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Xaa New user 56 Posts |
How do you approach creating a new effect? Do you begin with the end in mind and then work backwards, thinking of how it might be accomplished? Do you begin with a gimmick and then build a trick around it? What creative approach do you find works best when creating new magic?
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." - Albert Einstein, What I Believe (1930)
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funsway Inner circle old things in new ways - new things in old ways 9982 Posts |
I would suggest you be clear in your own mind about "being creative" as a process, and "creating soemthing" as an end result and "originality." Do you mean "being innovative" as in a completely new effects (whcih some would say is impossible), something that would appear new to an experienced audience, "different spin" in the eyes of magicians, or just the thrill of putting old tricks together in a novel routine?
In general, though, "creativity" can be derivitive or on-derivitive - and both have value. The real problem is claiming originality in publishing or selling an effect. So, please explain what "creating new magic" means to you.
"the more one pretends at magic, the more awe and wonder will be found in real life." Arnold Furst
eBooks at https://www.lybrary.com/ken-muller-m-579928.html questions at ken@eversway.com |
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Michael Daniels Inner circle Isle of Man 1609 Posts |
I think it can start out from different places, but that there are always some basic questions that need to be considered and answered along the way.
AIM: What do I want to achieve? METHOD: How can it be done? RESEARCH: Has it been done before? ORIGINALITY: Can I create a better method, or better presentation? PROBLEM-SOLVING: What are the technical problems to be overcome? ENGAGEMENT: Is the presentation interesting, logical and elegant? PERSPECTIVE-TAKING: What will the spectator be thinking at each stage of the routine? LOGICAL DISCONNECTS: How can I build in elements to rule out spectator hypotheses? TESTING: Is it fully road-tested in real-life situations? RELIABILITY: Is it 100% reliable? If not, what are the odds of success? OUTS: How can I make it fail-safe? CREDITS: Have I referenced all the necessary sources? Mike |
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tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
I start by knowing its very difficult to create a knew magic effect in our art. I more or less start with some old thing and make a new little drama out of it if I can. That is about as new as I have ever got.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
If your audiences or the muses put something that seems useful before you - go for it. Realize the item from images or words into a work that serves your audiences and your performing style.
The rest of the matter as regards our literature is not a great rush. Works often take years of constant performance and audience feedback to settle into what best serves you in performance. From there sorting out what is specific to your character and what might be of use to others is another long process that requires much attention of a different sort.
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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Brad Burt Inner circle 2675 Posts |
The creative process is so internally subjective that it's difficult sometimes to generalize about it. That said I have found the following to work for me and others I've talked to although not all. I go the route of learning as much about something as possible. Want to be Creative magically? READ every freaking book on magic you can find. READ lots. Read also in any subjects that you may want to use as patter possibilities.
But, magically just stuff yourself with as much knowledge as you can. Watch every video you can on DVD or YouTube or where ever. Go to as many shows as you can. Oh, read in the HISTORY of magic! Just cram it all in. At the same time start to perfect as much technique as possible. I learned a lot of Cigarette moves although I have never smoked. They work with Crayons and other stuff also! Learn as much technique in as many disciplines as you can. Billiard Balls, coins, rope, etc. At some point I can virtually guarantee that things will start to click. This over here will seem to fit with that over there and something new will emerge! Listen to what comes OUT of your subconcious mind and WRITE IT DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never say, "Well that's stupid..." It may sound doopy at the time, but with a little twist? Bang, you have a classic. Creativity doesn't just pop out of nothing. Great song writers on the guitar actually know HOW to play the guitar. The know at least basic chords really, really well, etc. The reason that most folks are not that creative is that they don't think they are creative. Past that it's just work. Lots and lots of work. Try this, try that. Take a bunch of gaffed cards, double backer, facers, etc. and toss them around. Play with them. Come up with an effect that sounds totally killer and then work on the 'how'. A lot of guys just stumble over stuff that's cool not really looking for it. They have just been doing magic so long and know so much stuff that things will just click. Now, a story: Guy calls me up years ago and says that he scored some very cool little leather wallets and they have a flat magnet in them. Was I interested in seeing one. I said sure. So he sends one out and I go to work on it. Stuff just clicked. This was NOT a magic wallet as such, but it was a great size. About the size of a back pocket wallet. Opened like a notebook and had little pad of paper inside and the magnet. I had had an idea that was festering about in my brain for a couple of years. I put some stuff together and came up what I called, for lack of ANY idea what to call it, The Grand Slam Wallet. It had two routines. My version of an old, old, old thing that was a prediction and a Repeat Signed Card to Wallet that I'm still very happy with. They guy had two hundred and I bought them all. Sold all 200 in about 3 weeks. Wallet, deck, gaffed card, written instructions and a video for like $60. One of the most popular things I've ever come up with and it killed me that I couldn't get more of the bloody wallets! Oh, well. The moral of the story...... What I came up with was a synthesis of all that I knew. A bit of this and bit of that combined to make something that was different from them separately. Hmmmmm..... that's it... Best,
Brad Burt
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Xaa New user 56 Posts |
Great thoughts, Brad, and applicable to creativity in many areas, I think. Selling 200 wallets in 3 weeks is also amazing. Creative marketing?
