Michael Mangan begins with attention to words, which is fitting since magic of all kinds relies on their power to invoke, compel, and distract. Mangan’s exploration of magic involves situating it in the context of different historical periods to find the shifting meanings of its performance. In his introduction, the author invokes the methods of performance studies, though folklorists will find little analysis of actual performances here.

Mangan doesn’t ignore elements of live performance such as the magician’s patter, as he calls it. However, he attributes little meaning to it beyond showmanship and misdirection. The term patter itself indicates that the words are mechanical and meaningless, which glosses over the possibility that deeper inspection may prove worthwhile. For Mangan, the meaning of the magic is to be found in the feats, not in the specifics of their performance. Mangan’s inclination toward performance studies makes this omission quite odd.

Still, Mangan’s employment of the performance apparatus does enable him to gain insight into the writings of magicians, which he labels performative writing, that is, an extension of the magician’s act. He claims that many magicians, if not most of them, maintain their act when they take up their pens. He cites Houdini’s entry on magic in the Encyclopaedia Britannica as one example of this, among many. Magical history has been written largely by magicians themselves, and so must be examined with a careful eye. Mangan sees in its performative qualities the same misdirection displayed in a stage show.

This subtle analysis makes his infrequent discussion of actual stage or street performances even more disappointing. Mangan’s topics are fascinating and well done as far as they go. He moves through time, starting with ancient Egypt and coming up to the present. In each era, Mangan selects either a specific trick or a specific magician as a focus to demonstrate both the art’s development and its relationship to the times. Mangan dissects contemporary magician David Blaine, using his “Above the Below” performance (in which Blaine locked himself in a clear box above the Thames for forty-four days without food or water) to characterize Blaine as a postmodern magician. Mangan explores the history of hunger artistry, martyrdom, and the intertextual nature of Blaine’s performances. Mangan concludes that Blaine forces his audiences to think about the very nature of magic, and of art itself. Mangan also discusses the mixed reactions of audience members and critics. The result is a deep and intriguing understanding of the current evolution of magic as it is performed by those who attempt to innovate and thus create performances that fit their times.

Performing Dark Arts may be described as an examination of worldview as it is expressed in magic. Folklore, while not a dominant concern for Mangan, comes up quite often. This book might best be used as a way for folklorists to approach the subject. Mangan discusses the fact that magicians have their own folklore, which arises in oral tradition and is not a small component of the books magicians write on their subject. There is also folklore about magicians, created by outsiders.

Magicians, writes Mangan, perform boundary work. They constantly confront us with “questions of our own beliefs about the world” (ix). Tricks and their meanings have changed with the times, but the magician’s testing of boundaries has remained constant. Mangan makes a useful distinction between magic for entertainment (by stage performers) and magic for efficacy (by shamans), but he’s careful to demonstrate that even these types are not clear-cut. Magicians, if their own histories can be believed, have been at the forefront of culture for millennia.

Mangan’s scholarly apparatus separates this book from most books on magic, though it does lack an index, which I found frustrating. Performing Dark Arts, though a methodical and fascinating book in itself (who could not be intrigued by a book with a lengthy discussion of “Pinchbeck’s Pig of Knowledge” as a subversion of the philosophies of the Enlightenment?), sorely needs a supplement: analyses of specific magic tricks in their manifold manifestations, both as the products of different performances by the same magician and as the development (or theft) of other magicians’ work. Magic, as Mangan points out, has changed greatly; but that’s the point. It keeps up with the culture of which it is a part. What this book can most clearly demonstrate to folklorists is the ripe potential for a folkloristic and truly performance-entered study of magic.

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[Review length: 736 words • Review posted on January 29, 2008]