Are you ready?

The traditional "rabbit out of hat" trick.
Although magic today is known for card tricks and escapism,
this is a never dieing favorite that will forever be
one of the first things we think of when someone says "magic trick".

                            Magic                           

As long as there has been humanity, there has been the magic of illusion and escapism. Just to give a sense of how long magic has existed, over 4000 years ago there was a novel written, titled "Westcar Papyrus", that has mention of a magician preforming for a Pharaoh centuries before the book was even published.

Magic has been preformed all over the world, for quite sometime. It was a great source of entertainment, especially  for Pharaohs and kings.

*In Europe, Reginald Scout wrote "The Discoveries of Witchcraft", in 1584, for those who were accusing magicians of witchcraft. Which, back then, would mean certain death.*

Before 1750, magic was mostly performed outside because magicians did not have theatres to play in. They performed mainly at fairs, market places, and on street corners. Since their space was so limited so was their act. They could only perform with what they could carry, or whatever the audience might have had on them.

Once fairs began to decrease in popularity, magicians moved to the big cities. There upper-class discoveries of this art form led to theatered magic shows. Which then spawned magicians joining other teams of various acts, in whats called a serial structured performance, known today as Vaudeville. Vaudeville theatre allowed magic to be mobile, and watched by changing audiences night by night, sparking the flourish of illusion as entertainment.

*Science was huge in the 1700-1800's, so in order to attract an audience magicians would use scientific terms in the act, or add in scientific lectures to the act.*

Movies took over Vaudeville in the 1930's, which hurt magicians badly. With no where to perform, they turned to night clubs and hotels. The huge difference between the two was that now, instead of performing for a different audience the same piece, they needed to create a new piece every night, to the same audience.

In the late 1900's, television became the new open door. A lot of people were skeptical that viewers wouldn't believe what they were seeing, but it turns out that broad casted magic was a huge hit. Especially seeing as that is how we mostly see it performed today.

                                      Famous Magicians                 

Flier for Robert Houdin

 Jean- Eugene: aka Robert Houdin. 1845, first magician to dress in evening wear instead of the traditional star covered robe.

John Nevil Maskelyne, George Cooke: brought magic back to  the stage when they permanently moved into the Egyptian Hall in London, in 1873.

Harry Kellar: first touring magician, most famous magician in the USA in 1884.

Howard Thurston: toured with Harry Kellar, in Kellars retirement in 1908, took his place as most famous magician.

Cardini: famous for his tipsy gentleman, reappearing card trick on Vaudeville.

 P.A. Benjamin Rucker: aka Black Herman. African -American magician, famous for his buried alive trick, where he'd appear dead, be buried, and come back days later. Died on stage in 1934.

P.T. Selbit: used the first woman for a torture trick in 1921, the wooden box, and then cuts her in half. This caught on like a forest fire for magicians everywhere, believed to be so because of the women's suffrage uproar.

A.J. Cantu: first to make doves appear in a trick.

Channing Pollock: revised this trick, and became famous for doves appearing from thin air.

Dai Vernon: specialized in close up magic, and card tricks. He was a teacher to many magicians.

*Close-up magic is magic done for a small audience who can see everything.*

Mark Wilson: one of the first to air magic on TV.

"Wilson believed that magic needed three things to work on TV:

• Always have a live audience

• Never have the camera cut away during a trick.

• Let viewers know that they see exactly what the studio audience sees."

Doug Hanning: Created "Doug  Hanning's World of Magic", aired on 26. Dec. 1975, it was the highest rated magic special of its time.

Milbourne Christopher: had the first nationally aired magic special.

Sigfried and Roy: German magicians who came to Las Vegas, and turned our rabbit in a hat, to a cheetah.

David Copperfield: brought the rock star edge to the world of illusion.

And for last, but not least, probably the two most famous magicians to ever exist:

Harry Houdini,  born in Hungary as Erich Weiss in 1874. He moved to America as a baby. He took his stage name from an idol, Robert Houdin. He became professional at escapism and illusion at the age of 17. He had an obsession with psychic mediums in an attempt to regain communication with his mother. He died in 1926, on Halloween day.

Here he is performing one of his most famous escapes, hanging upside down in a straight jacket.

And Criss Angel, born Cristopher Sarantakos on 19.Dec1967 in Long Island New York. His biggest influence being Harry Houdini of course. Criss has been in love with magic all his life. He has a hit series Criss Angel: Mindfreak, which just ended it's sixth season and a Cirque Du Soleil show titled "Believe" in Las Vegas Nevada.

"Angel is the only magician to have won the Merlin Magician of the Year award twice: in 2001 and 2004. He holds the world records for longest time submerged underwater (24 hours), the longest body suspension (5 hours, 42 minutes), fastest time to perform the Metamorphosis illusion (under a second) and the fastest straight-jacket escape (2 minutes & 30 seconds)."

