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University with a trick or two up its sleeve
LECTURES are never boring when your props include balls of fire and playing cards – and the subject is magic.
University students have long complained about dull lectures given by stuffy dons but Nik Taylor, a senior lecturer at Huddersfield University, is one part magician and one part tutor.
He has been teaching his Drama degree students a trick or two and now 13 of them – unlucky for some – have opted to study magic during their final year.
The students have spent 18 weeks honing sleight of hand tricks for a series of magic shows at the end of this month.
Nik, 39, whose first job was operating spotlights at the Hippodrome circus in his home town of Great Yarmouth, yesterday staged a display for the Yorkshire Post and had his students in stitches as not all the tricks went strictly to plan.
One trick involved creating, as if from nowhere, a ball of flames but one of the female students found that "magic" flames can singe hair as well as any other flame.
Drama student Adele Chorley, the one who got too close to the magic flames, said she enjoyed learning the secrets of the trade.
"When you are in the third year, you have a lot of commitments – dissertations and essays. The magic part of the degree gives us the chance to do something fun as well.
"We have learned a few tricks and will be putting on a magic show at the end of it."
One student described Nik's lectures as "amazing", adding: "He's really enthusiastic about it and knows quite a lot about magic."
Third-year Drama students Adele, Abby Roberts and Kate Reeve, who want to be teachers, said the magic skills would come in handy in the classroom.
"It will be fantastic for teaching," said Abby. "It will be like an ice-breaker during a lesson. We have learned about the number one rule of magic – if you are not prepared, do not do it. Performing magic brings your self confidence out."
Kate added: "We have learned how to get the trick right and not let the secret be known."
Adele said she enjoyed the secretive part of magic: "We walk round the building, whispering about tricks to friends...it's nice that we know the secrets and the others don't."
But the magic module is not just about playing tricks on one another. All the students have carried out research and hands-on work in a specific area – from children's magic to mind reading, escapology to table magic. They have studied the relationship between performance and magic and now know what it takes to perform a trick in the spotlight.
Their hard work has been recognised by members of the Huddersfield Circle of Magicians, who have granted the students associate membership.
The 24-member Huddersfield Circle, formed in 1949, has invited the students to a welcome evening tonight.
Circle secretary Mark Jordan said: "It is excellent to know that the art is being recognised at this level. Having seen some of what Nik and his students are accomplishing, their future input into the world of magic will only serve to enhance performances."
Nik, who is working on his own solo performance about magic history, said second-year students had already devised their own magical spectacles by recreating some famous illusions from the "golden age of magic", including Houdini's escapology and the legendary Indian rope trick.
Behind the scenes, in a University workshop Nik has been working with the Drama department's technical manager, David Wainwright, to create full-size working models of illusions from the Victorian era.
The first device is a vanishing cabinet from the Victorian version of Will, The Witch and the Watchman, a magic play.
Nik and David are also recreating a copy of Tobin and Stodare's Sphinx illusion.
After being used for the second year show in December the Sphinx illusion will become part of a collection of equipment the Drama department hopes to loan to a theatre or magic circle.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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