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Davidmagicman Regular user 123 Posts |
Hi, I am performing my cups and balls routine for a large audience (60-70) people and was hoping for some feedback. Thanks in advance!
http://www.magicvideodepot.com/main/view......nd_Balls
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David The Magicman |
Vlad_77 Inner circle The Netherlands 5829 Posts |
Hi David,
I want to begin by saying I do see some real nice potential in your work and that you obviously do care for magic. The following feedback is CONSTRUCTIVE observation. So there is nothing "negative" but there are some weak points that will be addressed as I go along. Since I do not understand Chinese I cannot comment on your patter. That being said, I SENSED that you were doing the obvious in the beginning of the display of the empty cups by calling TOO much attention to the fact that they are empty. One important rule of magic is that you should never state the obvious. Stating the obvious actually has the effect of alerting the audience that something else is going on. For example, I have heard even the BIG PROFESSIONALS say: "This is an ordinary pack of cards." But here is the problem: while our audiences ARE aware that there are "trick decks" out there, when you SAY it is an ordinary pack, some in your audience are going to think otherwise. So, you show the cards wide and casually as you patter. If this is unclear still, PM me and I will explain the psychological underpinnings in a more in-depth manner for you. So, what you could do is make some remarks that do not overtly mention the empty cups. While doing this, show the cups a little more slowly, and use pointing - a stage term for using body language - to show the empty cups. You did a nice little bit of it when you tapped the empty cups with your wand. Do a little more of that. Very brief pauses are good when timed correctly to strengthen the illusion and you did a pretty good on that. I have seen too many performers rush through the opening display, forgetting that centripetal (the actual term, though many use the term "centrifugal") force allows even a very slow display. So, nice work on the pace of the display. Your handling of the cups is at times too "cozy." This is a term magicians use for any handling that appears too careful to the audience. Frequently, such handling results from a little lack of confidence in the method or a little bit of nervousness in general. So, let your body RELAX. At times you have a rather strong grip on the cups. Relaxing will take that death grip away completely. You see, a cozy handling, like the above example of overstating the obvious, again alerts the audience that something is amiss. You are working too close to your body. A better strategy is to employ a more relaxed handling, have the cups more "center stage". Again psychology serves here (as well as effective staging) in that if your props are closer to the audience, LESS suspicion is aroused. Of course audience management must always be in play. So if you see someone about to reach for one of cups for example, casually gesture AWAY from the action while the hand casually moves down NEXT to the prop - but NOT in a protective manner, rather, just a movement subtle enough that psychologically, the grabber WILL stop. Here is a GREAT pointer: ALWAYS keep eye contact and read your spectators.Identify who may be problematic and be ready at any second to deal with any disruption. The other big reason to watch the eyes is that people will first LOOK at the object intently and shift their body ever so slightly. But that gives you a world of time to prevent the grab. Furthermore, you can adapt on the fly by having the grabber hold the cup down with his or her finger. It may not be part of the routine, but, it is a great way to control the situation without calling attention to it. Remember too, that in a C&B routine, the focus should be on the balls, not the cups. The balls are hopping around, vanishing, reappearing, penetrating, etc. Again, these observations are based upon what I see in your own body language. Breathe, relax before you begin your performance. Being nervous itself is actually a good thing because it shows you CARE about your performance. However, you must not telegraph that nervousness to your audience. A few deep breaths before you go on stage will take the edge of the nervous appearance. If you THINK confidently, you will LOOK confident Okay. Your palming needs work. Now, it wasn't terrible, but, there IS at times the appearance of a cramped hand and at other times it is very apparent that you are readjusting the finger palmed ball. IF you need to readjust, use your body, eyes, etc. in a LARGER motion opposite the "dirty" hand. Remember, LARGER motions cover small ones. Another tip: most laypersons do not remember that the hand is a multifunctional appendage. So, if you are familiar with both the Kaps and Ramsay subtleties, you can make a casual gesture which shows an (apparent) empty hand. Nice use of the wand by the way, which tells me you understand what I am talking about in terms of multifunctionality. Most people unconsciously do just ONE THING AT A TIME with the hand. While it seems obvious, most people, again, do not conceal one thing while holding another object visibly. Think about the fingerpalm in this instance. Holding the wand is a natural thing, and furthermore, the hand position NATURALLY conceals the palmed object. Get where I am going with this? Hopefully others will chime in on this to clarify Finally on palming in general: one of the BEST things you can do is carry something with you and hold it palmed while you are doing other things. So, let's say for example you are walking around in a mall. Keep an object palmed. Be AWARE of it at first to get the feel of where it should rest. Then, do things like pick up a book or videogame with the hand that contains the palmed object. You will find that muscle memory will in time takeover and palming something will become automatic - the object will go where it needs to be; your body will "remember." You flashed once. So, I will chalk that up to an isolated mistake. Still, a more relaxed and confident handling will greatly reduce these accidental occurrences. Take a breath here David. I do think you are on your way to a polished routine. I mentioned some of things you did correctly. And remember my friend, this is to HELP you reach the potential that is within you. The actual routine is rather long for the relatively smaller amount of magic that is happening. You do a nice job with what you have, but, the penetration sequence - which seems to be the main focus of your routine needs a little more variance to fly better. I liked of course the splitting illusion, so good job there. I ALSO liked the way you handled the purse frame. Use a little humour with it. An empty purseframe is something both unusual and funny (in a good way) to an audience, so, capitalise on that on the briefest of moments. Finally, your routine lacks a strong finish. You need to end with something that knocks the audience for a little loop at least. There is no need to produce FOUR solid objects as in most routines, but, producing say a baseball at the end, or an orange, apple, or some weird larger object that is SOLID is a nice finish. However, I WOULD encourage you to go for multiple productions. And performers use four because the impossibility increases for the audience for a simple reason: you are using three balls and three cups throughout the routine. So, the audience becomes conditioned both to the props and their number. Producing four SOLID objects smacks them hard And when I say SOLID, I mean just that. Do NOT produce a large sponge object. People know that sponges are very collapsible. They will always come to the RIGHT conclusion that a large sponge object can quite easily be concealed in small area. So, to sum up: I think you have a routine that DOES have potential. You did a lot of things RIGHT David. Keep up that good work. Having said that, I do not think the routine as shown is ready for performance. There is still some work and polish to be done. HOWEVER, you are close! And I will also add that it is apparent that you love the art. It comes through in your video. Most of the YouTube "magicians" have not taken the time you have to actually WORK on their routines. I can tell that YOU have. Keep at it David, I sense you will have a nice routine with a few more weeks worth of work!! Ahimsa, Vlad |
JamesTong Eternal Order Malaysia 11213 Posts |
Nice routine. Keep up the good work. It is through continuous performance in different environments that your routine matures - there will be changes along the way.
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Davidmagicman Regular user 123 Posts |
Thanks Vlad and JamesTong. I made this video for half years ago now and I have actually train on those thing you mention Vlad. But I will train it now for a mouth and then I will do it in a show. And Vlad it is not Chinese it is Swedish.
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David The Magicman |
Vlad_77 Inner circle The Netherlands 5829 Posts |
David,
My mistake. Regardless, I could not understand so I could not comment. I speak English, Italian, Romanian, and Spanish and NONE of them would have helped me with Svenska Ahimsa, Vlad |
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