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Here Is Real Magic: A Magician's Search for Wonder in the Modern World
An extraordinary memoir about finding wonder in everyday life, from magician Nate Staniforth.
Nate Staniforth has spent most of his life and all of his professional career trying to understand wonder—what it is, where to find it, and how to share it with others. He became a magician because he learned at a young age that magic tricks don’t have to be frivolous. Magic doesn’t have to be about sequins and smoke machines—rather, it can create a moment of genuine astonishment.
The paradox is that the better you get at creating wonder with magic for other people, the harder it gets to experience it yourself. After years on the road as a young professional magician, crisscrossing the country and performing four or five nights a week, every week, Nate was disillusioned, burned out, and ready to quit.
Instead, he went to India in search of magic. Here Is Real Magic follows Nate Staniforth’s evolution from an obsessed young magician to a broken wanderer and back again. It tells the story of his rediscovery of astonishment—and the importance of wonder in everyday life—during his trip to the slums of India, where he infiltrated a three-thousand-year-old clan of street magicians. Here Is Real Magic is a call to all of us—to welcome awe back into our lives, to marvel in the everyday, and to seek magic all around us.
Nate Staniforth has spent most of his life and all of his professional career trying to understand wonder—what it is, where to find it, and how to share it with others. He became a magician because he learned at a young age that magic tricks don’t have to be frivolous. Magic doesn’t have to be about sequins and smoke machines—rather, it can create a moment of genuine astonishment.
The paradox is that the better you get at creating wonder with magic for other people, the harder it gets to experience it yourself. After years on the road as a young professional magician, crisscrossing the country and performing four or five nights a week, every week, Nate was disillusioned, burned out, and ready to quit.
Instead, he went to India in search of magic. Here Is Real Magic follows Nate Staniforth’s evolution from an obsessed young magician to a broken wanderer and back again. It tells the story of his rediscovery of astonishment—and the importance of wonder in everyday life—during his trip to the slums of India, where he infiltrated a three-thousand-year-old clan of street magicians. Here Is Real Magic is a call to all of us—to welcome awe back into our lives, to marvel in the everyday, and to seek magic all around us.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 16, 2018
83 people are currently reading
1741 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
April 1, 2020
This is a precisely middle-of-the-road read for me.
I like magic. I think it’s cool. This is a semi-hot take, considering the stereotypical guy in a top hat holding a rabbit (who, I guess, has just emerged from the top hat?) standing in front of overtired college students at freshman orientation is very few people’s concept of “cool.”
But then again, neither is the girl who reads a hundred or two books a year and long-windedly reviews them all, so to each their own.
I like magic, and Nate Staniforth clearly LOVES magic, so we were starting off on the right foot, author-reader wise.
Unfortunately a couple things didn’t sit so well with me.
For one thing, a lot of this takes place in India, where Staniforth goes to ~rediscover~ his love of magic. The exoticization of India as a lawless, magic-filled place was not awesome, and also felt like a really outdated stereotype. I would’ve appreciated if that was addressed more.
For another, Staniforth’s wife is a real sad sack background character in this. At the beginning of the book, she is the girlfriend of a man who spends thousands of dollars every week renting out a theater to do magic in, while subsisting off of a salsa + rice + beans struggle meal combo. In the middle, she is a woman whose husband suddenly goes to India for an unknown amount of time, leaving her to take care of Normal Life, and then when he is supposed to come home goes to Hong Kong instead.
Not to be dramatic but I would scream for a decade if my husband went on the trip of a lifetime and was like “you’re good here, right?”
Anyway. I just wish we actually saw her like a person, instead of someone who occasionally speaks on the phone.
Pluses and minuses.
Bottom line: Yay magic! Thumbs down a couple Straight White Man things.
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pretty messed up that i read this whole book about magic and yet can't cast a single spell.
review to come / 3 stars
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crossing my fingers that this book is going to tell me a) that magic is real, and b) how i can access it
(thanks to bloomsbury for the ARC - ignore the fact that years have passed since this came out)
I like magic. I think it’s cool. This is a semi-hot take, considering the stereotypical guy in a top hat holding a rabbit (who, I guess, has just emerged from the top hat?) standing in front of overtired college students at freshman orientation is very few people’s concept of “cool.”
But then again, neither is the girl who reads a hundred or two books a year and long-windedly reviews them all, so to each their own.
I like magic, and Nate Staniforth clearly LOVES magic, so we were starting off on the right foot, author-reader wise.
Unfortunately a couple things didn’t sit so well with me.
For one thing, a lot of this takes place in India, where Staniforth goes to ~rediscover~ his love of magic. The exoticization of India as a lawless, magic-filled place was not awesome, and also felt like a really outdated stereotype. I would’ve appreciated if that was addressed more.
For another, Staniforth’s wife is a real sad sack background character in this. At the beginning of the book, she is the girlfriend of a man who spends thousands of dollars every week renting out a theater to do magic in, while subsisting off of a salsa + rice + beans struggle meal combo. In the middle, she is a woman whose husband suddenly goes to India for an unknown amount of time, leaving her to take care of Normal Life, and then when he is supposed to come home goes to Hong Kong instead.
Not to be dramatic but I would scream for a decade if my husband went on the trip of a lifetime and was like “you’re good here, right?”
Anyway. I just wish we actually saw her like a person, instead of someone who occasionally speaks on the phone.
Pluses and minuses.
Bottom line: Yay magic! Thumbs down a couple Straight White Man things.
----------
pretty messed up that i read this whole book about magic and yet can't cast a single spell.
review to come / 3 stars
----------
crossing my fingers that this book is going to tell me a) that magic is real, and b) how i can access it
(thanks to bloomsbury for the ARC - ignore the fact that years have passed since this came out)
October 21, 2019
Nate Staniforth is a professional magician. His life was a constant grind of travelling from one college town to another doing shows every night. And one of those nights he reached a breaking point. The joy had gone out of the work. Clearly something needed to change. How do you rekindle a sense of wonder and purpose? By travelling to India, of course, in search of traditional street magic, performers whose families have passed down their secrets for generations.
Granted: the trip to India to find meaning and spiritual truth is such a first world cliche. Staniforth admits as much in the book. What saves it from mediocrity is his flair for vivid descriptions and emotions. He has a real gift for portraying wonder and enchantment, and a keen sense of observation.
Confession time. I do magic too. Strictly amateur. I never wanted to do it for a living, but I enjoy performing for friends and family. It gave the book a particularly strong resonance for me. And what Staniforth says about doing magic is true. There's this moment when you’ve done an effect for someone and they get this expression of delight and astonishment and joy on their face … It's like nothing else, and moments like that are worth all the hours of practice it takes to perfect a move.
There are so many great moments in this book: the lottery ticket effect at the beginning, the candles on the river, the magicians he encountered in Shadipur Depot ...
I wavered between four and five stars on this, and I wish four and a half was an option. I finally elected to round up due to the magic theme having special resonance for me. Highly, highly recommended!
Granted: the trip to India to find meaning and spiritual truth is such a first world cliche. Staniforth admits as much in the book. What saves it from mediocrity is his flair for vivid descriptions and emotions. He has a real gift for portraying wonder and enchantment, and a keen sense of observation.
Confession time. I do magic too. Strictly amateur. I never wanted to do it for a living, but I enjoy performing for friends and family. It gave the book a particularly strong resonance for me. And what Staniforth says about doing magic is true. There's this moment when you’ve done an effect for someone and they get this expression of delight and astonishment and joy on their face … It's like nothing else, and moments like that are worth all the hours of practice it takes to perfect a move.
There are so many great moments in this book: the lottery ticket effect at the beginning, the candles on the river, the magicians he encountered in Shadipur Depot ...
I wavered between four and five stars on this, and I wish four and a half was an option. I finally elected to round up due to the magic theme having special resonance for me. Highly, highly recommended!
January 28, 2019
First, I have never once read a biography of a magician. This story wasn't even about how and when he found magic. It was more about a person trying to better himself in the process and trying to find a meaning behind all his efforts.
Second, the story involved him flying down to India from Iowa in search of magic. This particular part intrigued me the most. Being an Indian, not once I thought India could be perceived as land of exceptional magics. Apparently it is and that's what he is proving here.
Finally, the learnings. The narration though covers topics on magic and search for magic etc, the overall ideologies are very universal. Many interactions, monologues provide better understanding of the modern world, human mind and our perception towards knowledge.
I sincerely request everyone who feel uninspired to do anything to read this book. Many not be your ideal genre but definitely provides some life lessons.
