Lawyer to magician: Friedrich jumped from one 'deceptive art' to another

By Kishori Sud
New Delhi, Nov 23  Not allowed to practise magic professionally until he did something “serious”, German mentalist and magician Nicolai Friedrich made objects float, changed their shape or made them reappear in new and impossible places. He also read minds and controlled thoughts across the globe after studying law, and jokingly says he jumped from “one deceptive art to another”.
“When I told my mother I wanted to become a professional magician, she was not very happy and asked me to learn something ‘serious’ first,” Friedrich, who was crowned The Best Mentalist of The World in Beijing in 2009, told IANS in an email interaction. He had been asked if it was easy for him to convince his parents when he decided to become a magician.
“I then went to university and studied law. After finishing it, I was allowed to fully become a magician. Some might say I changed from one deceptive art to another,” he added.
Friedrich has impressed Indian audiences thrice before and is visiting Gurugram on Sunday with a couple of shows produced by Ashvin Gidwani Productions.
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Their performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship and mind control.
With so much use of the mind, have his tricks ever gone wrong and can that have repercussions?
“It does happen like when I tried to locate a nail that was hidden under one of several cups but hit the wrong cup. This performance ended in the hospital, though I still perform it and it has never gone wrong again,” said Friedrich.
He has performed in Austria, Switzerland, Greece, the UK, Malta, Mexico, Italy, Australia, Belgium, France, Spain, China, Turkey and Germany, with more than 3,000 shows to his credit and is now gearing up for his act in Gurugram.
Asked what myths he believes are still attached to magic and if the profession is still misunderstood by many, Friedrich said: “Some people believe magic is real while some magicians still try to sell it like this (like dark magic).”
“I consider this to be wrong! Magic is an extremely entertaining art form. It should not be termed as the art of the devil or something, but it should inspire people by showing them that seemingly impossible things can somehow be accomplished,” he said.
While learning or practising magic, different artistes, who are training to be experts in different forms of the genre, have their own stories of struggle to tell. How difficult or easy is the learning phase for a mentalist on that account?
“It depends on what kind of techniques you are using. Applying psychological principles needs a lot of experience since all people think and react slightly differently. But since magic is my passion, I totally love what I do; so I don’t feel it is a struggle. Challenges are exciting for me,” Friedrich said.
In “awe” of “the spiritual aspect of Indian culture”, the magician, who breaks the boundaries of traditional magic and is known for leading his audience to believe in the existence of the paranormal with his art, believes “most Indians have a great sense of wonder and are very curious and open-minded and like to be amazed” and thus “serve as an inspiration” for him.
(Kishori Sud can be contacted at kishori.s@ians.in)
–IANS