Photo by MichaelERay
There are two distinct ways to approach performing on the street, there’s the way of the Street Performer and the way of the Busker. (These definitions are mine by the way. Many people use the term busking and street performing to describe the same thing and they are as right as I am.) read more
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why you’re a magician? What is it about magic that makes you want to and gives you the confidence to perform? Why not be a juggler or a straight forward stand up comedian? (Okay I understand why you don’t want to be a juggler.) The reason you do it now might not be the same as the reason you started in the first place and might suprise you. I started because I needed a job when I was an out of work actor and even then it was selling magic not performing it. Back then I was driven by a need to make a living and although this outside force still exists it isn’t my driving force anymore. read more
Most close-up magicians will say that they do a cabaret, however most of them don’t. What they do is Close-up magic and they stand further away. It’s a bad habit formed from magicians usually being given the job of compere and then later on trying to tie that same material into an act. A good cabaret needs structure and it can’t be a hotch-potch of tricks thrown together. It needs a beginning a middle and an end. Structure is what makes the difference between a poor cabaret with strong magic and a great cabaret with standard effects. The structure is more important than the magic. read more
Image from http://www.sxc.hu
I’m not one for New Years resolutions but I do believe in planning ahead. It also seems that change is taking place in the magic business whether I plan for it or not. So I really have been thinking long and hard about what the next 12 months will mean to me. Starting with the big one – my job. read more
While I was away in Spain I heard that Jim Cellini had passed away. People closer to him than I was will write at length I’m sure about the man and his life, that’s how it should be, and of course my thoughts are with his family. read more
Image from www.SXC.hu
As I write this I’m sitting on a coach traveling to Madrid having just finished performing at another InterMagia, festivals of magic for the general public. The Spanish love magic, there are probably about 70 pure magic festivals across Spain each year, maybe more. One of the many positive aspects of working at festivals like these is that I get to work with some world class acts and even better I get to spend time with them during the long Spanish meals that we’re treated to. read more
I recently wrote somewhere that magic was a performance art and although I didn’t think that there was always room for art there had to be an element of performance. The point I was trying to make is that if you work in a commercial market such as mix and mingle I felt the art side of magic was bound to suffer. If this wasn’t the case then we wouldn’t all be doing the same kind of material – commercial magic. Very often we need to make an impact but we only have a very short window of opportunity to do it in, that’s where stock commercial routines come into there own. They’re direct and require little thought on the part of the spectators, perfect. So that’s it then, there is no art in commercial magic?
Not exactly. I was limiting myself to the tricks and that’s always a mistake.
Very often the art lies not in the tricks we do or even the presentations we frame them in, the art lies at a much more personal level. If you think that there is no art in interrupting a group of people, or in starting a conversation with a stranger then you are missing out on a large aspect of what we do in these “artless” environments.
For those magicians who look down their noses at Children’s Entertainers and think their is no room for art there then again you maybe missing where the real art is. It isn’t Run Rabbit Run, it’s the art of talking to children and gaining their respect. In street performing the art is in crowd building and control not getting the melon under your hat!
Maybe you think that the job of a magician is to do magic tricks in which case you are not only wrong but you are in the wrong line of work. Do anything but be a magician and then you can do tricks whenever you want and not have to worry about the art. We have all had the experience of the spectator who can do a few tricks, or who, after you’ve performed a trick, declares “my son can do that.” They’re not saying “I’m a professional magician” or “my 8 year old is a professional magician”, they are simply pointing out to you what you should already know – the trick is not that important. Magicians are professional communicators, and our job is to engage with spectators and that is where the real art lies.
So let me re-state my original point: Magic is a performance art. There should always be a performance and the art should be present in every atom and every second of what we do.
With the announcement of as storytelling laureate and the fact I mentioned storytelling in a recent post I felt compelled to talk about about, you guessed it, storytelling! One of the best definitions of a story was in “Funky Business” and it described a story as something that converted “information into emotion” and that is essentially what a good presentation of magic should do.
Imagine the typical presentation from your “good” magician:
“Please take a card. Now put it back in the pack. Was that your card – Ta Da!”
I can imagine the rush for the film rights on that one. read more
Our profession is full of competent magicians. They’re good enough to keep the client happy and they do a good job. They perform a small number of tricks very well and always receive good feedback from the audience. They charge a good fee and are worth the fee they charge. They will have a nice photo of themselves on their website. read more
The following is based on notes from a lecture that I only gave once.
5 ways to approach developing Trade Show material:
• Close-up Magic that has no link to the company you represent but entertains.
• Fixed Set
• Magic that uses the product as the prop
• Common Language
• Brand driven read more
