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I believe this is one of the 10 best magic acts ever created.

Watch The Great Cardini from his appearance on English television in 1957. He was at that time 62 years old and still going strong. Very strong;-)

So you might ask yourself what’s so good about an old blurry video?
Is there anything I can learn from this?

Yes my friend. There is a reason the magic world has honored him as one of the top Magicians of the 20th Century.

First of all the timing, the misdirection and the magic is brilliant. The sleight of hand, appearance and disappearance of objects, the gestures and the choreography of movements are superb.

This 9 minutes act contains so many subtle details that you cannot notice the first times you watch this video clip. But after you have watched it for the 7th time you may suddenly notice the way he uses his monocle as a time-misdirection. How brilliantly he repeats an innocent movement of dropping the monocle and uses it to deceive our minds. Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful.

Besides his skills and the context of his act I think what we really can learn from Cardini today is his attitude and mindset towards magic.

As you probably know most magicians have a very offensive nature when it comes to performing. They have this very direct way of showing magic tricks. You can see it on their attitudes, behaviour, and way of talking. It is as if they scream to the spectators: “Watch Me I’m So Awesome…!”

It is certainly not the best strategy if you want to be liked by an audience. (I come back to this in another essay)

Cardini on the other hand performs in a very indirect way. He is NOT showing off and bragging about his amazing skills. We, as the audience, are watching an English gentleman in his private home and the MAGIC is happening around him. He is not causing the magic to happen - it happens by itself and he just reacts.

Like when he throw the cigarette in the dustbin and to his surprise it returns in his mouth or when Cardini strikes a match under his shoe and the match appears in the other hand. Not to mention his long exit. He can’t leave the room because of all the magic that happens around him.

One might think, from a philosophical point of view, that it is because we live in a magical world and that is why we can relate to his magic. That is one way of looking at it.

I’m more of a down to earth kind of guy and believe people can relate to it from their daily life when things are out of control. And somehow the magician is in control and has the magic power to fix it all. A very simple story line.

So if you really want to learn something from watching this video you must ask yourself some very simple questions.

• Are you performing magic in a direct or indirect way?

• How do you as a magician react in a world with things and situations that are out of control?

• How do you react without showing off?

Remember when things go wrong a real magician can fix it them in a magical way. That is our job.

Fred Kaps with his act. I think this version is from 1961. The version with the the burning candle as the running gag. Enjoy it.

Fred Kaps was the winner of The World Championship Grand prix 3 times. The only one ever to win 3 times…1950(Barcelona), 1955(Amsterdam) and 1961 (Liège) and for the fun of it winner of Close-up Card in Amsterdam 1955. Freds Kaps was truly an all-round magician who until his dead in 1980 inspired magicians all over the world.