Rubik’s Cube Magic

In the past years there has been a revi­val of the ‘magic’ with a Rubik’s Cube. More and more cle­ver methods to do various effects with it. The craze once again started …

For me, the cube has always been a toy. A sophisti­ca­ted one, but still a toy. The idea is to get it sol­ved. The quicker this hap­pens, the bet­ter the per­for­mer is.

As with almost ever­y­thing these days, com­pe­ti­ti­ons star­ted. Who is the qui­ckest in sol­ving it, doing it blind­folded and behind the back, etc. Typi­cally, in these com­pe­ti­ti­ons a lot of kids enter and show off their gift.

The same hap­pened to dice-stack­ing. What was a nice effect and novelty for us magi­ci­ans, trans­for­med into a sport. Same with that silly cup-stack­ing business.

I don’t mind the cube craze. Magi­ci­ans are often like small child­ren and the­r­e­fore, some­thing like the cube has to be tack­led. But, per­so­nally, I don’t want to per­form these effects and I am not inte­res­ted in it because they don’t impress me. What might be an accep­ta­ble demons­tra­tion for a men­ta­list (doing it blind­folded, behind the back or demons­t­ra­ting memory) is redu­ced to a mere trick with a toy, when the cube sud­denly with a toss into the air righ­tens itself.

Of course, there are some impres­sive demons­tra­ti­ons with this toy. I remem­ber one where a few dozens of the cubes were invol­ved. But for me the cube sim­ply doesn’t fit into a close-up show, nor into table hopping.

Magic is about enter­tai­ning peo­ple, inter­ac­ting with them and – above all – pre­sen­ting some­thing they won­der about. A magi­cal effect. Stan­ding there in front of them and show­ing off one’s ability in sol­ving a toy puz­zle doesn’t seem to fit into my under­stan­ding of magic.

On the other hand, as my fri­end Wolf­gang Moser from Aus­tria pro­ves, some very nice visu­als are pos­si­ble with the cube. But these have not­hing to do with sol­ving the cube. The trans­for­ma­tion he does on this clip is the method from a trick that is over a hundred years old. That always has been done with a big die that no one would reco­gnize in real life.

Does the Rubik’s Cube have a place in magic?

I think: yes, defi­ni­tely! It is the per­fect item to replace the old fashio­ned dice magi­ci­ans have been using for ages and that nobody these days accepts. A lot of the old appa­ra­tus tricks with big dice could be revam­ped, tech­ni­cally impro­ved and so could start a new life in the history of legerdemain.

Pass it on!