I really don't think it matters about what you've seen on a dvd at all. If a magician has truly connected with ONE spectator on an emotional level then they have fulfilled their job as a magician. Take Deep 3 for instance. If I recall, Bro Gilbert had a women in tears over that effect. It doesn't matter if Bro has any idea of what it means to perform at the level Brad was talking about. He connected with someone on that deep of a level. Sure there could be the larger than life magician that that same woman sees on tv, but the man who walked into her life for a moment and showed her something that brought her to tears will have a much larger impact than some celebrity on tv. Just my thoughts.
Famous Magicians not connecting?
- Thread starter Toby
- Start date
What if the magician had truly connected with ONE spectator - the 457th spectator he tried performing on?
Although I agree with you in principle - but I'm not sure where that post came from, or who you were addressing.
Randy - Maybe, but keep in mind the miracles of editing! Besides, I wouldn't even bother rolling the cameras until the effect started. By then, I would have approached the spectators and made my attempt to establish rapport. And THEN start shooting. Buyers don't have to see the part where you establish the connection - only the end result.
If you are going off of DVD's then in there as said the performance is direct. Nothing much.
What people don't understand is that patter leads you nowhere. Patter is patter and no more, it's what you add to it in real time is what makes your performance solid and intimate.
Eg. mixing in some personal facts, ill bring out a reference:
"Look here, i have a king and a jack, we are going to put them in the middle and mix the deck properly."
When in fact you can make it a bit interesting by changing it up:
"How many of you have brothers or sisters who are or have been little and youve been in the supermarket with them at a young age? Quite a few as i see, well i have 2 younger brothers and i 've got to say they are harder to find than a needle in a haystack. Like one time we went to a Wallmart with my mum, look ill show you what happened..."
Although this was a bit dull and long you get the main point. In order to not go the usual way i use the help of emotions and basic human expierience to communicate with their innerself. Everyone hates whining little kids, you just have to bare with them but that doesn't erase the fact you hate whining. So a reference that kids get lost in a little ACR routine would probably bring your audience together a bit.
Also a big thing is to listen. If you have a stock joke, and someone adds to it from the audience, play with it. It will bring you closer to the audience.
Think about this a little and how much have you just passed on these little gems. Also listen to the audience, they tell you remarkable things, use them.
This is only a fragment of what people are missing out on. Most of which cannot be put into words since you need tons of real life expierience for it. But making a connection means that you should have a great time with people and be friends with them. You are not a god, you are a human like your audience and that is a lesson worth a million. Always be equal to your audience in some shape or form.
M.
Ps. I just threw together random stuff that i found in me head, i hope this is helpful at some level.
What people don't understand is that patter leads you nowhere. Patter is patter and no more, it's what you add to it in real time is what makes your performance solid and intimate.
Eg. mixing in some personal facts, ill bring out a reference:
"Look here, i have a king and a jack, we are going to put them in the middle and mix the deck properly."
When in fact you can make it a bit interesting by changing it up:
"How many of you have brothers or sisters who are or have been little and youve been in the supermarket with them at a young age? Quite a few as i see, well i have 2 younger brothers and i 've got to say they are harder to find than a needle in a haystack. Like one time we went to a Wallmart with my mum, look ill show you what happened..."
Although this was a bit dull and long you get the main point. In order to not go the usual way i use the help of emotions and basic human expierience to communicate with their innerself. Everyone hates whining little kids, you just have to bare with them but that doesn't erase the fact you hate whining. So a reference that kids get lost in a little ACR routine would probably bring your audience together a bit.
Also a big thing is to listen. If you have a stock joke, and someone adds to it from the audience, play with it. It will bring you closer to the audience.
Think about this a little and how much have you just passed on these little gems. Also listen to the audience, they tell you remarkable things, use them.
This is only a fragment of what people are missing out on. Most of which cannot be put into words since you need tons of real life expierience for it. But making a connection means that you should have a great time with people and be friends with them. You are not a god, you are a human like your audience and that is a lesson worth a million. Always be equal to your audience in some shape or form.
M.
Ps. I just threw together random stuff that i found in me head, i hope this is helpful at some level.
' A lot ' is not 'all'. There will always be exceptions. But where there are exceptions there are rules, and it helps to be able to recognize them.
Two things that have been overlooked.
1) Not all magic plays on tv and not all types of reactions carry across the camera. There are some amazing magicians in the world who work successively for very intelligent people on a regular basis - but they could never succeed on tv with the material they normally use. Its not that the material is weak, its just not designed to be read on camera. If the magic doesn't play through to us, it is hard to imagine it is connecting with the audience. The converse is equally true - as blaine illustrated. If the people on tv react strongly, it is easier for the home audience to then believe the magic itself was/is strong.
Visible magic plays great on tv, but some - including myself - have argued it achieves only the shallowest of reactions. Something visual requires no engagement of the audience. They see it and either accept it or don't. Non-visual magic, however, occurs in the minds of the audience. They are part of the process. This is why one never sees the full alien in alien. They had scenes with the alien being fully visible, but seeing 'what it was' was anticlimactic to what the audience was conjuring in their own minds when they only saw bits and pieces. The gaps the audiences filled in were far more exciting. There are no gaps in visual magic. Another example would be blair witch. For some, this was a terrifying movie. Its amazing what one can see when looking at a black screen. I will note, though, this type of experience is not for everyone. There are people who don't want to have to engage - who just want to see and be told.
Likewise, visual magic is often surprising given its suddenness and produces a surprised reaction. These types of reactions are extremely telegenic - they come off strongly on camera - as they are often loud and quick. True palapable wonder, on the other hand, is more often felt than seen, it wells inside the participant and lives inside them for hours if not years. It is camera shy and, sadly, makes for bad tv.
2) The moment you turn on a camera, everything changes. Psychologists for years have known that any attempt to film a subject changes the subjects behavior.
Now, if you're david blaine, you can burn miles of tape in order to catch lightening in a bottle - as he discussed at magic-con. But most instructional videos have neither that budget nor that luxury.
The only way to change things is to get the people to forget about the camera. I was once hired by a bthp to help with his tv pilot. It was a reality show featuring people in bars.
They never got good footage and came to me after seeing a show. What I did was go up to the tables, with cameras rolling, and do magic for them - breaking the ice and getting them into a new head space. After a while, they forgot (a little bit) that the cameras were there as I made the focus them. THEN when they went into the show content, the people were less self conscious being on camera as the equipment was no longer the focus of the interaction.
Likewise, you see comics warm up any televised tv taping you attend. They also train them to respond in an over the top manner. They want people to forget that they are at a tv show and loosen up and be themselves (or hyper versions of themselves). Without the warm up, you get muted responses.
In closing, magic is about the manipulation of reality. Tv is not, nor has it ever, been reality. Magic is meant to be experienced live. While we can enjoy watching others experience the manipulation of reality (ala blaine) unless the tv viewer knows beyond doubt that what he or she is seeing is an exact recording of the reality being presented, no magic can be said to have been conveyed. This is why the notion of camera tricks is so deadly for our art. But even when magic manages to connect through the screen, that power will always be miniscule compared to that experienced by those watching live. Magic can produce surprising, deep and wonderous reactions in a live audience - but not all of those reactions can and will be seen by someone looking through a tube from miles away. Magic is visceral. It is seen and felt. It is live.