Translator: Dóra Veronika Horváth Reviewer: Denise RQ
This is the face of Harold Whittles in 1974,
a 5-year-old child who hears for the very first time in his life.
To me, his expression represents one of the big problems that we face today
and it's that we're losing the capacity of being surprised,
we're losing the sense of wonder.
We, as Harold, used to be attracted by the mysterious.
We were curious for everything around us,
and this was something
that not only was fun but helped us grow,
learn, become better,
To give you an idea of this:
did you know that the number of people that don't read books
nearly tripled since 1978?
Including digital books and all this kind of stuff?
My concern is that this loss of wonder is happening across institutions,
but also in families and in relationships; almost everywhere.
Albert Einstein said,
"He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe
is as good as dead;
his eyes are closed."
What do you think about this?
Well, this may be an exaggeration, but I think it does hit one big point:
the need that we, as humans, have to find awe and beauty in our lives.
Moreover, a recent study from the University of California, Berkeley
shows how beauty and awe promote health.
The things that we usually do
like a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, or contemplating art
hold a direct influence upon good feeling and life expectancy.
Personally, I think I've been lucky.
Why?
Because when I was 7,
I went with my family to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands,
and there, we had the opportunity to attend a show with a magician.
I don't remember his name,
but I was fascinated by the things that he did.
He seemed to do the impossible.
Here you have a picture of my brother and me in Tenerife
the day after the show trying to hypnotize a couple of parrots
(Laughter)
with great success, actually.
But the thing is that when I was a little bit older,
I started learning magic.
And perhaps without me being aware of it
I think that this has helped me to cultivate this ability of being amazed.
I'm not a psychologist or a scientist,
but the look on people's faces when I perform magic is priceless,
and this is something I really think about.
For me, the art of magician illusion,
and magicians in the US, like David Blaine or Asi Wind,
or here in Spain like Tamariz, Piedrahita Jandro or Luis Olmedo,
are helping us to recover this sense of curiosity and this sense of wonder.
Do you want to see how this works?
OK, let's have fun!
You know, a magician always has something with him.
Let's see what I have here.
I don't know if you can see it.
What?
You didn't pay that much to see a great show, OK?
If you want good magic, go to Las Vegas but don't come here.
So I throw this, and the person who catches it can come up to the stage
Or I throw it again, OK?
Doesn't matter to me, let's see.
(Laughter)
In the middle of nowhere, right?
OK, who got it?
I don't see anyone so...
OK, do you want to come?
OK.
(Applause)
MT: Hello! What's your name? J: Joaquin.
MT: Joaquin, nice to meet you. J: Nice to meet you, too.
MT: You don't know it yet, but you're going to be famous.
You'll remember this day all your life. OK, come here, please.
OK, so...
A little bit closer.
You can keep this, I don't want this.
J: Can I leave it here?
MT: You can leave it wherever you want, I don't mind.
Yeah, OK, thank you, thank you. OK, so a deck of cards.
MT: Have you ever played poker? J: Yes.
MT: So we have clubs, we have spades, we have hearts, we have diamonds.
52 different cards, OK?
I want you to say stop whenever you want,
and then you place your finger on any card.
You place your finger on any card.
This one? OK, take it.
Don't show it to me, don't show it to anyone.
Take a look at the card that comes before and see is different.
The card that comes after is different. OK, so all of them are different.
Actually, I don't really mind which card you picked
Because today, I won't perform any magic trick.
So put it in your pocket.
Thank you very much.
And now I have here with me
- Let's throw this, OK? -
a list of ten cities:
Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Sydney, London,
Dubai, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, OK?
I want you to fold them, yeah? Please.
I won't touch the box.
Fold them like this and put them inside the box.
J: All of them? MT: All of them, yeah.
It's your day, it's your trick, it's your moment, OK?
I'm not doing anything.
You're doing a great job.
(Laughter)
OK.
(Applause)
Not easy, not easy.
You don't have to go.
I don't want to touch the box.
Please open the box, grab the flaps, open like this, yeah.
Now, take the red thing,
Open it like this.
