“The great difference between the professional magician and the amateur magician is that the professional magician knows what an effect is. He knows what the audience sees. It doesn’t matter how crude the method of performing-as long as the effect is good, he will use it. The amateur is more interested in the method. If the method is very subtle and fine and diabolically clever, he loves the trick regardless of what people think. They may not even understand what he is doing but as long as he feels he’s doing all these beautifully subtle and crafty things, he thinks he’s doing a great trick.
But he may be boring the people to death. It’s like somebody painting a picture. Some guy may paint something on a shirt card, and if he does a beautiful picture, people will look at it and say, “That’s beautiful. Look at that picture.” Another fellow may use the finest pigments in the world, and have the finest canvas that money can buy, and sit in a beautiful studio with a velvet smock on, but who cares? All they see is the picture. Well, that’s what the professional does with magic. He sees the picture as the people see it, whereas the amateur doesn’t. That’s something that should be heeded by many magicians. They’ve got to put themselves in the place of the audience.”
Dai Vernon, Vernon Speaks, Genii, September 6, 1969
Fifty-five years ago in his first Genii column, Vernon admonished us to see the magic we perform through the eyes of our audience. Eleven years before, through the words of Lewis Ganson, he advised us to “use your head” and “be natural.”
It’s said that he could be direct, even harsh in his comments to others. However he truly and deeply cared about magic as a craft that, with care could be an art.
All he was asking was for us to do the same.
