Bas­hing Al Schneider

In the past weeks I worked hard get­ting through Al Schneider’s monu­men­tal ‚The Theory and Prac­tice of Magic Decep­tion‘. Ama­zing work, quite a lot to swal­low. Heavy stuff.

Then, some guys poin­ted out to me that Schnei­der is a ‚low-key‘ per­for­mer, lack­ing esprit and piz­zazz. Well, maybe true to some point, but then he never sta­ted being the enter­tain­ment beast nor that ‚con­sum­mate professional‘.

But take a look at how clean he per­forms all of his moves and how incre­di­bly con­vin­cing the rou­ti­nes look. No was­ted and unneces­sary moves or com­pli­ca­ted hand­ling. To prove, here is a clip of his cups and balls routine:

Ever­y­thing he does is con­gru­ent with his theory on how vir­tual magic should look like and why.

It is not a mat­ter of poin­ting out the see­mingly lack­ing ‚enter­tain­ment‘ in his work. Too many ’sea­so­ned per­for­mers‘ doing flippant and unessen­tial pat­ter, gags and pre­sen­ta­ti­ons, decei­ving them­sel­ves into thin­king this is com­mer­cial magic.

Bet­ter to absorb Schneider’s theo­ries and think about it seriously. Then to con­vert them to one’s own rou­ti­nes and reper­toire. More than enough work to keep us busy for a long time …