You've Got Talent: Part 2

[William Draven]

You’ve Got Talent: Characterizing the Presentation of Magic​

(Chapters 4-5 of 15)

Like an actor, your magician character needs motivations. Every single magical effect, plot, and routine you do should have motivations. Don’t bore me to death with a stupid card trick for the sake of proving to me that you knew I’d select the five of hearts before I even touched the cards. We BOTH know that if you are a magician then you will probably be able to get my selected card. And for the love of god, don’t prove to me again with another similar trick that you haven’t lost that ability in the past two seconds either! Think about your plots, and make sure everything has a reason to be there. Does that mean you’ll probably end up having to script your act out? If you are doing things right: Then yes. As a spectator I want to be entertained. I as well want to be motivated to like you. Work for it!

When considering what motivates your character, sometimes it helps to examine what your characters personal beliefs are. What are your philosophies? Not just in the theological sense, but in the performance sense as well. How do you feel about certain hot subjects that even the laymen seem to understand: Such as the Masked Magician exposing our tricks, Criss Angel and his mind blowing effects (remember this is from the laymen’s point of view), David Blaine and his amazing stunts, etc. When you see another magician perform an effect that you currently run in your act: How does that make you feel? Motivations give reason to a characters existence and breathes life into the character. In essence, it takes a two dimensional concept and creates a three dimensional being.

Personal Story:
About 4 years ago a good friend of mine and myself got together to create something of a street act that we planned to use for busking purposes. He was (and still is) a mentalist with an uncanny ability for connecting with complete strangers, drawing them into his performance, and leaving them stunned with an amazing act. I envy him for that. I at the time had a mish-mosh of close up tricks, and was starting to take my turn down the freak show path.

After some collaboration we decided that my growing distaste for the common card husking magician that clogs the Magic Castle hallways and alcoves was the perfect motivation for this street bit, and would be pivotal to it’s success.

We decided to present two different aspects of magic on the street, literally five feet from each other, often to the same crowds, and use each others act to fuel and play off the other in a sort of “anything you can do, I can do better” Kind of show. The result was an amazing few weeks of street performances that was quite profitable for the both of us.

What made this show work so well, was the motivation that our characters had. All of a sudden, there wasn’t just this kid trying to show you a magic trick for the hell of it. Now it was a competition, that eventually turned into a feuding war of one-up-man-ships on the part of both actors. My character was pre-motivated to have a dislike for mentalists, and charlatans, and his character had it in for contemporary egotistical card handling magicians. What the audience got was an amazing show between “friends” that had plot, rhyme, and reason for everything that we did. Motivation is a powerful tool!

Motivations like everything else in your act from your script to your props, to even your patter need to have reason for being. If it doesn’t make sense, cut it out. If it doesn’t play into everything else you are doing then don’t do it! You want to create a rich and entertaining character that will be remembered by your audience for some time to come, but you don’t want to give the audience too much information that you overload them, or have too much information in reserve that you don’t get a chance to display it all properly. If your character is motivated by their strong belief in gambling as a way to make a living, but never gets around to discussing their shady history as a crook then you may be missing a great opportunity! Just like going into a 10 minute personal biography on stage is probably too much information.

The motivations behind what drives your character to do and say the things your character does needs to be convincing. Otherwise you’ll end up with an audience that won’t by sympathetic to you, and they won’t be completely involved with the act. Audience disconnection is a dangerous thing in our business, and it will kill an act faster than a bad performance will. Once you’ve lost an audience, believe me, it’s hard to win them back.

I remember watching some segments of the TV show “Masters of Illusion” being filmed at a studio in Hollywood late in November of 2008. One of the magicians that got up on stage was this kid from the Magic Castle’s Jr.’s program. He was dressed in a suit and tie, had thick glasses on, and delivered his entire act with a dry whit. His character was obviously suppose to be a nerd, and possibly one that was socially awkward. While his magic was okay, the one thing that I remember clearly about his act was the amount of disconnection I felt towards his presentation because his jokes, and life references were well beyond his years. Obviously he’s either a smart kid, or he’s got help from an adult writing his material but I couldn’t enjoy his magic because I didn’t find his character convincing.

