New Blog!

Hey guys! Thank you so much for visiting my blog and being interested in my magic! Just so you know, I just created a new blog and contact email for you to reach me at. The whole Magi Arcanus thing was a little too hard to remember/pronounce, so I've revamped my contact and made it a little simpler. No you can view my new blog at mikenelsonmagic@blogspot.com, and you can email me at mikenelsonmagic@gmail.com!

You guys are awesome!

Hire Me Today!

Looking for impressive, mystifying entertainment? Want to make your kid's/friend's/family member's/your own birthday party fun and memorable? Trying to find that special something to make your next corporate meeting a little more exciting? Or do you just want to make a get-together with friends something worth talking about later?

Then hire me today!

My name is Mike Nelson, and I have now been performing magic for more than two years. I love to perform and I love every opportunity I have to share magic with anyone and everyone. Everything from card tricks to playing with fire (perfectly safe, but it paints a fun picture, right?), I offer a versatile range of illusions and I work hard to provide memorable entertainment that is sure to put smiles on everyone's faces.

I look forward to hearing from you! Please feel free to email me at magiarcanus@gmail.com, and I promise a prompt reply!

Pick a Card...

Every magician has a specialty. Although any ambitious illusionist knows that diversity is key to keeping an audience intrigued, there is always one type of magic that rings true with every magician. With David Blaine it's up-close street magic and feats of endurance, with Criss Angel it's incredible manipulations of his surroundings, like levitating from building to building and phasing his body through the bars of an iron gate, etc.

With me, it's card magic.

Playing cards as we know them today (the four-suited number-and-face cards) have undergone a series of adaptations to become what they are today. The original playing cards were little more than dominoes on paper that made their way to Europe during and after the crusades. In their inception, they were much like they are today, except the suits and symbols were different. For example, in early European playing cards, the suits were King, Knight, and Knave, instead of King, Queen, and Jack. And early suits included (instead of Spades, Clubs, Diamonds, and Hearts) common objects of the time like coins, swords, spears, and other things like that.

Then the cards were given a massive makeover by the French, who gave us the faces of the King, Queen, and Jack that we know today. And even at those early times of the playing cards, card magic was a prevalent practice. Conjurers would use playing cards for all sorts of entertainment purposes, much like today.

Playing cards can be used for dozens of methods. Close-up magic is the most popular method (i.e. "pick a card, watch me shuffle it in, and BOOM! Your card is in my pocket."), but other methods include fortune-telling, mentalism, throwing stunts (where the magician shows how far/fast/accurately he/she can throw a card), etc. Magician and author Joshua Jay has shown how playing cards can even be used to make wallets, purses, rulers, and calendars. (By the way, if you have a deck of cards and you want to get a workout, shuffle the deck thoroughly, then do push-ups based on the card you pull one-by-one from the top. You'll end up doing 365 push-ups, if you can make it through the whole deck.)

Speaking of 365, did you know that playing cards have an inseparable connection to time? If you add up the values of all the cards, where Ace = 1, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, and King = 13, you get 365. (365 days in a year) Excluding the jokers, there are a total of 52 cards. (52 weeks in a year) There are four suits. (Four seasons, or phases of the moon) There are twelve court cards. (Twelve months in a year) And there are two colors, red, which has symbolized good, and black, which has symbolized evil. (summer and winter equinoxes)

Another fun fact about playing cards? Did you know that the four Kings were originally based on real kings? The King of Spades? King David (of David and Goliath fame). The King of Hearts? Julius Caesar. The King of Clubs? King Alexander. And finally, the King of Hearts (which is sometimes called the suicide king because it looks like he's stabbing himself in the head, but this is unfounded)? King Charlemagne.

But beyond the art of the cards lies a power of potential. The genius of playing cards as a magician's tool is the fact that they're so common-place. Great magic happens when an ordinary object is forced to do something extraordinary. And plus, it feels great to have a deck of cards spread smoothly in your hands. I will always love the effect of a good card trick.

David Blaine: Magister Veneficus

My path to magic began recently, fairly late in life when compared to some of the most noted magicians known around the world.

Today I would like to write about my role model in magic: David Blaine.

David Blaine began practicing magic at a very young age. At 5 years old, his mother gave him his first deck of cards, which her mother had given her. Then, when he was a little older, a librarian working at in his hometown of Brooklyn provided him with a book of self-working magic tricks. This deck of cards, book, as well as exposure to magicians performing, changed his life forever.

In 1997, Blaine aired his first television special, called Street Magic. In this special, he introduced a revolutionary approach to televised magic. Previously, camera angles and emphasis would be primarily on the magician, allowing spectators the "front row seat" feeling. But Blaine focused his attention on the reaction of the people on the street, the wide eyes, the caught breath, the speechlessness. This approach gave a new credence to the reality of the reactions to well-performed magic.

Another aspect of Blaine's repertoire is acts of extreme endurance. Some of his most famous feats include being sealed inside a glass coffin underneath a 3-ton container of water for seven days (Buried Alive), being submerged in a water-filled sphere for an entire week (Drowned Alive), and standing on a pillar 22 feet high, wearing a conductive suit while being electrified by seven tesla coils with at least one million volts constantly for 72 hours (Electrified: One Million Volts Always On). He has set and broken a number of world records.

Blaine is my role model in magic for a number of reasons. His approach to magic is very simple. He doesn't try to frighten, he tries to enlighten. After becoming familiar with a number of card magic tricks and object manipulation techniques, I've noticed that the basis for most of his tricks is really quite simple. This simplicity engenders a sense of possible impossibility. No flashes, no bells and whistles, just plain and simple miracles happening right in front of your eyes.

“I'd like to bring magic back to the place it used to be 100 years ago.”' Blaine is quoted to say. He is always talking about how magic is meant to bring out the good in people, to awaken the child-like fascination with the wonders of the world.

"In truth, the only restrictions on our capacity to astonish ourselves and each other are imposed by our own minds."
-David Blaine

Watch Carefully...

There is a reason we are drawn to the mysterious.

We crave to know that there is more to life than what we can see. Or hear. Or taste, smell, or touch.

We are constantly bombarded by what our senses can perceive. We want to be distracted. But more than that, we want to be shown that the rules that govern our lives and dictate "reality" can be bent, sometimes even broken. We want to believe that we can smile and defy the laws that bind us to the ground, to the stark and rough texture that surrounds us.

My purpose here is not to offer an escape. But rather, to deepen our appreciation for the greatness and inexplicable complexity that lies behind the art of illusion.

So, watch every move very carefully, and don't always trust your eyes.