The Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-12-11, Page 25--HARVEY KR 'T7 FORD
The art of magic®
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HARVEY KROTZ FORD
Hwy. 23 N.
291-3520
Listowel Car City
iracles ha
By Henry Hess
So you say you want to be a
magician?
The first thing to do is to
trot down to your local
library and check out a book
on magic tricks. Then get
yourself a deck of cards and
get busy fooling your aunts
and uncles._ Youcan improve
your techniques and get new
ideas by watching other
magiciaps, ejher in person
or op television.
Finally, if you are really
serious about what you are
doing, you can enroll in a
college of magic and maybe
someday, if you're good
enough, people will pay to
watch you perform.
These tips for beginning
magicians come from some-
one who should know: Dicky
Dean is one of Canada's
premier magicians. and for
the past 11 years he has been
earning his living by making
the apparently impossible
happen right before your
eyes.
The London-based duo of
Mr. Dean and his wife Marg,
a magician in her own right,
appeared at the Lucknow
Community Centre recently
as the featured entertainers
for the children's Christmas,
party hosted by the Western
Foundry Co. Ltd. of Wing -
ham.
During a 45 -minute act in
which torn shreds of paper
magically reunited, doves
appeared out of rolled -up
newspaper pages, scarves
and ropes tied and untied
themselves, a crystal ball
floated in the air before
exploding in a flash of flame
and decks of cards appeared
from ,nowhere and arranged
and rearranged themselves
in a variety of wonderful
ways.
There were no floating
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ladies or people being sawn
in half ("Too easy ! " Mr.
Dean scoffs. ='It's all illusion
and equipment."). He
prefers to work by sleightsof-
hand, with a minimum of
props, introducing new
twists to the standard rabbit -
out -off -a -hat trick.
PASSIONr FOR MAGIC
Following the show, Mr.
Dean talked about his ex-
periences with the world of
magic, which stretch back to
.the age of 10 when, during a
Christmas dinner, an aunt
and. uncle gave him a little
book of magic tricks.
That did it; he was hooked.
After mastering some basic
tricks he entered a few
contests and ended up
winning a scholarship to
Colon, Michigan, "the magic
capital of the world", for a
course.
A few years later, at the
tender age of 15, he enrolled
in a college of magic in
Hollywood, California, and
two years later he returned
there to finish the course.
Despite his passion for
magic, however, Mr. Dean
realized that few people earn
their living by it so he
diversified, also earning a
Bachelor of Arts degree and
teaching certificate and be-
coming a geography teach-
er.
Eleven years ago this
Christmas, he and his wife, a
former psychology teacher,
took the plunge and em-
barked on a career as full-
time, professional magi-
cians, doing about 200 shows
a year in an area spanning
half of Canada, from Mani-
toba to Nova Scotia.
IT'S AN ART FORM
Magicians are like any
other entertainers, Mr. Dean
says. They have to gear their
shows to their audiences.
In fact, he adds, magic
acts are one of the more
difficult things to" sell,
blaming "bad amateurs" for
knocking the bottom out of
the market.
However he likes .to think.
of magic —at least the way
he performs it. — as some-
thing more than mere enter-
tinment. "I like to think 'of it
as an art form as well."
His card tricks, for in-
stance, are all sleight-of-
hand. "There are .rio props
involved there at all. It's
pure practice — like a
concert pianist." -
He also notes that magic
tricks, properly performed,
are fascinating to almost any
audience.
"With magic, these things
which appear miraculous
are happening right before
your eyes."
Mr. Dean also likes .to'put ,
his own stamp on everything
he does. Magic tricks are
like almost any other
commodity, he explains. For
the right price you can
"buy" a trick, together with
the apparatus to make it
work. He himself has in-
Crossroads—Dec. 11, 1985—Page 9A
right before your eyes
THE ROPE
knots? It's easy
tant, demonstrated
TRICK—Ho
when
w do you get these loops of rope apart without untying the
you're a magician, as Dicky Dean' and Marg, his wife and assis-
durinq a recent show in the Winaham area.
vented many tricks which he
in turn sells" to other,
magicians.
Over the years he has
invented most of his own
tricks, and to others he has
added new twists or
variations. "Just about
everything I do is original in
some way:"
For instance his method of
producing doves is. his own
invention, Pulling a dove out
of a hat or a box is too
simple, he says. His way is to
hold up a sheet of news-
paper, show it to the
audience, and then roll it into
a funnel -shape and close the
top. Still holding it in full
sight, he makes a small hole
in the bottom and "hey,
presto", out comes a scarf, a
dove or•both.
On stage Mr. Dean works
quickly, with background
music 'but 1, little talking
during the act. Virtually his
only prop is a small, red
cabinet . from which an
assistant (Marg) brings
umbrellas, scarves or news-
papers, and in which. the
doves are placed after
making their appearances.
He makes it clear he has
little use for the floating
beds, disappearingboxes
and other apparatuses with
which some magicians wow
their audiences by sawing
their .assistants , in half or
making them float. or
disappear.
"That's too easy," he says.
"It's all illusion and equip-
ment," giving the im-
pression anyone could do it
just by buying the secret of
the trick and the ac-
companying paraphernalia.
Such tricks, one assumes,
are unworthy of an artist.
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THE EXPLODING VAMPIRE BALL—The mysterious,
floating "Vampire Ball", which finally explodes in a puff
of fire, is one of the original tricks invented by London -
area magician Dicky Dean,
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