Ed Sumner
15 Years Experience
Staffordshire, UK
Male, 28
I perform close up magic and stand up magic. I also run a children's magic company called Ready Steady Magic. You can find out more about me on YouTube! =P
As a professional magician and Member of the Magic Circle, I work hard to create incredible events.
Feel free to ask me whatever you wish and let me reveal the secrets of what I do (but not those secrets!)
Yes, every magician has, and if they say they haven’t they are lying. Sometimes it’s possible to save the routine and allow it to take a different direction, and often I hear people say afterwards, ‘Oh I thought he had messed that up, but it must have been part of the trick.'
The two cases that spring to mind where I personally have messed up are once where I had four cards, but the audience only knew about three of them. I accidentally revealed the extra card and everyone saw. By this point in my set I had got to know the group I was working for, so I made a joke about it saying, ‘Oh look! What’s that on the ceiling?’ and I reset the trick and carried on as normal. A worse case was when I set a trick wrong at the start, and there was no-way out of it, again I just laughed it off and moved on, ‘This trick has gone completely wrong! It’s a rubbish one anyway, I’ll show you something much better instead.’
If you can get the group to like you then they are more likely to forgive you if you should slip up - mistakes do happen.
Saying that, I’ve seen a lot of bad magic, and although I can forgive mistakes, I hate every magician who doesn’t take the time to fully prepare for a performance. The worst I’ve seen involve placing a spike (or a knife) under one of four upturned cups and them slamming your hand down on the three empty cups. I would never ever do this routine. My hands are my livelihood, and no method involving a sharp object is 100% safe. I’ve seen a magician push their hand through a spike, but worse than that, I’ve seen a magician push a spectator’s hand though a spike. It pays to have insurance, and I believe this idiot didn't. I think it’s on youtube, but I haven’t checked. I’ve also heard of a kids magician that hit a kid. Again, totally irresponsible.
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Oooh an interesting discussion point. Magicians secrets aren’t as guarded as you might think. Anyone can learn a magic trick, but you have to put in some effort. Maybe you have to go to the library, find a book and actually learn the trick. You would hope that seeing as you took the effort to learn the trick, you won’t just reveal the secret to all your friends, who are too lazy to find out for themselves.
One of the real secrets of magic though is that it doesn’t work unless it is secret. You wouldn’t watch a comedian if you knew all his punchlines, right? The first thing a magician must learn to do is to fool you. If they can’t do that completely then it’s not magic. The second thing to learn is how to engage people. For a magician, knowing the secret is only the start.
The main problem with the masked magician was that the show was about only the secrets. And the show was God awful! That's why no-one actually cared about it and the series got cancelled. If the secrets were so interesting then the masked magician (Valentino) would be making more money than all the other magicians. Hes not by the way and people still go to see actual magic shows.
Most people don't actually want to know how it's done.
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I haven’t performed any routines with animals. I do perform children’s magic as well as magic for adults, but I wouldn’t want to use a rabbit as a regular part of my show, as rabbits don’t like being transported in the car, so it can be quite stressful for them, especially if you have two or three shows to do in a day. I love animals though and would love to do a routine with rabbits (or some other animals) in the future, but I think it would just be for a promotional event, for example a large show with a lot of people to impress. A TV show would be good, because it’s filmed too, so then it would definitely be worth it. As for the secret to magic with animals - give your animals the best care you can, and make sure that your audiences know that you care for them. I’ve seen one dove magician and he grabs the birds and snatches them and throws them about, and it’s not a pretty thing to watch.
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Most of the time people want to interact with me and interrupt with their own jokes, that’s all fine. However some people just don’t like magic. If I can I just perform for the other people in the group, and that person sits quietly, then it’s fine. Once this guy was shouting out random things, ‘it’s up your sleeve,’ ‘it’s magnets,’ ‘those are trick cards,’ etc.. whatever he could think of. The key thing with a heckler is not to attack them too early. If you attack too early then you look mean, and the whole group join on the side of the heckler. If you wait until the other people in the group are frustrated with the heckler too, then they will be on your side. In this case, I finished the routine I was doing, and then I left. That’s the simplest way to deal with that situation. I get paid to entertain, not argue. Later that evening, the table with the heckler called me back, apologised for their friend and told me they had sent him on an ‘errand’ and could I show them some magic. Of course I spent ten minutes with them showing them some of my best routines. For me it’s more disappointing when on rare occasions, someone will ask at the end of a routine, does it work like this...? I try to make my routines engaging enough that people don’t care about the secret. Even if they are right with their guess, I always say no. I hope that answers your question. Feel free to ask another, if not.
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NHL Team Marketer
Is fighting in hockey good or bad for the game?
Navy Officer (Former)
Why do so many people miss the military after they get out?
Lifeguard
Are most public pools just gross lakes of bodily fluids?
Haha, they sure do. David Blaine is a great magician. Yes, his performance style can be a bit moody, and abrupt, but that’s his style. If non-magicians like him, then that’s the most important thing. Don’t forget that he is also mega-successful. I respect anyone who can make money in magic. There is a guy in the UK called Dynamo, and he is quite popular now. Some magicians talk down Dynamo and David Blaine, but it just makes them look jealous and bitter that other people have the success they want. As I’ve said, people who bring magic into the world, are OK with me.
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I try not to. There is this joke between professional magicians, that we don’t perform outside of work, because we get bored of performing the same routines all the same. It’s partly true. It can get quite annoying when everyone says, ‘show us a trick.’ I do have some routines that work well when I’m not at a gig, but it’s a different situation when everyone knows you’re a magician, and they sort of expect it. If pushed I might perform one or two quick things. Usually I try out something new, as my working repertoire only extends so far. Generally though, when I’m with friends, I prefer people to get to know me as a person. When I’m at a paid gig, it’s my personality of course, but it’s different. You have to get in the zone. I’m not sure if that makes sense? I hope so, but it’s difficult to explain.
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Absolutely it is. Magic rides on the wave of technology. The idea is to find some new technology that isn’t so mainstream and use that in a routine, before it become common knowledge. I’ve seen routines that use augmented reality, and they look great, but when / if that becomes common place, it won’t seem so magical. Magic evolves with time. Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, who is commonly known as the father of modern magic, used to release ether into the theatre during his levitation routine. At the time ether was starting to become known about, but the properties were not fully understood. He claimed that he could float his son, by giving him a sniff of the ether. Of course, that’s not how he really did it. Sometimes magicians ask if magic will die out with technology, and the answer I always give is no. Magic seems to go through times when it’s very popular and not so popular but as long as people like live entertainment, they will like magic, and I can’t you see live entertainment dying out? Can you?
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