Do they remember us? Or the moment?

[RDChopper]

The other day I was thinking to myself, do the laymen remember the tricks I did to them? I mean, I DO remember the tricks I did, but are they memorable enough to the spectator? is the spectator going to remember you as a magician? or the tricks itself??? mmmm....

Take "here then there"(card transposition) and the ACR for example...

Obviuosly a lot of us have practiced the ACR we do, because it's more complex than a simple "transposition" and it has to have a nice flow etc...., but have you notice that sometimes simple tricks(yet powerful to their eyes) like "here then there" tend to impress more the laymen than a well structurate ACR?

A few months ago (when I performed ACR without a lot of patter) a few girls came to me and asked me to show them a trick, ( I had showed them some tricks in the past, ACR and Here then there.)and the first thing they told me was...


"hey could you do the trick were I held a car, and then , and the, you change it with the card in your hand??? please please please"

And inside me I was like "what!!! what about the ACR I did, don't you remember it'? anyway that's when I thought "how can I make a trick powerfull or nice enough for them to remember"?

That's when I started to use some patter with my ACR ( a love story involving the card ) and now they remember it like "could you do me the trick( haha they remember it as trick, not a WHOLE routine) where I picked a boyfriend???

Anyway, If you guys could answer the following questions I think we can learn something...

1.- What are the tricks that your spectators remember the most from you, try to explain why are they so memorable...


2.-what are the tricks that they usually dont remember a,d those that you wich them to remember...


3.- What woud you do to make a trick more memorable to them???


THat's all thanks for reading. Cheers!

 

[Squ!rrel]

I always want my spectators to remember me and the experience of watching magic. The tricks I do are almost irrelevant. When i'm doing magic for people I never plan what i'm going to do. I don't want my spectators to feel like they're watching a scripted show, it should feel spontaneous and unique.

I don't think we should expect spectators to remember all the effects we did for them. I suspect magicians expect this because they (hopefully) put a lot of time into learning the effects and want this to be justified.

I don't really see why you're so desperate for your spectators to remember your tricks, make them remember you. I've found that this approach works far better as people very rarely ask to see a particular trick over and over, they just want to see something as they enjoyed the experience so much the first time.

 

[GusEds]

1. I think for me they have to be KAOS card through window, simply because it's so direct, impossible, and more than all - on their own window whenever they please. Stigmata comes a very close second (actually they're both first )

as Wayne Houchin once said:

"This is insane, I mean, this isn't just like you're readin their mind, I mean this is like, you're reading their mind...then creepy crap happens on your hand..."

2.Hum...this I don't know - I don't perform that many tricks, ive only got 7 which I go out and perform all the time - but I wouldn't know, would I? Not unless I trick myself

3. To make it more magical, as Lee Asher said:

"If your audience doesn't think you're the greatest magician you've ever seen - then you have't done your job right."

I tend to sheer away form effects such as ACR, card turnovers, the lot - I prefer magic that is so simple, so direct and so memorable it sticks in their mind. Effects that you would do if you really did have magical powers.

GW

 

[RDChopper]

I always want my spectators to remember me and the experience of watching magic. The tricks I do are almost irrelevant. When i'm doing magic for people I never plan what i'm going to do. I don't want my spectators to feel like they're watching a scripted show, it should feel spontaneous and unique.

I don't think we should expect spectators to remember all the effects we did for them. I suspect magicians expect this because they (hopefully) put a lot of time into learning the effects and want this to be justified.

I don't really see why you're so desperate for your spectators to remember your tricks, make them remember you. I've found that this approach works far better as people very rarely ask to see a particular trick over and over, they just want to see something as they enjoyed the experience so much the first time.

very true... Yes I know that, and believe me a few months ago I would be desperate because I wanted them to remember me as a magician, but the only thing that I got was them to remember expecific parts of the routine...

lately I have been Improving ( I think) and they kinda remember the nice and "magical" moment they had rather than the tricks itself...


It is just that sometimes that happens from time to time

 

[SIWSMLEG]

for the most part spectators seam to remember the experience as a whole and that "i did some amazing magic stuff things etc." and then maybe 1 or 2 specific effects that really hit them hard personally... and personally about your comments on ACR's to be honest i really don't like them, from a sepctators point of view they are just that, a spectator, watching you the performer manipulate a deck of cards, they arn't involved and might as well be watching a youtube video, it seams like you said it with your girls story that spectators seam to remember magic that happens to them or with them, in their hands, with their help.... just my 2 cents

 

[RDChopper]

for the most part spectators seam to remember the experience as a whole and that "i did some amazing magic stuff things etc." and then maybe 1 or 2 specific effects that really hit them hard personally... and personally about your comments on ACR's to be honest i really don't like them, from a sepctators point of view they are just that, a spectator, watching you the performer manipulate a deck of cards, they arn't involved and might as well be watching a youtube video, it seams like you said it with your girls story that spectators seam to remember magic that happens to them or with them, in their hands, with their help.... just my 2 cents

yep, when I began doing magic I was more concerned about "Oooh my pass, I need to make it invisible" rather than thinking about what the spectator is seeing, now I try to focus in having a good time with them and enjoy toguether the magic, with that, one usually has all the misdirection in the world...

