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Why are you performing?
This led to an interesting conversation. Initially it was about what she didn't like about magic. She made some silly comments saying "Magicians perform to trick people and body their ego." She went on to say I was worse because I didn't use sleight of hand. This was strange as everything I did was using sleight of hand and p psychological forces. When asked to explain she said it wasn't sleight of hand because "I never put anything up my sleeves. (Bizarre)
Why do you perform magic?
If we answer that question honestly, we can improve our performance and the experience of your audience. I am sure you are aware of someone who Performs magic to make themselves feel better by getting one over the spec. However there is another side to , and that is when you perform and do it purely to entertain, but people in the audience feel you are just trying to make food out of them our the audience.
Obviously there are some people who will believe this no matter what you do or say. The person last night is one such person and all you can do is control the influence that person can have on the other specs. As a general rule there are a few things you can do in every performance.
1. Never pick on someone, belittling someone or making them look stupid should be avoided. There are some performers who can pull it off and call it comedy. These are few and far apart, it is best not to go down this avenue unless you are experienced.
Secondly, plan your performance. Have a reason to perform. You may be telling a story or trying an experiment. Then lead your audience and or your volunteer through your performance. Doing this should br part of any performance, not just to stop people thinking you are tricking them, but more importantly to make your performance have structure and purpose, making the overall performance of a higher quality.
As I said there are some people who cause problems and there is nothing you can do to stop them or make them change their attitude to you or magicians in general. Most can be controlled quite easily. But some will burn you and cause as many problems as possible. It is an area of performing that deserves an article just on that subject. so I will tackle the subject and open it for discussion shortly, unless there is someone else wants to start the discussion.
Tags: hand, magic, of, performing, sleight, trickd
Views: 14
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bob Renwick on
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Sorry to hear about your experience of being heckled.
I personally find it hard to see why a person shouldn't like magic. Although I have, in the past, encountered people who claimed not to, they haven't made it clear why this should be so. In your case it seemed that there was a feeling of disappointment that you didn't use your sleeves. I can't explain that. But I do get the impression that some people for various reasons can resent the magician his (or her) secret, and I suppose that's only natural and to be expected. There is a lot of pressure on people these days to not appear in any way naive, and the image of an empowered, sure-minded individual is one that is pushed at us as an ideal often enough by the media. So it stands to reason that a spectator might feel a lack of control for a short time (though hopefully not in any real danger).
I am reminded of that television Masked magician exposure programme, 'Magic's Biggest Secrets Revealed!' or some such title, where the cynical voice over has the tone of someone who once believed in Santa, but then found out it was just some guy in a red suit.
I'd be interested to hear how you managed to placate that person at your family gathering enough so that you were able to continue with the performance.
I agree with you totally about resisting trying to belittle the heckler. As Derren Brown says in his 'Confessions of a Conjuror', it's better to try to draw the difficult spectators in rather than push them away (which is much more tempting), flatter them a little, perhaps encouraging them to feel that they have more power than they realise by allowing them to guess a card correctly, etc. That way they are more likely to be won over and enjoy the performance.
Also, using a story, or experiment/demonstation has been a staple technique of magic shows since the early days, and it still works. Though I've found it's always worth trying to devise new ways of using this approach. It's what most people expect a piece of magic to be. When someone agrees to watch a trick, unless they are supremely unaware, they know it's a trick, but for that moment they allow themselves to be fooled. If the illusion works, then for a brief second they hopefully see what appears to be a chink in reality, a slight warping of the laws of science that govern life, the universe and everything, and the conotations of that undermines their suppositions about reality and that, in theory, is where the WOW factor kicks in, and you get your deserved praise for the work put in.
I'd love to be able to change the fact that some people just can't take a magic show, and I'm also sure, like you say, the ways to deal with those awkward customers would benifit from closer examination.
BR
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