The a.b,c of abracadabra

By G. Mahadevan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 27. The year was 1892. Two boys aged 17, were performing a magic trick at a beer parlour in New York city. The act was simple. One magician would be placed inside a sack with his hands tied and then put inside a box which would be bound by chains and locked and placed inside a curtained cabinet.

The other magician would go inside the cabinet and then hey presto, the first magician would appear on stage. The second one would be discovered inside the sealed box with his hands tied.

The trick was called `Metamorphosis'. The lead magician of this boy-duo was called Ehrich or better known to the world as Houdini.

Today, though not many 17-year-olds in the city would attempt a Metamorphosis, many younger children are discovering the science and the art behind the world of magic. The a,b,c of abracadabra are being taught to these children at the Academy of Magical Sciences run by magician Gopinath Muthukad.

Though the syllabus for the 24 children currently studying at the Academy is full of magic, it is magic with a difference. Rather than just train these children to make coins vanish or to produce rabbits out of a hat, the Academy is concentrating on training these inquisitive little children in scientific magic. This means that what they study will have a lot to do with say their Physics syllabus and their Chemistry portions. What magic can be done with the laws of Physics, or with the not so commonly known reactions in Chemistry. That is what the children learn in each class.

The bright young minds are told that magic is nothing to do with invisible forces moving material objects, but rather all about science and the art of its application on stage or on a street corner.

But is magic only about doing a sleight of hand using reactions of Chemistry ? Certainly not. It is also to do with improving one's Mathematical skills and also one's power of concentration. The need to develop the child's power of concentration is given so much importance that there is a whole module on how to develop concentration. In other words magic can also be a power tool for personality development for children !

No magician would dispute that it is practice that makes him or her perfect. The children who study magic too practice. The classes are so arranged that children practice for one full day what they learnt the previous day. Then they should perform that trick the very next day. The first half-hour of each class is for performing the tricks newly taught in the previous class. The next one hour is for learning new tricks. The last half an hour is for video shows of hundreds of stage shows by world famous magicians. These video shows help the children who want to specialise in magic. There are dove cuts, there are card tricks, coin tricks and then of that branch of magic that holds a universal appeal - mental magic.

Now the Academy has also built a mini-magic stage called `Wonderland' which will become a sort of magic emporium where regular shows would be held.

So, what do you want to do this summer ? Mind reading or Metamorphosis?

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