So, I'm a Bibliophile from way back. Books have always stacked up in various rooms around the house.
Currently, there is much discussion on various magic forums about books versus DVDs as ways of learning magic. Usually someone comes in and says that books give better value than DVDs. In many ways, this is true. Yet when it comes to learning something such as sleight of hand, or any other activity that depends on specific actions, I find it easier to learn off DVDs. Why is it so? (as Professor Julius Sumner Miller used to say).
One answer might be because of the activities of Mirror Neurons. What are mirror neurons? I'm going to quote Marco Iacoboni's succinct explanation from his essay in "What is your Dangerous Idea?", a book that I prevously recommended.
Mirror neurons are cells located in the premotor cortex, the part of the brain relevant to the planning, selection, and execution of actions. In the ventral sector of the premotor cortex, ther are cells that fire in relation to specific goal-related motor acts, such as grasping, holding, and bringing to the mouth. Surprisingly, a subset of these cells - what we call mirror neurons - also fire when we observe somebody else perforning the same action. The behaviour of these cells seems to suggest that the observer is looking at his or her own actions reflected in the mirror while watching someone else's actions. My group has shown, in several studies, that human mirror neuron areas are also critical to imitation. There is evidence that the activation of this neural system is fairly automatic, thus suggesting that it may bypass conscious mediation. Moreover, mirror neurons also code the intention associated with the observed actions, even there is not a one-to-one mapping between actions and intentions. (I can grasp a cup because I want to drink, or because I want to put it in the dishwasher.) This suggests that the system can indeed code sequences of action (that is what happens when I grasp the cup), even though only one act in the sequence has been observed.
So , you got all that? You read a description of a sleight in a book, but no matter how well decribed it is, it gives you a conscious, intellectual understanding of the sleight. If, however you see it demonstrated in a DVD (and especially in super-practice sessions), then you get the added advantages of the mirror neurons encoding the actions directly into the premotor cortex. In a word, showing is better than just telling.
Just something to think about. (I still buy lots of books though).
Be seeing you, Escherwolf.
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5 comments:
Thank you for your comments. Do you recommend I buy a magic DVD? Which one?
Phil, what kind of magic DVD you want to go for depends on where your interests lie. For me, it's cards. In that area, I would recommend you start with Mike Ammar's "Easy to Master Card Miracles". Don't panic, I know it's a set of 9 DVDs, but you only have to buy the first to start with. I'm confident that if you become comfortable with the tricks, you will probably want more later on. So why this set? First, Mike Ammar is a great teacher, and highly respected in the magic community as such. The tricks are arranged to develop from the easiest to the hardest, you see each one performed in front of an audience, the explanations are detailed, superpractice sessions where you can follow along with sleights shown from the magician's perspective, and Ammar provides lots of detailed tips on performance. Furthermore, he does the tricks in a routined perfomance, which shows how they can link together into a solid show. (Just out of interest, Mike Ammar was one of those magicians that spent a great deal of time learning from Dai Vernon at the Magic Castle). Over the course of the series of DVDs, you'll learn effects originated by the likes of Dai Vernon, Eric Mead, Paul Harris and others. You'll learn tricks such as Card on Ceiling, Triumph, Red Hot Mama, and Poker deals.
Don't neglect books though - books and DVDs will teach you a great deal - and usually several tricks at a time as well as valuable theory on performance.
Thanks for your advice Esher. I looked up information about Michael Ammar and found his blog here. http://www.ammarmagic.com/blog/
Is he still living or is he just not very good at blogs???
I saw his DVDs at the magic shop and I think I know how most of those card tricks work, but I'm going to download the DVDs anyway. I'd also like to do some spoon bending and close up levitations, are there any you'd recommend for that?
Mike Ammar is still very much alive, and very much in demand. He sells his own stuff, does lectures, makes DVDs, tours, and so on. Like a lot of people, he doesn't maintain a blog as an ongoing journal - it is just there for the odd special announcement.
Now as for spoon bending - I'd recommend "Metal Bending - World's Greatest Magic" from L & L publishing. Here you'll learn from Richard Osterlind and Banachek, two of the big names in mentalism. I've also heard that Patrick Kuffs has a beginner's DVD on metal bending out, but I haven't seen it. After these people you might want to check out the work of Guy Bavli and Morgan Strebler.
As for levitation - well "The art of Levitation" (Royal) DVD might be a good place to start.
Thanks for the tips!!!
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