Houdini – Famous magician
Over the years, magic has taken a big step forward. Not only have magic tricks developed into something much bigger than we could ever have thought of before, but magicians have developed too. By that I mean that there have been magicians who have risen from the ashes, and pushed the magic industry forward in the right direction. Whether they do that through building up their image and performing, or if they work on their own tricks instead. Regardless of how they’ve developed both themselves and magic, they’ve made a mark in the history of magic. So, who have been some of the most influential magicians in history?
David Copperfield
David Copperfield has completely revolutionised how magic is seen from the public eye. He is the face of modern magic and a lot of people consider him as the best magician in our current day and age. From his ability to make the “Statue of Liberty” disappear, to walking through the “Wall of China”, he pulls off some of the biggest and well thought out tricks that we have ever seen.
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini had an undoubtedly huge impact on the magic industry and more specifically, the escapist side of things. The illusionist, who was known for his amazing escape artist illusions, performed a variety of escape illusions such as being buried alive, the “Chinese water torture cell” escape, among many other escape acts. As one of the most famous illusionists in the history of magic, he has definitely had a noticeable influence.
Dynamo
Dynamo, one of the more recent magicians in the world, only rose to fame as of 2011. In such a short amount of time, he has completely redefined magic. Some of his tricks consist of levitating, getting mobile phones stuck inside of glass bottles, or “teleporting” through solid panes of glass.
Val Valentino
A lot of magicians have negative emotions towards Val, who is otherwise known as “The Masked Magician”. The reasoning behind this is because of how Val exposes the secrets behind magic. While us, the public, are grateful on some levels for the secrets that are revealed, it leaves us with the question, “Is it really such a great thing when we find out how a magic trick is performed?”. There are two sides to this argument.
On one side, yes it is great to find out how magic tricks are performed. As soon as we find out we spend a few minutes thinking “Oh!” to ourselves and wondering how we didn’t realize that at first, and we get a few minutes of glory to ourselves.
On the other side of things, it can ruin magic for you. The thing about magic is that it’s based off of misdirection. The magician performs their act in a very specific way so that the audience don’t catch on to the sleight of hand movements that they are doing. If you find out about all these little tricks that they do that you don’t catch on to, it might be great to find out how a trick is performed, but you won’t enjoy it anymore. Finding out how lots of tricks are performed can ruin magic for you.
There are two sides on this argument, however there is no argument to whether or not Val Valentino has had a huge influence on the magic industry.
As you can see, magicians all influence magic in a different way, depending on what their speciality is. Whether they specialise in card tricks, coin tricks, or even escape acts, they all have different influences. The only question left to answer is, who will be the next big influence?
Magic can touch the lives of many who are exposed to it, not just adults but also kids and can leave a beautiful memory on them, inspiring some to become the next generation of magicians. For more information about booking William the Wizard as a children’s entertainer and magician, please do not hesitate to get in touch on 07934 856 696 or email on magic@williamthewizard.co.uk