Eric Mead is getting some great press lately. He has deserved it all along but it is nice to see his name pop-up more often.
His latest feature can be found in The Aspen Times.
Mr. Mead eschews the big-box magic of illusionists.
"That makes me feel like a furniture-mover," Mr. Mead, a Snowmass Village resident, said of the big-box trick.
"Because you know that it's not me, it's the prop that does it. When you have that big box, it's hard to make it look like you're doing anything at all. It's hard to put any kind of self-expression into that."
The coverage is coordinated with Mr. Mead's latest gig at the St. Regis Hotel.
Practicing what is known as "close-up" magic, Mead puts virtually no distance between the audience and himself. Mead sits at a table and, on a recent Monday night, the four-deep crowd pushed forward so that those seated in front weren't even an arm's length from the magician.
The act is heavy on audience participation, with ladies and gentlemen picking cards, examining coins and safety pins for gimmicks.
Mead even allows people to stand behind him - which he says is not ideal, but adds a further layer of challenge. He is comfortable and familiar with the viewers; several of them he has known for years, from his days at Snowmass' defunct Tower Magic Bar, and calls them by name.
A warm sense of humor seems essential to his act. The effect of this intimacy is to close the gap between magician and audience, and simultaneously to heighten the experience of mystery that Mead says is essential to good magic.
We found Mr. Mead's philosophy refreshing and innovative. "I work really hard at the idea that it's not me doing a show and you watching. We're both doing both parts. Magic in a vacuum is meaningless."
In fact, as we noted in our first filmstrip on magic theory back in 1967, Magic Theory - 1967, "magic in a vacuum is more than meaningless, it sucks." Educational Filmstrip & Media Corp (Evanston 1967).
"I'm always aware of what I'm communicating, that idea that magic is less about ideas and more about emotions. When you can express that sense of mystery, that's it. You have to communicate that feeling wonder and mystery is a positive emotion, a valuable experience. Because a lot of people feel frustration when they encounter magic."
Mr. Mead also takes on the chestnut about "the hand being quicker than the eye."
"Speed is not it," he said. "What it is, is consciously manipulating the way people see and experience events. It's like a puzzle where pieces are withheld. You're being prevented from seeing something, or you're forced to interpret it incorrectly. That makes the magic seem to be in violation of natural law."
The term "misdirection" - distracting the viewer's attention from the actual trick - is likewise inapt. "What you're really doing is directing their attention, keeping it exactly where you want it at all times," said Mead. "If people were made to feel like they looked in the wrong place, the illusion works. But the experience of mystery is gone."
Check out the full article - it really is a great take on a great performer.
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