We visited Reuben's regularly for a couple years before filming; it ultimately dawned on me that Jeremy was as much the sorcerer's apprentice as anyone in the room. Since this was to be filmed in a cinema verite style, without an intrusive interviewer, I inevitably hoped that Jeremy might be willing to act as my wide-eyed alter ego – asking questions and eliciting anecdotes.
And why the little girl, Sophie? Reuben's was almost completely a male bastion, from oldest to youngest magicians. I had assumed that my potential audience would be primarily non-magicians who would be fascinated to see what really happens when a bunch of magicians get together. I wanted girls to feel that they were every bit as capable of becoming magicians as boys and hopefully inspired to try. Therefore, it made sense to have an engaging, young, photogenic female character. I did not actually discover Sophie at Reuben's. She is a friend and neighbor of the cinematographer. Interested in magic, Sophie knew a couple tricks and was eager to learn more. She developed a wonderful rapport with Sol, Jerry, and Bob Elliott (another master magician); and I believe that connection was translated to the screen.
M&I: What were some of the challenges of filming the magicians at Reuben's?
LD: The first challenge was gaining the confidence and trust of the magicians. While they were friendly from the outset, they also had reservations about a film about them and their hangout. They didn't want to be ripped off. They didn't want their secrets to be exposed. The group had had some negative experiences with reporters. And they remained wary – even after they had grown to know me quite well and liked me – that I might inadvertently reveal a sleight. My intention was absolutely NOT to reveal secrets. On the contrary, I wanted to protect the magic of the magic while documenting the camaraderie and humor and warmth among the young and old and very oldest magicians in the room.
The primary challenge of the filming itself was for the camera to be in the right place at the right time to capture the magic. The cinematographer, like me, is not a magician. We did not set up shots. We did not do re-enactments. We had one camera; and we did not know what was going to happen in advance. This was true cinema verite. There were countless times that we asked the magicians if they could please repeat the trick so that we could improve upon our presentation with a better angle, a better close-up. We should have known not to ask. Of course, even our very good friends, Sol and Jerry, always refused.
M&I: Anything else you would like to mention?
LD: Every time I watched the magicians entertain each other at Reuben's, I was struck by the timelessness of the scene. Wasn't this how it used to be in the good old days? All you needed was simply a deck of cards or a coin and the company of friends, and the most amazing things could happen. . . completely without the assistance or intrusion of technology. It thus made perfect sense that I could never get a signal on my cell phone while at Reuben's.
