SUCCESS in professional magic, when all is said and done, boils down to just one thing : how much people like you when you're NOT doing tricks -- the same as in a good marriage.


If folks are always "out" when you phone and put out all the lights in the house when they see you walking up their driveway, chances are you don't excite them too much. Like the old saying goes : you only cheer people when you leave the room.

And that's the way it is with the professional performer : your tricks great though they may be, don't mean a thing if the audience sits there wondering, "Did he always have that lisp?" or "Must he put on that phony smile?" or "What lovely hair! I wonder if he's a boy or a girl?"

You see, dear friends, as you perform your tricks, the folks out there are studying YOU: your expression, your clothes, your speech, your attitude -- summing it all up, your loveability. And I don't mean your ability to to make love; I mean your personal warmth and amiability, THE true pro soon has the men thinking: "I'd like him as a friend" -- and the ladies thinking "I'd like him for a pillow fight."

some performers come on so strong , the audience thinks : I'd like him as an enemy.
I've watched hundreds of performers over the years and divided the misfits into the following categories :

1. THE MUMBLER : tough, he does his tricks with skill, he rarely looks up at the audience. he mumbles to himself as if reciting the Rosary and when he smiles, it's a sick artificial smile like a baby with gas pains .

2. THE SHOUTER : hollers like an evangelist at the revival meeting. Keeps everybody awake and hostile. Nobody watches his tricks -- They're too busy watching his eyes to see if he plans to attack them.

3. THE BORE : does three effects in 20 minutes, each trick having a build-up bigger than the Normandy Invasion. Before he reveals the selected card, he drones on and on about the aces being missionaries, the jokers being cannibals, etc., etc., and, there being no wit or brightness in his dialog, the captive audience looks like bunch of fish in a basket : mouths and eyes wide open but all in another world. Eventually shooting a bore will no longer be considered a capital offense.

4. THE COCKY ONE : figures he's the best manipulator in the world and the folks out there are lucky to have been born in his era so they can appreciate his genius with a deck of cards. The Cocky One tends to talk loud fast and nervous, and after each trick he bows his head and the audience applauds, never realizing he's really bowing in silent homage to his own genius.

5. THE LEECHER : too obnoxious to win girls in private life so he gets his kicks in grabbing, feeling, pinching and mauling female "volunteers" (actually draftees to a private orgy). As the dirty old man asks the young girl her name, he squeezes her milky white arm; as he drops a coin in her hand, he massages her shoulder; and as he leads her back to her seat, he holds her waist and any other parts in the immediate area. His problem: he doesn't have the money to finance a love affair, and he doesn't have the nerve to become a rapist .
This man is living on borrowed time and eventually some no-nonsense husband or boyfriend will double-lift his nose.

In contrast to the LOSERS mentioned above, the great majority of working magical performers are personable and considerate and -- getting back to the theme of this piece, as likable in private life as they are standing before an audience.

There is an old saying : "what you ARE speaks so loud I cannot hear what you SAY."

If in real life you are a mumbler, a shouter, a cocky one or a lecher, the perceptive audience will not appreciate you or your tricks or your persistence in living .

THE remedy? frankly I doubt if there is any.
People don't change much as they go through life. The guy who was a bore at 20, will still be a bore at 30, 40 or 50 if audiences allow him to live that long. You can't change what you are, and if you find audiences resent you, admit to yourself you just aren't the performer type. You should restrict you magical shows to club meeting where sympathetic friends will watch you do you thing, and the gracious hostess will later serve coffee and sandwiches, which will "disappear like magic" and be written up in ring reports.

"The truth shall make you free."
Dear reader, so if you know in your heart that you fall into any of the above categories, try to make some changes: get plastic surgery, psychiatry, a new suit of clothes, a normal girlfriend, and join some religious group that will pray for you.

THE END

On 2005-01-19 09:11, sniper1 wrote:

well that was the whole article published on the linking ring on march 1973 .
and the only thing I don't agree with is that you cant change { in my opinion its very hard but you can change } apart from that all the rest was sound knowledge 40 years ago and its still good today

On 2005-01-19 18:29, Reis O'Brien wrote:
My new favorite cliche of the day magician is the "Creepy Mystic". That's the guy that wears all black (jacket, tie and shirt), and grows a goatee (also dyed black).

He tends to stare at you just a little too long with that Rasputin-wanna-be look, thinking that he is drawing you in to his hypno-spooky, Christopher Lee vibe, when really all you're thinking is, "What is that in the corner of his eye?" or "Is he going to try and kiss me?"

Then he writes "4 of clubs" on his arm in ashes. Good for you, Anton Von Dork... now give your mom her matches back.

On 2005-01-23 12:11, Fishsticks wrote:

Quote:

On 2005-01-19 18:29, Reis O'Brien wrote:
My new favorite cliche of the day magician is the "CREEPY MYSTIC". That's the guy that wears all black (jacket, tie AND shirt), and grows a gotee (also dyed black).
He tends to stare at you just a little too long with that Rasputin-wanna-be look, thinking that he is drawing you in to his hypno-spooky, Christopher Lee vibe, when really all you're thinking is, "What is that in the corner of his eye?" or "Is he going to try and kiss me?"

Then he writes "4 of clubs" on his arm in ashes. Good for you, Anton Von Dork... now give your mom her matches back.

Why would your mom give you matches? That's not a good mom.

On 2005-01-26 06:17, ComedyAndThenTheMagic wrote:
The best is the laymen magician who is... the "magician" who thinks he is a magician just because he goes to the magic meetings and lectures and hangs out with magicians and just knows how to do the packet tricks, yet is fooled when showed a david blaine special.