As I write this there is a local magic competition tonight, which I would have participated in were it not for my recent hospital stay. It’s a magic competition I have had an interesting history with, as a participant, organiser and rule setter. My disappointment with its fairness in the early days also nearly got me ejected from the club.
The thing about magic competitions is that as a performing art, appreciation of any given entry is entirely subjective. Generally a small number of judges are appointed and the rules set out criteria to them judge the competitors on. These judges will have different ideas of what counts as suitable attire for a performer, what is entertaining, what is mystifying etc.
Skill should be an objective measure, as is seen in gymnastics competitions, except when Simone Biles does a backward double-twisting double tucked salto dismount (thanks Wikipedia), everyone sees it. If a magician does a multiple diagonal palm shift and everyone sees it it wasn’t very good. One year the organisers had to tell the judges that a particular routine was entirely self working, because having seen no sleights at all the judges were under the impression that they were in the presence of an absolute master of prestidigitation. This disclosure got back to the competitor and caused no end of problems as it was seen as the organisers introducing bias to the judges.
Is there a way to fix all this?
Continue reading “Competition Time
or I’ll Be The Judge Of That”
