Sight Unseen

Have you been accused before with 'You look, but you do not see.'?

The Chinese saying by Mencius was: 'I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.'

There are many ways to see. We can see externally, and internally. External seeing is about using your eyes to scan for information about our surroundings. We see to identify, reference, locate, recognise, and recall. Internal sight can be described as insight, hindsight and foresight. In fact, our six-sense or intuition can has been described as 'second sight'.

When you watch a magic performance, have you guessed the method behind it? If we do not see the method, how do we know it is clever? Some have argued that the exposures behind 'The Masked Magician Reveals the Secrets of Magic' has been detrimental and harmful to the Art. Others defend the revulsive and repulsive revelations as another way of appreciating how clever magicians and magical inventors are. I am reviled by such thinking as it is like telling audiences the ending of a film after they have just purchased cinema tickets! As a practitioner of magic, I continue to fool with magic, and be fooled by magic. However, I explicitly state that the inherently deceptive nature of magic is not meant to make fools of our audiences. Most magicians love to be fooled. It is the only art, next to digital animation technology, that allows us to suspend our judgement and create the illusion of impossibilities. Illusions are but man's attempts to explore his imagination. Einstein did say that imagination was more powerful than science.

What we do not realise as audiences, and that is the irony of Art, is that we do see the years of training that goes into making the skill look easy and flawless. Sometimes, the real ability of the talented genius is to conceal the skill. The best performers make it look easy and natural, although it is far from the truth.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, and practice.

In one classic anecdote, Sir Lawrence Olivier once said to Dustin Hoffman in 'Marathon Man', 'Why don't you just act?' Hoffman, the consummate Method Actor was rigorously exercise and sleep-deprived to get in character.

One performer I know replied to a potential customer who questioned his higher fees: 'What you are paying for is 10 years of dedicated preparation and practice!' In my interviews of performers over the years, I have found out that a 10-minute theatrical act can take 10 years to devise and deliver. That is the average of one year's work for every minute on-stage.

Just because you do not see the effort behind the results, does not make it superficial. There is more than meets the eye with talent and capability. Capability unrealised is potential unfulfilled. The next time a juggler drops a ball, or a singer sings slightly off-key, or a speaker fluffs the punch-line of a joke, do consider the level of difficulty to just appear before a discerning audience. It is easier to criticise, however much harder to receive it.

Do you see my point of view?

(Photo-credits: Thong Chow Ngian)