The Magicanada Project

BrianMillerMagic · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 543 Location: New York State

This is simply a proposal for many magicians to shift their thinking towards how to present magic. Every magician has his own unique way of presenting magic of course, but I feel that there is one fundamental distinction which will always separate two presentational styles.

The first, and in my experience most commonly used style, is the "look at all these wonderful things that I can do" style. While it is widely accepted and utilized, I do not believe that it is the best approach.

The second, and the approach I would like to see more often, and hence the proposal for a shift, is to perform from a "There are all kinds of wonderful things that can happen if you just know how to look for them" attitude. In my mind, the key is to present magic as though anyone can do it, and anyone can see it, but only if they are trained. It then becomes your job as a magician not to "show off" all the amazing things that you can do, but instead to open your audience's eyes to all the amazing things that are possible, that anyone can do. The shift is from merely demonstrating miracles, to guiding the audience to see the miracles for themselves.

This sentiment was best expressed in a recent conversation that I had with Garrett Thomas. He said, "A bad magician performs at his audience. A good magician performs for his audience. But a great magician performs with his audience." I certainly can't claim to be able to achieve this effect 100% of the time, but with every performance I give I believe that I become more adept at achieving the desired result of performing with the audience, and in a manner of guiding rather than "showing off" as I suggested.

I'll briefly share a recent encounter I had which reminded me of the important of this way of thinking. It was an impromptu peformance for a few people, which I'll do very rarely. After breaking out a few of my staple routines, I broke out the cards (and only as the insisting of the audience). I performed a simple impromptu variation of a card at any number routine, but with a presentation spin dealing with the subconscious versus conscious mind which I crafted on the spot. When the "merely thought of" card showed up at a random number that the spectator had called for, the reaction was out of this world.

Later, upon reflecting on the performance, I couldn't figure out why such a simple, impromptu card trick had garnered such a great and unprecedented reaction. Then it occured to me that I had made up that presentation hook of the subconscious versus subconscious mind. That was the answer! The spectator who called out the number had become completely and one hundred percent convinced that his subconscious mind had somehow known where his card would be. This was confirmed two days later when I ran into him and he was still raving about the effect. He said, "I just can't get over how my subconscious knew where the card was. And the thing is, I know that if I just sat down with a deck, thought of a card and named a number, it wouldn't be there. Somehow you were able to get it out of me." See what happened? A simple yet fundamental shift in presentation brought the trick out of the realm of "how cool am I that I can do this trick" and into a completely mystical, yet totally believeable miracle of an event.

Just something to think about.

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Michael Kras · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:13 pm Post subject:

WOW! Another excellent short essay! I do enjoy your views on magic theory, and look forward to more in the future. I do see where you are coming from, but here are my thoughts.

As mucgh as I want to present myself as a surrealist with an actual power to control the mind of my spectators (I am a huge fan of Luke Jermay), the people I show magic to often don't go for that. They like visual magic.... they don't even care if I make someone's pulse stop! They prefer if I have a Criss Angel persona, complete with a "look what I can do" attitude. This is my difficulty.
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BrianMillerMagic · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 543 Location: New York State

I would hazard a guess that the only reason you audience (high school kids during free periods I assume) want to see the "Criss Angel look what I can do" style is because that is all they know. So change it up! Gradually start to work these kinds of presentations into your repertoire, and over time I promise you that you will see a big difference in how people react to you and your magic.
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Michael Kras · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:36 pm Post subject:

Sound advice, my friend. Thanks again for helping me with this!
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Liam · Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 424

great little essay.
i also have trouble presenting my stuff as magic as apposed to tricks
i think this is because people come up to me and ask to see magic tricks.
but this does sound like a strong presentation.

what ACAAN did you do?

BrianMillerMagic · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 543 Location: New York State

Believe it or not, all I do is a variation of Sankey's ACAAN from Boris Pocus. So simple, but so beautifully direct.

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