Magicians struggle to keep art alive in modern world
"I wouldn't expect a urban college goer to take up magic as a profession. There is no demand for a magic show elsewhere apart from big cities where people host big corporate parties," said Kabbir, a collegiate from Delhi, whose passion for magic tricks gradually led him to a performer.
Like Kabir, several others who participated at a Magic Festival held here at Dilli Haat feel the same.
"It is something you perfect after a series of failures, one must never fail to impress the viewer and the trade of magic is how well you can do that," says Eric Leclerc, a magician who flew down from Canada.
Leclerc who has been entertaining since he was a nine- year-old boy says, "My first audience was my mother, who gifted me a magic set during Christmas and I practiced with it until the day I stunned her with by a trick. That was when I first became a magician."
However, he feels magic is a dying art.
"A magician gets to perform only at corporate parties these days" says Leclerc who is a renowned figure in Canada.
"If you go out and say I am a magician, people are nonchalant but once I make a coin disappear before them they are awestruck and believe you" he says.
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