A close up magician performs effects that really get to people! Your guests will have an emotional reaction that is stronger than any other form of entertainment. We all love being impressed by things on stage and TV, but nothing comes close to something impossible happening in your own hand. It’s the sort of magic that gets people running away shouting “No!”, simply unable to compute what they are experiencing.
“I’ve seen things like that on TV, but that’s … just … how?? No!”
It’s that primal response that I love and everyone’s reaction is fascinatingly different. One extreme is the people who start shouting and have to run away. The other extreme is someone who simply goes silent, motionless, and stares at you. Luckily, the vast majority of people are somewhere between the two and there’s a whole lot of fun to be had by everyone along the way.
What does a Close Up Magician do?
A close up magician is stereotypically depicted as someone who performs ‘card tricks’, but there are many other object that a good magician will perform with. Coins, rope, borrowed finger rings, keys, chains, wallets, leaflets, even rubber bands. Not to mention whatever objects may come to hand depending on the environment. Generally speaking, anything that can fit into your hand is fair game for sleight of hand.
Since Derren Brown came onto our TV screens, ‘psychological magic‘ has become more and more a part of the repertoire of some close up magicians. This may be something as blatant as a demonstration of mind reading, or as subtle as making you think something has happened in one way when the reality may have been quite different.
The close up magician who combines sleight of hand magic with psychological magic has some powerful tools to play with!