Tricks of the trade: magic and mischief in the making

A Victorian website is an impossibility. But reality hasn’t deterred Rhys Morgan and Robert West – a ‘dashing duo’ of Victorian magic-makers – from conjuring up an online presence that teases visitors with a mix of misinformation and promotional puffs for forthcoming events.

There's a rare chance to see Morgan and West live in Cambridge tonight when they appear at the Mong Hall, Sidney Sussex College. The magicians’ code is one of professional secrecy. But, in a post-show discussion, the cane-twirling twosome may be tempted to answer questions about their unusual choice of career.

What does it take to hold a roomful of people in thrall, why do we enjoy being duped and deceived, why is surprise such a powerful ingredient in performance?  Their replies will depend on how much people want to know.

Morgan and West are time-travelling tricksters with curly moustaches and fancy hats. Their show is a delightful fabrication of tall tales, mischief-making and rip-roaring audience participation.  Performances at festivals around the country have received glowing accolades.

According to their online biographies, Morgan and West ‘popped into being’ in 1865. They first met at Oxford (‘that most upholstered seat of learning’) where they discovered a shared love of waistcoats and card tricks. Bored by lectures, they began learning to juggle. They dropped teacups, wrestled with giant silk handkerchiefs, and decided not to breed white rabbits.

No prizes for pointing out that these clever chaps certainly weren’t born in 1865, the year that saw the publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But perhaps they did meet at Oxford where they may even have become disenchanted with laboratory experiments and distracted by the lure of make-believe.  

Morgan and West are coming to Cambridge at the invitation of historian of science Dr Scott Anthony who co-runs the Public History seminar series. He has organised the Michaelmas term’s final meeting to be a spectacular contribution to a programme that seeks to look at history from unlikely, and sometimes irreverent, viewpoints.

Anthony said: “The seminar starts from the premise that ‘history’ is something done mostly by people not employed in universities, and that history is not just about writing essays but feeds into all kinds of creative and socially transformative activity. The interconnections between the history of science and the history of magic are fascinating, but in a more general sense the visit of Morgan and West reminds us that the practice of history is also about layers of perception and ways of knowing."

Guest speakers have ranged from football journalists and conspiracy theorists to film producers and museum curators. Two weeks ago, the audience was treated to a talk by the archivist of the fabled London store, Fortnum & Mason, best known for speciality teas and luxury hampers.

As time-travelling Victorian magicians, Morgan and West are experts in the age-old arts of distraction, persuasion and deception. Their performance is inspired by working with the props and trappings of the Victorian era or, at least, the Victorian era as the public perceives it.

Historical accuracy is a vital aspect of their shows: they spend countless hours researching new tricks to make sure that all the details in the show are true to the period. A heated debate about the validity of elastic bands was resolved by a spot of detective work: they were first patented in the mid-19^th century and, on that basis, got the all-clear to make an appearance in the act.

The last few years have seen growing academic interest in magic, its history as a practice that depends on artful performance, and its historic links with alchemy and thus with science. Both magic and science rely on demonstrations, established codes of conduct, and a willingness on the part of audiences to think ‘outside the box’ – a term borrowed from the 9-dot puzzle well known to magicians.

Psychologist Dr Peter Lamont, from the University of Edinburgh, has emerged as an authority on the history, theory and performance of magic. A practicing magician, Lamont argues against the idea that there is a ‘science of magic’.

In a paper published in 2010, he wrote: “What any experienced magician understands is that the performance of magic involves an endless range of physical and psychological techniques…. However we attempt to understand magic performance, it remains a social phenomenon that is located within, and depends on, the particular circumstances of the performance environment.”

Lamont went on to suggest that magic is among the resources on which science can draw in seeking to understand psychological processes, such as ‘inattentional blindness’ in which observers miss observable events - for example, when one coin is swapped for another right in the centre of their gaze. 

As entertainers, Morgan and West are wary of intellectualising the craft of magic.  Instead, they are keen to stress that they have an unwritten contract with their audience: they provide the magic and the audience looks forward to being astonished.

Tonight’s post-show discussion will be led by eminent historian of science Professor Jim Secord. Secord is Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project and author of a number of books looking at the emergence of modern science in the 19^th century, most recently Visions of Science: Books and readers at the dawn of the Victorian age.

‘The greatest trick ever pulled: performing the history of magic’ takes place at tonight (Wednesday, 19 November) 5-6pm at the Mong Hall, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. All welcome. No need to book. Enquiries to Scott Anthony sma57@cam.ac.uk.