Second, the story involved him flying down to India from Iowa in search of magic. This particular part intrigued me the most. Being an Indian, not once I thought India could be perceived as land of exceptional magics. Apparently it is and that's what he is proving here.
Finally, the learnings. The narration though covers topics on magic and search for magic etc, the overall ideologies are very universal. Many interactions, monologues provide better understanding of the modern world, human mind and our perception towards knowledge.
I sincerely request everyone who feel uninspired to do anything to read this book. Many not be your ideal genre but definitely provides some life lessons.
Read
July 1, 2019I loved this book! How is magic accomplished, and why does it move us so deeply? It's not easy to hit the transcendent note without sounding mawkish. I've been reading a lot of books by magicians (long story) and this is one of my favorites.
December 30, 2017
This one had me at magic. I love all things magic and, subsequently, magicians. By no deliberate design it seems that I primarily read about the subject in fictional form and watch it in nonfictional one, such as Netflix programs (and I think I have seen every one). I’ve never watched the author’s show, because it never made it on Netlfix probably, never even heard of him, but apparently he’s quite a popular touring magician and something of a theorist of his art form also. That is to me it’s an art form, to some it maybe be just some silly tricks. For the latter mentality this book might go some distance to dispel their convictions. Then again, magic isn’t magical for everyone. At some juncture it was no longer even all that magical to the author, so he traveled to rediscover that Wow factor and find out more about its meaning. In fact, the title sort of had me expecting something along the lines of Eric Weiner’s awesome Geography of books, but this is more of a single destination travelogue. India. Land of Mystery. It actually works really well as a travelogue, it’s descriptive and detailed. It’s just that it seemed like yet another one of those…reasonably well to do first world country citizen goes to wade through previously unimagined poverty and privation to find beauty and meaning…books. What is it about third world living (yes, one can make an argument for India being the world’s 7th largest economy and fastest improving, but the numbers alone don’t matter in the countless slums) that is so inspirational? Isn’t it all just a sort of lottery, what one is born into, what one learns to live with. Do you really clean your plate of food every time because there are starving children in the world? And if so, does this starvation need to be witnessed beforehand? Can’t one just be aware that it is a fact and therefore be glad to have what they have? And is it really that simple…after all everyone lives in different places with different standards of living, different quality of life and these criteria are all completely subjective to and contingent on one’s environment. But digressions aside…even if this is just one of those books, it’s still a good read, well written, well meaning, probably can still be safely labeled as memoir as oppose to motivational. It’ll remind you to approach the world more openly, more childlike, more able and willing to be surprised…and then you’ll go to work, pay some bills, buy some groceries, endure some tedious commute, watch some tv…and possibly/probably forget all about it. Unless, presumably, you actually go travel India for a while. Personally, I much prefer to watch a good magic show. Those always have a Wow factor for me. Probably would have preferred a magic show to reading this one also, but I was entertained enough. Thanks Netgalley.
February 18, 2018
A difficult book to review. To summarize this book in a sentence, it is, "a jaded American magician travels to India to regain a sense of wonder". Which sounds wrong somehow, kicking in a instinctive aversion to Westerners othering and exoticizing inhabitants of foreign countries, especially countries once so brutally subjected to colonialism. Staniforth's book, unlike many others like this, does make me want to defend it from this denouncing generalization. After all, he faces this matter, admits it in the text. And how can anyone not relate to frustration with your once-dreams becoming your current monotony, and the desperation to escape to somewhere different, that can force you into a reframe?
I'm not a magician, but I work in theatre, I studied the history of stage magic at university, and I run a reviewing publication of magic shows. I have actually never seen Staniforth perform, although I think now I would very much like to. It's difficult, as he says, to write wonder. It's an emotion that cannot be communicated in text in the way anyone feels it, cannot exist outside the emotional sphere. It is too purely chemical, or spiritual even. But what Staniforth does do successfully do is communicate his own experiences that led to it, and give readers hope and inspiration for finding their own paths to the same place.
Also- every book he mentioned reading sounded fascinating, so my to read list just got significantly longer.
I'm not a magician, but I work in theatre, I studied the history of stage magic at university, and I run a reviewing publication of magic shows. I have actually never seen Staniforth perform, although I think now I would very much like to. It's difficult, as he says, to write wonder. It's an emotion that cannot be communicated in text in the way anyone feels it, cannot exist outside the emotional sphere. It is too purely chemical, or spiritual even. But what Staniforth does do successfully do is communicate his own experiences that led to it, and give readers hope and inspiration for finding their own paths to the same place.
Also- every book he mentioned reading sounded fascinating, so my to read list just got significantly longer.
September 1, 2017
Thank you Edelweiss for my review copy of this book.
Nate Stainforth is a magician who has lost his fascination with magic. Nate has been obsessed with magic from a very young age and after realizing his dream of becoming a magician he becomes burned out and disillusioned. Remebering a book he read about real magic in India he decides to take a trip to search for what made him believe in magic in the first place.
This book follows Nate's journey from trying to figure out how to make a living off of magic to performing every night all over the country to wanting to give it all up. In India he rediscovers why he began to love magic in the first place and how to bring belief in magic back into his life. A fun and inspiring story that will make you see the magic in your own everyday life if you just decide to look for it!
Nate Stainforth is a magician who has lost his fascination with magic. Nate has been obsessed with magic from a very young age and after realizing his dream of becoming a magician he becomes burned out and disillusioned. Remebering a book he read about real magic in India he decides to take a trip to search for what made him believe in magic in the first place.
This book follows Nate's journey from trying to figure out how to make a living off of magic to performing every night all over the country to wanting to give it all up. In India he rediscovers why he began to love magic in the first place and how to bring belief in magic back into his life. A fun and inspiring story that will make you see the magic in your own everyday life if you just decide to look for it!
July 18, 2019
Normally when I finish a book, I let it sit a while before coming back to write a review. It's kind of a spaced repetition technique to help me remember the finer points that stood out.
Not this one.
I had to write this right away because this is the best damned book I've read in the past five years. I don't say that lightly either, especially when you consider the volume at which I read.
First, my history with Nate Staniforth.
Nate is a professional magician from Iowa and he doesn't know me personally, or at all. I saw a clip of him over fifteen years ago on Ellusionist performing a card trick and liked him instantly. The guy just exuded authenticity and he comes across as one of those people you instantly like the moment you meet them.
Then I bought his DVD, Spellbinder, and it's one of the very few DVDs I still kept after doing my great purging of physical mediums.
In this DVD, Nate was touching upon something that had nagged at me as an early magician - how can you give the audience a sense of wonder with magic as your medium?
How can you get the audience to be participants in the magic and feel it as authentic without you (the magician) pretending to be a real wizard? You see, I wanted to do magic because I loved the awe of the universe.
I wanted people to see magic as an art.
And like any art, the goal is to dig into the well of human emotion and experience. To bring forward what we spend every day trying to suppress or to name something we could never put our finger on.
I didn't want people to see magic as nothing more than cheap parlour tricks and Nate and I seemed to be on the same wavelength about it.
That's when I became a fan.
He sparked an inner dialogue that got me thinking about magic in a different way, to connect it to other parts of my life, to write an article about it that got the attention of Chris Kenner (David Copperfield's executive producer) - who called me up about it and we chatted for an hour on the nature of magic as an art - to speaking at an Ignite Culture event, to even writing a novella (to be published in the near future) with this dialogue running through my subconscious.
My early readers told me it was the best writing I've ever done and one of my partners in writing said I need to make a series out of it... and he hates everything.
I haven't even gotten to the book, but you might be able to see why I loved it so much. It was personal.
Deeply personal.
Nate pursued his passion with the upmost ferocity and I shifted to writing while bowing out of the magic world. In doing so, much of that drive I had, the philosophical underpinnings of being a magician, went dormant.
With it, if I'm being honest, went some of my spark of life.
Then one night recently, my longing for that world again tapped me on the shoulder and I found this book.
It is the journey of Nate trying to find that real sense of wonder, burning out as a performer and discovering some hard truths about magic as an art on a purposeful trip to India (a country desperately trying to rid itself of its image as a land full of magic and mystery).
Nate is honest and you feel that honesty come out in every sentence.
I powered through this book, clutching on to every word while reading late into the night and waking up early to finish as before my kids woke up. It woke up that part of me that went dormant, bringing life back to something so close to my inner being.
It got me connecting my former life as a magician to my life as a teacher right now. You see, a good teacher isn't someone who is passionate about their subject area - they're passionate about sharing that subject with others.
