Magic Way, something that has haunted and guided my dreams and magic vision since I can first remember thinking seriously about magic. The text tries to explain, in a poetic and artistic way, the emotional and intellectual journey a spectator has during a magic routine. This journey ends up in the Magic Rainbow, as referenced previously. One of the first sentences that I feel is vital to the comprehension of this chapter and the ideas behind the Theory of False Solutions is the following: We want to keep him undistracted on his path and prevent him from getting lost while searching for the threads of the marionette, wandering behind the stage set, intuiting the secret actions of the trick. (…) We want to help him reject the multiple detours that his analytical, logical mind might present to him and that could make him lose 50

the authentic path—The Magic Way.3 This path, the Magic Way, is therefore the experience that you want your audience to appreciate, to live, and to talk about later. The magician’s task is, in this conception, to keep the spectator inside this path and to help him reject possible detours that his analytical mind may want to pursue. How? This becomes a deeper question that needs specific cases to generate some specific answers. Nevertheless, some of these answers are conceptually similar. For example, as Tamariz himself says: We, the guiding magicians, have to explain that such roads lead to false solutions, to impossible structures where the logical horse eventually gets lost in endless and pointless circles. And we make the spectator see it even before the logical horse drags us along the path.4 Giving a specific example of a dove disappearing, Tamariz points out some of the possible solutions that a spectator might think of and how, even before he thinks of them, we might come up with an action or condition to cancel out each possibility. For example, if the spectator thinks you are making something disappear using your sleeves, roll up your sleeves before your start to disprove that even before the spectator is aware that an object will vanish. This strategy is very helpful for achieving the goal proposed before: keeping the spectator on the right path (the Magic Way) and helping him reject possible detours that his analytical mind may want to pursue. Nevertheless, this conception goes even further and uses the fact that the spectator rationally knows that there is a solution to trap him into a corner with a potential solution, before finally turning it into one more False Solution. This is how the experience of the spectator apparently finding a solution is described: The logical horse starts to gallop along the road. We let it go there, even if it drags us. At first sight, it seems to find itself before a possible structure, but as he gets closer — oops! It was a mistake. (…)

3 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014), 16. 4 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014), 16. 51

The sudden stop of the logical horse almost throws us into the air. The structure is the most impossible of all impossibilities.5 Using these ideas, the spectator is led to a place where he focuses all his imagination on a single solution, dismissing it afterwards when shown to be wrong. How helpful can this be? I feel that this type of structure allows something that helps solve the first question presented at the beginning of this article: “How can every possible solution that the spectator may think of be proven wrong by the magician?” Even so, I feel this type of universal proof will never be possible. We can’t control all the thoughts that people can have, and although most of us have similar ways of thinking, there will always be a ‘possible’ solution created by a spectator that we didn’t think of beforehand. Even knowing that, however, we should follow the words of Tamariz as he describes how to cancel the possibilities before the spectator even thinks of them: All this is done methodically and thoroughly. All the false solutions, all the impossible roads to them, all the solutions he can see or imagine, will gradually be shown as what they are: absurd, useless, a waste of time.6 This can be the solution for 99% of cases. What about that remaining 1%? The structure suggested in the Theory of the False Solutions solves this. By slowly dismissing many of the possibilities, the rational side of an audience member will be keen to catch any small clue that can lead to a solution. So, when one of these potential solutions is not immediately dismissed, the full attention that is searching for many possibilities will focus in on only this one, automatically dismissing the other solutions that were proven wrong and even creating a feeling that there were no more possibilities besides this one. This may not happen on a conscious level but will drag the attention of the fully rational side of a spectator to its limit, making all their energy focus on this last option and forget about the rest. The danger here is how far this can be taken without having the spectator fall into disappointment when this last potential solution is proven wrong. In fact, using the metaphor of the two horses, one 5 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014), 17. 6 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014), 17. 52

grounded in reality that gallops and another with wings that flies, Tamariz himself exploits this when he comments, in two different passages: Sportingly, the logical horse doesn’t get angry. It almost shows a whinnying smile when the winged horse, full of laughter, whispers in his ear, “Come on, buddy, cheer up!”7 But—what if the little logical horse does become a stubborn mule and, despite all, keeps sniffing at the side roads, finds the stairs and begins to struggle his way up? (…) The magician pauses. He has played this game of his, and the game of all those who want to reach The Magic Rainbow, pointing toward the final false solution (…) The magician has pulled off the table skirt and lifted the almost weightless table to show its thin top and wire-like base. There is nothing to be seen! The structure of the cube is as impossible as any. The logical mule now closes its eyes, surrenders and sits on top of the powerful, beautiful and brilliant winged horse.8 Nevertheless, taking into account that the performer will do this to exactly the degree that is needed (something that sounds easier than it actually is), this structure provides a solid base for having the spectator focus their energies on only one thing and dismiss the possibility of the existence of any other solutions. Once that solution is proven to be another False Solution, the spectator gives up and embraces the impossibility. This structure is, I feel, one possibility only, albeit the one to which Juan Tamariz dedicates this book. Although I have played with this concept over many years and still use it in my repertoire, I have always wanted to achieve the same feeling of impossibility using different structures. The goal is similar, but the method of achieving that same goal can be completely different. For example, the classic structure of completing the method after the spectator thinks the effect is over can work in a similar way. Giving a practical example, let’s use Bruno Henning’s “Card in Box” effect, popularized by Fred Kaps and, later, by Tommy Wonder’s wonder-

