Magic Touch
Donation protected
This all started in 2004. I was talking to a DeafBlind service user who was telling me that he used to weave baskets for a magician and in return for his work, would get tickets to go and see the magician's show. He was forever mentioning how much he enjoyed the magic and how much he missed it now that he couldn’t see. This got me thinking. I had dabbled in magic before, only in comedy magic, but I had enough skill and knew enough people to see if this was once again an area in which I could do some research. Maybe I could develop some tricks that could be used?
I attend the Blackpool magic convention the worlds largest convention for magicians when I can. I go with my dad and meet up with friends who know the magic world a lot better than I do. We all sit and brainstorm and see what’s new, what can be adapted for the DeafBlind audience and what can be left on the shelf. I also used get regular advice from [the late] Ali Bongo top magical advisor and television magic consultant to Paul Daniels and many others top magic stars from all over the world he knew his stuff extremely well. He was the only magician who seemed to know exactly where I was coming from – everyone else seemed to look at me as if I had 3 heads but Ali understood and was always eager to help.
At first it wasn't easy as everything has to be adapted as I want the service user to be fully involved in a trick that I am showing them so I want them to be able to touch and sense as much of the effect as possible from start to finish. This is a major problem as most magic is to be viewed at a distance and only controlled by the magicians sleight of hand. Although if a gimmick was discovered when they were feeling they would not know that it was a special gimmick, they would just wonder what it was and if they asked I would have to tell them and the effect would fall flat and the magic would have been lost. There are various rope tricks and other comedy effects that work but on the whole its very difficult to find something that they can get full benefit from. As time has moved on it is quite astounding really how much can be done, which is something that i never thought i would say, as in the beginning it was a struggle
The other problem is that no matter how good the magician is as soon as you tell them that the audience cannot see OR hear they are stumped, it's not a skill set they are used to! One man even said to me ” if they can see and cant here then what’s the point”. Other magicians have even suggested that I cheat “it doesn’t matter because they can’t see”, well I’m sorry but that’s not magic, that’s cheating! They need to be totally involved in the trick from start to finish, they need to be able to feel and experience the magic happen, if not then it’s not suitable It is something that has been around for years and a lot of people who have lost their hearing or sight, or both progressively will know magic from years gone by so it is something they can relate to.
I know there are many studies of magic being used as a kind of therapy and I use it as much as I can because they ask me for it. I have held a magic break where DeafBlind people from all over the UK came to where I work and I taught them magic, purely because they wanted to learn.
I am no wizard, i am very basic and simple, i learn whatever magic may work best for the people i perform to. I have not spent 20 years of my life practicing my pinky break, neither can i manipulate coins across my knuckles. but i get by with what i know and learn
There is a deaf magicians society and blind magicians society but as far as I know there is nothing for DeafBlind people so I continue with my small band of friends to research, adapt and put to test new magic tricks for DeafBlind people. Over the years we have developed quite a good selection of magic and now and we put together a small act which we performed at the Sense DeafBlind conference in Denmark. There were approximately one thousand audience members and about twenty of them were completely DeafBlind. Myself and Jimmy, a very good friend of mine who is DeafBlind, performed our act. I also used other members of the audience who were Deaf to assist with various tricks. Afterwards I went round on a one to one basis and performed the tricks to the DeafBlind people. To me this was real magic, as they were gaining access to something brand new. A lot of them were from different countries so they signed differently meaning there was no communication between myself and them - just touch and a magic trick. At first I was scared in case my techniques that I had developed only worked with Jimmy but the magic went down a storm and everyone was truly amazed .
Myself and Jimmy performed for sense up and down the country in 2014 / 2015 attending there training and doing our show
The show is a mix of tricks and slowly I am getting Jimmy to perform more and more on his own. This in itself is something that I never thought would happen. This has since lead to branching out to perform and teaching for other people with severe disabilities. Not all magicians are comfortable with including disabled people, where we are the opposite, we only perform for schools, disability groups and one to ones.
We continue to perform, research and develop with the help of some very good friends plus we have had advice from people such as David Blaine plus donations to fund trips to the Blackpool convention from David Berglas, Derren Brown, Uri Geller, Kaymar Magic and Beard Juggling.
In 2008 for the first time ever the Blackpool convention was attended by my friend Jimmy who is both Deaf and Blind This was an amazing experience and really helped jimmy as everything that i told him about was there for him to feel and access, we could watch a show and then the following day i could take him to the dealers hall and find certain props that was used and he could feel them, this would help him to put the pieces of the puzzle together in his head
What else do we do?
Over the last few years we have done performances, Talks at magic clubs including Q&A sessions about performing for people with disabilities. School visits for special schools, performing and encouraging performance. Assembly school talks about disability - using the magic as an ice breaker. Clowning and magic workshops - teaching and adapting magic. Organising trips to see live performances and shows of magic
What Next?
We have been running this project since 2002 and it has grown SO much and become very popular and a necessity for many people helping them with there social skills, confidence, Self-esteem and motivation as well as having fun and learning
Our plan is to use funds that are raised in this project to enable us to purchase some new equipment (everything we buy is second hand - this helps the money go further)- Certain tricks are suited better to certain disabilities so it would be nice to be able to increase our magic so we can suitable reach out to more people in a way that is accessible to them.
