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whiteoakcanyon Special user 899 Posts |
It is always so interesting when I have a chance to perform new magic routines for spectators. I have been working for months on what I thought was a terrific coin/card routine. People enjoyed it, but it certainly was not a wow. Then someone requested a coin matrix. Of course, they did not know it by that name, but I knew what he meant. So I performed the Tonight Show Matrix created by Dean Dill. I have not performed it in a long time, but I was happy to do it. They loved that routine. I definitely need to get better at gauging what people will enjoy. Anyone else have a similar experience?
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ViolinKing Veteran user a loyal user has no more than 307 Posts |
So long as you are sensitive to reactions, and have a sample audience to test things on, I'm sure you could get a feel for what is in .
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satellite23 Elite user 424 Posts |
With many of today's modern magicians, especially younger ones, the idea of "getting reactions" has become misunderstood in my opinion. With the emergence of street magic in recent years, and such magicians such as Blaine and Angel, it is very easy to assume that their type of magic is how all magic should be. ON their respective shows, you see various people screaming their heads off over a simple coin trick, or whatever.
Many modern magicians assume that because Criss Angel and David Blaine get these types of reactions, so should they. However, they may become disappointed when the same coin trick only gets a mild reaction from a real life audience. Magicians today don't understand the value of entertainment. Many think that entertainment means that the spectators nearly have a heart attack after watching a trick.For some spectators, that might really be the case. But for the rest of the world, the magician needs to entertain them, not by showing a cool coin trick, but by showing them a funny and lively coin trick. You may not receive the best screams, but you certainly will be remebered as a magician. |
jrmagic New user D.C. 21 Posts |
I love magic and I love being fooled, but when I am fooled I never scream. Instead I am in my head dumbfounded searching for answers. I am sure it would appear on the outside that I am mildly impressed. I suspect many people are like this. Sometimes the best reaction you can get is dead silence.
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Ekuth Inner circle Floating above my 1538 Posts |
Satellite23 nailed it.
"All you need is in Fitzkee."
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s.freeman New user 54 Posts |
It truly is more about you than about the effect, though I have found the same phenomenon. I see a trick and think "Wow! That looks like magic, totally clean, that will really surprise people!" and then it seems to fall flat for spectators. I think I learned this lesson best when I discovered that my simple sponge ball routine is one of the best pieces of my act no matter what age the audience. Learning to see magic from the spectator's eyes is something you'll probably have to remind yourself of a few times during your journey. We can easily fall into "magician's mindset" were we look for impressive effects and invisible moves. But the truth is that making people laugh and smile is our real goal and I've pulled that off even when my trick totally bombs. I've also pulled amazing tricks that entertained no one, that's when I hit the practice room again and re-work something to make the trick worth watching. I used to be super picky about not using tricks that used tons of gimmicks, afraid that I'd get caught using special tools, now I've learned that if a person is having fun, they won't even think about trying to figure out how it's done. That's my two bits I guess...
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Aus Special user Australia 996 Posts |
I was reading an interesting thread in the food for thought section of the café that had a philosophical discussion about putting “wonder” into our magic. Through all the two and throw of the admirable goal the original poster tried to achieve there was really no practical way to measure or to tell if this wonder was achieved or not. This was simply put down to the fact that there is no reliable metric to measure “wonder” or any other audience response and that simple fact is really at the crux of this argument as well.
However what we can do is try and manifest reactions in your spectators by not only focusing on the strength of an affect but how we perform that effect. Sometimes simple changes in how we dramatize things and can add heaps to the climactic impact on an audience. Magically Aus |
whiteoakcanyon Special user 899 Posts |
Aus,
I agree 100% that sometime simple changes in presentation can yield great results. This morning, I started to reread Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz with just that thought in mind. Mark |
jmvives Regular user 117 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-12-31 08:53, satellite23 wrote: Perfectly expounded.
"Make your magic meaningful" Max Maven
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