As with all characters, you are creating a living, breathing, entity. Your character will grow, change, and evolve so don’t be afraid to make changes when necessary!

(To Be Continued...)

 

[William Draven]

(Continued From Above...)


V. Development – Flesh Out Your Character
Once you have an idea of who and what you are, and you’ve come to an understanding of what motivates you to do the things you’ll be doing in your act it’s now time to flesh out your character and help create the complete image.

What is an image? An image is you. It’s the thing that comes to someone’s mind when they try to describe your act. Criss Angel has an image of a rocker Goth, while Lance Burton maintains an image of the coat and tails sophisticate. When you develop your image you want to develop something that is unique and makes you stand out against everyone else in the industry. An image completes your character package, or rather is probably better described as an overview of the character you’ll be presenting on stage. When people look at you they’ll make a judgment based on how you look and dress, and based on that judgment they’ll form what they expect from you in your act.

Wardrobe. Wardrobe is a critical area to really think about when you are developing your performance character. It’s important to not only think about what your character is wearing, but also to make sure that you’re not dressing in something that falls outside the image you’re going for. For example: If you are trying to do a punk style character you’d probably not want to be wearing clown makeup.

Clothing is the first thing people notice when they look at you. They make an opinion based right away on the way you dress. What you wear can say as much about your character as what you do. It is important to make sure that when you are performing you are identifiable. It’s been said by people far wiser than me that you want to be the best dressed person at any event you are performing at without being over dressed.

The “street” look. Now days the growing fad on the internet is to perform street magic ala David Blaine style. This kind of magic is very easy to do since most of it is close up magic, doesn’t require as much investment as stage props, is widely distributed across the net & physical stores, and is usually small enough to carry several effects on a person without encumbering them too much.

This fad also tends to promote the presentation style that focuses on normal people doing extraordinary things to random spectators they run into out in public settings. While I personally don’t agree with harassing innocent bystanders with gorilla style card tricks, that is a rant for a different article. However the performance attire of these same group of magicians is generally jeans, and a T-shirt or something equally unassuming.

The problem here is that the image is becoming cookie cutter. You want to avoid that when designing your look. If you are going to perform on the streets, consider trying to not look like every single other person people would expect to see doing your act. That way, you will always stand out in both image, and in action. Now it isn’t to be said that the T-shirt and jeans can’t be a workable image for you. However if it is a route you want to take then my advice to you is to own it. Own every part of it, and try to present it in a way that is fresh and unexplored, since you’ll have so much other competition for the same general look.

Another important aspect to the wardrobe subject is why does your character dress that way? Something to consider. Do you wear your Jeans and a T-shirt just because they are comfortable? Or is there a specific style you wear? Why is it that style and not another? Understanding your characters motivations for wearing a type of wardrobe that they do will also help you define their image more easily.

Another aspect to consider is your hair style. Does your character wear his or her hair in a certain way, or does the style and color patters help add to the uniqueness of that character? Such as Johnny Depp’s presentation of Sweeny Todd, or Edward Scissorhands. Are you going to get a wig, or are you going to keep that style permanently as a part of your own personal look? What about facial hair? Do you have chops? Goatee? Mustache? A full beard? All things to consider. What ever you do decide to go with, don’t deviate from that look too much. Changing your hair or clothing style once in a while may add a bit of flavor to the character (provided you keep within the same general theme or idea) but changing your style completely, or too often can be disorienting to audiences.

However you decide your image should look, I would encourage you to not over do it. Make sure everything you wear, from your accessories (rings, necklaces, watches, etc), to your makeup (if you use it) to your hair style, to your wardrobe all have reasons for being on your character without going too much into excess. If you have a wardrobe piece that doesn’t serve a specific purpose or is used to complete a “look” then ditch it.

I’ve said it once before and I’ll say it again just because it’s such an important and often overlooked point. You have two kinds of magicians. You’ve got the “There is this guy who did some amazing card tricks at our companies Christmas party last year, but I can’t remember his name” and then there’s the “So and so is an amazing artist who does impossible things with a deck of cards.” Guess which one gets booked more? Seriously consider your image carefully.

