Is it better to have a strong meaning in a silent act, or just perform the magic with no real emotional meaning? What do you guys/girls reakon?

I much prefer seeing an act with meaning and emotion injected into the magic. It's just more enjoyable and easier to follow if the audience can connect with the magicians (or characters) emotions.

Kevin

As long as you are specific in your actions, everything will have meaning.

Watch any type of professioanl entertainment where the performer doesn't speak (or sing) and notice what they do. Jazz musicians, pianists, jugglers, acrobats, mimes, and so on. They always add some emotion to what they do, both becauwe they feel it and because they want to connect with and grab the audience. It's showmanship.

On the other hand, a pianist doing Tchaikovsky or Mozart and just playing the notes mechanically will put you to sleep.

This can really go many ways. You can have a great act without any meaning, theme or logic behind why your doing what you do. It can work. However, let me explain why it is VERY VERY hard to pull this off successfully.

I am going to use an anology to best describe it and answer the question.

To me an act is much like a plain pizza. It is good byitself and certainly it can be enjoyed by others as is. However, if you add toppings to this pizza you and other might enjoy it much more. There is more to tease the tastebuds and there for you and others can enjoy the pizza experience better.

I know this sounds real corny, but let me now show you why I see it this way and how it relates back to magic.

To me, an act that has no purpose or real theme to it must rely a lot on skill and skill alone. This is like the plain pizza. Skill can be fine and can work quite well. owever, you must present that show of skill as best as you possibly can. Why? Because there is nothing else left if the audience does not buy into this skill.

That is why layers can be added to an act to give your audience soemthing more to grab ahold of and enjoy. These layers can be anything from:

- theme
- character
- transition effects
- emotional response


There are so many more but those I listed just to name a few.

So to answer the question, no your act does not have to have a strong meaning, but to add layers to your act can give your audience so much more.

Kyle

I agree. If you can touch your audience emotionally they will connect with you and feel that they are part of the show, and therefore they will be sure to enjoy th experience.

Regan

Emotional response is just one of the many "layers" that can be used to give your audience more entertainment value. In a longer show format, an emotional piece is often referred to as a personality piece. This is an act in the show that has emotional value that allows the audience to relate back to you and see you are just like they are. It helps you to connect to them.

Kyle

Kyle, do you think its possible to add too many layers? Maybe if I added too many to my Pizza it might actualy spoil the taste - is there a balance with simplicity that you think needs to be found?

Good question, and I would say yes. It can be overdone.

When you add the layers the layers must make sense and they must all relate back to each other. Each time a layer is added to any act, they must work as a team or in unison otherwise the act becomes too confusing.

For example.. an emotional response layer that is used without any real theme is pretty useless because the audience has no real idea why the meotional response is there and there for will not understand it.

Does this make a little better sense? The layers tie in together like a puzzle.

Kyle

In a "silent act", the choice of music plays a critical part in adding layers to one's performance. Music sets the mood and elicits the kind of emotional response that the performer wants. I still remember Blackstone's performance of the Floating Light Bulb to this day (though I saw it more than a decade ago), because the beautiful, haunting music he used still resonates faintly in my memory.

Leo
Manila, Philippines

Music is indeed a very good layer and one that ceetainly needs to be thought out and used.

Kyle

Kyle is so right-

Music is an important Layer-adds so much to the effect performed-I add emotion on most effects as I imagine the Magic that happens is real!-My expressions plus having!
fun with the effects-almost playlike -the audience pick up on this!

Works for me!!

Music certainly creates mood. So does lighting, body posture, movement, voice (if any) and expressions. You will realise this is you study drama to a certain level.

Here is a very simple list of just a few of the layers I tend to use a lot in my acts and shows. I hope it is helpful.

- Themes: You can give more to your audience in any manipulative act if you simply add in a theme to the act you are doing. This can be a generalized theme in regards to the objects all relating that you are manipulating, or the act itself can be themed around a storyline. In this way you are performing a small 8 min play that just so happens to have magic in it. The audience can relate to the themed objects or the story and get more involved with your act and with you.

- Character: Every act you do should have a strong character present on stage. The audience needs to be able to connect with this character. If you can connect the audience with you, then they become more attached to you and can relate to what you are doing on stage. Ask yourself if your character is suave, comical, athletic, hip, sad, down on his luck. Each of these can become a strong character that can be conveyed in your stage movement and even your music.

- Style: With style, I mean the way you move on stage and the way you conduct and hold yourself throughout the act. It is something that must be learned over time. It is those little things that make a huge difference to an audience liking you or not. It can be the way you pause at the right moment and look at the audience and wink right before a big production. It could be the way you move and look and smile at the audience as if saying thank you without moving your mouth at all.

- Pacing: The way you pace and time your act can make a world of difference to an audience. In many manipulative acts, the audience is being barraged with too much visual input. They can not follow it all the time and so start shutting themselves down from even watching what it is you are doing. You must pace your act and place in it pauses that give the audience a chance to catch up, breathe a bit and give them a chance to applaude you before going into the next sequence.

- Transition effects: These are the simple things you can place into your act that changes it up a bit and ads so called "spice" to the act. It gives your audience something more to watch and breaks up the act from being too repetitive. For example: You could be doing a billiard ball act. You do a few vanishes and produce the ball. The ball gets tossed up and as you catch it it turns into a white silk. You do a knots of silk effect and the not becomes the ball again. In this way the ball to silk becomes a transition effect that gives your audience something more to be interested in.

- Emotional Response: This is a HUGE one and can work so wonderful if done well. If done right it can make your audience connect with you long after you have left the stage. It is causing an emotional response in your audiences by allowing them to connect and relate to your character and the predicament presented on the stage. It can also work closely in with the theme you are presenting.

Every person in your audience has experienced something in common. What is common to us all is emotions. We have all felt fear, love, confusion and happiness. These are common to every person know matter who you are performing for.

So if you can connect with them on one or more of these emotions, you can get that audience member to really relate to you because they are remembering a similar situation when they too had that exact same emotion or situation happen to them. they can relate.

Kyle

Thanks heaps. A lot of help in their. Thanks everyone, now to do some thinking....

James

Kyle-

Some members may or may not have known Kyle was quite crook earlier this year!

No doubt with the return of your constructive & informative posts all is well again-Fantastic to have you back again!-All fit & rearing to go with festival season no doubt!

Great responses Kyle-cheers

-Brent


( see your even well known in this part of the world!!)

Brent:

hehehe thanks buds. I am still not 100% well and still coping with this stuff I have. BUT I am learning to deal with it better and not allow it to interfere with my life and what I love to do.

I also have more time now that the festival season is slowing down for me. This is my slow time and my time to get myself ready for marketing to my festivals come January. So I am busy doing that. I am also busy writing my festival book and hope to get that done by January or sometime near there as well. It keeps me busy for sure.

I hope that some of what I typed above may be of help to you and others.

Kyle