A good magician is the same way. They don't love magic - they love sharing it with others.
That's what makes someone love a teacher.
That's what makes someone love a magician.
That's what makes someone love another person.
While it could read as a memoir (albeit a very good one), if you're open to the possibility of wonder, Nate will share with you what he's learned and you won't be disappointed.
There's so much to be gained if you keep your eyes open.
Not this one.
I had to write this right away because this is the best damned book I've read in the past five years. I don't say that lightly either, especially when you consider the volume at which I read.
First, my history with Nate Staniforth.
Nate is a professional magician from Iowa and he doesn't know me personally, or at all. I saw a clip of him over fifteen years ago on Ellusionist performing a card trick and liked him instantly. The guy just exuded authenticity and he comes across as one of those people you instantly like the moment you meet them.
Then I bought his DVD, Spellbinder, and it's one of the very few DVDs I still kept after doing my great purging of physical mediums.
In this DVD, Nate was touching upon something that had nagged at me as an early magician - how can you give the audience a sense of wonder with magic as your medium?
How can you get the audience to be participants in the magic and feel it as authentic without you (the magician) pretending to be a real wizard? You see, I wanted to do magic because I loved the awe of the universe.
I wanted people to see magic as an art.
And like any art, the goal is to dig into the well of human emotion and experience. To bring forward what we spend every day trying to suppress or to name something we could never put our finger on.
I didn't want people to see magic as nothing more than cheap parlour tricks and Nate and I seemed to be on the same wavelength about it.
That's when I became a fan.
He sparked an inner dialogue that got me thinking about magic in a different way, to connect it to other parts of my life, to write an article about it that got the attention of Chris Kenner (David Copperfield's executive producer) - who called me up about it and we chatted for an hour on the nature of magic as an art - to speaking at an Ignite Culture event, to even writing a novella (to be published in the near future) with this dialogue running through my subconscious.
My early readers told me it was the best writing I've ever done and one of my partners in writing said I need to make a series out of it... and he hates everything.
I haven't even gotten to the book, but you might be able to see why I loved it so much. It was personal.
Deeply personal.
Nate pursued his passion with the upmost ferocity and I shifted to writing while bowing out of the magic world. In doing so, much of that drive I had, the philosophical underpinnings of being a magician, went dormant.
With it, if I'm being honest, went some of my spark of life.
Then one night recently, my longing for that world again tapped me on the shoulder and I found this book.
It is the journey of Nate trying to find that real sense of wonder, burning out as a performer and discovering some hard truths about magic as an art on a purposeful trip to India (a country desperately trying to rid itself of its image as a land full of magic and mystery).
Nate is honest and you feel that honesty come out in every sentence.
I powered through this book, clutching on to every word while reading late into the night and waking up early to finish as before my kids woke up. It woke up that part of me that went dormant, bringing life back to something so close to my inner being.
It got me connecting my former life as a magician to my life as a teacher right now. You see, a good teacher isn't someone who is passionate about their subject area - they're passionate about sharing that subject with others.
A good magician is the same way. They don't love magic - they love sharing it with others.
That's what makes someone love a teacher.
That's what makes someone love a magician.
That's what makes someone love another person.
While it could read as a memoir (albeit a very good one), if you're open to the possibility of wonder, Nate will share with you what he's learned and you won't be disappointed.
There's so much to be gained if you keep your eyes open.
January 30, 2018
I was hooked after finishing the introduction! Staniforth shares his experience of becoming disillusioned with magic and searching for it during his travels in India. All readers, magician or not, will relate to the idea of finding wonder in their everyday lives.
January 8, 2018
HERE IS REAL MAGIC by Nate Staniforth takes the reader on a journey of discovery of what is magic and why magic is important. Within the book, Staniforth is a successful touring magician, but finds he is starting to lack inspiration and his touring magic show is becoming less special and more like work to him, so he decides to go to India to look for magical inspiration and hopefully find his magic identity which he feels he has either lost or never really had. In India, he find some much more than he ever expected.
As most successful magicians are, Staniforth is a perfectionist who works hard all the time at his craft. He tells of his early career as a magician and his triumphant successes and his monumental failures. He gives some history of magic, talking about how some of the great magicians influenced him, like Houdini. With all it's charms and warts, Staniforth walks the reader through life as a touring magician and what eventually pushes him to rediscover magic. His search, while seemingly aimless at first, becomes Staniforth's search for what magic really is, which is so much more that the performer; he finds it's the wonder, the feeling of excitement of the unexplained, and how it can connect humanity in ways few have ever written about The book is written like it seems Staniforth's mind flows, sometimes obsessively focused on a single topic, while other times he and the book seem to be unable to focus on anything for very long. Staniforth also does an excellent job of describing his travels all over India; helping the reading geographically following his movement, and describing the feelings the seem to be emoting all around him at every stop.
This is a book about magic, one man's discovery and society's take on it, but it is also a surprisingly pleasant travelogue of India. HERE IS REAL MAGIC leaves the reader thinking maybe he/she should go see a good magic show, but also that one's passionate study on a subject can lead to some wonderful things they didn't even know were there to begin with.
Thank you to Bloomsbury USA, Nate Staniforth, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
As most successful magicians are, Staniforth is a perfectionist who works hard all the time at his craft. He tells of his early career as a magician and his triumphant successes and his monumental failures. He gives some history of magic, talking about how some of the great magicians influenced him, like Houdini. With all it's charms and warts, Staniforth walks the reader through life as a touring magician and what eventually pushes him to rediscover magic. His search, while seemingly aimless at first, becomes Staniforth's search for what magic really is, which is so much more that the performer; he finds it's the wonder, the feeling of excitement of the unexplained, and how it can connect humanity in ways few have ever written about The book is written like it seems Staniforth's mind flows, sometimes obsessively focused on a single topic, while other times he and the book seem to be unable to focus on anything for very long. Staniforth also does an excellent job of describing his travels all over India; helping the reading geographically following his movement, and describing the feelings the seem to be emoting all around him at every stop.
This is a book about magic, one man's discovery and society's take on it, but it is also a surprisingly pleasant travelogue of India. HERE IS REAL MAGIC leaves the reader thinking maybe he/she should go see a good magic show, but also that one's passionate study on a subject can lead to some wonderful things they didn't even know were there to begin with.
Thank you to Bloomsbury USA, Nate Staniforth, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
October 20, 2019
Wow! I wasn't expecting such a heavy lift. What do you do when you no longer feel the wonder you've worked so hard to make others feel. Magician Nate has to walk away from his profession in search of deeper meaning and a better understanding of what makes his chosen art meaningful. India has always held a mystique for being filled with magic and he hopes it can revive his sense of wonder. His Indian adventure awakens that and so much more as he travels through the houses of the rich and meets the poorest of the poor. It is a life changing adventure for Nate and as he recounted his travels and experiences, I found myself asking the same questions. What is the nature of wonder? Why do we lose our sense of wonder as we grow older and how can we see the wonder that is the universe around us? Nates search became my own search and his answers inspired me to find my own.
June 5, 2018
Wow! I so enjoyed this book. I love magic, but this was so much more. A story about finding your passion and then going beyond. Easy to read, Nate writes as if he's having a conversation with you. From mid-west USA to India, Hong Kong and back, he brings you along on his journey of self discovery and mysterious personal growth. Sort of like a Eat Love Pray written by a man, and still just as addictive! I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to everyone who yearns to know how to maintain the wonder in your life!
January 4, 2019
When stage magician, Nate Staniforth, becomes disillusioned with traveling around America performing magic tricks on college campuses -- and the distinct lack of wonder that it entails, he packs his bags and flies to India to explore the centuries old magic traditions of the subcontinent. Part memoir and part travelogue, the first part explores how Staniforth got into magic and his struggle to achieve everything he always wanted, i.e. the ability to make a living performing magic – a desire far more would-be magicians have than the market will support. However, he finds a disjoint between the feeling of wonder and surprise that made him love magic and what he witnesses in the audience night after night – which include a heaping mix of indifference, skepticism, hostility, and even the occasional pious fear that he is dabbling in dark arts.
In India, he finds a mix of some of the same but also some very different perspectives on magic. One the one hand, he learns that magic tricks aren’t just a good way to break the ice with strangers, but also a means to bridge cultural divides. Sleight of hand doesn’t require perfect communication to build bonds between people. As he travels from Kolkata to Varanasi to Rishikesh to Hardiwar to Delhi to Jodhpur, he shares magic tricks with young and old alike, as well as getting to witness some of India’s magic. The highlight of the trip is when he meets with a family of street magicians from Shadipur Depot slum in Delhi, and can at last exchange ideas and learn about their long lineage as illusionists.
