THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thirty students, between the ages of ten and fifteen, eagerly await the unravelling of magical secrets at the summer camp of Magic Academy in Poojapura. The camp started off the other day with an ice-breaking session, after which, the students interacted with Raja Moorthy, director of the academy. The wannabe magicians sat attentively inside a huge hall at the academy with a pink tint on its walls and stage. Raja asked the students about what led them to join the classes, to which came various responses. For some, it was a way to improve their concentration, for some, magic would enhance the working of the brain and for others, magic was a science which improved the intellect.A brief history on magic and its journey from the 15th century till present was narrated to the students. Raja said, “in the olden days magic was believed to be an act similar to witchcraft. And any person performing it on-stage or off-stage was likely to have their hands or legs chopped off instead of being rewarded with applause.”To begin with, Raja performed a magic with a pen which he had borrowed from one of his students to make sure that the students didn’t mistake it to be a magic pen. He taught them the three basic principles of magic - power of suggestion, angle of visibility and the art of misdirection.“The principles when applied accurately will make anyone a magician,” smiled Raja. “A magician has to decide on how the magic is going to be applied and suggest accordingly to the audience,” he continued. The ace magician explained that the audience will be concentrating on the material instead of the tool on which he is about to apply the trick. The angle of visibility is also determined by the magician. The way he would be standing on stage will be his shield for performing the tricks in full view of the audience. And finally the art of misdirection helps the magician to misguide the audience, leaving them wonder struck.The summer classes will be conducted by sixteen faculty members from the Magic Academy who will be covering topics like mental magic, mathematical magic, close up magic and conjuring magic along with yoga and personality development classes.The camp was inaugurated on Wednesday by Magician Gopinath Muthukad. The classes will go on till May 30 from 9.30 am to 1 pm. The camp will end with a practical test on magic which would be judged by Muthukad along with other guests. “All participants will be given certificates and those who clear the test with more than fifty percent marks will be given an opportunity to attend a higher level course on magic at the academy for six months,” said Sreejith Raj, course co-ordinator at the academy.
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