CAMELOT Theatrical Special Effects

What is the difference between "Stage Magic" and "Stage Special Effects?"

Stage Magic is the art of making something impossible appear to happen through the use of mechanical, electrical or psychological monkey-business.

Stage Special Effects is the art of making something normal appear to happen through the use of mechanical, electrical or psychological monkey-business.

So we have something in common: Monkey-business. The stage magician, however, showcases the effect or illusion. He shines lights on it, plays music, draws the audience's attention to it. Steve Wyric goes through a lot of fanfare, has sexy dancing girls unfold fancy draperies to music and lights then makes an airplane materialize. David Copperfield walks into the whirling blades of an industrial fan and is transformed into smoke. Kevin James sawed Kurtis Walker's legs off. The audience is supposed to notice these things and react in a "What the...???" manner. The smarter ones know it's all monkey-business, but try to figure it out as they may, they cannot.

The stage special effects designer draws no attention to the illusion at all; the actors pretend that everything is normal. The illusion is that normal things are happening... in a place (the stage) where they couldn't possibly happen! A telephone rings and someone answers it. It's either not a real telephone or, if it is, it couldn't possibly ring because it's not connected to anything. Automobile headlights appear in the dark and grow larger and closer as the engine sound gets louder. Suddenly the headlights spin wildly out of control then roll over and over to the sound of a horrendous crash. The lights come on and there's Paul Sheldon, lying in bed as Annie Wilkes nonchalantly tells him about the accident he was in. There was no accident, not even a car or any trace of a car. Later on she chops off his foot with an axe (a real axe and the foot goes flying toward the audience in the normal "I chop off your foot" manner) and he smashes a typewriter over her head in the normal "I smash a typewriter over your head" manner. Blood, hair and typewriter keys fly everywhere as you would expect; there's no fanfare, no setup, no hint to the audience that these things are about to happen or that they couldn't happen. The smarter ones know it's all monkey-business, but try to figure it out as they may, they cannot.

Frank Proffitt, maker and player of fretless banjoes, was once asked what he thought of Earl Scruggs's unique bluegrass banjo technique. "I'd like to be able to do it," he said, "and then not do it." So it is with stage monkey business: as a special effects maven, you need to know everything the stage magician knows and then don't do it as something impossible but as something normal. For example, when the director of Miss Saigon tells you he wants a helicopter to appear on stage, it's useful to know how Steve Wyric gets that airplane on stage. You can go to the same source: the secret will be found in The Blackstone Book of Magic and Illusion. When it's time for Annie to chop off Paul's foot, it's helpful to know how Kevin James sawed off Kurtis Walker's legs. (Here's a hint: Kurtis Walker had no legs.)

I subscribe to several magic magazines (including Magic Magazine) and have a good-sized magic library. I spend an inordinate amount of time on magic websites, forums and blogs and an inordinate amount of money on magic books and DVDs. I'm not a magician, I'm a stage special effects guy. It's the same old monkey-business.

posted by C. J. # 3:09 PM