The Magic Cafe Forums - Balance of Magic and Story

Three and a half years later, I respond to Bob...

Quote:

On Oct 31, 2020, Bob G wrote:
I've been thinking about the four criteria that SpellbinderEntertainment spelled out:

--Would the story stand on its own as entertainment with no magic?
--Would the magic stand on its own with no story?
--Were both compelling, emotionally meaningful, and succinct?
--Were both able to seamlessly blend and combine into a unified whole?

I like the sound of them very much, but I get confused when I think about specific tricks. I'm brainstorming here, and would be interested in others' comments:

Color Monte, for instance, is an effective story trick. I would say that the trick meets the last two criteria but not the first two. Without the story, the magic would be a meaningless sequence of hand motions. Without the magic, the story would be rather bland. So I'm thinking that the magic and story work together in the same way that many good songs do: neither the music nor the words stand alone, but together they can be captivating.

As far as Color Monte goes, I think the patter/script is part of the trick -- you can't separate the two. I could hand you a Zombie and say perform this and you could do it with no patter at all. But if I ask you to perform Color Monte, you have to use patter or it's not a trick.

Without the magic the story would NOT be bland -- the story is about you being cheated out of your hard-earned money by a con man! So the story could stand alone, but you wouldn't just recite it as if you were doing Color Monte, you'd actually tell a story.

Most of the stuff I do has a story component, but I don't tend to actually mix them together. In Commune Contraband I tell the story of growing up on a religious commune where it was forbidden to listen to secular music, but we kids would use our little siblings as "mules" to carry cassettes from one kid to another. During the story I show some of the albums we were sneaking around, and then pass them out to the audience and someone thinks of a song on one of them and I'm able to read their mind. (It's a little more comprehensive than that, but that's the gist of it.)

Almost all of my "personal" routines follow the same pattern -- In Carnivoracious I talk about the weird animals we ate while living in Nowhere Alaska and then pass out cards with a list of the animals for some mind-reading. In Site Seer the story is about the 18 months my wife and I and our two teenage kids lived on the road in 208 square feet, and then someone imagines a place and I read their mind. Etc., etc.

I *want* to mix the stories and the magic together -- but I've seen it done poorly so often that I'm not in a big hurry to figure it out. Plus, the format I have works pretty well for me.

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Jay Jennings Veteran user Scottsdale, AZ 337 Posts	Posted: Apr 27, 2024 07:18 am 0 Three and a half years later, I respond to Bob... Quote: On Oct 31, 2020, Bob G wrote: I've been thinking about the four criteria that SpellbinderEntertainment spelled out: --Would the story stand on its own as entertainment with no magic? --Would the magic stand on its own with no story? --Were both compelling, emotionally meaningful, and succinct? --Were both able to seamlessly blend and combine into a unified whole? I like the sound of them very much, but I get confused when I think about specific tricks. I'm brainstorming here, and would be interested in others' comments: Color Monte, for instance, is an effective story trick. I would say that the trick meets the last two criteria but not the first two. Without the story, the magic would be a meaningless sequence of hand motions. Without the magic, the story would be rather bland. So I'm thinking that the magic and story work together in the same way that many good songs do: neither the music nor the words stand alone, but together they can be captivating. As far as Color Monte goes, I think the patter/script is part of the trick -- you can't separate the two. I could hand you a Zombie and say perform this and you could do it with no patter at all. But if I ask you to perform Color Monte, you have to use patter or it's not a trick. Without the magic the story would NOT be bland -- the story is about you being cheated out of your hard-earned money by a con man! So the story could stand alone, but you wouldn't just recite it as if you were doing Color Monte, you'd actually tell a story. Most of the stuff I do has a story component, but I don't tend to actually mix them together. In Commune Contraband I tell the story of growing up on a religious commune where it was forbidden to listen to secular music, but we kids would use our little siblings as "mules" to carry cassettes from one kid to another. During the story I show some of the albums we were sneaking around, and then pass them out to the audience and someone thinks of a song on one of them and I'm able to read their mind. (It's a little more comprehensive than that, but that's the gist of it.) Almost all of my "personal" routines follow the same pattern -- In Carnivoracious I talk about the weird animals we ate while living in Nowhere Alaska and then pass out cards with a list of the animals for some mind-reading. In Site Seer the story is about the 18 months my wife and I and our two teenage kids lived on the road in 208 square feet, and then someone imagines a place and I read their mind. Etc., etc. I want to mix the stories and the magic together -- but I've seen it done poorly so often that I'm not in a big hurry to figure it out. Plus, the format I have works pretty well for me. Mystery arts articles and thoughts: https://ExclusiveMagic.com Free video crash course for numerology readings: https://LoShuNumerology.com
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