The Magic of White Space

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This is not all about magic!

Anyone who wants to make a living from performing has, at some point, to make a transition in the way they view the work they do.

Magicians start with tricks.  These are simply the units of our trade.  The thing we do that is different from everybody else.  Accountants do the books, brick-layers lay bricks and magicians do tricks.  The professional performer however has to stop seeing what they do as a series of tricks and has to start thinking of them as effects.  Why?  Because the moment he does he has acknowledged the audience.

I can do a trick to my self and because I know the workings,  (okay “the magic”), it can never be an effect for me,  it will always be a trick.  I must know what the effect is, and I have to consider what reaction it will evoke, but it is always from the moment I know the secret, a trick.  An effect needs an audience and an audience needs effects.

So what is the difference?  How do you make a trick an effect? The answer, or one of them, is to consider the “white space” that every trick provides.  This is the same white space that experiential marketers consider when plotting the sequence of events that create a customer experience.  They are the bits that don’t directly influence the trick but are fundamental to the effect.  If the trick is simply demonstrated and the white space left white the magician has failed to maximise the effect, in fact they may have failed to consider the effect at all.  An example may clear up what I’m talking about.

[WS]=White space.

[WS] A spectator selects a card.  [WS]   The card is returned to the pack.  [WS] The cards are shuffled.  [WS] The chosen card is found.  [WS]

There are 4 phases in this trick but 9 opportunities to create an effect. A common approach is to crash through the white space opportunities and focus on the trick.  The reason being that tricks are what magicians know best and many believe that this is the service they are being paid to provide.  They eliminate over half of the effect  in order to demonstrate a trick!  Many people struggle to understand how they should fill the white space and unfortunately I can’t answer that for you because it is as individual as the performer.  The thing to do is recognise the fact that there is white space there in the first place and then consider what the effect is that you wish to share.  Great magicians may do the same trick but very often the overall effect is different.  The trick is the trick, you are the effect.

So what do you do?  I know you’re probably not a magician but if you’re in business then you are a performer. You know tricks that your clients don’t know and that’s why you’re in business. So ask yourself the question “what’s the effect I want to share?”  then set about looking for the white space and making that the canvas for creating a great experience.


Why Hiring an Amazing Magician is Good For Your Business.

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Having been a professional conjuror for over 20 years now I have become familiar with the objections some people in the business world have to hiring a magician for anything other than pure entertainment.  The truth is I can’t blame them for missing the link between the magic world and theirs.

The magician on the other hand is desperate to cross the line that divides entertainment and business.

Corporate magicians worldwide claim to teach the “powers of persuasion” or the secrets of reading a person’s inner most thoughts so that you can implement these skills in your business, and it’s all wrapped up in the “infotainment” framework. Now I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade but the bulk of this information is reverse engineered, coming from psychology and then adapted to the magic or the magic adapted to it.  In truth any demonstration of reading a persons body language or predicting their actions is more than likely assisted by a few magical secrets that won’t be in the handout or in the book that’s sold at the back of the room.

That is not to say there is no value in these types of presentation, any information delivered with passion, integrity and the goal of actually improving the lives of an audience is worthwhile. If the magician and the magic serves to make it more memorable then it’s a job well done.

Which brings me to the crux of the matter:

What does magic mean to your business and what does it offer in terms of serving you outside of the realms of entertainment?

Magic is a platform, a blank page on which you can write any story you like. The right effect, (magic trick to non-magicians), provides the bare bones of a story, a beginning a middle and an end. There is an introduction, a climax and a resolution to even the simplest piece of magic and the role of the magician is to act as the story teller out in the open and the puppeteer behind the curtain.
If you watch much magic you will notice that the majority of presentations, even from the best and most famous magicians are descriptions of the plot, just the bare bones. They very rarely have a sense of theatre or story and the reason is that as the magician we put the effect at the centre of what we do because that IS what we do.

For you my corporate booking friend, there may be a different purpose. You may want to motivate your staff, plant an idea in the minds of possible clients or just tell the world how great your service is, this is your story and now you need the story teller.  If you story is clear, if there is a problem solved or a conflict for which you have the resolution, in fact as long as you do have a story then there is, I promise you, a piece of magic that will slide into it like a hand into a glove. If the hand and the glove are not a perfect match then you will need an experienced story teller, (read amazing magician), who can weave any loose ends together until the fit is right.