And has recently gained world record of most people to vanish in an illusion, making 100 people disappear.

He has surpassed his own idol in many ways, and has become the Houdini of our century.

Here he is duplicating Houdini's straight jacket escape in New Orleans, with a twist. Instead of a magicians jacket, he is using,not one, but two asylum approved straight jackets.

Sources:

"The World Of Theatre" by Mira Felner and Claudia Orenstein

http://www.magicexhibit.org/story/story_hist_1750.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1630927/bio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkIFoNt_jmc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg2__0e2TJk

http://www.photobucket.com

Commedia dell'Arte

This is a drawing of four characters from Commedia  dell'Arte, three of which are gentlemen, and one is Pierro.(1)

   Commedia dell'Arte

A mask like this would often be used for Puncinella,
 known as Punch in America. (2)

Italian for "unwritten or improvised drama", Commedia dell'Arte was amongst one of the most popular theatre forms of the past and was created to be an art of comic relief.

Rising in Italy  in the 14th Century up till 18th century. This masquerade like show style flourished from 16th to 17th century, especially in France. Commedia dell'Arte is unique in the fact that it doesn't come about through a written script. The actors play by scenario or canvas, situations that were outlined before the show. They would play out simple things such as star-crossed lovers, a father and son falling for the same girl, or heroes being mistaken as villains.

Many places in Europe sell figurine collectibles of these
 memorable characters, shown  above from left to right are:
 Arlecchino, Pantalone, and il Dottore. (3)

"The actors had to find the proper words to make the tears flow or the laughter ring; they had to catch the sallies of their fellow-actors on the wing, and return them with prompt repartee. The dialogue must go like a merry game of ball or spirited sword-play, with ease and without a pause." Mantzius, History of the Theatrical Art.

This is Lightwire Theatrical Production's performing 'Cafe Floriani'
They are demonstrating Commedia dell'Arte. They use few words, interact with the audience, are costumed in recognizable ways, and throughout use duplicated movements to symbolize  who they are.

The magic of the mask is that with the right actors,
 they seem to come alive with expressions even though they are only
crafted with a single personality. (4)

Commedia dell'Arte is the source of many types of improvisation today, such as clowns, acrobats, mimes, etc. The actors use little words, and mostly physical movements to tell the story. Much of it to disengage that language barrier normal theatre has. They use a lot of the lazzi technique that often did not have anything to do with the story, it was just to make people laugh. Lazzi is often portrayed through slapstick, acrobatics, pantomime, juggling, or wrestling.We also have inherited it's creation of symbolic characters we still use in television, theatre, and movies today. They are called stock characters, who appear with the same names, personality, and costuming in every performance. Every character overtime has developed certain movements, looks, and sayings passed on through generations.

The masks are crafted from leather, wood and sometimes glass.
The actors themselves used to create their masks themselves,
which would often help with connecting to the character.(5)

                       Characters 

Every character represented in the show stemmed from Italy being an un-unified country when the art was created. The characters are all from different parts of Italy and portray the stereotypical attitude of those people.

Pantalone- old man, miserly, sometimes an impotent merchant, often from Vienna. Sometimes a father figure who thrawts young love.

Il Dottore- also older, pompous, always a scholar of Some sort, he gives stupid advice although he really holds valuable knowledge. Often from Bologna.

Il Capitano- boastful, soldier, often from Spain, he would talk about old war stories but at a hint of real danger would be the first to take off. ( a lot like Capt Jack Sparrow..*coughcough*)

Zanni- the jester

Arlecchino- aka Harlequin, trouble maker

Puncinella-  aka Punch, hunchback with dark features, a cape, and 3 corner hat, trouble maker, a lot of the slapstick comes from this character

Brighella and Tartaglia- other famous male characters

Primo Amoroso- female, not masked, conventionalized, ignorant, helpless. Often went under names like Isabella, Lucinda, Leonera, or Ardelie

Hero- saved the primo amoroso from everything. Went by names like Flavio, Leonardo, and Valerio.

Servants/Maids- they scold, aid, and assist plotters. A famous maid goes by Columbile.

Inamoratio- youn lovers with frustrating passions.

Fun Facts:

• By 1760 there were no italian born Commedia dell'Arte performers in France
• The English hated this artform, but later created what i snow known as  pantomime, in the 18th century, from it.
• The French Revolution striked liberated people to form mimes, which stemmed from Commedia silence.
• February 25th is Internatiional Commedia dell'Arte day
• The United Nations has not recognized thiis arts stock charachters as a form of theatre tradition, when they recognized Japanese Noh and Kabuki.
• Commedia is divided into acts and scenes with a prolague at the beginning.

Info, pictures, video from:

http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/ss06021t.htm

http://www.theatrehistory.com/italian/commedia_dell_arte_001.html#anchor442530

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95EzlJDaPZo&feature=related

google.com

"The World Of Theatre" TextBook