Making The Magic In Your Hands Poster
Behind The Scenes Look At Illustrating A Poster For My Virtual Magic Show, The Magic In Your Hands
Virtually every great magician has had their feats captured in artwork and posters serve many purposes. They capture the essence and the spirit of the show and often feature vignettes or highlights of the magic show. In the last few months I have been performing magic online, virtually to my clients (individuals, schools, companies, organizations, and conventions). Usually I am performing on Zoom but often also have performed over Cisco Webex, Google Meets (Google Hangouts), Skype and other videoconferencing software. They all more or less have a similar interface with people in little windows either all around in a gallery or at the top and bottom of the screen. During my virtual magic show I often spotlight people and groups so that they are on screen with me and make them the star of the show. Magic happens in their hands and the reactions are varied and spectacular!
This reminded me very strongly of emojis and I often found that audience members literally took the same poses as emojis when interacting with magic. I am a big user of emojis in my text messages and they keep getting better and better and replace more of my vocabulary. Why? Because an expression is often so much more powerful than a word or a line. This is true in magic as well and spotlighting guests makes the show so much better and entertaining. Using committees and bringing spectators up on stage is very common in magic for this reason. The audience sees and feels the emotions of the spectator who is on stage and it amplifies the emotions and power of the magic. There is nothing like someone being alone in their house jumping up and down screaming or having their jaw drop when they realize that magic has just happened in their hands.
I remember an image from the hit television show, The Brady Bunch which for some reason is imprinted in my memory even though the show was before my time and I’ve never seen it. It very much reminded me of how people look during a Zoom call. I began to think how could I turn this idea into a poster…
I wrote Starring Mahdi The Magician but then changed it to YOU!
One of the biggest issues I had with performing a virtual magic show was explaining it to clients. I would tell them, everyone brings a deck of cards and the magic happens in your hands! They would be confused and asked if I was teaching them magic or doing a magic class over a video call. They couldn’t understand the concept with just a few words sometimes and I was left wondering how can I communicate what happens in a virtual performance like the magic show that I had built.
I began writing and illustrating. I came up with a rough draft of a poster in my notebook. Instead of The Brady Bunch I put emojis with some of the expressions my audience members had made during my virtual shows in reaction to the magic. In my rough draft I wrote at the bottom: Starring Mahdi The Magician. As I looked at it I realized the show wasn’t about me. I am the performer but really you become the magician in this show so I changed it to: Starring You! The show would be about the people and I would be the host and the presenter but the magic really happens in your hands.
Now of course, I also perform magic in the show but this would solidify my philosophy and approach, the idea that the magic is in your hands. The magic happens in your hands.
At first, as in my sketch, I was going to make a drawing of a hand and paint it but then I remembered I had a great photo by my photographer, Vanessa Paxton that she had taken to help me promote my deck of cards, Hidden Leaves. The colors were vibrant and beautiful and very similar to the royal flush I display in my logo. It was perfect as the centerpiece in this poster.
I knew that I wanted the whole poster to be colorful so I began sketching emojis on watercolor paper. I then painted them with all the colors of the rainbow and laid out the colors so that they transform shade to shade in each window. I also decided to leave some of the emojis uncolored. This was a last minute decision for me and an odd artistic decision but I really like how it worked out.
It is my hope that my poster captures and transmits the spirit of pure fun and joy that I have and everyone has when magic happens in their hands. This is not a heavy show with emotional stories and deep wisdom but rather an experience of childlike wonder.
