Has Anyone Noticed...

James Wise Magic

Elite Member
Dec 28, 2007
1,021
13
well I still get a few screams and stuff.

Usually it's people laughing like crazy saying that I'm satan. :p


idk about you though. Maybe your performance isn't at it's best.
 
Dec 17, 2007
858
2
Canada
The problem lies not with you nor the audience it lies with exposure. Not with exposure in magic but in life think about when The Beatles came to America the were exotic but now anything from England is normal. The internet, tv ,radio. Are ruining the element of surprise. Final summation people know a little about a lot.



-Michael
 
Personally with all the mainstream magic nowadays, it's not that much of a surprise to see someone on the street performing magic. You could easily go home and watch the trick online (youtube) or on TV.

It used to be amazing to find someone on the street with a deck of cards. Or go to a show and see a magician on stage pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Now you have the ability to see this whenever you want. It's no longer something you can upon it's something you can easily find whatever the time may be.

That's just my opinion though. I don't perform much but I do show my family flourishes and some tricks here and there. However, I have noticed the same thing.


Michael
 
Dec 10, 2007
204
0
ive noticed something similar to that and i think that i know what it is. Lately ive been tend to lean towards tricks that are more difficult to do and not necessarily harder hitting. Tricks that fool magicians. For example ive gotten reactions with the biddle trick that i have never gotten with the queens from laymen.

They dont care they just want what seems the most magical and sometimes we get away from that. or maybe thats just me...
 
Feb 28, 2008
354
8
I don't know about that... Most people I run into have never had magic performed for them in person and often run and scream. I think it depends on your crowd and stuff. If you show the same people stuff all the time it becomes more of the same I guess.
 
Feb 28, 2008
354
8
ive noticed something similar to that and i think that i know what it is. Lately ive been tend to lean towards tricks that are more difficult to do and not necessarily harder hitting. Tricks that fool magicians. For example ive gotten reactions with the biddle trick that i have never gotten with the queens from laymen.

They dont care they just want what seems the most magical and sometimes we get away from that. or maybe thats just me...

This is really true. To a layman, an ACR is a lot more awe-inspiring than pretty much any other trick there is. I think a lot of magicians often lose sight of the fact that their audience should be normal people and not other magicians. I think to us as performers, we value something that's very difficult or visual, but to laymen, I think very visual effects sometimes look phoney to them.

A good example would be Madison's Color off of Dangerous. To us, it's kind of different, but to someone that doesn't know magic it's no better looking than a shapeshifter or a shake change.
 
Apr 9, 2008
325
0
Singapore
I think the reactions of your spectators depends on their character. I've never got a scream from my spectators but I do get 'wth,how do you do that?" etc. I'm still looking to having crazy reactions from the spectators.
 
Nov 24, 2007
130
0
32
Hermosillo Sonora
Thinking that people doesn´t like to watch magic because they can watch it on youtube is way the hell far beyond reality. It´s from like another dimension. Lets make an example.
Lately i have seen the Jonas Brothers get really famous and people go their concerts, sing their songs over and over, and also "watch them on youtube". Or not just them, any other artist. Theres way the hell a ****ing difference between being there and watch them on youtube.
Your girlfriend to you: hey! lets go to the Maroon 5 concert.
You: Nah! lets see it on youtube...
Do you actually imagine your self saying these words? Think about it.:eek:
 
Jun 10, 2008
921
1
Newcastle upon Tyne
I could say that audience's are becoming de-sensitised to magic through mainstream television magic, but to be honest, it's probably more to do with the fact that you're not performing as well as you once did.

C!
 
I could say that audience's are becoming de-sensitised to magic through mainstream television magic, but to be honest, it's probably more to do with the fact that you're not performing as well as you once did.

C!


I agree with the first part... The expectations of lay people have become higher. They have seen Chris Angel, David Blaine, Copperfield do the impossible so of course they have grown de-sensitised to magic a bit.. Finding a choosen card or making it jump to the top 100 times has been witnessed by many.
So for a magician to truly impress today you truly have to break new ground... and there are very few who can.
 

Deechristopher

theory11 moderator
Moderator
The key here is offer something different. Something your audiences won't have seen before.

Come up with crazy new ideas, or present things in unfamiliar ways.

I don't do too much card stuff - people know the phrase 'sleight of hand' and will use it at every given chance to appear down with the homies... I show people stuff that is physically impossible to explain, When some one see's something appear under your skin in blood red, when coins bend in their hands, when things move of their own accord..

Give people something to watch that they won't ever have seen before - you guys are the magic's underground junkies, show the world what it means to be an underground magician.

Hope that helps get the cogs turning a little... Just because Criss is on TV every week is no excuse not to have people creating some elaborate cult around you during performance.

You have the opportunities and the potential to amaze people beyond the point of even caring how you did what you did, it's just recognizing how to attack it correctly to get this response.

Cheers,

D.
 
Apr 27, 2008
1,805
2
Norway
hum

well, i just got around to performing Prophet, and that seems like a huge miracle and always gets people swearing lol.
but thats just because no one expects hundred dollar bills to appear and dissaper in a flash.
i think you just have to come up with a shocking trick, that people deep down want to know. maybe not a 'find a card ' type trick but something different, unique.:)
 
Sep 1, 2007
378
0
UK
I'm not a huge fan of the screams, anyway. I much prefer it when peoples jaws just drop and there are few gasps, and everything finishes up with everyone smiling, laughing and thanking me, which has tended to be more normal for my recent (but few) performances.

I think it all rests primarily in presentation. Do an ACR only saying "watch, it's going to come back up to the top", chances are your reactions aren't going to be all that great, though you might get an occasional big reaction from somebody. If you work on the presentation such that it would be entertaining to a degree even if there were no magic at all, then you are onto a winner.

Keep in mind also that some people just don't like magic. A friend of my parents' was over from Ireland once, and he just laughed at anything I did saying "fast hands" and "I don't like magic, it's not my thing". It's a bit of an extreme, but you get the idea.

Huruey
 
Jan 26, 2008
419
1
Sweden
It has nothing to do with that magic is on tv and that people have seen so much magic, they have not and even if they would have, they are still amazed, because your doing things they just have seen on tv and probably believes are fake.

It depends on how good of a performer you are and what effects you do.

Effects which have a quick surprise often gets some screams longer effects does not, Just watch david blaines early specials. Effects that has that surprise moment gets that kind of reactions.

The mistake allot of young magicians are doing is that they are looking for effects that are extremely hard to do and "will fool" everyone even magicians because they want everyone to be impressed and se how awesome they are. But thats not the way to go.

I know some insane hardcore sleight of hand, but the effects i get the strongest reactions ever from is Here then there with a color change. Allot of young magicians would not even touch that effect, because they think its to easy and not hardcore enough. But people does not know what is hard and whats not nor do they care.
 
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