Magic is about people and people are what make business possible.

Magic is about stories and stories change features into benefits, information into emotion.

Magic is about exceeding expectations.  Isn’t that what your business is all about as well?

Let me know what you think, or if you would like to learn more about telling your company story in a compelling way then please get in touch – if not that’s fine too.

Walking the Edge

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Image courtesy of Angelo González - Flickr

 

When I started out as a street performer there was just me.  I had no kids, no partner and no other dependants which meant that there was little to loose by striking out on such a diverse lifestyle choice.  The lifestyle however became ingrained in me, it got under my fingernails,  I began to be defined by the choice I had made and I started to see the world from that perspective alone.

Now my life is very different.  I have two children, I am in a long term relationship and I have a lot of financial responsibilities thrown in for good measure.  For the longest time my ability to busk, to fly by the seat of my pants and to always have something “turn-up” was good enough, it seems however that isn’t true anymore.  I have become a victim of my own skewed perspective, the belief that I was successful has resulted in me failing to achieve success.  I acted “as if” only to realise that everyone around me had started to believe the hype as well.  I was walking along a narrow ledge, now it seems to be getting narrower and the wind is picking up.

I know that some people will frown on my openness with regards the difficulties that I face as a professional performer, they will see it as “bad for business.” But you see that’s who I am and I can’t, or more probably won’t, change that for anyone.  We all have our individual battles to fight, it’s these turbulent moments that shake you from your slumber and remind you that you’re alive.

I have been given the advice that I must do what it takes to ensure my survival but there is something fused into my spirit that allows me to walk along the ledge for slightly longer than most, longer than is comfortable or indeed sensible.  That doesn’t mean that I’m not scared, truth be told I’m terrified.  I don’t want to fall because I know the damage that would do to lives of everyone I care about, but I have walked this way before and I’m still here.  Nor am I blasé about it – I appreciate fully the implications of treading such a dangerous path, however I have walked this way before and I am still here.

Fear is a powerful motivator but only if you can control it.  If you let it win then you will loose all focus and almost certainly fall.  It can also paralyse you, rooting you to the spot and rendering you useless.  I’m not brave by any stretch of the imagination but I understand fear.  Maybe not the fear of the adrenaline junkie or others who find themselves in harms way through no choice of their own, but I understand fear.  Nor do I believe in a God who I can turn to, no greater power that will offer me comfort.  I am and always will be one man and as such I have learnt to rely on myself, which by my own admission is sometimes not enough.

The hardest part convincing my family that it will be okay without having a shread of evidence to base that on.

So what is there for me to do as I balance so precariously on the edge of the unthinkable?  Should I run away into the safety of the masses, to the comfort and apparent security that mediocrity has to offer?  Do I settle for less than I had dreamed of, less than I believe I am really worth?  Or do I turn and face the fears, look into the abyss and see it as another extraordinary opportunity?

Just a few more steps and I’ll be careful, I promise.

Working Hard not Smart

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For the last 12 months I’ve been working hard, really hard. I was blogging regularly over on 52IDEAs and posting interviews on Magic State of Mind whenever I could.  I also put together a new website for my service as a Tradeshow Magician and began promoting myself as a speaker.  Phew!

The problem is that I’m now a little bit confused as to what it is I actually do.  Now if you know about running your own small business you will realise that not knowing what you actually do is as close to fatal as it gets.  All I have really achieved with this hard work is more hard work.  I have to an extent neglected the core of my business and busied myself with the glossy side of it all.  A new website is great but if you don’t do anything with it then it might as well not exist. Promoting yourself as a speaker is wonderful but if that “promotion” is irregular and inconsistent then it simply confuses people, especially those who thought you were something else.

The blogs and the interviews have been great.  I have managed to attract a healthy number of subscribers with very little promotion and that’s good in one way but suggests I haven’t really focused on the important stuff.  I could have built a really strong list of subscribers and created something far more worthwhile if my focus had been in the right place.

I have tried to be all things to all men and that is a mistake, a big mistake.

I was reminded recently of a conversation I had with a friend who is one of the UK’s most successful and profitable magicians in which I was discussing my various projects.  His response was simple and to the point, “I’m just a magician” he said and that I believe is the mindset that helped him build the astonishing career that he has now.

