The Magic State of Mind

I have asked a number of successful magicians if I can interview them.  Most of them said “Yes”. The plan is to either accompany each of these interviews with “take-aways”, a summary of the key points and advice,  how it applies to the rest of us and how it can help us develop as magicians & performers.   I will post these, along with the videos on a new site soon, with the intention of getting one or even two videos up each month. Hopefully you’ll subscribe because if there is enough interest then people will be more inclined to say yes to being interviewed.  It’s a virtuous circle!

The new site is The Magic State of Mind, and will be live by the end of the week, (in one form or another).  It’s aimed at helping magicians with their creative projects and their productivity.  I have a number of great people lined up for interview with the focus being on their success and how they achieved it. All of the people I interview will have another angle on magic that isn’t just entertainment, let’s call it “Applied Magic”. Motivational Speaking, Trade Shows, Writing, Inventing, Publishing etc.  I don’t want to talk about tricks as there are enough sites already doing this.

You can subscribe on the site itself, or by clicking HERE.  If you are already subscribed to this blog then you will get updated automatically as I will post links to the videos here as well.  If you’re not subscribed to this blog then just fill in your email address in the box on the left and you will get updates about both this blog and The Magic State of Mind.

The Andy Nyman Interview

Andy’s interview was the first interview I did so please forgive any technical or artistic cock-ups.  Andy was great but my delivery of these can only get better.  The interviews are recorded from Skype calls so the quality of the picture and the framing isn’t perfect but I believe the content makes up for it.

I have to say a huge thank you to Andy for being my test pilot, he is an incredibly busy guy so I owe him big time.  As I said there were some technical hitches, not least the fact that we were cut off abruptly, mid sentence at the end which only adds to the mystery in my opinion.  Maybe in true horror genre style I can persuade Andy to make a sequel?

To see the video on the Magic State of Mind site and read my take on what Andy said click HERE

Please leave comments and join in the conversation.  Post on Twitter, Facebook etc.  I’ll be extremely grateful.

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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.)  The Way of Street Performer is to define your pitch and draw a crowd, body by body if need be.  The way of the busker on the other hand is to sit to the side of a flow of pedestrians and work to a constant stream of changing faces.  A street performer will deliver a show that has a set structure, an act that will allow the performer to move away from their set routines,  play with the audience and improvise when things happen outside of their control.  The busker will play a continuous, repeating set without ever interacting with the passers-by.   A performer is always looking at how they can give more to the audience,  constantly assessing feedback, the busker is happy to do what they have always done.  Finally at the end of their act a street performer will deliver a bottling speech, a call to action that asks for a specific contribution from everyone involved.  A busker simply accepts what ever donation is dropped into the hat.

Performers draw in – Buskers push out.
Performers are accountable – Buskers are invisible.
Performers engage – Buskers are isolated.
Performers are pro-active – Buskers stagnate.
Performers are artists – Buskers are doing a job.

This isn’t a post about street performing, it’s about whatever you’re doing.

So what are you doing?   Are you busking or performing?

My current act isn’t as good as it should be.  I’ve manged to do okay based mainly on my ability to perform but it’s been lazy.

The act is as follows:

Splash bottle production.
Rope tie with selected card, based on an idea I saw in the Ricky Dunn book along with other aspects that I worked out on the streets last summer.
Cups and balls, framed with a bill in lemon.  It the natural progression and I have used it over the last 20 odd years.

So that it.  3 tricks, (4) if Bill in lemon is a separate trick.  I don’t need any more for a 30 minute spot but obviously I have other material  if needed, including:  Slydini torn and Restored Newspaper,  Salt Pour, Slydini Silks, 11 Dollar Bill Trick and Egg Bag.

I think less is more and if you do fewer effects then you do need to be a stronger performer but isn’t that the point?  Be prepared to drop material if it will help with the pace of the act and don’t be precious.

