Abstract
The purpose of the present investigation was to analyse interviews of highly regarded Finnish magicians. Social network analysis (N = 120) was used to identify Finland's most highly regarded magicians (N = 16). The selected participants' careers in professional magic and various aspects of their professional conduct were examined by relying on semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that cultivation of professional level competence in magic usually requires an extensive period of time compared with other domains of expertise. Magic is a unique performing art and it differs from other professions focusing on deceiving the audience. A distinctive feature of magical expertise is that the process takes place entirely through informal training supported by communities of magical practitioners. Three interrelated aspects of magical activity were distinguished: magic tricks, performance, and audience. Although magic tricks constitute a central aspect of magic activity, the participants did not talk about their tricks extensively; this is in accordance with the secretive nature of magic culture. The interviews revealed that a core aspect of the magicians' activity is performance in front of an audience that repeatedly validates competence cultivated through years of practice. The interviewees reported investing a great deal of effort in planning, orchestrating, and reflecting on their performances. Close interaction with the audience plays an important role in most interviewees' activity. Many participants put a great deal of effort in developing novel magic tricks. It is common to borrow magic effects from fellow magicians and develop novel methods of implementation. Because magic tricks or programs are not copyrighted, many interviewees considered “stealing” an unacceptable and unethical aspect of magical activity. The interviewees highlighted the importance of personality and charisma in the successful pursuit of magic activity.
Highlights
Magicians have acquired a unique set of skills that allow them to create illusions of the impossible, and in recent years scientists have become interested in exploring this expertise to further our understanding of cognition (Kuhn et al, 2008; Rensink and Kuhn, 2014)
A distinctive feature of magical expertise is that the process takes place entirely through informal training supported by communities of magical practitioners
We focused on the following four questions: (1) Through what stages does the expertise of a professional magician develop?
Summary
Magicians have acquired a unique set of skills that allow them to create illusions of the impossible, and in recent years scientists have become interested in exploring this expertise to further our understanding of cognition (Kuhn et al, 2008; Rensink and Kuhn, 2014). Fellow magicians can be deceived, it is much harder to deceive people who have sophisticated knowledge about conjuring methods (Lamont and Wiseman, 1999). The tricks that are typically used to fool fellow magicians are often very different from the ones performed to entertain lay people. When performing for fellow conjurers, magicians typically use methods that are far more technical and impressive (e.g., difficult sleight of hand, difficult mental skills, complex methods), than when performing for a lay audience. A magician must have a wide range of psychological skills, such as the ability to use external cues and signs (e.g., reactions, applause, verbal feedback) to infer about the audience’s mental state (e.g., experience of the effect, whether they detected the method). The magicians must be able to use psychological techniques to effectively misdirect the audience, and prevent the audience from noticing the method used to create www.frontiersin.org
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