8 Ways to Strengthen Your Script

Aside from establishing your character and ensuring that your show has “something for everyone,” (see earlier posts) here are 8 things you can do to strengthen your script. If you’ve had any training in acting, then many of these will look familiar.

Add Conflict — The magician standing on-stage and unopposed is not as interesting as when the magician is in conflict. Conflict could manifest in a challenge from a spectator, or trouble with the props, forces of nature, or even telling a story about a past conflict.

Add Drama — It’s not enough to merely establish the semblance of a conflict. You must further emphasis in your script that the outcome is in doubt. If you can make the audience wonder, What’s going to happen? Will the magician succeed? If you can create genuine moments of uncertainty, then your act becomes riveting and stage-worthy. Remember those 30 seconds during Derren Brown’s Russian Roulette routine when he seemed flummoxed? Somehow his calculations had gone awry. What would he do next?

Raise the Stakes — Put more on the line. Can you, in your script, heighten the consequences of failure? If you promise to award $50 if you can’t find their card, you’ve given your audience a reason to be interested. If you announce that you’ve promised a severely ill child that you’ll break the World’s Record for him doing your strait-jacket escape, then you’ve succeeded at raising the stakes. Of course Derren Brown’s example above takes the cake.

Use Suspense — Suspense is an underused device in magic, whereas, surprise is an overused device. In your scripting, let them know what you intend to do, but then make them wonder if you can do it. Suspense involves all of the above: Conflict, Drama, and High-Stakes.

Use Repetition — Repeating a phrase or a sequence of actions can establish a rhythm. Now if you control the time between repetition you can establish a tempo which you can increase or decrease.

The Rule of Three — It’s an old saw, but if you are going to repetition, the third time around is a good place to close strongly.

Modulate Your Status — Magic (or any act that puts you in the spotlight) will raise your status. Don’t be an overbearing bore. Let people know you’re human. I have a theory that being heckled simply means your status has stayed too high for too long. Script your act so that your not alway God-like; people will like you better.

One Sentence Description — Can your audience accurately describe what you do in one sentence? You can help them remember your magic by first limiting the scope of what you do (a real nuts & bolts way of scripting). Then use your script to help clarify (in the minds of your audience members) what it is that you do by spelling it out. Give them the talking points that they can use the next day when they tell their friends, “I saw this magician and he…”