What is street magic, you may ask? It's exactly what it sounds like. First, you need a city street, then you need a magician, then he needs to have a crowd gathered around him, then he needs to do magic. Now you have a street magician doing street magic. But the city is a busy place and in order for a street magician to truly capture his audience's attention and keep it, he must perform at a relatively high caliber. Performers such as the UK's very own Dynamo, David Blaine and America's Chris Angel are all prime examples of magicians. At least that's how they got their start. Now they are telly celebs. They will make things appear, disappear, levitate all while playing their own pitch man; some even try to sell their goods to the spellbound crowd. And just like in New York City, coins and paper money tossed into a jar or a box are always welcome. Of course if it's Dynamo, David Blaine or Chris Angel, they need to be tossin' some hard cash into my jar, OK?
Street magicians for hire
If you're trying to hire a street magician for a function, they want you to know that when you're looking for them, you may find them under 'close up magicians' rather than road magicians. David Blaine is actually mostly responsible for the term 'street magicians'. He made it fashionable in the late 1990s. Where would you want a road magician to perform? They can do balls, weddings, banquets, corporate events, trade shows and more. The draw of street magicians, for one, is their ability to use anything at their disposal to create magic. Things in your pocket, things in their pockets and things in the pocket of the guy that's across the room that no longer has it in his pocket... much to his surprise!
And this stuff is up close and personal. No fancy mirrors, no big black curtains, no knives sticking through boxes... this is right up in your face. And it is truly amazing. I've been around long enough to know some of the secrets of magicians, illusionists, experts in sleight of hand and the lot. I'm not easily fooled and am even harder to amaze. But a good street magician can keep me entertained for hours. A good road magician will probably get a couple of bucks from me as I walk away.
London's Covent Garden and Southbank were not only popular with the early buskers passing around the hat to tourists after each performance but are still popular with the street magicians of today. The real, close up, no frills classic street magic has been in existence for literally centuries. Smaller magic tricks used to lead to bigger tricks... and the bigger the crowd got, the bigger the tricks got. Several shows a day netted the early street magicians a meager living. These days, with the likes of the previously mentioned professional street magicians; apparently the sky's the limit.
And I bothered going to college!
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