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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
I was talking with an actor, a gentleman in his 70s, the other day. You probably wouldn't know his name, but he's a had a long interesting career, working with such directors and companies as Elia Kazan and The Living Theatre. He was saying to me that one of the biggest lessons he learned in the theatre as an actor was precision. That in the act of trying to achieve precision in his movement, thought, and speech, he took himself to new levels of artistic growth.
Two things went off in my mind: 1) How trying to get more precision in my sleight of hand has changed me as a performer of magic. 2) When I was an undergraduate I read a book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The thesis of that book was that scientific revolutions such as the Einsteinian one and the Galilean one occurred because there were some individuals who insisted in pushing to get that next decimal place worth of precision. Thoughts?
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Rick Holcombe Special user 624 Posts |
What specifically with your sleight of hand?
Angles? Pacing? Coin sleights? Cards? I just want to expand upon an example you might have. |
George Ledo Magic Café Columnist SF Bay Area 3042 Posts |
Being in theatre myself, what I read into his comment was that he learned how to do his job, not take shortcuts, and not be lazy.
This is discussed here endlessly, but a of people who perform magic tricks seem to think that magic is just about buying a trick or a book and doing it "per the instructions." Like a lot of amateur theatre directors who just follow the stage directions in the script "because that's what it says." "All the instructions are there -- no thought or work needed." Professional directors (the ones who make it in the industry) spend tons of time preparing for a show or a movie, as do top-level actors. Call it precision or whatever -- they do their work. Over the past few years I've discovered that I really enjoy the documentaries that come with movies on DVD, i.e., "the making of" the movie. Interviews with the director, cast members, designers, and so on. It's a mind-opener to listen to a cast member talk about his or her character in the context of the story and the period: the amount of preparation and research some of them did was awesome. DeNiro and Pacino are well known for this type of preparation, but many others do the same thing. No shortcuts.
That's our departed buddy Burt, aka The Great Burtini, doing his famous Cups and Mice routine
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tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
The degree to which the correctness of technique is expressed by card guys is extraordinary. Put something up for critique and see. One recent thing pointed out by my pal Arnold at the gambling spot was a flaw in the perfect shuffle when performed by magicians. A good spot and from this he developed a precise and beautiful execution of it. There are many that can do sleight of hand but few who do it really well. Arnold is not an entertainer by the way.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
Rick Holcombe Special user 624 Posts |
Tommy hit more on the question I had.
Also, you might consider the debate of a person's charisma overshadowing the technical difficulty of an effect. That person may be able to better entertain a group without needing to concentrate on precision with sleight of hand. Not to say that they could be comfortable being sloppy or imprecise in their technique, but that their personality makes their mediocre technique seem more impressive. |
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