I’ve loved magic since I was a kid. I eagerly watched magicians on television, especially Doug Henning, Harry Anderson, and David Copperfield. It looked so cool that they could appear to cut a person in half, make something vanish, or perform some other jaw-dropping feat. In my head, I knew that the illusions performed were not physically possible. Harry Anderson wasn’t “really” sticking a giant hatpin right through his arm on Saturday Night Live. David Copperfield wasn’t “really” making a 747 disappear. Doug Henning didn’t just…do that, did he? But I still was enthralled. The craft of illusion fascinated me, and even though I was able to suspend my disbelief, I admired the work and practice it must have taken to make the performances look so smooth.
Then I had a chance to peek behind the curtain. I lived with a magician for a few years, and he had a lot of magician friends. I watched them practice; I went to their shows; I learned about their props. And for a short time, I was an actual assistant, right down to the fishnet tights and misdirection. I wasn’t very good at my job, but it was a lot of fun to dress up on a weekend and try to get people to put money in our hat. I learned how to juggle and perform a few simple illusions, much to the delight of various small, fussy children and their weary parents.
I still watched the professionals with agog, even though most of the time I knew how the tricks worked. I met Harry Anderson in a Manhattan magic store (he’s adorably sweet and freakishly tall), I spoke with David Copperfield after one of his shows (eerily intense and possibly a vampire), ditto Jeff McBride (less eerily intense than Copperfield though), among others. But there was one thing I noticed time and time again.
Nearly all of the women I’d met in magic were the assistants. They were better than I had been, earned a lot more money than I had, but they weren’t headlining.
My career ambitions lay elsewhere, and just as well, because as I said, I wasn’t very good at my assistant job. You need to be flexible to fold yourself into some of those illusions, and that wasn’t in my skill set. But the question still ruminated in the back of my mind: why aren’t there more women in magic?
As I grew into writing and left magic to the professionals, I discovered two fundamental truths. First, no experience is wasted. Second, certain themes and ideas resonate for a reason. I hoped that one day I would find a suitable vehicle for my magical past and write about a woman who wanted to be a magician in her own right. And then Christina Davenport popped into my head. When I first “met” her, she was a snarky waitress, auditioning to become a magician’s assistant, hoping he wouldn’t figure out that she wanted to use him as a springboard into her own spotlight. It was a sort of power struggle between her and the magician: he wanted her to get inside a box illusion and she didn’t want to reveal her claustrophobia or her ambitions. When I started asking her more questions, a story developed.
How to handle the magic in the story was another challenge.
I’d hung around enough magicians to have internalized the idea that you don’t spill the secrets. Even though magicians like Penn and Teller do let a few cats out of the bag, it’s done strategically, and to let the audience share in the wonder of how something is done.
But how could I write a story set in a background of street and stage magic without a little peek inside—enough to pull a reader into the world and make the (sometimes imagined for the sake of the story) illusions look real without ticking off the magicians by revealing too much? Well, the magicians union hasn’t made me disappear yet, so maybe I struck the right balance.
Another reason I liked working with the theme of magic is that it sort of mirrors the art of fiction itself. Fiction writers harness the power of misdirection, of showmanship, and throw around a little sleight of hand when needed. So even though I might have been a bad assistant, maybe it was because I was really rehearsing for a different role in magic.
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A quick and shamelessly promotional note—for a limited time, A Sudden Gust of Gravity will be available free from The Choosy Bookworm. If you sign up for the Read and Review program, you’ll get a free copy of the book in exchange for your honest review. Even though it’s listed under “suspense and thrillers,” the story is more on the suspense-y, romance-y side. Categories are funny sometimes.
Laurie Boris 
Reblogged this on Erotic Vampire.
Hi Laurie – Reposted this on my blog site. Loved it.
Thank you, Ellen! 😀
Ah hah! I wondered where and how you’d researched the magic industry. I admit I was one of the people drawn in to Gust by the detailed and very realistic treatment of magic. I’ve never wanted to /be/ a magician, but I’ve loved being fooled by magicians. Even when the rational part of your brain knows it’s a trick…. 😀
The thing that really resonated with me, however, is the bit where you say no experience is ever wasted [for a writer]. I’ve been gobsmacked by how much of my own life experience ends up in my writing [in some form]. Flying in a glider lead to a feel for how a winged creature might fly. Playing games online lead to a major plot theme in my latest WiP.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. We are all a weird cocktail of genes and experience so, of course, our experiences will colour how we see the world [and what we write about]. And yet, there is also an element of ‘magic’ about how something in your past and mine can become transformed decades later into something new and wonderful.
Great post, Laurie. 🙂
Thank you! It’s also a little comforting for me when I look back on all my strange jobs and experiences—some good, some not so good. “One day this will find a home in a book,” I tell myself. Or at least that works for me.
-giggles- I know what you mean! I haven’t yet found a use for my six month stint working in the kitchen of a restaurant, although I did get locked in the walk-in fridge by the chef. Only for five minutes, maybe less but…hmm… 😀
You might one day!
Reblogged this on Meeka's Mind and commented:
As most of you know, Laurie Boris is one of my favourite authors and in this post she talks about where some of the ideas of ‘A Sudden Gust of Gravity’ came from.
If you’ve ever wanted a sneak peak behind the scenes, this is a very interesting one. 🙂
I was also remiss in mentioning the generous help of Steven Max Droge. He’s a working magician and a former high school classmate, who volunteered to read my manuscript to make sure I’d remembered everything correctly. He’s fabulous.
Oh dear, you wrote a wonderful post about something I’m very familiar with, as I was once an assistant but never in my life would I want to be a magician. Especially because of people who want to draw magicians into the occult and the dark side. Doug Henning was gone way too early and look what happened to Houdini. Glad I’m away from all of it. Good or bad, the experience definitely helps me with fiction writing. I always say, his best trick was making me disappear!