The language of magic

My friend Iain Moran has just come back from Italy, where he performed magic at a dinner party and gave a lecture to Italian magicians. He did all the former and most of the latter in Italian and, as his teacher, I feel both proud and impressed.

Helping Iain to prepare for this trip got me thinking about the importance of language in magic. Often there appears to be no need to speak at all, since the trick is visual and can be readily understood without words. However, the reason for speaking in these cases is not to explain or to amplify - or even to entertain - but to provide verbal misdirection. The seemingly throw-away comment has to be carefully honed in a foreign language so as to achieve the desired effect.

It's always more polite if, when visiting another country, we can make some effort to speak the language. As I have learnt, it can be difficult for a magician to do this because there's already so much to think about when performing magic that delivering the patter in another language requires a great deal of brain power. But, as with the magic itself, it gets easier with practice - and it is so well worth it. Whether you need to communicate what the trick is about or whether it's for misdirection, if you can speak to your audience in their own language, they will really appreciate it. (This is particularly true if you're a native English speaker!)

If you're going to France to perform or watch magic, there's some language on my Paris Magic website to start you off.