Jamy Ian Swiss

At 5:10 p.m. on Thursdays at the Michigan Theater, a free lecture is presented under the auspices of U-M alumna Penny W. Stamps Distinguished Visitors Series. The lecture I attended last week will be described in a later post.

Yesterday the speaker was Jamy Ian Swiss, a magician extraordinaire, a world-renowned sleight of hand performer who has authored several books on magic/sleight of hand. According to Neil Gaiman's blog, Jamy contributed to the authenticity of a coin-palming maneuver performed by a character in American Gods, a really wonderful book, by the way.
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/03/american-gods-blog-post-10.html

One of the many things Mr. Swiss emphasized repeatedly was the time involved in perfecting the art. As he revealed the technique of a few of his illusions, he would also mention the months of practice, sometimes more than a year, needed to achieve the illusion with comparable skill. He consistently referred to his conjuring as the art of magic which I found interesting. Yes, it is an art, after all, isn't it? Art doesn't really happen spontaneously, does it? Not for most of us, I think. It makes me consider my attempts to knit which I practice very infrequently. What would my knitting be if I practiced three hours a day consistently? It might begin to resemble something artful rather than just a product of a mechanical process that I enjoy. Could I be the next Kaffe Fassett? No, that would be entirely too ambitious.

Jamy also described the holistic approach of magic. How it is not just a matter of refined technique and dexterity, but also an understanding of the human psyche. For example, how we really don't want to believe that someone can look us right in the eye and yet lie to us bold-faced. How humans really do have a component of magical thinking inherent in all of us. Another necessary component is the utilization of subtle body language. He demonstrated how just shifting his weight from one foot to the other gave the audience cues and nudged us toward the expectation of a particular sequence or conclusion. It was delightfully thought-provoking. He describes himself as an ethical liar because he tells us he intends to deceive, and we are happy with the anticipation of such.

Afterwards during the q&a, he also briefly touched upon critical thinking, the non-existence of paranormal phenomena, and rational thinking. I asked if, considering that it is well-known that humans are terrible observers, whether our legal system should deemphasize the importance of eyewitnesses, and he responded that he had just had this conversation with someone named Sheck (sp?) and that, yes, it was ludicrously and unfairly weighted.