However, Staniforth also finds many Indians who are hostile toward the practice of illusions and magic tricks. To understand this hostility, one must know that historically “godmen” who used illusion and sleight of hand to convince individuals of their divinity were more common than those who practiced it as entertainers. This resulted in a couple different types of hostile witness to magic in India. On the one hand, there is the scientifically-minded individual who is distraught by the image of India as a land of superstition and naively pious followers. (A war on superstition in India probably made it harder to research this book because doing street magic is largely prohibited because of the history of duping people for personal gain.) On the other hand, there are those who are ardent believers who dislike magicians who do magic tricks because it contributes to a general skepticism about their gurus -- who such individuals believe can actually do magic. It should be said that variations of those two types of individual could be found almost anywhere, including his home nation of America. What is more uniquely Indian is the individual who fits into a third category of simultaneously believing both of the aforementioned criticisms. That is, said individual believes that any illusion someone like Staniforth performs can be scientifically explained and is merely a deceit against the gullible, but at the same time this person believes that there are spiritual masters who can do “real magic.”
The title, “Here Is Real Magic,” could be received in many ways. However, taking it literally, as though the author believes that there are those in India with supernatural powers, isn’t consistent with the book’s message. In one sense, the title is meant to be controversial, but Staniforth is also indicating that he rediscovered wonder in India -- not through the supernatural, but through surrender to the experiences he had there.
As an American who has lived in India for many years now, I found this book to be fascinating in places. I believe that it’s useful both as a call to rediscover the wonder that we usually lose somewhere before adulthood, as well as a primer into the similarities and differences between the Indian and Western mindsets on magic in the modern world. I’d recommend this book, particularly for anyone who has interest in magic.
In India, he finds a mix of some of the same but also some very different perspectives on magic. One the one hand, he learns that magic tricks aren’t just a good way to break the ice with strangers, but also a means to bridge cultural divides. Sleight of hand doesn’t require perfect communication to build bonds between people. As he travels from Kolkata to Varanasi to Rishikesh to Hardiwar to Delhi to Jodhpur, he shares magic tricks with young and old alike, as well as getting to witness some of India’s magic. The highlight of the trip is when he meets with a family of street magicians from Shadipur Depot slum in Delhi, and can at last exchange ideas and learn about their long lineage as illusionists.
However, Staniforth also finds many Indians who are hostile toward the practice of illusions and magic tricks. To understand this hostility, one must know that historically “godmen” who used illusion and sleight of hand to convince individuals of their divinity were more common than those who practiced it as entertainers. This resulted in a couple different types of hostile witness to magic in India. On the one hand, there is the scientifically-minded individual who is distraught by the image of India as a land of superstition and naively pious followers. (A war on superstition in India probably made it harder to research this book because doing street magic is largely prohibited because of the history of duping people for personal gain.) On the other hand, there are those who are ardent believers who dislike magicians who do magic tricks because it contributes to a general skepticism about their gurus -- who such individuals believe can actually do magic. It should be said that variations of those two types of individual could be found almost anywhere, including his home nation of America. What is more uniquely Indian is the individual who fits into a third category of simultaneously believing both of the aforementioned criticisms. That is, said individual believes that any illusion someone like Staniforth performs can be scientifically explained and is merely a deceit against the gullible, but at the same time this person believes that there are spiritual masters who can do “real magic.”
The title, “Here Is Real Magic,” could be received in many ways. However, taking it literally, as though the author believes that there are those in India with supernatural powers, isn’t consistent with the book’s message. In one sense, the title is meant to be controversial, but Staniforth is also indicating that he rediscovered wonder in India -- not through the supernatural, but through surrender to the experiences he had there.
As an American who has lived in India for many years now, I found this book to be fascinating in places. I believe that it’s useful both as a call to rediscover the wonder that we usually lose somewhere before adulthood, as well as a primer into the similarities and differences between the Indian and Western mindsets on magic in the modern world. I’d recommend this book, particularly for anyone who has interest in magic.
February 1, 2020
I'm not sure how this book first popped up on my radar, but thanks to some... um... "friends" who like to say "arrgghh" and live near an inlet, I had the opportunity to get my hands on a copy of this book for an incredible (100%) discount. Needless to say, I knew very little beyond the fact that this book was written by a magician on a search to find "wonder".
The first half of the book is excellent. I loved reading about his childhood days and his early career as a struggling artist (can you call magic art?) I also enjoyed his cautionary tale about hos his passion, when turned into a career, seemed to suck away his love for it. This is a cautionary tale that all of us can relate to no matter what that passion might be.
His decision to journey to India was so cliche that I honestly thought it was going to ruin the book. I will be honest in saying that it put my back up and I didn't read or enjoy those early India chapters with as open a mind as I should have. However, his final chapter after meeting the family of magicians in one of India's worst slums really was the wrap up a great book deserved.
So in the end, I am torn on what to rate this. 4 stars for NS's excellent narrative voice. He is real, believable, and engaging. 4 stars also for his quest to regain the passion and love for something he dedicated his life to doing, but then burned out on. However, 3 stars because for me the magician's craft is just... meh. And finally, 2 stars for the need for him to go to India to "find himself". I think I am sticking with the 4 stars, because there are also some great quotables in this book. For example...
“In our world, our actions have an impact on others, so assuming that you understand something you don't becomes an ethical issue more than an intellectual one. There is a danger and maybe even a violence to the belief that you know something or someone completely, when you do not, and will not, and cannot. Knowledge does not allow you to understand the world. Knowledge dispels the illusion that you understand the world.”
"Wonder is not the product of ignorance - but it does have something to do with certainty... my favorite moments are the ones that shoot this certainty full of holes, that barge in unannounced and track mud all over the carpets, grab me by the shirt, drag me out into the street, and in effect, say, 'Wake up, you fool, and open your eyes. There is more to it than that.' "
"I had come to India to find magic and I had found it, but I realized that it wasn't any one particular moment; it was the process of seeking it that gave these days their sense of impending revelation."
The first half of the book is excellent. I loved reading about his childhood days and his early career as a struggling artist (can you call magic art?) I also enjoyed his cautionary tale about hos his passion, when turned into a career, seemed to suck away his love for it. This is a cautionary tale that all of us can relate to no matter what that passion might be.
His decision to journey to India was so cliche that I honestly thought it was going to ruin the book. I will be honest in saying that it put my back up and I didn't read or enjoy those early India chapters with as open a mind as I should have. However, his final chapter after meeting the family of magicians in one of India's worst slums really was the wrap up a great book deserved.
So in the end, I am torn on what to rate this. 4 stars for NS's excellent narrative voice. He is real, believable, and engaging. 4 stars also for his quest to regain the passion and love for something he dedicated his life to doing, but then burned out on. However, 3 stars because for me the magician's craft is just... meh. And finally, 2 stars for the need for him to go to India to "find himself". I think I am sticking with the 4 stars, because there are also some great quotables in this book. For example...
“In our world, our actions have an impact on others, so assuming that you understand something you don't becomes an ethical issue more than an intellectual one. There is a danger and maybe even a violence to the belief that you know something or someone completely, when you do not, and will not, and cannot. Knowledge does not allow you to understand the world. Knowledge dispels the illusion that you understand the world.”
"Wonder is not the product of ignorance - but it does have something to do with certainty... my favorite moments are the ones that shoot this certainty full of holes, that barge in unannounced and track mud all over the carpets, grab me by the shirt, drag me out into the street, and in effect, say, 'Wake up, you fool, and open your eyes. There is more to it than that.' "
"I had come to India to find magic and I had found it, but I realized that it wasn't any one particular moment; it was the process of seeking it that gave these days their sense of impending revelation."
February 8, 2018
Thank you to Bloomsbury USA for providing a copy of Nate Staniforth's memoir, Here is Real Magic: A Magician's Search for Wonder in the Modern World, in exchange for an honest review.
PLOT- Ever since Nate Staniforth was a child, he had always been captivated by magic, specifically, how a magic trick can bring a sense of wonder to even the most jaded adults. Staniforth persued his dream of becoming a magician and soon found himself burned out on a rigorous national tour and loosing what he had loved about being a magician. Stanfiorth takes a hiatus and travels to India to meet with street magicians, in the hopes that he can regain the spark that he had once felt for his craft.
