A couple of weeks ago I performed a corporate show at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. After the show I was chatting to a couple of audience members and one paid me a compliment along the lines of “When I see someone on television reading minds I always assume it’s fake. The audience are in on it or something has been set up in advance but seeing you do it for real blew my mind!” A really lovely compliment. We ended up chatting about TV magic and the extent to which it can be faked. That night I got home, put on the TV and discovered a new magic show late on channel 5. The performer claimed to be a mind reader and then proceeded to perform a number of routines that could only be carried out for TV due to the heavy editing required to make them appear even remotely magical. So to what extent is magic on tv faked?

When magic first came to television many thought it wouldn’t work. Magic requires so much misdirection and whilst it’s possible to misdirect an audience directly in front of you, it’s not so easy to misdirect an audience sitting at home. This problem was resolved with camera angles. When the magician was up to no good ensure the camera was pointed elsewhere. Nothing wrong with this. Just misdirection on a more extreme level. Camera tricks were used, the most famous example of this was David Copperfields disappearance of the Statue of Liberty. A trick that relied solely on camera trickery and impossible to perform for an actual audience. Less sure if this is acceptable. My view is that if you can’t perform a trick one on one to an actual person it shouldn’t be performed at all. The 90’s and early 2000’s saw the rise of magic fakery on TV. Entire routines were being performed that couldn’t be shown in real life. Audience members were stooges and reactions were faked. Obviously this is not magic, just acting.

 In recent years it has become increasingly popular to only show half the trick on TV. Everything is set up in advance, the viewers at home only get to see the later half of the trick. What you’re seeing may appear miraculous but to those actually taking part they’re only seeing a mediocre magic trick. A good example of this is the show, which shall remain nameless, I saw on Channel 5 a few nights ago. To the TV viewer the magician appeared to ask someone to look at any of their contacts on their phone. He then “read the mind” of the participant and told them the name they were thinking of. He then asked them to send this person a message, the magician could tell them exactly what the message was. A true miracle right? Except what you didn’t see was that prior to the cameras turning on the magician briefly borrowed the persons phone, by using a clever and quite illegal bit of technology, they cloned the persons phone so they would know every message that was being sent. The fact that the magician had to resort to illegal methods to perform a trick that if shown in full wouldn’t have flown past the most naïve viewer proves the weakness of television magic. This isn’t editing for the sake of brevity or to take the place of misdirection as with early TV magic. This is plain fraud. As I stated before, if it can’t be performed in real life it shouldn’t be on TV. If you want camera trickery, watch the latest super hero film. The audience is being conned and if you saw this magician performing in real life you’d be highly disappointed.

Due to the ease with which people can pause, rewind, watch in slow motion and download to you tube, where every move can be analysed, I can understand why more editing is required but there is a vast dichotomy between clever editing and all out fakery and too many modern magicians are choosing to fake their tricks for TV.  Amongst the esoteric world of magician there is an entire market for you tube magic tricks. Tricks that you can perform on your social media channel which look amazing with a camera directly in front of you. If these same tricks were performed in the real world no one would be fooled. TV magic has created a genre of magician who spend their entire lives isolated in their bedrooms performing for a camera, completely incapable of performing for actual real people. Whilst this is probably the best place for them, to appreciate the pure joy of magic it needs to witnessed in person. TV will always be a pale imitation of the art of magic and modern magic is often nothing more than camera trickery and bad acting by the performer and the audience.

There are many great performers of TV magic out there, David Blaine and Derren Brown to name a few but increasingly modern TV magicians don’t have the requisite set of skills to perform for an intelligent audience and instead resort to faking it. Magic has found a new popularity in recent years and thanks to this there are live magic shows being performed in theatres, bars and restaurants throughout the UK every night. To get a true impression of the joy that a performance of magic can bring you need to get away from your TV screen and view one of these shows close up and personal.

Edward Crawford is a professional mind reader, also known as a mentalist. He performs throughout the world at corporate events, private parties and weddings. Each year he puts on a number of public shows, contact him for more details. This particular blog came about following a conversation after a show in Brighton and as the main purpose of blogging is to create links for my website here’s more details about hiring a Brighton magician. For the rest of the world hit the home button at the top.

noun

  1. a magician who performs feats that apparently demonstrate extraordinary mental powers, such as mind-reading.

  2. INFORMAL BRITISH - an eccentric or mad person

For thousands of years people have claimed to be able to read minds and predict the future. There are accounts of ancient Greek Seers and oracles who could perform these feats, for a small fee.  In the 19th century psychics, spiritualists and mediums became hugely popular and many became fabulously wealthy by claiming to be able to contact the dead.  A number of magicians decided to start replicating these abilities, some admitting they were using trickery, others claiming it was all quite genuine, and hence the mentalist was born.

