20.06.2010
Creativity, Performance, Productivity, Street Performing
As a street performer I became very familiar with edges. Your edge is defined as the front of your audience and it’s vital you get it right if your show is to succeed. Some performers would lay down rope or draw a chalk circle, others, magicians normally, would start working at the edge and then back away leaving the spectators in the perfect position. Over the years I tried all of these in my attempts to set the perfect edge. On the street learning to create an edge was crucial.
So why is it so important?
Edges outlined your performance area but they also outlined your intentions to perform and attracted interest. The act of building the edge was the method as well as the outcome. Your edge also determined the scope of your performance. Set your edge to far away and you’ll not be able to create the energy you need to fill the show, too close and you cut off sight lines and therefore vital income streams. Creating the boundary also built your “4th wall” , an osmotic layer that provided a means of filtering what came in and what left the performance. Shows could not risk being a two way street, with equal input from either side of the wall. Control was always needed to prevent things being taken over by the masses. The edge contained the energy of the show – if the wall was breached and holes appeared then energy would be sucked out of your show faster than you could create it . Skilled performers will plug the gap as fast as possible stopping the show until they have.
Boundaries and edges are essential. They are a force field that provide identity and focus.
If you don’t spend time outlining your boundaries and intentions then you can’t expect others to understand what your place in the world is. You may well be ignored or taken for a ride. Without your boundaries clearly stated you are more exposed to ridicule and criticism by people who just don’t “get it”.
You need to know where your boundaries lie or you can’t ever know how far you can go in pursuit of your goals. Boundaries act as guide lines that have a bearing on all the decisions you make. If you set them too far away you’ll never be able to fill the space and you’ll eventually be lost in the crowd. Set them too close and you’ll never extend your grasp, you’ll feel hemmed in and your performance will be crushed.
If your edge isn’t defined then it becomes difficult to know what was you and what wasn’t. Your ideas and thoughts will become mixed with those of other people and again you’ll lose yourself in the crowd. You run the risk of pursuing someone else’s dream and not your own, of becoming a second rate version of someone else and not a first rate version of yourself, (to paraphrase Judy Garland). Performers are often told to “be yourself” but without boundaries who is that? Hey it’s easier to be someone else, someone who has clearly defined who and what they are already – but that’s a sure route to deep dissatisfaction.
As performers we offer ourselves up as a finished product but the truth can be very different. We are often ill-defined parodies of others, fuzzy and blurred around the edges with only a packet of cards separating us from the people we’re performing to. A magician, a corporate entertainer, a mindreader, a magical entertainer, close-up magician, blah, bah, blah. What is it that make you unique? Where is your edge? Have you set your boundaries?
Go ahead draw a chalk circle that says exactly who you are and then work that edge. Use it to create interest, build on it and take control of your performance before you lose yourself in the crowd.
10.02.2010
Creativity, Performance, Productivity, Stage, Street Performing
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
03.02.2010
Performance, Productivity, Street Performing
You know the test that you can pose to people, “Can you tell me what the numbers on your watch are, Roman or Arabic?” Most people can’t tell you because they have been looking at the damn thing every day for such a long time that it is now taken for granted and ignored. Well how mindful of your environment are you when you perform. read more
07.12.2009
Creativity, Performance, Street Performing
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
23.11.2009
Creativity, Performance, Street Performing, Trade Show Magic
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.
14.09.2009
Creativity, Performance, Stage, Street Performing
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. read more
01.09.2009
Creativity, Street Performing
I went back to Covent Garden and died on my arse.
I spent a week with legends who are responsible for 80% of my professional repertoire.
I worked on new material.
These things are connected. read more
As a street performer I became very familiar with edges. Your edge is defined as the front of your audience and it’s vital you get it right if your show is to succeed. Some performers would lay down rope or draw a chalk circle, others, magicians normally, would start working at the edge and then back away leaving the spectators in the perfect position. Over the years I tried all of these in my attempts to set the perfect edge. On the street learning to create an edge was crucial.
