Meet Oleg, the Russian magician

Why did you begin doing magic?

When I was seven years old, my grandpa Tom… (laughs). That’s such a cliché.

When I was 13/14I was in France for a camp to improve my capability of making friends . When the camp was about to finish, the staff organised a talent show. Everybody there had a cool thing to do, they were all good at something; they all had their skills and I was like “ yo, I got nothing to do”, what made me feel pretty uncomfortable. 

By that time, I don’t really know why, I always carried a card deck with me. When I was told to do this exhibition there - because I had no chance of getting rid of it - the idea of doing magic tricks bumped into my head.  I googled some, practice for a bit and went for the show. The show went pretty good, to be honest. I mean, being the first time I was doing magic, I rock the shit out of the stage.  

What happened after was that I laid off cards until I started year ten, basically a couple months after. I got myself a decent card deck and started practicing more and more. Now I can say I’ve been doing it for the last 5 years.

Why is magic important to you?

I adore magic because of the joy it generates. I believe most magicians agree with this. The pay offs are diverse, sometimes is money, sometimes not, but  what you always get is people’s reactions. I do not mean the “You’re so cool” part, what I mean is watching the people turn into kids for a couple minutes. The amazement they give of… That’s the real reward. 

Do you think a magician’s personality is depicted in the tricks you do?

“Everyone does everything. Look at David Blake, for example. Blake looks like a stoner, he has no emotions. *laughs*.  You basically create your own personality. You develop yourself in the way you want.  Just start with whatever is close to you and follow that path.

There’s a magician named Darcy Oake who does lot of stage things. Cards make communication between the magician and the audience easy. As it is something you got access to, it feels more real. This close-up magic, mostly with cards, is an easy solution that this guy doesn’t take. Wouldn’t say easy, though. Common would fit better.

He basically does the exact same thing, but with big stuff. Doing card magic for him can be as difficult as it is for me to scape a strait jacket, although I know how to do it -as well as he rocks cards too. Easy three steps movement. Never tried but, theoretically, I can do it. 

What are the unbreakable rules between magicians?

Nobody obeys the “rules". Some do, or course. Mostly don’t.

Never reveal a trick. That’s quite obvious. Never show the same trick twice, specially in a row. These are standard, though.

Sometimes you make a trick and people ask you to do it again. I mean, it depends, sometimes I even break these rules. If the person is confirmedly stupid enough to do the same trick twice and do not catch it, or they are delighted about it, I would do it again. You can probably understand this. There is an ego fulfilment that is hard to obviate. 

Then is the classic “how you do that shit?”. I love this situation because it generates the 'punchline on top of punchline’ situation. With this I mean that I say I am gonna do the trick again, and I don’t.  I amaze them even more with another one that’s similar. This amazement accumulates and generates a beautiful situation. 

Do not torrent magic. Do not download tricks; support the creator and respect the magic industry. If there’s something in youtube and you stumble upon it there’s nothing you can do to solve it.  If some asshole post it… such live. But I mean, you know, I’m not going to be like “hey, I shouldn’t look at it”. You do it, you feel bad, but you do it anyway.. So basically you can download magic, you can ruin somebody’s life by showing the world how we work. 

Does magic help making friends?

Hell it does. You know why you start doing magic? You suck at sports. You’re the weird, little kid shuffling cards around. You know what they say? "magicians are always single”. 

Isn’t it a majestic flirting ability, then? 

Well, you know. Not everybody can use it for that. You feel awkward. First of all, talking to them is complicated. Saying something like “ Hey! I’m Oleg, I do magic”… nah. I normally go for “do you wanna see something cool? And it helps.  I don’t like it when people like me for my magic, I’m more of a person than a magician. I’m half muggle. 

What do magicians hate the most?

When people start saying “oh, I know how you did that” I immediately think “shut the hell up”. That’s my mind, though. In reality I’d always be like “cool bro”. 

“Oh magic! My younger brother/cousin/sister does magic too!” First of all: I don’t need to know that. Secondly, I don’t give a damn. I think this is rude. I’m here doing magic for you, why do you talk when your contribution is meaningless. 

Another thing I hate is when they try to make you do a trick again in front of more people explaining them what you’re gonna do. They would be like “hey! show them the trick where the ring disappears and goes to your pocket!” Bro, you just gave away the whole trick! There is no magic on doing it if you know what is going to happen. What I usually do there is just do another one. I talk myself out, in a way. 

Would you conclude saying that magic exists ?

Magic is dead. Magic is bullshit. As bad as I feel quoting this ”magic is dead, it is up to the magician to convince the spectator otherwise”.


S