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." - Albert Einstein, What I Believe (1930)
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hackmonkey Inner circle England 1093 Posts |
Sometimes I think of an effect then a try and think of a method to achieve it. Other times I think of a nice move then create an effect from it. Both way work differently.
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Brad Burt Inner circle 2675 Posts |
Xaa...nah...I just happened to have a major mailing of my newsletter go out just as the item was ready for sale. The business was peaking at the time, I was not ill, everything just aligned perfectly. We were selling a ton just on demo alone, etc., but the mail order just rocked. Sheer serendipity.
And, you are correct, the 'system' is applicable to almost anything. Partly my thoughts were generated by talking to friends who were professional musicians. I and other have noted for years the similarity between magic and music at certain points of intersection. I have never talked to any musician that writes their own stuff that just started writing music knowing nothing about it, etc. Best,
Brad Burt
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Xaa New user 56 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-08-08 19:15, Brad Burt wrote: I was thinking music as well (professional musician here.) Magic is my mistress and I'm constantly noticing the similarities. The creative angle you pointed out hadn't occured to me. Thank you.
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." - Albert Einstein, What I Believe (1930)
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Brad Burt Inner circle 2675 Posts |
LOL...and a hard mistress she can be, but never, ever boring. The parallels ARE striking though when you get to things like the creative process, practice, variability of technique and on and on. I've used what little I know of music for years to help folks understand a point I was attempting to make about magic to students, etc.
Best,
Brad Burt
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makeupguy Inner circle 1411 Posts |
At Wack-o-Magic I try to find something that's a classic.. and find a new way to do it.. or an improved way.. or a routine that no one has thought of that solves what I always perceieved as problems with the original trick, routine or prop.
My "Tricky Bottles" can be done with REAL Curvy Plastic Coke Bottles... My Mis-Made Monster finally adds some logic to the old Strat-o-sphere My new silkola gives reason for the silk, it's vanish and it's reappearance in the form of a very adaptable story. Everything Wack-o-Magic makes has come from what the magic community has told me it needs... one way or another. I think everyone here has made really valid points.. you find what you need.. you make what you need.. you discover what you need... they sound similar.. but they're VERY different things. |
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Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-08-07 18:39, Brad Burt wrote: Great post! Knowledge is power. Sometimes a random thought can be allowed to bounce around inside the think tank, and the more other things inside that tank with it, the more things it stands a chance of colliding with. Then like a nuclear reaction, the rate of ideas bouncing off other ideas begins to multiply at an ever increasing rate. Suddenly, you are on a roll!
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
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Brad Burt Inner circle 2675 Posts |
Michael:
Great illustration. By the by I believe that this is exactly what happens when an individual, but even more so for a group, is "brain storming". In this convention folks purposefully toss stuff around and let it collide with other information from those also in attendance!!! BANG...stuff emerges both good, bad and indifferent that can then be culled for the 'good' and used. Best,
Brad Burt
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tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
What technologies would bring dramatic benefits to man?
A teleportation device, a …............?
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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Michael Daniels Inner circle Isle of Man 1609 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-08-10 10:18, tommy wrote: Something to keep a thread on topic would be a good start ;-) Mike |
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tommy Eternal Order Devil's Island 16544 Posts |
When it comes to Creating New Magic Effects thinking of what “magic” technologies would bring dramatic benefits to man might be one place to start, then wondering how one might turn such into a reality, least in appearance, might be a place to finish and on topic it seems to me.
If there is a single truth about Magic, it is that nothing on earth so efficiently evades it.
Tommy |
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Michael Daniels Inner circle Isle of Man 1609 Posts |
OK, fair comment.
Mike |
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funsway Inner circle old things in new ways - new things in old ways 9982 Posts |
"folks purposefully toss stuff around and let it collide with other information from those also in attendance!!! BANG...stuff emerges both good, bad and indifferent that can then be culled for the 'good' and used."
Isn't that what should be happening on Internet forums?
"the more one pretends at magic, the more awe and wonder will be found in real life." Arnold Furst
eBooks at https://www.lybrary.com/ken-muller-m-579928.html questions at ken@eversway.com |
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Whit Haydn V.I.P. 5449 Posts |
It often does, Ken.
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