ENERGY
I recently worked with Gazzo and he did something that had a huge impact on me. When he entered the circle for his show, (the crowd was already in place), he brought a drummers stool in with him and sat down Sat down! The effect this had on the audience was tremendous. All of a sudden the focus shifted and it was as though Gazzo had breathed in and drawn the audience closer with that breath.
There is something very special about the use of energy by really talented performers.. One of my favorite comedian is (was) Bill Hicks, he would walk on stage and say nothing for a very time, the energy in the audience would move form up beat to slightly uncomfortable and yet the focus always remained on Mr Hicks. It’s a tactic that magicians have used, (Max Maven is an obvious example), and it is something that I try to do myself in my own cabaret. It takes nerve and charisma to carry it off, you must be in control at all time because if you can’t pull the audience back from the brink then you will have lost them forever. Also don’t confuse energetic with energy and intensity. A highly energetic performance can have absolutely no intensity, but an intense performance will have different degrees of energy released or more importantly held back. High energy does not mean high energy output, it means a reservoir of energy being controlled and channelled. Shake a bottle of pop and leave the lid on – the bottle contains a huge amount of energy waiting to be released and if you take the lid off quickly then the result is a mess – that’s the basis of most comedy magic acts.
The other aspect of this slow burn is that you have the opportunity to take the audience on an emotional journey – when you come bouncing out with that “I’m a magician grin” plastered all over your face, the only way the energy can go is down, unless of course you can maintain that level of “open” energy in which case both you and your audience will be knackered by the end. Now you may argue that in the world of cinema many great action films start with an extended high energy sequence, (the Bond movies etc.), but their goal is different to a 30 minute live performance. In a movie you can have multiple story lines and weave different threads of energy throughout a much longer time-scale. It’s not the same, the magician can’t clutter up the performance with too many multiple layers it must be a relatively simple progression working towards a climax. Importantly the climax needn’t be energetic but it must be full of latent energy. Some of the most powerful endings to shows have been picked out by a single spot light, condensing the energy of the room into one small spot, sucked in and focused……..the energy is still there but it’s being contained and if you’re successful it will be released in the form of audience reaction.
Closing a show with an intense piece after you have won over the audience however is relatively simple compared to opening a show in the same way in front of an unknown crowd. It takes great showmanship and huge amounts of self belief – Gazzo has both.
