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Christian Farla
Christian was born in Rotterdam on May 5, 1970. When he was 8 years old, he began performing magic at birthday parties of his schoolmates. When he was twelve, he won the Dutch Junior Championships for stage magic and decided to become an illusionist. During school holidays, he traveled with the circus and learned about performing for large audiences. In 1992, he met his future partner and magic assistant, Bianca, who was performing as a dancer in a same show he was performing in. On August 19, 2008, their son, Ryan, was born.
Christian Farla
In 1993, 1999 and 2001, the magic duo won the first prize in the Dutch Magic Championships. In 1996 they got their first big contract with Vd Ende Events to perform in many large productions in the Studio´s in Aalsmeer. After winning the Henk Vermeiden Trophy, Christian Farla got a contract for 80 shows for the Sunflower Foundation Tour. They got spotted by Frank Wentink who offered them a place in the grand scale Dinnershow in Hilversum. When Hans Klok left the Amazing Efteling Show in the amusement park The Efteling, Christian Farla took over his part in the show. New illusions were created and he won the award for Best Show in an Amusement Park Worldwide in 2003.
After more than 2000 shows in Studio 21 and The Efteling in 2003 and 2004, the duo was invited for a couple of shows in Las Vegas by Siegfried and Roy. David Copperfield (illusionist), who was visiting one of this shows was blown away by Christian's act and soon after, the two become friends. This resulted in the exchange of magic acts like the Drill of Death and Steelplate, where one of Christian's assistants seems to be floating through a plate of steel.
After all the success, Christian Farla started his first tour with a grand scale 2-hour illusion show through Holland in 2006. The International Magicians Society awarded this with the Merlin Award and the Oscar in magic for magician of the year. He also received the Champion d’Europe de Magie in Lido Paris in 2007. After three years performing during summer holidays in the amusement park Drievliet, he switched to the larger Walibi World Themepark in 2009. There Christian received the Merlin Award for the second time in April 2009.
The History of Magic
History
Hieronymus Bosch: The Conjurer, 1475-1480 Note that the man in the back row is stealing another man's purse. He is also applying misdirection by looking up at the sky to misdirect the audience from his actions. The artist has even misdirected us from the thief, because we are drawn to the magician.
The term "Magic" is etymologically derived from the Latin word Magi. Performances we would now recognize as conjuring have probably been practiced throughout history. The same level of ingenuity that was used to produce famous ancient deceptions such as the Trojan Horse would also have been used for entertainment, or at least for cheating in money games, since time immemorial. They were also used by various religions from times ancient, and were even known as far back as the early 17th century to be used to frighten uneducated populi. However, the profession of the illusionist gained strength only in the eighteenth century, and has enjoyed several popular vogues.
In 1584, Reginald Scot published The Discoverie of Witchcraft. It was written to show that witches did not exist, by exposing how (apparently miraculous) feats of magic were done. The book is often deemed the first textbook about conjuring. All obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603 and those remaining are now rare. It began to reappear, in print, in 1651.
Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, the first modern magician.
From 1756 to 1781, Jacob Philadelphia performed feats of magic, sometimes under the guise of scientific exhibitions, throughout Europe and in Russia. Modern entertainment magic owes much to Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805-1871), originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in the 1840s. His speciality was the construction of mechanical automata which appeared to move and act as if they were alive. The British performer J N Maskelyne and his partner Cooke established their own theatre, the Egyptian Hall in London's Piccadilly, in 1873. They presented stage magic, exploiting the potential of the stage for hidden mechanisms and assistants, and the control it offers over the audience's point of view.
The model for the look of a "typical magician" — a man with wavy hair, a goatee, and a tailcoat — was Alexander Herrmann (February 10, 1844 – December 17, 1896) known as Herrmann the Great. Herrmann was a French magician and was part of the Herrmann family name that is the "first-family of magic". Those that witnessed Herrmann the Great perform considered him the greatest magician they ever saw.
The escapologist and magician Harry Houdini took his stage name from Robert-Houdin and developed a range of stage magic tricks, many of them based on escapology (though that word was not used until after Houdini's death). The son of a Hungarian rabbi, Houdini was genuinely skilled in techniques such as lockpicking and escaping straitjackets, but also made full use of the range of conjuring techniques, including fake equipment and collusion with individuals in the audience. Houdini's show business savvy was great as well as his performance skill. There is a Houdini Museum dedicated to him in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In addition to expanding the range of magic hardware, showmanship and deceptive technique, these performers established the modern relationship between the performer and the audience.
- A fettered Houdini
In this relationship, there is an unspoken agreement between the performer and the audience about what is going on. Unlike in the past, almost no performers today actually claim to possess supernatural powers. There is a debate amongst people who perform mentalism as to whether or not to perform their style of magic as if they have real power or if they can simulate this power[3].
The effects in the performance are sleight of hand (prestidigitation or léger de main), misdirection, deception, collusion with a member of the audience, apparatus with hidden mechanisms, mirrors, and other trickery (hence the illusions are commonly referred to as "tricks"). The performer seeks to present an effect that the audience perceives as impossible, even upon consideration. The sense of bafflement is part of the entertainment. In turn, the adult audience play a role in which they agree to be entertained by something they know to be a deception. Houdini gained the trust of his audiences by using his knowledge of illusions to debunk charlatans, a tradition continued by magicians such as James Randi, Arthur Ellison, P. C. Sorcar, and Penn and Teller.
The magic show for much of the 20th century was marginalized in North America as largely children's entertainment. A revival started with Doug Henning, who reestablished the magic show as a form of mass entertainment with his distinctive look that rejected the old stereotypes and his exuberant sense of showmanship that became popular on stage and television specials.[citation needed]
Today, the art is enjoying a vogue, driven by a number of highly successful performers. David Blaine's performances are more a combination of Houdini-style escape tricks and physical endurance displays than the illusion magic performed by others. The mid-twentieth century saw magic transform in many different aspects. Some performers preferred to renovate the craft on stage (such as The Mentalizer Show in Times Square which mixed themes of spirituality and kabbalah with the art of magic). Others successfully made the transition to TV, which opens up new opportunities for deceptions, and brings the performer to huge audiences. Most TV magicians perform before a live audience, who provide the remote viewer with a reassurance that the illusions are not obtained with post production visual effects.
Many of the principles of magic are old. There is an expression, "it's all done with smoke and mirrors", used to explain something baffling, but effects are seldom use mirrors today, due to the amount install work and transport difficulties. For example, the famous Pepper's Ghost, a stage illusion first used in 19th century London, required a specially built theatre. Modern performers have vanished objects as large as the Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, and the Space Shuttle, using other kinds of optical deceptions.
note: taken from wikepedia
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