Personal Story:
When I created the character for Draven, I first really thought about the kind of magic I wanted to present. When I settled in on using a lot of my sideshow style stunts it became apparent that the character would be presenting a “darker” form of magic that would perhaps be more real, and possibly more ancient. As I began imagining what kind of person it would take to perform that kind of show what came to mind was an ageless cynical, individual who’s appearance is mystical, dark, and almost Goth.

So the first thing I did was start writing down different ideas on a back story for this character. I wanted to get a feel for where this character came from, so I could have a framework to build his motivations on. It was important to understand who this character was, and what kind of magic he would perform. Now since I had already decided to incorporate a lot of my sideshow style stunts into my act it really became a restriction to the other more popular magic tricks that I already knew how to do. For example, my ambitious card or triumph card tricks just no longer fit the image. So they had to be cut. When considering what I could expand into, mentalism and spiritualism became obvious choices. In short, I knew I was going to have to learn a whole new show.

Next came my motivations. What made my character want to do the things he does? Taking a large note from my self as a person I decided that Draven mainly performed because he’s a showman, a bit of a show-off, and maybe a slight bit miffed at the current attempt by the “fraternity” (other magicians) to quickly dispel the real workings of actual magic as myth and sleight of hand. A real Carney influence started to come out at this point in time. I liked it, and worked it into the characters history.

Image was my next task. What would be my look? Since the character was taking such a dark turn, and the show pieces in my act were all dangerous and had these sinister undertones (being sideshow acts) I figured Goth was the way to go. But I didn’t want to do main stream Goth. I wanted the character to have a more respected, old world feel to him. So I decided to set his style to “Victorian/Edwardian Goth”, with a fashion sense reminiscent of the late 1800’s, with modern influences, and a dark, red / Black color scheme. Since the character was already being built with a sort of timeless feel to him I also decided that just about any period clothing so long as it was upper class would suit his needs well.

So with that decided, you get the image that you most frequently see in my pictures. Long black duster, white ruffles shirt, top hat with skull, dark red vest, slacks, and dress shoes. I chose to pale my face out and use eye makeup for added effect. Originally the makeup applications were light but as the character developed, the white became more apparent. My hair, is usually long, black, with a single swish of bright red on one side. Facial hair is kept to goatee and chops reminiscent and inspired of that time period.

I originally had a cane and walked with a limp. However, after some consideration, I decided that I looked too young to justify the limp, and eventually the cane also disappeared since it now had no obvious purpose. Remember: Keep things as simple as needed, and make sure everything serves a purpose. Don’t over do it. And ta-dah. I had a stage character.

(To Be Continued...)

 

[KeoSilver]

Spark noting again, Very fun read.

 

[Toby]

Very good read. Really helpful. But it is mainly pointed to the stage magicians. If you work in a restaurant or bar (yes, work for money), and you are forced (well not exactly forced, but recommended) to use cards, and money, and sponges, and coins, and rubber bands, and invisible thread, and all that... Than it is a little harder to make a character. Specially if you consider that you will not perform longer than 5-10 minutes for the same audience...

Can't wait to read the rest...

 

[William Draven]

Thanks for your support! It's greatly appreciated, and makes the effort to put together these thoughts worth while.

 

[RikAllen]

Very good read. Really helpful. But it is mainly pointed to the stage magicians. If you work in a restaurant or bar (yes, work for money), and you are forced (well not exactly forced, but recommended) to use cards, and money, and sponges, and coins, and rubber bands, and invisible thread, and all that... Than it is a little harder to make a character. Specially if you consider that you will not perform longer than 5-10 minutes for the same audience...

Can't wait to read the rest...

On the Contrary.

You want a character built and solidified no matter how you perform, especially if you do it often and are being paid to do so. Even if your character only shows up through personality, the way you present cards, coins, and sponge balls. If you do a comic card trick and then try and get serious when you do gypsy thread or anything else you do, the inconsistency will make your performance less memorable and harder to define.

Great read Draven, considering I'm currently putting a character together and working out material to try and grab a restaurant gig these have been really helpful.