7 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014), 17. 8 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014), 19. 53

ful version “The Card in the Ringbox.”9 In this example, as soon as the spectator sees a folded card inside the box, the full picture is formed in his head. All the possible solutions for achieving this result are dismissed (the box was never touched, the card was signed to cancel the idea of a duplicate, the card was placed in the middle of the deck so the magician has no control of it, etc.). As Tamariz himself said: The logical horse, seeing what’s coming—(…) the illogical miracle— begins to search for solutions, to look at side roads, pulling the carriage towards them.10 All these possible solutions can’t be true and are automatically disproven because the method is not even fully accomplished yet. But because, in the minds of the audience, it is, all they will be doing is searching for solutions in the actions performed earlier in order to find an answer, which leads nowhere. This means that the solutions the spectator considers all end up as false solutions. Condensing all the possible emotions into this moment of seeing a folded playing card inside the box cancels all the false solutions at once and is vital for the success of the illusion, which actually relies deeply on the forthcoming switch to be successful. That’s why, in my opinion, many of the ‘improvements’ to this effect, using transparent boxes etc, are actually not improvements at all. They allow the logical horse to see what is coming far ahead and prevent surprise and shock, along with all the possible false solutions, from psychologically helping cover the technique. Also, the journey presented to the spectator is different. The location of the card being known before it could be there and having the actual card in full view before it could be there are two fundamentally different things, which can actually be placed in two different categories of effect. The first effect, the one using an opaque box, presents something that is only impossible due to the conditions in which it is performed. This means it’s not impossible for the signed card to be inside the box, it’s the condition in which this is perceived to happen that make it an impos9 - Stephen Minch, The Books of Wonder - Volume 1 (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 1996), 141. 10 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014), 16. 54

sibility. So there is room, inside the impossibility, to make it possible. The other is impossible by the nature of the proposition itself - two different objects cannot be the same (or, the same object cannot be in two places at once). I think that this latter impossibility, by its nature, leads to the logical solution of a switch more quickly than in the first case. Even if, in theory, the second effect is more impossible than the first one, the method used in both cases is psychologically better suited to the first case than to the second. In the search for structures that can reach the full potential of the ideas behind the Magic Way, without using the False Solutions, I found that some of my personal ideas revolved around a guideline that indirectly answers the second question: “Is it true that the less the magician does, or at least seems to do, the stronger the feeling of magic will be?” Although generally accepted as a rule, this is one of those ideas that can be planted in the head of a spectator in many different ways. From my search on how to achieve this feeling, I have developed many routines where I don’t touch the deck of cards for long periods of time, creating the feeling that I never touched it. In other cases, I really rarely touch the deck and, when I do, it’s under the full attention of the complete audience. This accomplishes two things. First, it eliminates a lot of possible solutions because, without touching the deck, the possible solutions are automatically reduced. Second, the concept of not touching something creates an image that solidifies the existence of something else, a different entity that is not the magician himself. Without ever stating it explicitly, performing a routine where the magician doesn’t touch the deck (or at least creates that idea) opens the door for something else to really exist — magic. Notice that this is true for the concept of magic proposed in the Magic Way, which strives for the impossible and creates a path that helps the spectator to feel it. Other ideas and conceptions can have different goals and, therefore, this idea of not touching the objects may not be applicable. But in this case, to achieve the feeling of magic, the isolation of the phenomena from the performer can help create the feeling we are in search of. Another potentially deceptive structure that can achieve the same impossible feeling is the strategy of focusing the attention on an effect that either will not happen (and in its place, a better one will) or that will happen in an unexpected way. This helps to guide the journey because we need to dismiss the possible solutions for an effect that we will not accomplish. Under these ‘possible’ false solutions we can construct and 55