The term mentalist dates back to the 1960’s when people performing in this style needed a term to differentiate themselves from standard magicians. Quite frankly they really should have created a better word and due to the secondary meaning in the UK of a mad person the term is most commonly used in North America.

Whilst the early mentalists frequently employed trickery and slight of hand to achieve their results, throughout the later half of the 20th century  performers began to push the boundaries of psychology and by using hypnosis, neuro linguistic programming, natural intuition, cold reading, suggestion and psychology a small number of leading mentalists began to perform using these natural abilities to appear to read minds. These days some mentalists claim to be able to read body language, others say is  all down to a natural ability whilst others admit to using trickery. The truth is most use a combination of the three.

Possibly the most famous mentalist to have ever lived is Uri Geller. He became a household name thanks to his ability to bend metal with his mind. Over the years he has been tested by scientists and time and time again they have declared his abilities as genuine. Thanks to his performance style and charisma he is responsible for bringing the art of mentalism to the forefront of modern culture.

Thanks to the popularity of performers such as Derren Brown mentalism has reached the height of it’s popularity in the UK throughout the 21st century. Despite this there are only a small handful of full time professional performers due to the difficulty of learning this esoteric art form.

Edward Crawford is one of these full time professional mentalists. Based in Brighton, Edward prefers to refer to himself as a mind reader and magician as it means he doesn’t have to explain what he does for the millionth time! Click HERE for the main website.

Each year I perform at a vast array or different events, performing both close up and my cabaret show. About 70% of my work is corporate event entertainment. These are some of my favourite events to perform at, particularly my cabaret show as it gives me the opportunity to tailor my show for the company. Every show gets a unique script and often entire routines developed to fit into the theme of the event. At a recent event for Peterborough law society in Cambridgeshire I was asked to give a brief speech during my cabaret show discussing the legal implications of performing magic, particularly the mind reading side of magic I specialise in. This is a fascinating subject that deals with the terrifying sounding witchcraft act. Below I have pasted the speech I gave. Hopefully I won't be prosecuted any time soon!

"The correct term for what I do is mentalism and I am a mentalist. I’ve never cared for these terms and choose to describe myself as a mind reader. I will go into some detail later as to what I actually mean by mind reader but  to call myself a mind reader without some form of disclaimer could make me guilty under the consumer protection regulations which replaced the 1952 fraudulent medium act which in turn had replaced the 1735 witchcraft act.

Mentalism as a form of entertainment began in the late 1800’s. The was the period when spiritualism, contacting the dead, and psychics in general  was at it’s absolute pinnacle. Many of  the psychological techniques used by psychics  were also being used by mentalists  but where as psychics were working with the aim of extracting as much money as possible from public the mentalist were working as entertainers, all be it some what unethical ones. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that mentalists started to offer a disclaimer that what they did used psychological principles. It is thought that they started to offer this disclaimer because of the 1952 fraudulent medium act.

The act was brought in to protect people from the spiritualists who were prevalent at the time, the industry was huge and people were paying a fortune to attempt to contact dead relatives and loved ones, they were being conned every time. Unfortunately it is very hard to prove. The fraudulent medium act was a complete failure, in the 66 years it was a law only a handful of people were ever successfully prosecuted.  The act which was meant to prevent spiritualism and psychic fraud was actually brought in at the behest of spiritualists who felt that the witchcraft act from 1735 under which they were regularly prosecuted prevented them from working. By 1735 in general people no longer believed in witches and magic, they were far more enlightened, the law was brought in to prosecute people who claiming these powers for money without actually having any power. Mentalists in the 1900’s who claimed psychic powers were successfully prosecuted under the witchcraft act.

The current law which covers, psychics, spiritualists  and mentalists is the consumer protection act from 2008.It wasn’t brought in with psychics and mediums in mind but in fact covers anyone who accepts payment for a service, from doorstep to those who claim to contact the dead and heal the sick. Psychic mediums are now having to add a disclaimer that what they are doing is just an experiment, the results of which cannot be guaranteed.  Basically the law affects anyone who offers a service and takes payment for it. If I have a shop and claim to be having a closing down sale offering fabulous discounts which turn out to be false I could be prosecuted, equally if I take money to perform for you and tell you that we will do something that involves you reading facial expressions, judging a persons character from their photo and absolutely  no influence is used where as the  complete opposite is true I could also in theory be prosecuted under the consumer protection act.

The question is whether I need to offer a disclaimer. I don’t claim any psychic powers but I claim to use psychological principles which is generally true. I may not always be using the principles I claim to at that exact time but if I mislead I do so to make the psychology that much stronger. Ultimately, I may lie but, like a politician, it’s for your benefit."

I hope this gives an idea of the way I can tailor a performance to suit your event. If you're after a Cambridgeshire Magician (click HERE for the rest of the world) please get in touch to discuss how I can create a unique performance for your event.

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