Mario’s Not-So-Secret Tricks to Becoming a Magician

Mario Marchese has arrived at the New Victory! Mario the Maker Magician 2.0 brings audiences on an energetic journey packed with handmade art and robot magic for all ages! With a magnetic mixture of mad scientist shenanigans and big-kid showmanship, Mario invites kids (and their grown-ups) to join in on the chaos.

Keep reading to learn about the art forms that Mario uses to bring his show to life and see how you can become a magician just like him!

Stage Magic

There are many different types of magic, but Mario the Maker Magician 2.0 mainly features stage magic, which relies on audience participation, distraction and mystery in order to lead the crowd into believing the impossible!

Want to try it out for yourself? Here are Mario’s top three tricks for magicians in training!

1. Identify the classics! Just as beginner musicians need to discover their favorite songs before learning to play them, beginner magicians should start out by discovering the classic tricks that have stood the test of time and then identify their favorites. These tricks may include levitating illusions, linking rings, or even sawing a person in half!
2. Learn how to perform them! Once you’ve identified the classic tricks you want to learn, read about how they’re performed in a book like Mark Wilson’s Complete Course in Magic. And talk to real working magicians, too! Tannen’s Magic Shop (pictured below) in Midtown Manhattan is a great place to meet them. It’s one of the oldest and most renowned magic shops in the world!
3. Once you’ve mastered the classics, make them your own. Break them down, reverse engineer them and add your own touches. The beauty of magic comes from being able to tell your own story through the tricks.

Sleight of Hand

Magicians perform sleight of hand by quickly manipulating objects in their hands to fool the audience. For example, magicians may move something between their fingers, conceal something in the palm of their hand or (literally!) hide a trick up their sleeve. Oftentimes, the magician will misdirect the audience’s attention right when they’re moving their hands so the manipulation goes unnoticed. Mario’s adoption of the art form is inspired by a long history of sleight of hand dating back to ancient Egypt and Rome.

Clowning

Clowning is an ancient form of theater rooted in physical comedy. It embraces and highlights the absurdity of everyday situations and relates to audiences no matter their language or culture, especially since clowning is often non-verbal!

Modern clowns don’t always wear a typical clown costume, but they still play up their own silliness to elicit reactions from the audience. Mario, however, still wears the classic red nose that became popular in the late 19th century!

Now that you’re familiar with stage magic, sleight of hand and clowning, you’re on your way to becoming a magician. The next step is to see it all come to life in Mario the Maker Magician 2.0 at the New Victory!

Check out the Mario the Maker Magician 2.0 Arts Break activity for more fun magic tricks you can perform at home!

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