Magicians and their Fashion choices

What is it with magicians and fashion? The two just don’t go together. Most magicians struggle to look even remotely stylish. It’s all about the uniform of dinner-jacket and white shirt and occasionally a wacky coloured bow-tie if the magician is feeling “zany” . I guess magicians are too busy practising in their bedrooms to keep up to date with “the new black”.

David Copperfield Polar neck chic

The only alternative to the dinner jacket is the David Copperfield polar-neck (mind you, credit to him -David can really work that look!)

And I know jacket sleeves have to be rolled up so the audience can see we’re not “cheating” but that’s why we all look like we’ve stepped off the set of Miami Vice.

Don Johnson working his magic in Miami Vice

Actually Miami Vice is wishful thinking- it’s more Eighties Game show host- think Les Dennis Family Fortunes circa 1982.

Now I’m not saying that I’m any different- I’ve been wearing the same outfit since 1997. Although I would like to have a go at the David Copperfield  polar neck look …maybe this year…

Banksylicious

I’ve recently been to see the Banksy film “exit through the Giftshop”- what a great film . It is ostensibly a documentary about enigmatic Street artist Banksy but its true subject is the guy who set out to film Banksy and became the star of the show in the process. Thierry is a crazy Frenchman who has spent the last 20 years following graffiti artists with a camera and whose ultimate dream was to meet the illusive Banksy. This film is a fascinating insight into the Street art culture and makes a poignant comment about the modern art world.  I’m not sure how much of the film is real or staged – and I have my doubts as to whether the hooded figure is infact the real Banksy. But if it is him , not only is he an amazing artist, he’s also a pretty funny guy. Banksy says of the film “this is a film about one man who set out to film the unfilmable… and failed.”

Go and see this film.

The Body-Brain Connection

It is normal to think that our brains do all the thinking for us; however, the last couple posts have shown that our eyes have influence over how our brain works.

Adding to this knowledge I found that our bodies can also do some of the thinking for our brains. What we see and do with our limbs have control over our choice in situations. This is because in childhood we are hard-wired to know that up is more and down is less, and that right is more and left is less. It is a key trigger button for achieving the illusion of mind reading for mentalists, and politicians even use it as a light form of mind control / persuasion!

This is because how we think is essentially linked in with our ability to remember. If a politician taps into our memory cues using physical actions and motions, they can make us think more positively or negatively in light of a situation. It is a little trickier for mentalists because they need to reverse engineer the process by looking at motion and connecting it to thought and memory.

Synapse and Proteins

An interesting thing to note is that memories are made by forming new proteins around the synapses, essentially this is the glue that seals the connection between a memory and our brain.

Ali x

New Scientist: Mind Over Matter? How Your Body Does the Thinking