LIKE- I absolutely love a magic show and I'm one of those adults that Staniforth loves to have in his audience, someone who allows themselves to be swept away by the wonder. Staniforth writes about the need as a performer to never allow yourself to lose your own excitement. A few years ago, my family went to see David Copperfield in Las Vegas. Copperfield is one of the premiere magicians in the world and Staniforth even mentions a childhood trip to see Copperfield perform. Copperfield's show was the worst magic show and one of the worse live performances that I have ever seen. It had nothing to do with his talent and tricks, but everything to do with his lack of enthusiasm. Staniforth may not be as famous as Copeprfield (yet), but he knew enough to realize that he needed to take a break and reevaluate where his career was heading. I thought this was a very bold move, especially as he decided to take this risk just as his career was taking off.
I enjoyed reading about his travels in India, especially when he met with a family of magicians living in the slums. This portion of the story is very transformative, filled with sensory descriptions and self-reflection on the part of Staniforth. Staniforth is a likable narrator and it's easy to join him on his journey, including the excitement that he experiences through his travels. It truly makes you realize that "magic" isn't limited to a glitzy stage, but can be found in the every day.
DISLIKE- Nothing. This is Real Magic is a compelling, fast-paced memoir.
RECOMMEND- Yes! This is Real Magic is part memoir and part travel journal. It's a wonderful pick for readers who enjoy magic, but who also can appreciate the wonders of every day life, especially lives different from their own.
Like my review? Check out my blog!
PLOT- Ever since Nate Staniforth was a child, he had always been captivated by magic, specifically, how a magic trick can bring a sense of wonder to even the most jaded adults. Staniforth persued his dream of becoming a magician and soon found himself burned out on a rigorous national tour and loosing what he had loved about being a magician. Stanfiorth takes a hiatus and travels to India to meet with street magicians, in the hopes that he can regain the spark that he had once felt for his craft.
LIKE- I absolutely love a magic show and I'm one of those adults that Staniforth loves to have in his audience, someone who allows themselves to be swept away by the wonder. Staniforth writes about the need as a performer to never allow yourself to lose your own excitement. A few years ago, my family went to see David Copperfield in Las Vegas. Copperfield is one of the premiere magicians in the world and Staniforth even mentions a childhood trip to see Copperfield perform. Copperfield's show was the worst magic show and one of the worse live performances that I have ever seen. It had nothing to do with his talent and tricks, but everything to do with his lack of enthusiasm. Staniforth may not be as famous as Copeprfield (yet), but he knew enough to realize that he needed to take a break and reevaluate where his career was heading. I thought this was a very bold move, especially as he decided to take this risk just as his career was taking off.
I enjoyed reading about his travels in India, especially when he met with a family of magicians living in the slums. This portion of the story is very transformative, filled with sensory descriptions and self-reflection on the part of Staniforth. Staniforth is a likable narrator and it's easy to join him on his journey, including the excitement that he experiences through his travels. It truly makes you realize that "magic" isn't limited to a glitzy stage, but can be found in the every day.
DISLIKE- Nothing. This is Real Magic is a compelling, fast-paced memoir.
RECOMMEND- Yes! This is Real Magic is part memoir and part travel journal. It's a wonderful pick for readers who enjoy magic, but who also can appreciate the wonders of every day life, especially lives different from their own.
Like my review? Check out my blog!
November 22, 2017
I've always had a thing about magic and magicians and though I can't do a single trick, I've read lots of books about them. Here Is Real Magic: A Magician's Search for Wonder in the Modern World is a delightful addition to my magic and wonder shelf.
After dedicating thousands of hours to learning and performing magic, Nate Staniforth begins to lose the sense of wonder that drew him to become a magician in the first place. Finding a book about magic in India, he decides to make a trip there to try to recapture his sense of wonder. Stanforth is a good writer and his wit and descriptive powers made me enjoy the trip and remember the times when I too have enjoyed the delicious sense of meaning that wonder provides.
Highly recommended for those who enjoyed reading books set in India such Tahir Shah's Sorcerer's Apprentice and also for fans of Ricky Jay and other magicians.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
After dedicating thousands of hours to learning and performing magic, Nate Staniforth begins to lose the sense of wonder that drew him to become a magician in the first place. Finding a book about magic in India, he decides to make a trip there to try to recapture his sense of wonder. Stanforth is a good writer and his wit and descriptive powers made me enjoy the trip and remember the times when I too have enjoyed the delicious sense of meaning that wonder provides.
Highly recommended for those who enjoyed reading books set in India such Tahir Shah's Sorcerer's Apprentice and also for fans of Ricky Jay and other magicians.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
June 3, 2019
"The Cultural resentment toward magic comes from the sadness found in the space between the universal human longing to believe in magic and the overwhelming evidence all around us that there is no such thing."
I recently read this for my new book club (my selection!). We had a lively discussion not only of the book itself, but our own personal connections to magic (and recent magical moments) and travel and journeys as artists, yoga instructors, architects, etc. Plus semi-indirect discussions on identity, how Chicago itself shapes that, etc. Overall I enjoyed Nate's story. But we agreed that the book could've been twice as long as we wanted a deeper dive into both his travels and his philosophies surrounding magic.
I recently read this for my new book club (my selection!). We had a lively discussion not only of the book itself, but our own personal connections to magic (and recent magical moments) and travel and journeys as artists, yoga instructors, architects, etc. Plus semi-indirect discussions on identity, how Chicago itself shapes that, etc. Overall I enjoyed Nate's story. But we agreed that the book could've been twice as long as we wanted a deeper dive into both his travels and his philosophies surrounding magic.
July 1, 2018
I really enjoyed this story. I was drawn in by my love of magic, but I think what really captivated me is the reminder that passion and purpose are complicated. Nate Staniforth tells a very honest story about his career as a magician and how it excited and exhausted and motivated and depleted him as his life progressed. And he went out to find the inspiration he lost along the way. I think that is a valuable message to anyone, as we are all searching for real magic.
March 26, 2018
This was a great and intimate book. Nate is an acquaintance from the gym I go to, so I was surprised to learn what a fascinating life he’s led. I was also surprised to learn about the visceral responses to his craft that some people have.
The real value of this book to me was that it caused me to reflect on some of the magic I’ve experienced in my life - watching the sun rise from 10,000 ft on Haleakala, skydiving, dining next to the Caribbean under a million stars and no artificial light - I finished the book resolved to be more alert to the magic around me and the sense of wonder we too easily lose.
“I think you have to grow up twice. The first time happens automatically. Everyone passes from childhood to adulthood, and this transition is marked as much by the moment when the weight of the world overshadows the wonder of the world as it is by the passage of years. Usually you don’t get to choose when that happens. But if...”
Well...you’ll just have to read the book yourself to learn the if. 😉
The real value of this book to me was that it caused me to reflect on some of the magic I’ve experienced in my life - watching the sun rise from 10,000 ft on Haleakala, skydiving, dining next to the Caribbean under a million stars and no artificial light - I finished the book resolved to be more alert to the magic around me and the sense of wonder we too easily lose.
“I think you have to grow up twice. The first time happens automatically. Everyone passes from childhood to adulthood, and this transition is marked as much by the moment when the weight of the world overshadows the wonder of the world as it is by the passage of years. Usually you don’t get to choose when that happens. But if...”
Well...you’ll just have to read the book yourself to learn the if. 😉
June 12, 2019
I really liked the book but I think it was missing a section about how Nate incorporated what he learned in India into his own magic back home.
September 28, 2023
When was the last time you experienced pure wonder?
This is the story of a magician's quest for wonder. I loved seeing the world from Nate's perspective, and hearing what inspired both his career as a magician and his yearning to understand wonder. As a boy, he was captivated by the pure moment of surprise that a simple coin trick could elicit. How is it that in performing "fake" magic, this real magic is unveiled? He talks about those moments that seem greater than the sum of their parts - such as his experience laying under his dad's piano:
"That you can coax from this box of wood and wire a sound so light and pure and beautiful, that anything so firmly rooted in the physical could call into being something that borders so closely on the transcendent."
The writing was quite good. I appreciated Nate's honest, straightforward style, and both his wonderment and sense of humor really shined through. We follow his journey through becoming a magician, the intense life of being on tour, eventual burnout, and an awe-inspiring trip to India.
It was so intriguing to see "behind the curtain" and I am embarrassed to say I was once one of the overly logical people who were probably so focused on figuring out how the trick was done, I missed the fun of it. Not that I never thought other things were wondrous, but I judged magic tricks as silly. Nate talks about the stigma modern magicians face, and how in the present day they are competing with mind-blowing movies and entertainment (which interestingly we don't judge for being fake or silly in the way that we do magicians), and all this was eye-opening as well.
