We’re in Vancouver, leaving for Montreal tomorrow.

I’ve been thinking about “Mistification”  my second novel, about a magician called Marvo.  Reason is, we’ve seen two magicians here, one pretty good, the other truly woeful.

I was partly inspired to write “Mistification” by the vast difference between a good magician and a bad one. I think good ones create true magic; they manipulate their audience beautifully, use human nature to their advantage, and draw us into the place they want us to be in order for the trick to work. I love this stuff.

We bought “The Mummy Mystery” trick from the magic shop owned by the good magician. I remember this trick from childhood. You guess which colour mummy is in the sarcogphagus. He showed us how to do the trick, and gave us a little hint into human nature which makes the trick work.

My son and I both felt sorry for the bad magician. His patter was off and inappropriate at times, his tricks wrong. He did a card trick for a large audience on the street, so none of us could hear him nor see what the card was he held up. Not only that, the trick involved him holding the card between his teeth, which I guess he thought was funny, but we couldn’t understand a word he said. The audience left in droves.

He called out the card and I’m not sure if the person who chose the card said yes or no. He kicked over his magic table, knocking his cards every where. This, as a distraction, as a trick, is an old one. He didn’t use it though; he just picked the cards up and swore at them. Most of the rest of us left then.

To be a good magician, I think you need to be brilliant reader of human expression and mood. You need to know who you’re playing to.

Marvo, my magician, is brilliant.

And his magic is real.

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