Part of the problem with being a magician is that we think that our only job is to fool the audience. This creates in our minds a war of sorts. We "win" if we fool the "lay" spectators. If we "trick" them. Their job is to figure it out, and they "win" if they do.

When I was a kid the ads told me to do this. Make the kids look stupid, embarrased, etc. The magician was perfect. He came all dressed up in his tux. His powers were infinate. Superior. The audience inferior. Things fell apart in the hands of the spectator. They were dummies. This created a war of nerves. If someone simply said they knew how we did it, we believed them. We had lost. They won.

Then I was asked to perform a show for mentally handicapped adults. Oh my. How could I possibly do this show? How could I make them come up and look foolish like I was told to do in the instructions that came with my tricks? The breakaway wand. The plunger on the head. The clatter box. This show was simply impossible.

That was when the light went on for me. I changed. For the first time, my character became imperfect. The umbrella fell apart when I was using it. The wand popped off when I tried to impress the audience with my "powers." I had a problem. I was imperfect. The audience needed to help me to make the magic work. They laughed at my mistakes. We empathized.

Amazingly, the audience loved it and my whole show changed from then on. It was ok to make mistakes, to be fallible, to be human. To make the audience look good. I had broken the invisible barrier that separates the stage from the spectators, the performer from the audience. I got through, and hit them where it counted, in the heart. It wasn't just an intellectual challenge, a mental exercise that said, "I'm going to trick you, your job is to catch me."

That mindset changed my character and my own idea of what my job was. I was there to entertain the audience, not simply to fool them. We worked together to create wonder. It was our job, not mine alone. And things got a lot better. And much more fun!

As Doug Henning once said, "The art of a magician is to create wonder. If we live with a sense of wonder, our lives become filled with joy."

Get out there and create some wonder and fill your life with joy. Not fear.

The audience is coming to see you, not your tricks. They want to find a way to bond with you, the person. To be moved by your performance. Your tricks and gimmicks are the tools you use while you attempt to touch their lives in some meaningful way. Figure out a way to do this and whether or not you fool anyone will matter much less than whether or not the audience comes away with something meaningful after seeing you do your thing.

:magicrabbit: