Street magic
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Street magic actually falls into two genres; traditional street performance and guerilla magic.
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[edit] Traditional street performance
The first definition of street magic refers to a traditional form of magic performance - that of busking. In this, the magician draws an audience from passers by and performs an entire act for them. In exchange, the magician seeks remuneration either by having a receptacle for tips available throughout the act or by "passing the hat" at the end of the performance.
Street magic most often consists of sleight of hand, card magic, and occasionally mentalism, though the ability to draw and hold an audience is frequently cited by practitioners as a skill of greater importance than the illusions themselves.
Anthropologists chronicle this form of street magic from approximately 3,000 years ago - and there are records of such performers across the continents,[citation needed] notably Europe, Asia/South Asia and the Middle East. While it is a very old performing style, its history is not particularly well documented in print. In his diary, Samuel Pepys mentions seeing magicians performing in this fashion and one can see street magicians in depictions by Hieronymous Bosch, William Hogarth, and Pieter Brueghel. Book XIII of Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) describes magic tricks of the type performed by buskers in the 16th century.
New York based artist and magician Jeff Sheridan is regarded as one of the pre-eminent U.S. street magicians to emerge from the surge in street performance artistry which began in the late '60s. He authored the 1977 book, Street Magic and allegedly was one of the performers who inspired and taught the young David Blaine after Blaine saw Sheridan perform in Central Park (Blaine supposedly asked Sheridan to work with him on his television special but Sheridan declined). Even more recently, Jim Cellini (aka Richard Sullivan) and Gazzo Macee (aka Gary Osborne) have garnered accolades from magicians for their contributions to the art.
[edit] Guerilla magic
The second category is more appropriately called "guerilla magic"[citation needed]in that it is a relatively recent style of performing magic illusions where the magician performs a single trick or two in a public space (such as on a sidewalk) for an unsuspecting, unpaying audience. The desired effect of this "hit and run" style of magic is to give the audience a feeling that what they are seeing is impromptu, unrehearsed, and experimental. It is, however, highly debatable whether magic should be performed for people without asking or without being asked to do so.[citation needed]
This style of "street magic" is associated with David Blaine (who literally started the phase) and more recently, Criss Angel and was largely developed to play well on television beginning with the 1997 ABC television special David Blaine: Street Magic. Many magicians respect Blaine's choice of material and give him credit for creating an image of the contemporary magician distinct from other magicians in recent television history, such as David Copperfield or Doug Henning. Some "old school" magicians may dispute whether any such category as guerilla magic even exists, since it is primarily associated with only one performer.[citation needed]
One of the main questions about that phenomenon, is his actual purpose. "Street magic" has mainly appeared because of some urban trend, and nowadays, new magicians tend to perform usual tricks but in the street, therefore calling it "street magic". If there are "stage magic", "parlor magic" and close-up, it's mainly because these three are highly different kind of magic. And because magicians are getting paid to perform it. Now about street magic, it would be better to call it "TV magic" however less fancy that could be. Indeed if it's not just for the pleasure of seeing pleased people, the fact that it is filmed is the only reason that makes professional magicians do it, cause hardly anyone would give you tips in the street.
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