I just was telling this guy about the time when I was the spectator, this guy did 2 card monte to me and the only thing that I remember was that the two cards changed, I don't rememeber any of the patter that the guy used on me, or anything, just that the two cardds changed...

 

[MagicShadow9]

Well the spectators seem to remember stuff more than me. I once did the Biddle trick to my friend in the morning and in the afternoon he asked me to do the "trick with the five cards" and i had no clue what he was talking about. The more high-impacting the tricks are, the more they'll remember it. For example, i performed Extreme burn to nearly all my friends over the course of one day and the next day, they all remembered the "turning 1's into 20's trick". I probably couldn't do that with an ACR or a French Drop Vanish.

 

[DannyT]

I think it's better how the person won't remember exactly what happened during a trick.

Doing a 2cm can turn into, "I saw the card change in my hand" when that person tells everybody else what happened.

It builds up your "Incredibility".

 

[mattymagic]

1.- What are the tricks that your spectators remember the most from you, try to explain why are they so memorable...

Spectators remember me for Disjointed, Redline, and Witness.
I think they're so memorable for them because the way I perform, I make it seem so natural, if you know what I mean. Like, I would say(for Redline):
"Ready? I'm gonna take the cap off of this chapstick..."

2.-what are the tricks that they usually dont remember a,d those that you wich them to remember...

Unfortunately... Sinful, Stigmata, Control, Hoffzy Osbourne...
Most of the tricks that I think would get ridiculous results.

3.- What woud you do to make a trick more memorable to them???

a fair amount of patter, but not so much as to make the suspicious.

 

[MitchellStafiej]

The spectators should know all details about you after a performance. You shoe colour, house address, number of buttons on your shirt EVERYTHING! Then you know you've had a good performance.

Seriously though, you want the spectators to remember you and the tricks. Not one or the other. If your performance is just average then yes, you may have some people asking you to do the rising card "thingy". But if your performance is above average then you'll have people describing the effect in detail and reliving it as they explain it. They'll know who you are, they will remember you.

That's when you know you've had a good performance.

Mitch

 

[toyrobot]

1.- What are the tricks that your spectators remember the most from you, try to explain why are they so memorable...

You'll find me stuck a few years in the past here, with Stigmata and Saw. With Saw - and I'll always back up geek magic here - anything bloody, disgusting, or dangerous is bound to be remembered. It's an immediate redefinition of what magic is for your spectators. They are expecting cards, they are expecting coins. They are expecting cold readings. However, I'll bet you a million to one nobody wakes up in the morning and says to themselves, "Boy, I wonder if I'll see a guy cut through his own neck with a length of thread?"

Stigmata is just a great all around trick. It really should be considered a classic. It turns an otherwise boring mind reading into a bizarre visual that freaks everyone out. Have you ever noticed that you don't even have to reference stigmata or anything similar, yet the spectators will draw their own conclusions and accuse you of being something "different?" It's the only time someone's ever cussed at me while doing magic (a friend of a friend's rather foul-mouthed mother). I'm talking screaming, up-in-arms, What-in-the-world-did-you-just-do, every profanity in the book. Mind you, it's not hard to get this woman excited, but still. No one expects it, and it's just a beautiful moment.

You don't tell them their prediction. It appears on your arm in red, bloody scrawls.

Mentalism and geek magic are, for me, the two biggest reactions. How could I possibly have known what you'd write down? Was that real blood?

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2.-what are the tricks that they usually dont remember a,d those that you wich them to remember...


I'm gonna assume you mean, tricks we wish they'd remember? I've never got a big hit with card tricks of any kind, which leads to my disliking of them. It could be my choice of material, my technical skill, my patter, or just the people I perform for, who knows, but I've never gotten reactions with card tricks that I wanted. Unless you're doing something cool with a card, I usually just pass it by. Revealing a selected card? Been done a million billion times. Torn and restored? I'll bite, but you've got to keep current and visual with the market. ACAAN? Aside from the Berglas Effect (which I found from the video thread on here, and it's like my new favorite thing ever), just don't even try. The market's oversaturated with mediocre card magic at best, and just plain bad card tricks at worst.

But take my opinions with a grain of salt. Cards aren't my thing, and I don't look into them. I'm hardly the guy to hear out about pasteboard magic.

I wish the audience would remember basic manipulation routines more, but only for selfish reasons - I feel cool doing them.

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3.- What would you do to make a trick more memorable to them???

Derren Brown says that you need to be able to remove all of your magic from a show and still have something for the audience to see. And to this, there's two parts - if you're having trouble making people care, you might want to question if you should really be performing that or not. Cut your routine down to the absolute strongest material. Sure, you can jazz it up with great patter and a cool presentation, but there's some tricks that just... well, suck. Or maybe they're just too generic. Hopefully your material just needs a good ol' presentation-injection to pep it up, and you need to sell it more. Otherwise, trim the fat.

The other part to that is, a trick needs to be able to sustain itself on equal parts inherent cool-ness and the presentation of the performer. Take what Derren says literally - imagine you're just talking to these people, just entertaining them with yourself. Make that presentation strong enough, and side it with your best material, and your act will be all the better for it.

You people keep making me type a thousand paragraphs with every post. Stop it.