And now take all the papers and put them in here.
OK, you can give me the box.
You can see, there's nothing here.
And now I want you to pick one of them.
MT: Are you sure? J: Yeah.
MT: OK, take a look at it, and don't show it to anyone yet, OK?
You have it? J: Yes.
MT: Now, come here with me.
Joaquin
- No, no, you look at the audience, You're the one here -
so you could have picked any card;
52, you picked one.
No one knows which one is it.
You could have picked any city, OK?
Please show for the first time
To the camera and to the people the card and the city that you chose.
I don't want to see it.
Has everybody seen it?
Yeah?
MT: OK, Joaquin, do you believe in magic?
J: Yeah!
MT: I don't, but I believe in you.
(Laughter)
(Video)
(Applause)
Amazing.
Thank you very much!
Please, thank you very much.
I'm not a good magician.
I'm not a good magician, I'm a very lucky person.
Trust me!
But my thesis today is
that we have to find again this capability of being amazed but by common events.
I'm thinking about the time that we spend with our families,
the conversations we have with our friends, our attitude at work;
this is not about magic tricks.
No, no, no, this is not about fireworks.
This is about the art of finding the extraordinary
but within daily routines.
You don't have to climb a huge mountain and take in a grand view to feel it.
There are many things out there that can be awesome.
For example, when was the last time that you stared at the stars?
Or noticed the smell of wet grass after a storm?
These are indeed little things, but they have something in common,
and it is that they can lift our spirit.
I really like this American writer's vision about it:
"The moment one gives close attention to any thing,
even a blade of grass becomes
a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."
It is very difficult to achieve, but it's brilliant.
But then, what's the problem?
The problem is that today, more than ever,
We are bombarded with distractions,
with information overload,
with the ever increasing pressure of doing more things in less time.
And all these distractions make it very difficult
to capture what is really in front of us.
Take a look at this picture; for me, the best of the year:
what do we see here?
This old lady is the only one who is really living the moment.
Back to basics.
But we can see this in our daily lives:
groups of friends having dinner together
and then paying more attention
to their cells than to the people they have in front of them.
Come on, are you really going to receive the most important e-mail of your life
just now, while having dinner with me?
It's tough to believe so.
I see people spending more time on Facebook seeing how others live,
than living.
We are in the era of infoxication.
Let me give you some stats:
now, in one day, we take in 5 times as much information as we took in 1986.
In the whole year, in one day, 5 times more.
Isn't that too much?
It's the equivalent of 174 newspapers.
We check our WhatsApp 120 times per day, on average.
We check our smartphone 1,500 times per week.
Actually, it's the first thing that we do right after we wake up.
But let me ask you something:
when was the last time you didn't have the answer at your fingertips?
So the obvious question is can we do anything to recover this sense of wonder?
Is there anything we can do to, I mean, go back to basics?
I think there is.
And my suggestion to you is
that with the implementation of three simple habits we can do it:
first, let's become children again.
What do children do?
Children take risks, children explore;
no matter what, no matter how, no matter why;
children are not self-conscious.
Second of all, identify people around you who are positive,
who show motivation and passion,
who are happy, and then spend time with them.
Because via osmosis, we may end up improving our taste,
and this is very important.
And number three: pay attention to what happens in front of you
if you don't want to crush.
Actually, I don't know what's the important thing here;
the woman or the road?
I mean, be careful
and be aware of everything that we talked about before,
all the distractions
Actually, I don't know if anyone of you noticed that the letter B changed,
and now it's the other way around?
Well, this is just an example.
But now, of course, not everything we see or do is fascinating and mysterious.
Some things are, like staring at the stars.
And some things are not, like this little change.
But I'm pretty sure that at least we don't give them a second chance.
At least, if we don't recover the sense of wonder,
we won't be able to tell the difference.
If we start paying more attention to what happens in front of us,
if we start trying to be more child-like in the way we see the world,
perhaps we won't need to believe in magic
because it will be obvious, it will be in front of us.
Life is short;
we all know that,
but it's never too late,
so let's all stop and smell the roses.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)