Structure is really important to me within a cabaret, but maybe you’ve got that point already.   The “for my next trick” approach jars with my need for a through line and a narrative or flow.  It’s very difficult to achieve and one of the ways I try to avoid it is by overlapping routines or changing the whole tempo by properly introducing an effect.  For example if I produce a bottle of water at the beginning then  I will pour a drink from it during the performance – it doesn’t sound like much but it fixes the effect in the overall program and gives it reason.  Introducing an effect is also a great way to move from one trick to another and to create a greater sense of theatre. Simply saying “and for my next trick” results in a kind of catalogue of effects and is very clunky.  By changing the tone, pace even costume as you introduce an effect you are essentially doing a ” visible scene change.”  It allows you to frame your presentation correctly instead of asking your audience to continually jump from one moving train of thought to another.  But it takes careful scripting and thought – spouting a load of bollocks about your recent trip to India wont do it and I think I’ve had that rant before.

So what about the tricks I do:

Splash bottle – I wanted to change this as a good friend of mine opens with the same effect although now I feel I have a different feel to the trick and so I’m toying with keeping it in.  It allows me to establish my character as I can deliver lines as I inflate the balloon.  I have been looking at using the Derek Dingle balloon sequence from his card in balloon to begin with, as it is a piece that suits my style of humour.   If I drop the trick I will need a new opener, maybe the Salt Pour.

I started working on the rope tie last summer.  It’s a basic Kellar tie with a card selection added to the mix.  My hands go in and out of the bag during the routine as I fail to find the card or to flash that the hands are momentarily untied etc.  I produce a glass of orange juice from the bag  along with some other sight gags to add more to the routine, and will use it to pick pockets and steal watches where possible.  I like the effect and I’m happy with the way it is coming together.  To introduce the trick I talk about Houdini and how he was formerly billed as the King of Cards, giving me a reason to do an escape and a card trick all rolled into one.  It’s also potentially a closing trick which could replace the….

Cups & Balls.  Of course I love the trick but it has several problems, mainly to do with sight lines.  I currently have a large case which doubles up as a small stage whenever I’m working a private event that wont be kitted out and I’ll use this for any after dinner where people are still seated.  The Cups is very versatile up to a certain crowd size and then after that you need to work really hard to sell it or rely on AV to make it visible.  Also doing the bill in Lemon as part of the cups mean effectively I loose an effect.  So the plan is to work an Egg Bag sequence that will finish with a Lemon load and to do this before I introduce the Cups as a separate effect.  The egg bag is a bit like the Cups in that it will be difficult to find a sequence that isn’t the same as someone else’s, but I’m trying.

So that ‘s the basics I’m starting with at the beginning of 2010 lets see where it goes over the next 12 months.  How about you?  Can you honestly say you have an act or do you have a string of tricks that you’ve cobbled together?

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.
This weekend I was performing in two Gala shows with Junge Junge, two of the nicest and smartest guys in magic.  The two shows were back to back with a turnaround of 1 hour,  My first show was not great.  New(ish) material, in broken Spanish meant it was bit of a shambles.  Fortunately for me the guys had watched from the back of the theatre, (I opened, they closed), and they talked honestly with me during the turn around period.  The advise was clear, hard, and necessary.  I had forgotten some of the basics, eye contact, prop management, and it was summed up as “not good”.  (In contrast the organisers felt I had done a good job, which highlights why sometimes it is valuable to seek criticism and not just accept praise.)  So I had the choice to either be pissed off that someone had dared question my performance, or take it as it was intended as good advice.  I chose the latter.
So many times I have heard performers justify mistakes and shit performances with a string of meaningless excuses or just a pure lack of self awareness and I’m as guilty as the next guy, (who at this moment looks like a Spanish chicken farmer).  This is compounded by the number of magicians who criticise in a non-constructive way, usually as a way of getting round to showing you a trick (or 10). In the right conditions this can trigger a game of  “That’s shit, watch this”, which will continue until someone dies.

So……

Taking Critcism
•    Seek it out and make people aware that you are open to it.
•    If you’re not feeling strong enough to take it, defer it don’t dismiss it.
•    Be your own hardest critic, not your biggest fan.
•    Don’t disregard anything immediately – think it through.
•    Write it down.
•    Say thank you!

Giving Critcism
•    Ask if the timing is right before you crush a delicate ego.
•    Make sure you know what you’re talking about.
•    Long lists are not welcome.
•    Be honest not “clever”
•    Make sure it’s broken before you try to fix it.
•    Remember it’s only you’re opinion.
•    If it’s obvious, it’s OBVIOUS!

As for my second Gala Show it was a hundred times better than the first but in my opinion there’s still a long way to go.

Please feel free to leave only positive comments about this post.

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.