Tony,

Long time fan here! One thing I always enjoy when watching you perform is your ability to weave an entertaining story.

Where do you draw your inspriation from and what advice can you give to those of us that struggle to come up with decent patter?

Hi Rowdymagi5,

Nice to hear from you again my friend. Thank you for kind words.

I have always liked creating stories since I was I was kid. I just liked to sit with my notebook and think up stories to write. Even at a very young age though, they always seemed to be on the spooky side or had a touch of melancholy. I guess that carried over into my love for bizarre magic.

Generally these days, I tend to come up with a story first especially with bizarre magic and then create the effect around the story. Maybe this is working backwards but it just seems to work for me. I know it may be easier for people to have the effect first and then develop the patter or storline around it but I have always felt that if you can dream up a good story in the beginning, that you will find an effect to suit it. It may not work for everyone but it was just the way it started out for me.

As far as giving advice to anyone who wants to create a story, bizarre or contemporary, I would say just forget about the trick for a while and sit down with a pad and pen and jot down a plot, followed by characters and setting. So just use some loose ideas at first. You may already have a rough idea of a storyline.

Example: There is a haunted house on the outskirts of a small town. Its been abandoned for a while but the kids like to ride their bikes up there during the day or night and hang out. One night they break into the house to have a look around, then some strange sounds start coming from the attic. They investigate and find an old trunk. In the trunk there is a diary or an old wooden box or something like that. One of the kids takes it and then strange things start to happen in the next few days.

The story goes on until a dramatic ending of sorts, however it is you that ends up with the box or diary because one of those little kids was you when you were younger. Now you still have possession of it and your magic effect begins here. Maybe its a musing box that makes noise or perhaps the diary is a prophecy (prediction) of things to come surrounding your magic effect.

Essentially, you begin by telling the tale and then you enact out a magic scenario with your spectators.

That is how I do it especially with bizarre magic. I always come up with a few ideas that turn into a short story. It is easier for me to then create an effects around the plot, characters and setting of that story.

Believe me, give this a go and you will have success I am sure. Things just start to fall into place and soon you will have a magical idea that will work with your storyline.

Just don't be afraid to sit down and start writing loose ideas, doodling pictures or making point form loose scripts. It will come to you naturally. Just be you and the rest will follow suit.

Tony

I love your approach by coming with the story first. I'm reading Tommy Wonder's Books of Wonder and He calls it the Mind Movie. Coming with how it would look to the spectator first if it were real magic. Then coming up with how it could be done by magical methods later.

Your method seems to work the same way. Coming up with the story first, and then weaving a methodology through the story. Am I right?

Greetings,
Cirrus

Indeed Cirrus, you are absolutely correct. I should read the Books of Wonder. I really admire Tommy Wonder and to this day have not read them. It sounds like there is some brilliant work in there.

Tony

You really should read the books, lot's of great essays in there. I am not reading the books for the effect, although they are top notch as well, but he has a more bizarrist attitude to his way of presenting magic, as you will read.

I agree Cirrus. Tommy always had a wonderful allure to him and I truly believe that he would have made an awesome bizarrist!

I will quote a small piece from him:
" The whole face of magic would change completely if we never did things without having a presentational reason."

Henning Nelms Magic and Showmanship is great too for bizarrists. It has great advice and a super motivation for the center tear.

One of tr things I admire about Tony is his amazing ability to give even the simplest of effects a great story. He has inspired me to look at some of my magic and try to infuse it with mire meaning. Nice to see you as the gets of honor, man! You deserve it!

Hey Cameron,

Great to hear from you my friend. Thanks so much for the kind words. We need to catch up soon!

Tony

Hi Tony

I love what you are saying about story.

What is the essence of story? What advice would you offer to begin to think "plot"? (versus just random thoughts or facts about something)

This is great stuff! Thanks so much!

Tom

Hi Tom,

Very good question. What really is the plot? Well, I believe it is everything that the story should be about. In other words, what do you think should happen from the beginning middle and end.

In terms of a magic or bizarre magic scenario, I like to start with some sort of event that is going to set the tone. For a example, a haunted insane asylum that has been abandoned for quite some time. Many deaths and human tragedy took place there. Some high school kids want to spend a night in it as a final adventure before graduation. You know, guys wanting to go out and impress some girls so they venture to a forbidden place along with some alcohol, etc and plan for a fright night. They don't really expect anything to happen but something does. It turns into a ghastly horrific nightmare and in the morning half the kids are dead, the others suffer life long debilitating pain, maybe one goes insane and the last one is left to pick up the pieces of her broken life. The killer is never found.

This is basically the plot for my effect Hampton Falls which I released about 3 years ago.

When I first started out writing the plot, many moons ago, I had absolutely no magic effect in mind. No modus operandi and not even close to a starting point for an effect. I only knew that I had to write the story first. I didn't care about the effect yet cause I didn't have one.

I simply needed to write a scary story that could have easily ended there and I would have been happy. Once I had the final summary and believe me, it changed many times before I was happy, I finally started to work on what I was supposed to actually do with it. I wasn't even thinking a living a dead test in the beginning. I just started to play with the characters, the setting, which was a derelict old abandoned asylum and tried to figure out how I could turn it into an entertaining tale of horror. Things start to roll and come together once you have the complete story. Believe me, anyone can do it. It just takes a little patience and a good imagination.

That's awesome Tony... Thank you! What is most helpful are your own personal (albeit scary!) examples. This helps a lot. It seems that imagination plays a huge role. And let it soak and tinker with the idea for a long time. It seems it does mean giving oneself the permission to not be like everyone else and colour outside the lines. Thanks Tony! Thanks for sharing your story expertise!

My pleasure Mason.

Just remember sometimes it is better to create a story without having to worry if it fits a magic trick. Some of the stories I write sit dormant for years before I can find a magic effect to suit them. I have a big old binder full of stories I have written and some have still never found a magic effect to pair them up with. Someday they might but even if they don't, that is cool with me.

Tony,
Isn't there a way of sharing the stories, so other magicians might find a use for them? Compile them in a book maybe? Bizarre magicians love to read a good story.
Greetings,
Cirrus

That's not a bad idea Cirrus. I like that concept. I never thought about it before. I just may do that as I got a ton of them written that have never found their way into an effect. Maybe someone else will.

That could be a great project for 2012. Great suggestion my friend.

Something may come from that.

TC

Tony, we should definitely talk soon. I'm booked through September but after that we need together cracking on the project. Toot, toooot!

Yup, I agree Cameron!

Are you lecturing until September.