Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini began as a man, and became something far greater. While Vaudeville was rising in the streets of America’s larger cities, and feats of acrobatics, parlour magic, such as card tricks and sleight of hand, rose in popularity, the name Houdini was something to strive for among magicians. Even now, over a century after his birth, and many decades past his death, the name instills a barely disposable sense of wonder in the minds of adults, compounded many times, the younger the mind. While magicians in popular culture possess great fame and connections, the magical greatness of Harry Houdini has yet to have been met.
The stunts and bold feats of escape that Houdini has performed have been expanded, copied, and “improved” upon, over the years. However, it would be the epitome of vanity were any magician to ever consider himself the equal of Houdini. Not because the success of mimicking his feats is unattainable, but because while he was not the last, nor the best, Houdini was the first, and the original, in many aspects. Court performers over the centuries in Europe and Asia have practiced stage magic to entertain royalty, but not many every escape from the torture chambers in other parts of their estates. Houdini could make that claim, and without bluff, fulfil his intent.
The stage performances seen throughout the world presently created by many famous magicians, are at the incredulity of the general public, more often than not because of their complexity. While complexity does add to the general mystique of the performance, it remains subtext that the more twists and turns there are, the more easily hidden are the devices which contradict the “magic” in the performance. Despite the few feats of Houdini that were somewhat complicated, many of his performances were based on the simple act of escaping the inescapable. Because of the danger implied, famous magicians in today’s stage magic culture are more prone to rely more heavily on illusion over real danger.
The magician of the present popular culture world is somewhat different than that of those that performed a century ago. However, one thing remains the same, and that is perhaps the belief of magicians in the simple principles of the business. “Mundus vult decipi, decipiatur ergo”; “the world wants to be deceived, let it be deceived”, the magician’s motto, as it is popularly known. The phrase “Mundus Vult Decipi” is printed on the hand of the joker in the Ghost Deck, specifically for the use of illusionists and magicians, circulated by Bicycle Playing Cards. While any popular magician today certainly does deceive, it is much debated that perhaps Houdini did not.