Javi Benetiz joins Jonah this week to discuss movement, meaning and the importance of experiencing life. Javi is an award winning sleight-of-hand magician from Spain, who brings his passion for life into his magic. 

The moment that drew him into magic, Javi recalls, happened when he was four years old; his father did a colour change that has stuck in his memory ever since. Between seeing Tamariz on television and his older brother’s own interest, Javi began to practice magic. It wouldn’t be until reading Ascanio’s books that he began to see magic as a beautiful form of communication; Javi could feel the passion behind Ascanio’s words and fell deeper in love with the artistic side of magic.

Magicians often refer to magic as an art, but they don’t always treat it as such. While some magicians don’t consider why they are doing a trick, others fail to value their own and the audience’s time. Javi explains that what the audience doesn’t see is the time and effort magicians often out into their effects; by not properly presenting tricks and considering you spectator, you are doing yourself a disservice to the effort your out into the effect.

In terms of bringing meaning to your effects, Javi explains that it’s not what you can say with magic but knowing what’s right to say for you. You have to be interested in what you’re saying as you cannot produce something others will be interested in if you don’t care about it yourself. At the end of the day, the magic should about you building a connection with the audience and bringing them into your world. 

Drawing on what he learned while working in advertising, Javi explains that good design makes life easier. Movement in magic has the same purpose. Whether you’re physically moving or moving the spectators mind to a specific point, movement should make following the magic easier for the spectator and the magician. 

After all, we are our bodies, not our hands. By only focusing on exact technique and not adapting the moves it to our entire body, we lose part of our expression alongside the clarity movement can bring into a trick. 

You need to be you, and you need to believe in you. By constantly putting yourself down and not believing in your ideas, you cannot develop in your art. That being said, however, Javi reminds the listeners that you also have to be critical. If you’re an over believer in yourself, you face similar troubles. At the end, it’s about believing and pursuing in what you think. If you don’t, you make it easier for people to change or not care about your ideas. 

Miguel Munoz

Javi enjoys that magic is seeing new ideas. With media, magic is seeing young people try creative things. It’s now not a question of where we are taking our ideas from but where are we taking the ideas to. 

While Javi enjoys watching this trend, he dislikes the direction magic seems to be growing towards. The focus is more on “How did you do that?” then creating a sense of the impossible. 

Be totally passionate about your magic and learn everything you have to learn to be what you want to be. 

Javi’s Website 

Javi’s Instagram 

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