Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
This is a history of stage magic. More preciously, it’s the story of certain large stage magic illusions that, mostly, use mirrors. Now I know what the phrase “it’s all done with mirrors” really means.
Steinmeyer’s attempt to use Houdini’s disappearing elephant as the mystery that structures the book doesn’t work very well: the book reads like a series of loosely-connected essays. The author is at his best when describing specific magic acts, making it possible to imagine yourself in the audience of many famous magicians of the past. Also interesting are his descriptions of how magic changed with the end of vaudeville as well as his repeated but always well-illustrated point that it’s the presentation, not the “secret”, that makes for a great illusion and how a well-conceived and executed trick is as much a psychological manipulation as a mechanical invention.
