Entries Tagged 'Magic' ↓

One of the great benefits of being a full-time professional magician is being able to meet with other top-notch magicians to talk shop.

Yesterday, a very talented magician from London was passing through Colorado. So I met him in Denver, at the bus station, yesterday afternoon and was able to spend several hours with him (and a few other magicians from around town) talking about the business and also watching him perform.

I was struck by how “magical” his magic looked. Upon analyzing his magic, I realized that his greatest gift is his ability to recognize the awkward or unclean moments, and to seek out ways to fix them. He had a keen eye for what looked natural. As a result his magic looked effortless — as if the magic just happened.

In many cases it didn’t require large changes or Herculean efforts. What he had done was taken simple maneuvers — albeit maneuvers with tiny flaws or uneven bits — and polished them until he could perform them, “in such a manner that the most critical observer would not even suspect, let alone detect, the action.” (Quotation from the mysterious author of “Expert at the Card Table,” S.W. Erdnase.)

All too often magicians are satisfied with executing their secret maneuvers with competence. That is, doing the move well enough. Although doing “well enough” might still earn the applause, it doesn’t necessarily rise to the level of being magical. Audiences may applaud your dexterity and they may even be amazed at the outcome, but if they suspect that we’ve engaged in some chicanery, if they suspect that there may have been some funny business, then we’ve fallen short of the mark. Creating magic comes from mastering the details.

Character is an issue that many magicians seem to struggle with, so let’s begin by sketching out some general character types. Of course, each individual will have their own way of expressing these archetypes.

Different character types for magicians can be categorized by the magician’s relationship to his or her power. How is their power derived? And to what ends do they use their power?

Lest this begin to sound dreadfully academic, I’d better provide some examples:

Fool or Clown — Gets fooled by others as well as by ordinary objects, the victim of magical circumstances. A character often played by children’s performers, but also by the great manipulator, Cardini.

Trickster -– Pulls pranks on others and upsets status quo. Uses magic to expose other people’s shortcomings, like the work of Penn & Teller. In some traditions can impart wisdom by exposing small-minded conventions. In mythology, the basis for the Coyote trickster and the Sufi Nasrudin.

Thief — Manipulates objects with dexterity, cheats to gain advantage. The pick-pocket or con-artist. One who lives by subtle skills (physical and intellectual) rather than brute force, like magician Harry Anderson.

Don Juan — Controls other people with to intention of seduction. Like the hypnotic power Svengali holds over Trilby, or early David Copperfield where he acted out vignettes in which magic got him the girl.

Wizard — Holds power over animals, forces of nature. Think Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings.

Athlete — Develops physical ability to overcome barriers. Harry Houdini the escape artist and the more recent performances of David Blaine (as endurance artist) epitomize this archetype.

Scholar — Develops intellect to overcome barriers. Ricky Jay, to pick a rather obscure magician. Also, the Amazing Kreskin (to pick another obscure example).

Messiah — Transcends self, uses power in the service of others. I’ll take some flack for even mentioning his name, but John Edwards (from the talk show, Crossing Over, not the politician) is a good example of this archetype.

Others (Jeff McBride, Eugene Burger, Robert Neale) have made similar analyses with different categories. This taxonomy was developed by my friend, Bob Sacamento.

While it is possible to blend two or more archetypes into a single character or performance, the power of these archetypes is that they clarify (and make understandable) who you are as a performer. Trying to embrace too much, may only muddle the picture.

“There’s a sucker born every minute.” — David Hannum (though often misattributed to P.T. Barnum)

Many times, when I watch other magicians perform, I wonder if they don’t hold a rather dim view of their spectators. The manner in which they treat their audience members makes me suspect that these magicians view their audience members (the very people who have paid money and taken the time to see their show) as suckers.

True, we do fool people with our magic, but this is not the same as making fools of them. When magic truly works, it is because our audience members allow themselves to believe. They chose to be astonished and to experience the wonder of the inexplicable. We need to understand that they are active participants in our theatrical endeavor; they are not suckers.

Magicians would be better served if they listened to P.T. Barnum (to whom the above quote is most often misattributed; read the fascinating story here.) When one reads legitimate Barnum quotations, we see that he had tremendous respect for those who came to his circuses, and he worked mightily to see that everyone got good value for their money.

“A circus should have something for everyone,” is one Barnum quotation that magicians could learn from.

To begin with, although magicians enjoy confronting puzzles and sussing out solutions to mysteries, many people do not enjoy such challenges. And yet many magicians will write shows that include nothing but one brain-buster after another. My goal in scripting a show is to have elements that are puzzling, elements that are funny, elements where I equalize the status between myself and the audience, and elements where I inspire people.

After the show, some people will thank me for the inspirational message, other will offer their theories on how a bit of magic was accomplished, and still others will talk about how much fun they had laughing.

I’ve learned a lot from listening to (or watching) live stage shows of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, and Barbara Streisand. Naturally, they sing their latest hits, but they also parody their own songs, tell jokes and personal anecdotes, offer biographical stories, and crusade for serious causes. And in the end, they offer “something for everyone.”

Today’s magician would benefit from studying the ideas of P.T. Barnum, and eschewing those of David Hannum.

Because of my background in theater, I’ve just been booked to give a talk about “Scripting Your Act” at a convention of magicians in Fort Collins, Colorado, in September. My mind is already churning with ideas of what I will talk about. What a great opportunity to help magicians improve their performances.

Things seem to change at a glacial pace in the magic community, but I really believe that there is a magical renaissance underway, with more and more magicians beginning to examine magic from a theatrical point of view.

If I had to identify one thing that holds most magicians back, it would be that a great many magicians are more interested in manipulating props than they are in engaging their audiences. This fixation with props is entirely understandable. As magicians our techniques and methods (the secrets of our art) are indeed, fascinating. As professional entertainers, however, (or even as amateur entertainers, for that matter) we cannot afford to be so enthralled by the “tricks of our trade” that we neglect our audiences.

Scripting a performance is a major step in the right direction, because a script is focused on shaping the audience’s experience. The words and actions set out in your script must (in a well written script) take the audience on a fantastic voyage. An experience which — in the end — will be more important than how the magician found their card.

So what is Jason Alexander doing here? Well, in addition to the role for which he is justly famous, Jason is also a magician who preaches the importance of scripting your act. I guess the good folks at Magic in the Rockies couldn’t get Jason for their convention, so they had to settle for their second choice :-)