I can’t be “just a magician” I’m afraid.  It isn’t in my DNA, I’m wired differently to my friend although I admire his single mindedness and can’t argue with the results he has had.  That doesn’t mean however that I can’t have a clear path, it just has to be one with multiple lanes. (The irony is that my friend is really much more than just a magician, he is Tradeshow presenter and is booked as a speaker).

My first move towards working smarter is to bring everything together in one place.  I intend to combine my current email lists, (4 is way too many), and use this site as a central hub of all my activities.  The Magic State of Mind site will be the only other site that I regularly update which should hopefully mean that I can maintain a good quality of content.

In terms of work that pays the bills I can spend more time letting people know that I am a magician and a speaker and making sure my existing clients are happy. What  I have learnt from my friend and from all my hard work is that to succeed at many different things you first have to succeed at something.

Clarity

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Funny really as this is the main reason I haven’t managed to finish a post for a while – lack of clarity.

I’m still working to clear my workspace of all the books, props and other crap that I don’t need to achieve my end goals. I want to create a clear space between me and my desired results so:

1. I’m not distracted and

2. I can filter through the white noise that can cause me a mental blockage.

It’s an ongoing project and one that has taken me far longer than I ever anticipated. My aim is to strip back to the essentials and rely on the knowledge and understanding that I already have as opposed to seeking comfort in other peoples thoughts and ideas. It’s a leap of faith, I know I don’t know everything but I have to be confident that I know enough. Of course I am still influenced by others but I want to obtain some kind of ownership of my own perspective which in the past has been prone to be ever changing. So how am I going about this? Well primarily I am following a method of restriction. I’m restricting the number of “live” projects that I’m working on. This by default limits the number of reference/magic books and props that I need and everything else is being boxed and stored. Hopefully this will mean I can lift some of the fog that has been clouding my thinking of late. I’m also setting an arbitrary 40 books rule that states I can only ever have 40 books in my office at any one time, if I get a new book I have to eliminate one of the old ones. Let’s face it 40 is probably too many, you can only read 2-3 books simultaneously in my opinion. I know that we all love to have those materials ‘to hand” and that the more books on display the smarter we look and feel, but they are contributing to a lack of progress, they are the visible equivalent of white noise. Eugene Burger writes about the Tyranny of the New in his “Experience of Magic”, it’s also referred to by some as “Shiney Object Syndrome”, if you have young children you see it every day. The thing is that kids have a sponge like capacity for taking in the new where as the majority of adults are a little like blocked toilets in the knowledge department. (Not pretty I know).

In “Making Ideas Happen” Scott Belskey talks about the Project Plateau, the stage in a project when enthusiasm has faded and hard work is required. This is the point says Belskey when we look around for a new distraction to revive our flagging levels of productivity. The result is a series of unfinished projects or half baked ideas. Seh Godin has written a book on that phase, it’s called “The Dip” and it’s well worth your attention.

So what am I working on? Well some of you may know that I have started a new site, The Magic State of Mind, which is aimed at helping magicians be more creative and productive. (Don’t worry the irony isn’t lost on me). In order to help me however I have involved others. I have asked a number of working professionals for interviews and by them making the commitment I am forced to deliver, I have a responsibility to them. I also enjoy the process of talking to other performers and everyone I’ve spoken to so far has taught me something. I enjoy the editing process as well, I’m not particularly good at it but again I’m learning. The project has a bigger meaning for me than just being a website. It’s building towards something that I want to achieve as an individual so there are a number of intrinsic motivators as well.

I ‘m working on 2 routines for events that are already confirmed, again a built in commitment.

I’m revising and preparing a keynote speech that I have to deliver in October to 500 people – a real deadline.

So here’s a challenge for you:

  • Pick 2 or 3 effects / projects that you have been thinking of working on or are already involved with and make them your focus.
  • Source the reference material you need and eliminate or store the unnecessary books, dvd’s etc.
  • If you can scan or copy the stuff you do need then do that, get rid of the surplus, keep everything to a minimum.
  • Set real deadlines. A specific event, or make a commitment to someone else. Give yourself a reason.

Now you’re clear to concentrate on the project and the actions that are needed to move you from where you are to where you want to be.