Lee

are you saying you come up with the presentation for a trick that hasnt even been invented yet? I cant imagine how someone could do that. Thinking of ways to present a trick that you do not know what the effect is?! I don't get it

Eric, I start with an idea for what I would like to show an audience - the script and idea for the effect sort of come together at the same time. if you look at the material in MOM, you will see what I mean, I work "script heavy" in my bizarre work. My haunted key script runs almost four pages, as an example, and is based on a true story about my grandfather's adventures in the Merchant Marines during World War II.

Spooky as heck, too, I'm told, especially as I do the key routine in the volunteer's hand, not mine.

I start with the idea of what a "real" wizard would be able to do, from a storyline idea, then frame the trick around that. So a Midas Touch story might be the framework for telling about how the mage would watch the gold form in the flare of fire that would flash from his touching anything on the full moon, then demonstrate how it happens with a small rock that someone else wraps in a piece of parchment, which like cloth, is the only thing uneffected by the curse. The mage picks up the stone in its wrapping and FWOOSH! a flare of fire and a small nugget of gold drops to the table!

Story, effect, method. Think of it as "reverse engineering" applied to magical routines!

Hope that helps!

Lee Darrow, C.H.

I personally find that it is harder to come up with menthods ;D
since you get onto them most times without kowing it ;D it happens when I am practicing something but the effekt it creates is really different to come up ;D

so I think they are both hard to come up but that is a thing that everyone needs
to know for himself since its a very personal ting

just talking about new effekts or menthods

Greets

Sometimes they are both hard and sometimes one is easier than the other. it is the age old question which is more important the form or the function and which follows the other? I try to pursue the effects first and then figure out methods.
John

That's the way that Borodin works out many of his ideas. I also do the same thing.

"Richard's Cigar," which is an unpublished work of mine, came into being because of an actual occurrence. I used the story to inspire an effect, which, in turn inspired the method.

"The Inquisitor," which is in Borodin's new book (soon to be released -- watch this space for details) was inspired by some items Borodin found when he had moved into a house in Bamberg. He found an old doll's head in some of the construction materials. Shortly after that, he learned that the house had once been occupied by an inquisitor. Then he wrote the story and the routine.

For me methods are harder to come by than effects. Maybe because I simply love the theatrical aspects of magic. I usually come up with the effect and then try to find a method to make it work.

Effects for sure for me.

It's difficult to come up with something truly original, because so much has been done before and there are a limited number of magical "events." ie Vanish/restoration etc. Also I think it's very important to have a plot, a story, or a purpose for an effect. Just aimlessly doing something or other does not make for good entertainment. The audience likes to be involved with you and to follow what you are doing. Fitting the plotline and the outcome to your exact style can be challenging.

Having decided where I am going, getting there is easier for me. Like Rannie, having read around the literature, there's usually more than one way of making it happen.

This proves something I have believed for years. This is the essential difference between men and women, psychologically speaking. Women are more gifted when it comes to intiuitive things. Men are more mechanically inclined.

This is why you hear about "women's intuition" and "Mr. Goodwrench."