I enjoyed his observations about where along the way we lose wonder - how in this age of information we often mistake information for understanding, and assume we can understand anything with enough information. This "reduces wonder to a mere absence of information".
I wrote down about a hundred quotes from this book, and the beginning in particular was five stars for me. The second half about Nate's journey in India was still wonderful, but it was a bit more meandering and felt less insightful, since many of the keenest observations of wonder seemed to come earlier in the book. In the end, this book made me want to see a magic show again and was a perfect reminder to keep noticing the real magic that surrounds us every day.
"There's something there - in the dark sky at night or in the bare branches of the trees against the gray November clouds, or in the summer wind as It comes in from the sea with the smell of another land just over the horizon - reminding us that the universe, the world, and the human heart are larger and more mysterious than we can possibly imagine. This is magic."
This is the story of a magician's quest for wonder. I loved seeing the world from Nate's perspective, and hearing what inspired both his career as a magician and his yearning to understand wonder. As a boy, he was captivated by the pure moment of surprise that a simple coin trick could elicit. How is it that in performing "fake" magic, this real magic is unveiled? He talks about those moments that seem greater than the sum of their parts - such as his experience laying under his dad's piano:
"That you can coax from this box of wood and wire a sound so light and pure and beautiful, that anything so firmly rooted in the physical could call into being something that borders so closely on the transcendent."
The writing was quite good. I appreciated Nate's honest, straightforward style, and both his wonderment and sense of humor really shined through. We follow his journey through becoming a magician, the intense life of being on tour, eventual burnout, and an awe-inspiring trip to India.
It was so intriguing to see "behind the curtain" and I am embarrassed to say I was once one of the overly logical people who were probably so focused on figuring out how the trick was done, I missed the fun of it. Not that I never thought other things were wondrous, but I judged magic tricks as silly. Nate talks about the stigma modern magicians face, and how in the present day they are competing with mind-blowing movies and entertainment (which interestingly we don't judge for being fake or silly in the way that we do magicians), and all this was eye-opening as well.
I enjoyed his observations about where along the way we lose wonder - how in this age of information we often mistake information for understanding, and assume we can understand anything with enough information. This "reduces wonder to a mere absence of information".
I wrote down about a hundred quotes from this book, and the beginning in particular was five stars for me. The second half about Nate's journey in India was still wonderful, but it was a bit more meandering and felt less insightful, since many of the keenest observations of wonder seemed to come earlier in the book. In the end, this book made me want to see a magic show again and was a perfect reminder to keep noticing the real magic that surrounds us every day.
"There's something there - in the dark sky at night or in the bare branches of the trees against the gray November clouds, or in the summer wind as It comes in from the sea with the smell of another land just over the horizon - reminding us that the universe, the world, and the human heart are larger and more mysterious than we can possibly imagine. This is magic."
October 18, 2019
This was a book club selection and I'm not sure I would have discovered it otherwise. Two members of my book club saw Nate speak at the World Domination Summit recently and were left wowed by him.
This book is certainly very charming. In only a few pages, Nate establishes himself as not just a magician, but a delightful writer with a great way with a phrase. He takes us through his early introduction to and obsession with magic, and then on the road with him, first learning the ins and outs of performing and gradually growing disillusioned with the whole thing.
So he does what now seems so common to do: he chucks it all and goes searching for his magical bliss, Eat Pray Love style!
I have to confess, I was eager for Nate to hit the road. By the time he gets going, the book had taken on a bit of repetitiveness. He's crushed by the travel schedule of his life as a working magician, and he documents that almost too well. It becomes rote. He's lost his spark, his mojo.
Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert, Nate takes off for only one country: Magical India. He's plagued by a question when he gets there, and here I'll admit that I wrote a book that struggled with the same essential question: why does a belief in magic persist in places like India, and how do people manage to compartmentalize their willingness to believe in the supernatural or the impossible while at the same time professing a commitment to science, logic, and rational, mathematical thought? (In my case it was witchcraft, but honestly, as I read Nate's work, I recognized so much of myself and my internal struggle.)
The book comes alive here, and I would have had this part fleshed out so much more. I would have had him paint so many scenes like he does on the Ganges. This is where you can tell he really sinks in. It starts to come together. He finds magic in a different kind of magic - not sleight of hand, not mind bending. But actual living magic, the things we see that blow us away because we're overwhelmed by the wonder of it.
Nate's message is a good one: we need to stop every now and again, switch off, step off the treadmill, set down the tools we use to just grind, grind, grind. We need to remind ourselves of the simple wonders. He's a lucky man to bring that to people on a regular basis and it's disheartening to think that even in that line of work it can become a rut.
If I had a complaint, it's only that I wish Nate had spent more time showing us and less time telling us. The scenes he writes when he's in scene are so vivid and memorable. He makes good points, but I would have preferred a lighter hand there.
Still, I really enjoyed this!
This book is certainly very charming. In only a few pages, Nate establishes himself as not just a magician, but a delightful writer with a great way with a phrase. He takes us through his early introduction to and obsession with magic, and then on the road with him, first learning the ins and outs of performing and gradually growing disillusioned with the whole thing.
So he does what now seems so common to do: he chucks it all and goes searching for his magical bliss, Eat Pray Love style!
I have to confess, I was eager for Nate to hit the road. By the time he gets going, the book had taken on a bit of repetitiveness. He's crushed by the travel schedule of his life as a working magician, and he documents that almost too well. It becomes rote. He's lost his spark, his mojo.
Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert, Nate takes off for only one country: Magical India. He's plagued by a question when he gets there, and here I'll admit that I wrote a book that struggled with the same essential question: why does a belief in magic persist in places like India, and how do people manage to compartmentalize their willingness to believe in the supernatural or the impossible while at the same time professing a commitment to science, logic, and rational, mathematical thought? (In my case it was witchcraft, but honestly, as I read Nate's work, I recognized so much of myself and my internal struggle.)
The book comes alive here, and I would have had this part fleshed out so much more. I would have had him paint so many scenes like he does on the Ganges. This is where you can tell he really sinks in. It starts to come together. He finds magic in a different kind of magic - not sleight of hand, not mind bending. But actual living magic, the things we see that blow us away because we're overwhelmed by the wonder of it.
Nate's message is a good one: we need to stop every now and again, switch off, step off the treadmill, set down the tools we use to just grind, grind, grind. We need to remind ourselves of the simple wonders. He's a lucky man to bring that to people on a regular basis and it's disheartening to think that even in that line of work it can become a rut.
If I had a complaint, it's only that I wish Nate had spent more time showing us and less time telling us. The scenes he writes when he's in scene are so vivid and memorable. He makes good points, but I would have preferred a lighter hand there.
Still, I really enjoyed this!
May 6, 2019
I've always loved doing magic tricks, as an amateur, and although I never pursued this interest past my middle school years, I've never stopped being fascinated - and surprised - by a good magic show.
This book, however, is not a book about magic as a profession, but rather an insightful journey towards *recapturing* the sense of wonder that we have when we are children and which we seem to lose when we become adults. As the author says:
"Later that evening when we sat at the station waiting to board our train I opened the notebook and wrote a question at the top of the first page: Where do you find wonder? This was the central question for a magician, certainly, but I also thought it was an important question for anyone. Wonder is something that everyone cares about but no one discusses, and I probably wasn’t the only one in my generation to lie awake in bed one night, unable to sleep, trying to figure out when everything had gone so numb and how to get back. Where do you find wonder? is a good question, but it carries an unstated assumption. The real question is, Where do you find wonder after you have lost it?
Staniforth, Nate. Here Is Real Magic (pp. 114-115). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
It is also about how the information revolution is making us confuse knowledge and experience with information. As when a reporter asks Nate to explain how a trick was done after a performance, insisting that he owed her an explanation because magic is fake. When he refuses, she says: "Whatever. I'm just going to Google it". The author says:
"Here is a blind spot in our culture, created both by the habitual, almost systemic mistaking of information for understanding and by the assumption that a complete understanding of anything can be attained with enough information. This view of the world reduces everything and everyone to bits of data—some known, some still unknown, but all knowable—and reduces wonder to a mere absence of information, as if the simple brute fact of our own existence isn’t mystery enough to keep you up for a week if you really consider it. “Oh that,” we so easily say about anything we don’t understand, “I’m sure we have that all sorted out.” And in doing so we insulate ourselves from any facts, opinions, and ideas—those pesky things—that ask us to venture away from our own view of reality.
