Does Your Idea Have Legs?
I recently performed magic at a Trade Show for a regular client of mine, the difference this time was that I sold in the idea of doing a big box trick as opposed to just the close-up magic. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The initial response to the idea was very good, when I described it in the pre-show meetings it sounded great, but then like all good ideas the reality of implementation took over. As I drove across country to pick up the illusion the shine seemed to fade a bit. Loading the illusion into my car in the snow and then unloading it into my over filled garage, well the shine faded even more. The process of re-furbing the illusion so that it was fit for purpose really started to fade the greatness of this great idea and finally delivering the dam thing to my client and building it in their offices for them to look not at all impressed made me think perhaps this was a mistake.Move on a few weeks. The illusion arrives at the show the day before we open with the graphics that had been designed by the client now on the box. I built the box on the stand but I still hadn’t had a chance to run through my presentation with the prop itself. That I’m told will have to happen on the day the show opens – now if there’s a reason to be concerned….
Day one: The girl who is getting in the box is an actress booked by the client, (budget driven outcome), and has never been in an illusion before, oh and by the way she’s not arriving until 09:30, the same time that the show opens. My great idea has become a source of internal panic but I can’t show that to the client and in the back of my mind there is still a glimmer of the original concept keeping me positive. When my accidental assistant arrives she does a great job, but we realise that there’s a sight line problem and spectators can see certain things I don’t want them to see. (Keep thinking about the concept!!!) I perform the illusion about 6 times on day one with mixed feedback from the client and have to stay after the show to make some alterations.
Day two: I make sure that we perform the illusion immediately so that we get over the inertia that can set in if you don’t “just do it”. The show isn’t as busy as hoped so I find that at times I’m having to run through the presentation to literally no-one, but that doesn’t matter, I’m starting to see the concept and the messaging take shape. The client is more positive about the whole thing, I think they can see it too.
Day three: It’s working – the messaging is right on target and we are getting larger crowds. To be honest I’m not sure everyone is “fooled” by the illusion but a lot of people are making positive comments about the way the presentation worked as a whole and that to me is the main thing with Trade Show Magic.
Ideas have a tendency to fade in their glory over time and the hard work necessary to make them a reality can kill them dead. With any kind of performance a negative comment or a less than perfect reaction can lead to you ditching the whole thing way too soon. Seth Godin calls this phase “The Dip” and if your idea is going to succeed you need to push through this or make a decision to stop. A decision not a submission. If an idea has legs it will keep running even over the most difficult terrain and you need to keep reminding yourself of your original concept to help maintain momentum.
How many ideas or routines have you “conceptualised” but then allowed to fail because of the level of difficulty or the pain involved in bringing it to life? No-one said it was meant to be easy but it is usually worthwhile.
