The sitting President awards this swanky title annually to members for outstanding achievement in magic. After that, the title of MIMC or Member of the Inner Magic Circle is still up for grabs.
This can gain you access to the first tier of membership: Apprentice level.Īn examination date will then be set up at which time the Apprentice member performs to an audience of members and (hidden) judges whose score determines whether the candidate has been successful.Īfter you are a member (MMC or Member of The Magic Circle) you can take a further exam to become an AIMC or Associate of the Inner Magic Circle. After the nomination, you will have an interview to confirm you are capable of presenting magic competently for the interviewer. If you want to become a Magic Circle magician, you first need to be nominated by two current members who have known you for two years. This has led to divisive reactions in the Magic Circle magician community. Incidentally, Penn & Teller are not Magic Circle members due to the fact they reveal magic secrets in their shows. In 1935 Magic Circle member and first president David Devant was temporarily expelled for revealing some of his own magic in The Windsor Magazine. Here is a chance to do so, we are a magic club after all. The Rules of The Magic Circle (1925) photo above explain the expulsion guidelines for spilling the proverbial magic beans. We very rarely show each other magic and lean from each other. Revealing magic secrets remains a harshly-penalised activity for the club. It still is on the club’s logo to this day. Despite the correct translation of the motto being known in circles within The Circle, the false translation has so far prevailed. Still being recognised as Caesar, came the phrase indocilis privata loqui which actually means ‘not skilled at speaking of commonplace things’. In a 2019 interview on The Magician’s Podcast, Teller explained (yes, Teller really can talk) that the phrase derives from a description of Julius Caesar trying to go in disguise amongst the common people – but not quite able to pull it off undetected. Scholars, including the silent shorter half of the double act Penn & Teller who was once a Latin teacher, have corrected the myth about the meaning of the motto.
As the tale goes, it means ‘Not apt to disclose secrets.’ Generations of magicians have told each other and their audiences that it’s a posh Latin way of saying the popular phrase ‘a magician never reveals their secrets.’ The only problem is, it doesn’t actually mean that… But almost everyone who tells you what it means is wrong. Indocilis privata loqui is the latin motto of The Magic Circle. What does the club’s motto ‘indocilis privata loqui’ mean?Īn impressively well-dispersed piece of misinformation has to do with the matter of Magic Circle secrets themselves.