Staniforth, Nate. Here Is Real Magic (pp. 62-63). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I recommend this book for anyone young at heart who is trying to rekindle their sense of wonder.
This book, however, is not a book about magic as a profession, but rather an insightful journey towards *recapturing* the sense of wonder that we have when we are children and which we seem to lose when we become adults. As the author says:
"Later that evening when we sat at the station waiting to board our train I opened the notebook and wrote a question at the top of the first page: Where do you find wonder? This was the central question for a magician, certainly, but I also thought it was an important question for anyone. Wonder is something that everyone cares about but no one discusses, and I probably wasn’t the only one in my generation to lie awake in bed one night, unable to sleep, trying to figure out when everything had gone so numb and how to get back. Where do you find wonder? is a good question, but it carries an unstated assumption. The real question is, Where do you find wonder after you have lost it?
Staniforth, Nate. Here Is Real Magic (pp. 114-115). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
It is also about how the information revolution is making us confuse knowledge and experience with information. As when a reporter asks Nate to explain how a trick was done after a performance, insisting that he owed her an explanation because magic is fake. When he refuses, she says: "Whatever. I'm just going to Google it". The author says:
"Here is a blind spot in our culture, created both by the habitual, almost systemic mistaking of information for understanding and by the assumption that a complete understanding of anything can be attained with enough information. This view of the world reduces everything and everyone to bits of data—some known, some still unknown, but all knowable—and reduces wonder to a mere absence of information, as if the simple brute fact of our own existence isn’t mystery enough to keep you up for a week if you really consider it. “Oh that,” we so easily say about anything we don’t understand, “I’m sure we have that all sorted out.” And in doing so we insulate ourselves from any facts, opinions, and ideas—those pesky things—that ask us to venture away from our own view of reality.
Staniforth, Nate. Here Is Real Magic (pp. 62-63). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I recommend this book for anyone young at heart who is trying to rekindle their sense of wonder.
Read
October 26, 2019Nate Staniforth is a magician. He never wanted to be anything but a magician from the time he was a child and learned how to make a coin disappear. He saw the look of wonder on his classmates’ faces, and perhaps more importantly, on the faces of adults, who, in the ordinary course of their life, seemed devoid of wonder, and decided that would be his life’s work.
He read books from the library. He practiced in front of a mirror. He studied the history of magic, and the biographies of famous magicians, and shares with us, his readers, a crash course in the subject. He graduated from college, and then, instead of getting a job, went off to pursue his dream.
He went on tour. It was a grueling schedule of college appearances, going from hotel to airplane to stage to hotel. And somewhere along the line he got burned out. He viewed it as an existential crisis, of having lost the spark that gave his life meaning, but really, I think he was just exhausted. He decided he was going to get the spark back by going to India, and seeking out street magicians. And he did.
He went to India without a real plan. He talked to people on the train, in restaurants, in the market. He watched the snake charmer, although he was deathly afraid of snakes. He interviewed anyone who would talk to him about magic, and anything to do with magic.
He asked himself some deep questions, some of which he didn’t have answers to. There was no single great revelation about magic. At some point he decided he had seen enough. And he did come home with his sense of wonder renewed. He said he found it in anything that was bigger and grander and more eternal than our small lives, such as the stars in the night sky, or a festival of lanterns on the Ganges.
He did learn things about magic in India, but I think the thing that restored his wonder most was the broadening effect of travel itself. Being in a place that looked different and smelled different, and had different dangers, and different beauties got him out of his rut and opened him up.
Nate also had the most magical wife back home. .She married him when he was still an aspiring performer, and she supported him with her full time job while he spent months on the road. He really got lucky there.
He read books from the library. He practiced in front of a mirror. He studied the history of magic, and the biographies of famous magicians, and shares with us, his readers, a crash course in the subject. He graduated from college, and then, instead of getting a job, went off to pursue his dream.
He went on tour. It was a grueling schedule of college appearances, going from hotel to airplane to stage to hotel. And somewhere along the line he got burned out. He viewed it as an existential crisis, of having lost the spark that gave his life meaning, but really, I think he was just exhausted. He decided he was going to get the spark back by going to India, and seeking out street magicians. And he did.
He went to India without a real plan. He talked to people on the train, in restaurants, in the market. He watched the snake charmer, although he was deathly afraid of snakes. He interviewed anyone who would talk to him about magic, and anything to do with magic.
He asked himself some deep questions, some of which he didn’t have answers to. There was no single great revelation about magic. At some point he decided he had seen enough. And he did come home with his sense of wonder renewed. He said he found it in anything that was bigger and grander and more eternal than our small lives, such as the stars in the night sky, or a festival of lanterns on the Ganges.
He did learn things about magic in India, but I think the thing that restored his wonder most was the broadening effect of travel itself. Being in a place that looked different and smelled different, and had different dangers, and different beauties got him out of his rut and opened him up.
Nate also had the most magical wife back home. .She married him when he was still an aspiring performer, and she supported him with her full time job while he spent months on the road. He really got lucky there.
September 4, 2020
“The cultural resentment toward magic comes from the sadness found in the space between the universal human longing to believe in magic and the overwhelming evidence all around us that there is no such thing.”
This book isn't so much about life as a magician in a practical day to day sense and definitely not a 'how does the magic work' sense. Instead, it's much more a look at the philosophy behind stage magic and the human experience of wonder. Nate Staniforth, realising he's lost his wonder at his own magic, sets out to rediscover the joys of it in India. Even if you're not interested in magic (which, not judging, is kind of strange! What's wrong with you?) That the loss of wonder is something people can relate to in probably most fields of work and study and it's part of what makes this an interesting read.
My only complaint about this book was that some passages could get a little repetitive, the question of wonder comes up again and again, and that's okay because it's the central theme of the book, but then it is answered multiple times in different chapters with fairly similar words and no new insight.
That being said, you can feel Staniforth's passion and knowledge about the subject and that sucks you in and keeps you reading even when it might have gotten dull otherwise. It even got me to watch videos of a few magic shows, which I'd never really liked before, and as much as I love magic, (or maybe because of it, based on that quote), I still don't like the shows. However, after reading this book I definitely have a much better appreciation and more respect for the 'magicians' behind them. (Though to be fair, the only Magicians I really accept are from The Magicians)
March 2, 2018
This is the best book I've read this year. One of the hardest parts of being an adult is struggling to hold on to that sense of wonder and joy you felt as a child. I've always thought I was pretty good at it, and had no problem being the cheerful weirdo amongst the normies. Then Trump took office and now I'm pretty much anxiety cat 24/7. It's harder and harder these days for me to remember that the world is a beautiful, magical place underneath, even if it's currently buried under a shitshow of epic proportions.
Staniforth's memoir made me feel so much better, I can't even tell you. He's one of the very few adults who approaches the world the same way I usually do, as if there were something marvelous just waiting around every corner, and being alive was a mystery just too wonderful to explain. A supportive, nurturing childhood and the long road to becoming a magician are neat in and of themselves to read about, but they're also a set-up for the inevitable: burn-out and the quest to recover that sense of wonder, a quest that takes the author all the way to India.
[I confess, I was worried a bit about that part, because the potential for colonial rose-colored glasses just screams for attention, but Staniforth acknowledges white colonizer tendencies related to the romance of India, tackles them head-on, and does not make the usual white guy mistakes while traveling in-country.]
At any rate, Staniforth gets his mojo back, and so did I, for a little while. There are some lovely, inspirational passages in here that will reaffirm your faith in the universe if you are feeling low. But it's also just a good story about a guy who wanted to make people happy, and figured out a way to make a living doing that. If you believe in magic, or if you just desperately want to believe, you'll want to pick up this memoir.
Staniforth's memoir made me feel so much better, I can't even tell you. He's one of the very few adults who approaches the world the same way I usually do, as if there were something marvelous just waiting around every corner, and being alive was a mystery just too wonderful to explain. A supportive, nurturing childhood and the long road to becoming a magician are neat in and of themselves to read about, but they're also a set-up for the inevitable: burn-out and the quest to recover that sense of wonder, a quest that takes the author all the way to India.
[I confess, I was worried a bit about that part, because the potential for colonial rose-colored glasses just screams for attention, but Staniforth acknowledges white colonizer tendencies related to the romance of India, tackles them head-on, and does not make the usual white guy mistakes while traveling in-country.]
