July 14, 2011 -
PRLog -- Deceptionist Richard Hatch, who designed and taught the adult magic classes for the Houston Museum of Natural Science's magic exhibit last year, is returning to Houston to teach Magic 101, Magic 201, and--for the first time in Houston--Magic 301 at the Museum on July 31, August 1 and August 2, 2011.
"Theatrical Magic is based on scientific principles,"
says Hatch, who holds two masters degrees in Physics from Yale University. "Magicians learn to apply those principles in secret ways that exploit loopholes in our logic to create the impression that something impossible has happened." Students in Magic 101, An Introduction to Sleight-of-Hand Magic, will learn to use such ordinary objects as cards, coins, rubber bands and even paper clips to perform apparently impossible feats. Students in Magic 201, An Introduction to Mentalism, will learn to perform apparent feats of mindreading, clairvoyance and psychokinesis. Students in Magic 301, More Magic with Ordinary Objects, will learn feats with straws and string, as well as more magic with playing cards.
All students will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the material in the class. "This is the traditional Magician's Oath of Secrecy," explains Hatch. "It is really not to protect the secrets, but to protect the audience from unwanted exposure to those secrets. Harsh experience over many centuries has shown that most non-magicians are disappointed to learn that "magic" is based on science, rather than something more mysterious. So magicians have learned that the best way to preserve an audience's experience of wonder is not to spoil that emotion by revealing the science behind it."
Each two hour workshop will begin at 6 p.m. at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Students must be age 15 or over and the class size is strictly limited to 25 in order to private individual attention to students.
To register for the classes, visit the Museum website here:
http://www.hmns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...or call (713) 639-4629
About the instructor: Richard Hatch holds two graduate degrees in Physics from Yale University, but finds it easier apparently to violate the laws of nature than to discover them. A childhood interest in magic became a lifelong obsession after he met and was encouraged by the German magician Fredo Raxon in 1970. A full time professional “deceptionist”
since 1983, Richard moved with his wife, violinist Rosemary Kimura, to Houston, Texas in 1985, shortly after winning first place in the annual New England Close Up Magic Competition in Worcester, Massachusetts. For several years he honed his craft entertaining the guests as one of the house magicians at Houston's Magic Island Nightclub before devoting himself exclusively to private and corporate work, traveling internationally on behalf of his clients. Richard is a member of the Academy of Magical Arts, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and is a lifetime member of the Society of American Magicians. Until recently he was also co-owner with Charlie Randall of H & R Magic Books in Houston, the world’s largest purveyors of magic books. Among magicians he is perhaps best known for his research on the identity of “S. W. Erdnase”, the mysterious author of the 1902 classic, Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table, and as the translator from German into English of works about Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser (1806 – 1875), Paul Potassy, and the first four volumes of Roberto Giobbi’s acclaimed Card College course of card manipulation. The Hatches moved from Houston to Logan, Utah last Fall where they have opened the Hatch Academy of Magic and Music in the historic 1878 Thatcher-Young Mansion. In January Richard lectured docents at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles on the topic of "Jewish Magicians of the Golden Age of Magic" to help prepare them for an exhibit on that topic which opens at the Skirball in late April. For more information on Richard Hatch and the Hatch Academy, see
http://www.hatchacademy.com/ or call 435-932-0017.
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The Hatch Academy of Magic & Music is an educational institution in Logan, Utah offering private and group instruction in sleight-of-hand and violin performance.
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