Our equipment is very used and worn out now so it would be really great to replace and also be able to buy our own rather than relying on donations of tricks
I attend the Blackpool magic convention the worlds largest convention for magicians when I can. I go with my dad and meet up with friends who know the magic world a lot better than I do. We all sit and brainstorm and see what’s new, what can be adapted for the DeafBlind audience and what can be left on the shelf. I also used get regular advice from [the late] Ali Bongo top magical advisor and television magic consultant to Paul Daniels and many others top magic stars from all over the world he knew his stuff extremely well. He was the only magician who seemed to know exactly where I was coming from – everyone else seemed to look at me as if I had 3 heads but Ali understood and was always eager to help.
At first it wasn't easy as everything has to be adapted as I want the service user to be fully involved in a trick that I am showing them so I want them to be able to touch and sense as much of the effect as possible from start to finish. This is a major problem as most magic is to be viewed at a distance and only controlled by the magicians sleight of hand. Although if a gimmick was discovered when they were feeling they would not know that it was a special gimmick, they would just wonder what it was and if they asked I would have to tell them and the effect would fall flat and the magic would have been lost. There are various rope tricks and other comedy effects that work but on the whole its very difficult to find something that they can get full benefit from. As time has moved on it is quite astounding really how much can be done, which is something that i never thought i would say, as in the beginning it was a struggle
The other problem is that no matter how good the magician is as soon as you tell them that the audience cannot see OR hear they are stumped, it's not a skill set they are used to! One man even said to me ” if they can see and cant here then what’s the point”. Other magicians have even suggested that I cheat “it doesn’t matter because they can’t see”, well I’m sorry but that’s not magic, that’s cheating! They need to be totally involved in the trick from start to finish, they need to be able to feel and experience the magic happen, if not then it’s not suitable It is something that has been around for years and a lot of people who have lost their hearing or sight, or both progressively will know magic from years gone by so it is something they can relate to.
I know there are many studies of magic being used as a kind of therapy and I use it as much as I can because they ask me for it. I have held a magic break where DeafBlind people from all over the UK came to where I work and I taught them magic, purely because they wanted to learn.
I am no wizard, i am very basic and simple, i learn whatever magic may work best for the people i perform to. I have not spent 20 years of my life practicing my pinky break, neither can i manipulate coins across my knuckles. but i get by with what i know and learn
There is a deaf magicians society and blind magicians society but as far as I know there is nothing for DeafBlind people so I continue with my small band of friends to research, adapt and put to test new magic tricks for DeafBlind people. Over the years we have developed quite a good selection of magic and now and we put together a small act which we performed at the Sense DeafBlind conference in Denmark. There were approximately one thousand audience members and about twenty of them were completely DeafBlind. Myself and Jimmy, a very good friend of mine who is DeafBlind, performed our act. I also used other members of the audience who were Deaf to assist with various tricks. Afterwards I went round on a one to one basis and performed the tricks to the DeafBlind people. To me this was real magic, as they were gaining access to something brand new. A lot of them were from different countries so they signed differently meaning there was no communication between myself and them - just touch and a magic trick. At first I was scared in case my techniques that I had developed only worked with Jimmy but the magic went down a storm and everyone was truly amazed .
Myself and Jimmy performed for sense up and down the country in 2014 / 2015 attending there training and doing our show
The show is a mix of tricks and slowly I am getting Jimmy to perform more and more on his own. This in itself is something that I never thought would happen. This has since lead to branching out to perform and teaching for other people with severe disabilities. Not all magicians are comfortable with including disabled people, where we are the opposite, we only perform for schools, disability groups and one to ones.
We continue to perform, research and develop with the help of some very good friends plus we have had advice from people such as David Blaine plus donations to fund trips to the Blackpool convention from David Berglas, Derren Brown, Uri Geller, Kaymar Magic and Beard Juggling.
In 2008 for the first time ever the Blackpool convention was attended by my friend Jimmy who is both Deaf and Blind This was an amazing experience and really helped jimmy as everything that i told him about was there for him to feel and access, we could watch a show and then the following day i could take him to the dealers hall and find certain props that was used and he could feel them, this would help him to put the pieces of the puzzle together in his head
What else do we do?
Over the last few years we have done performances, Talks at magic clubs including Q&A sessions about performing for people with disabilities. School visits for special schools, performing and encouraging performance. Assembly school talks about disability - using the magic as an ice breaker. Clowning and magic workshops - teaching and adapting magic. Organising trips to see live performances and shows of magic
What Next?
We have been running this project since 2002 and it has grown SO much and become very popular and a necessity for many people helping them with there social skills, confidence, Self-esteem and motivation as well as having fun and learning
Our plan is to use funds that are raised in this project to enable us to purchase some new equipment (everything we buy is second hand - this helps the money go further)- Certain tricks are suited better to certain disabilities so it would be nice to be able to increase our magic so we can suitable reach out to more people in a way that is accessible to them.
Our equipment is very used and worn out now so it would be really great to replace and also be able to buy our own rather than relying on donations of tricks
Organizer
JJ Lucia-wright
Organizer