At any rate, Staniforth gets his mojo back, and so did I, for a little while. There are some lovely, inspirational passages in here that will reaffirm your faith in the universe if you are feeling low. But it's also just a good story about a guy who wanted to make people happy, and figured out a way to make a living doing that. If you believe in magic, or if you just desperately want to believe, you'll want to pick up this memoir.
November 5, 2019
Excellent. The author is a magician (read, a person who has spent hours, days, months perfecting tricks with coins, playing cards, and verbal manipulation), but he is also a spiritual guide who enjoys Thomas Merton. Here is one of my favourite quotes from the book: "We assume an overfamiliarity with the world around us that maybe makes it easier to live from day to day but harder to see things as they are." Amen. And that summarized about a third of what he does in the book which is to push readers to think of the wonder of the universe.
Several things stand out. First, how some readers were angry (his exact word) when they encountered magic; they didn't like having their tidy worlds upset, apparently. Second, sometimes the very people who should have been the first to embrace Nate's stuff were the most pious about it. Pastors and religious people sometimes thought he had a demon and would thoroughly denounce him. He never dealt with whether there is a danger of tapping into dark powers, which I found noteworthy. Perhaps as a magician he is able to see that all amazing feats have a scientific explanation behind them if you probe long enough. I might take off one star because his story of the India trip got kind of long.
Finally, it's a pleasure to read. He is a fine writer.
Well, I should go for my morning run now, so I'll leave you to whatever it is you were doing on the Internet before you stumbled onto this review. If you are also a runner, I recommend checking to see whether there is a Park Run close to your house (they're MAGIC). Oookay. Bye.
Several things stand out. First, how some readers were angry (his exact word) when they encountered magic; they didn't like having their tidy worlds upset, apparently. Second, sometimes the very people who should have been the first to embrace Nate's stuff were the most pious about it. Pastors and religious people sometimes thought he had a demon and would thoroughly denounce him. He never dealt with whether there is a danger of tapping into dark powers, which I found noteworthy. Perhaps as a magician he is able to see that all amazing feats have a scientific explanation behind them if you probe long enough. I might take off one star because his story of the India trip got kind of long.
Finally, it's a pleasure to read. He is a fine writer.
Well, I should go for my morning run now, so I'll leave you to whatever it is you were doing on the Internet before you stumbled onto this review. If you are also a runner, I recommend checking to see whether there is a Park Run close to your house (they're MAGIC). Oookay. Bye.
March 28, 2021
Nate Staniforth left his, up to then, dream job of performing as a professional magician, to travel India for several weeks, searching for the real meaning of magic. Barf. Did he eat, pray and love while he was at it? Just what we needed, another American convinced that the best way to find one's ass with both hands is to go to India. Acknowledging the stereotype doesn't excuse one from it.
Living in Boulder, Colorado for nearly 40 years, I met plenty of these folks. You name the "religion" and they were there. (Also plenty you've never heard of.) Finding oneself is a common occupation in Boulder.
For magicians reading this book there are the usual descriptions of how hard he practiced and how fabulous he was/is at controlling an audience and doing his routines. Then there are the stories of how he one-upped Penn and Teller by going more deeply into Indian performance magic. meh, big deal.
OK, fine, he's got a few interesting insights into being a full time performer on the road and what it takes for professionals in any skilled field to attain the knowledge and skills necessary to "succeed" at their professions.
I don't know a thing about Staniforth beyond what's in the book. It might be inspiring for beginning magicians, if they don't get discouraged by the descriptions of life on the road. Experienced performers, and those with more world travel experience than he had, won't find much of interest or surprise here.
Living in Boulder, Colorado for nearly 40 years, I met plenty of these folks. You name the "religion" and they were there. (Also plenty you've never heard of.) Finding oneself is a common occupation in Boulder.
For magicians reading this book there are the usual descriptions of how hard he practiced and how fabulous he was/is at controlling an audience and doing his routines. Then there are the stories of how he one-upped Penn and Teller by going more deeply into Indian performance magic. meh, big deal.
OK, fine, he's got a few interesting insights into being a full time performer on the road and what it takes for professionals in any skilled field to attain the knowledge and skills necessary to "succeed" at their professions.
I don't know a thing about Staniforth beyond what's in the book. It might be inspiring for beginning magicians, if they don't get discouraged by the descriptions of life on the road. Experienced performers, and those with more world travel experience than he had, won't find much of interest or surprise here.
April 16, 2024
Nate Staniforth’s memoir Here Is Real Magic posits magic as a catalyst for the wonder humans seldom experience. But wonder, this magician argues, doesn’t lie in the magic itself.
Entranced by his ability to delight teachers and peers with simple coin tricks, the author grows up and makes magic his day job. As he's slowly undone by the timeless twilight of his tour schedule, his ability to connect to the awe he facilitates vanishes. Pride in his skillful handling of hecklers disappears. On the verge of quitting, the author realizes that the hostility he encounters is rooted in fear. Magic cracks our façades, renders us slack jawed and undefended. We want to believe in magic, but we’re afraid to. And so are magicians.
Cue part two of the book. Spurred on by his preternaturally chill wife, the author travels to India, land of the Indian Rope Trick (hoax) and spiritual home to generations of Western folks searching for the roots of magic in the exoticism of far off (non-Western) lands.
The thing is, he always knew where to find the roots of magic, and it wasn’t in a magic trick.
Confronted by Indians who believe in the salutary powers of magic (when deployed in ways the author considers irresponsible), Staniforth confronts his biases, sheds his certainty, and finds the true power inherent in an ancient art.
A meditation on suspension of disbelief, the walls we erect with fear, and our modern crisis of attention, Here Is Real Magic is a thought-provoking and personal look at the necessary magic of awe.
Entranced by his ability to delight teachers and peers with simple coin tricks, the author grows up and makes magic his day job. As he's slowly undone by the timeless twilight of his tour schedule, his ability to connect to the awe he facilitates vanishes. Pride in his skillful handling of hecklers disappears. On the verge of quitting, the author realizes that the hostility he encounters is rooted in fear. Magic cracks our façades, renders us slack jawed and undefended. We want to believe in magic, but we’re afraid to. And so are magicians.
Cue part two of the book. Spurred on by his preternaturally chill wife, the author travels to India, land of the Indian Rope Trick (hoax) and spiritual home to generations of Western folks searching for the roots of magic in the exoticism of far off (non-Western) lands.
The thing is, he always knew where to find the roots of magic, and it wasn’t in a magic trick.
Confronted by Indians who believe in the salutary powers of magic (when deployed in ways the author considers irresponsible), Staniforth confronts his biases, sheds his certainty, and finds the true power inherent in an ancient art.
A meditation on suspension of disbelief, the walls we erect with fear, and our modern crisis of attention, Here Is Real Magic is a thought-provoking and personal look at the necessary magic of awe.
April 29, 2024
A difficult book to review as it is my first time reading a memoir about a magician. The book is intriguing to say the least, I bought it out of curiosity and turned out the book itself is about curiosity.
A magician from Iowa who went on a journey in India to find the meaning of "magic", and he found magic everywhere. There were some particular quotes that I love,
"The more magic we have on our encounters with one another, the more we're able to deal with differences between us. It's okay to be different, it's cool to be different. We don't have to understand each other to honor one another."
"It's okay not to have answers or all the information—that we can move on with our lives anyway. And that we should, because we will never have enough information."
If you expect some tricks of rabbits coming out of a hat or the card tricks, then you would be disappointed, because it is not about that at all.
At the first part of the book, the author was telling us about the difficulties he faced as he started the work as a "magician", how challenging it was to make people actually focus on you and your tricks and not get bored, etc.
Later on the author started to question his purpose in life and his passion in magic, and that's when the journey begin.
This book worth to read, I think. Especially if you are on your own journey of finding the initial reason why you're doing the things that you do now.
A magician from Iowa who went on a journey in India to find the meaning of "magic", and he found magic everywhere. There were some particular quotes that I love,
"The more magic we have on our encounters with one another, the more we're able to deal with differences between us. It's okay to be different, it's cool to be different. We don't have to understand each other to honor one another."
"It's okay not to have answers or all the information—that we can move on with our lives anyway. And that we should, because we will never have enough information."
If you expect some tricks of rabbits coming out of a hat or the card tricks, then you would be disappointed, because it is not about that at all.
At the first part of the book, the author was telling us about the difficulties he faced as he started the work as a "magician", how challenging it was to make people actually focus on you and your tricks and not get bored, etc.
Later on the author started to question his purpose in life and his passion in magic, and that's when the journey begin.
This book worth to read, I think. Especially if you are on your own journey of finding the initial reason why you're doing the things that you do now.
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