achieve the effect we are actually aiming for. There is a big potential for error using this structure, however, because although during the process the spectator will not be looking for the roads leading to the real effect, he will use his memory to try and reconstruct the effect once the surprise factor is removed. This means that we need, along the Magic Way, to plant very strong seeds that will later dismiss the possibilities that the spectator can mentally encounter during their reconstruction. Also, the surprise effect needs to be connected in some way to the whole experience in order to be relevant to the audience. Only then will we achieve a feeling similar to the one proposed in the Magic Way. This type of structure is reinforced when using a strong premise that incites impossibility in a general sense, like, for example, not touching the deck during the whole performance or having the spectator hold a prediction from the beginning. This helps the surprise effect maintain a sense of impossibility because the objects are out of the control of the magician. These things linger and are so strong that I feel they are the only reason sponge ball magic is still around. One last question seems to be waiting for an answer: “How to stop a spectator from pursuing the search for an answer?” Again, I don’t think it’s possible to control this completely. The Theory of False Solutions can lead the spectator to give up on looking for solutions. After so many detours that lead to closed doors, the audience members will eventually surrender themselves to the art of the performance and enjoy its more interesting emotional journey. Is this the only way of having the spectator jump on board the magical boat? Maybe not. I’ve always felt that magic, as a performance art, leaves a lot of doors open to resolution. That can be both a problem and an advantage. It can be a problem because it can make the audience stray from the performer, focusing their attention only on the rational side of the journey and turning the whole thing into a puzzle. But, those same open doors can be used by the performer and turned into wonderful roads for the imagination of the audience to wander after the performance. It was Francis Bacon who said, “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”11 In magic, deepening the mystery can mean different

11 - John Gianvito, Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, 2006), xx. 56

things, but exposing the solution to the piece presented is not one of them. Although partially revealing an illusion can be a form of communicating something else, whatever that communication is falls into a different category than magic. It’s true that this technique has been used many times to pull the audience into a performance and, during the possible and plausible explanation, to secretly create a secondary miracle that pays off and almost makes people forget what the audience was exposed to. One of the classic examples of that is the exposition phase used in Dai Vernon’s Cups and Balls that allows the final loads to be achieved and revealed later to great surprise and astonishment.12 This is no different from the structure proposed of focusing the attention on an effect that will not happen or that happens in an unexpected way, although the emotional journey is very different and can’t be compared. This small trade-off is carefully orchestrated in such a way that when the big piece of the puzzle finally is revealed, it loses importance and almost vanishes from the minds of the audience. In other words it is a trade-off with a purpose. Returning to the original idea, I feel that leaving some room for exploration isn’t necessarily bad. One part of the emotional exploration occurs in the moment people experience magic; the other part occurs later when they recap and start talking about it. In the moment, I feel, there should be no space for doubts. Later, eventually, images and memories start to blend together and people sometimes see things that never happened and come up with theories that could be true but are not. Is this a terrible thing? If it weakens the emotional memory created before then yes. But I have seen people take great joy in this intellectual process and not dismiss the experience that they had before. As I said before, although there are patterns of thought processes, there is always room for someone different. Most people, though, when they find a possible solution, dismiss the experience they had. But there is room for a kind of audience that undergoes this process and then finds the experience more thrilling than before. And I don’t know if this is necessarily bad for anyone. If the experience of magic was as good as possible, the feeling will be preserved and any possible solutions, right or wrong, will not gain power over the experience itself.

12 - Lewis Ganson, The Dai Vernon Book of Magic (London: Harry Stanley, 1957), 125. 57

Personally, I believe that the fewer answers they find, the better the magic feeling. This, I suspect, was probably the biggest influence that the Magic Way had on my conception of magic: trying to understand how people might think and transforming those thoughts into a journey that unifies the whole audience and creates the feeling of the impossible. This is not an easy task, and we all will have different opinions on how this can be achieved. And this is the beauty. For each search, from all the choices made by the creator and the performer, we will find the depth of work presented to the audience. I feel that once you start going down the rabbit hole of questions that a routine starts asking you, it’s hard not to look at the Magic Way and find its core ideas relevant. Many stay on the simple course of tricks and entertainment, believing that it’s enough. Those who really care about magic, who really want to be magicians, know that this is not enough. The deep impact the impossible can have on a person has a meaning of its own. It’s like the world is implicitly telling you, “There is always something more.” Or, “There is another way.” Sharing these moments can be life-changing both for the performer and the audience. Don’t dismiss the power of magic by lowering yourself to the level of a trickster. Magic achieves something tricks can’t achieve. It’s a different feeling, and it’s something larger than the performer him or herself. As el maestro Juan Tamariz said: And that’s how, on the wings of imagination and fantasy, we all go through the mirror of the Moon and shower under The Magic Rainbow. We become saturated with its colors, enjoying and experiencing the spell of the magical effect. Because in the end, dear joyful fellow travelers, fascinated companions on the magic carpet and, all in all, playful children, there is reality. The meadow of dreams and desire— that’s the other reality. The Magic Rainbow exists. It is magic.13 With this two-part article, I wanted to explore what I feel are the most important lessons I received from studying my favorite book in magic. “Impossible” is a word we give things that society decides to believe can’t exist, are unachievable, or not true. All this works to benefit the magician, who has the unique opportunity of using deception in an artistic way to present impossible things to his or her audiences. This is a gift we have

13 - Juan Tamariz, The Magic Way, 2nd Edition (Seattle: Hermetic Press, 2014), 19. 58

and not a burden we carry. Embrace the joy of sharing magic and the craft of creating illusions that, when done correctly, can become as real as reality itself.

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