Idea for a Patter Book

[RickEverhart]

I was brainstorming the other day and was wondering if anyone has ever put together a patter book. A book that has multiple patters for numerous effects.

For example: Colorchanging Plumes

PatterA
Patter B
Patter C

I am not talking about the patter that comes standard with most effects. I am suggesting something along the lines of a huge reference book that a magician can go to to find creative patter or story lines for various effects.

Has anything like this ever been attempted or sold? I am a pretty creative thinker and happen to come up with good patter for effects and wonder if that is marketable?

 

[Mr.MadMan]

I was brainstorming the other day and was wondering if anyone has ever put together a patter book. A book that has multiple patters for numerous effects.

For example: Colorchanging Plumes

PatterA
Patter B
Patter C

I am not talking about the patter that comes standard with most effects. I am suggesting something along the lines of a huge reference book that a magician can go to to find creative patter or story lines for various effects.

Has anything like this ever been attempted or sold? I am a pretty creative thinker and happen to come up with good patter for effects and wonder if that is marketable?

Stock patter will always be stock patter....


Mikk.

 

[RickEverhart]

I realize stock patter is stock patter. That wasn't the question.

I was asking if anyone has ever put together a book or reference that goes above and beyond standard or stock patter. Something more on the lines of self created patter but is now published. Not just for a single effect but for many effects.

Like if I wanted to find patter / story for Skinner's 3 card monte I could go to said book, look up Skinner's 3 card monte in a glossary format and find multiple patters to go with that effect. Has anyone seen anything like that ?

 

[Kontents]

lol^

I think that takes away the fun and originality of doing magic. Each time you perform a trick you give and take things from your patter and redifine it. I think the problem with most people performing tricks that they bought use the exact style and patter as the person whos teaching the effect. It takes away from making the trick truely yours when you perform it.

 

[RickEverhart]

I guess you are right. But I'm sure there are people out there that have effects and have no idea of "how" to present them.

 

[TeeDee]

It would probably be more useful to have a book by an experienced magician, maybe in collaboration with a screenwriter or playwright, which dissected the patter and presentation of various performances, and therefore gave the reader the tools to create their own.

 

[Mr.MadMan]

I guess you are right. But I'm sure there are people out there that have effects and have no idea of "how" to present them.

Im telling you again stock patter is stock patter.

Direct Message to ::The Promoters: We need to get promoting again, our threads are not being seen!

Non-stock patter is patter that fits you. And as every personality is different you have to prettymuch make it yourself. Some influences are allowed but if you take stock and make stock that is not good.

My last thought, excuse for not putting extra work into it.

Mikk.

 

[Ola]

I like the idea.
It wouldn't be something to directly copy your patter out of, but it could give ideas and general humorous comments.
I love the humoristic bits in all the magicbooks, where they sort of tell you how to insult your spectator in a fun way^^

 

[Mr Zsasz]

It would probably be more useful to have a book by an experienced magician, maybe in collaboration with a screenwriter or playwright, which dissected the patter and presentation of various performances, and therefore gave the reader the tools to create their own.

If only there were such a book. Wait a second...

Scripting Magic by Pete McCabe is one of the best books on improving your magic.

I'm not sure if you were indirectly recommending Scripting Magic without naming it, or just scarily close to the contents of the book by chance.

I always recommend two books on presentation, Strong Magic and Scripting Magic.

 

[TeeDee]

If only there were such a book. Wait a second...

Scripting Magic by Pete McCabe is one of the best books on improving your magic.

I'm not sure if you were indirectly recommending Scripting Magic without naming it, or just scarily close to the contents of the book by chance.

I always recommend two books on presentation, Strong Magic and Scripting Magic.

I was scarily close by chance. Somehow Scripting Magic has passed me by, even though I'm sure people have mentioned the name to me before.

So yeah, if it's all it's cracked up to be looks like Scripting Magic is the way forward.

 

[RickEverhart]

Thanks guys for your replies. I appreciate them. I will have to check out Scripting Magic.

My idea was to put together a book of patter / story lines that I had come up with for numerous effects. I realize that not every patter would fit every magician but more of a tool for beginners who weren't very creative and had purchased effects but they were just lying around because they didn't give proper presentation.

Oh well. I guess I will keep my patter to myself. Ha Ha.

 

[William Draven]

Im telling you again stock patter is stock patter.

While I agree, there is something to be said for having a resource for getting started. Perhaps using something like this as an idea generator to give you a building block or foundation to work with would be a worth while endevor.

I know I read a book inside the Magic Castle library once that had stock joke likes for just about any ocassion. Obviously you'd want to rework the patter to fit your style, routine, etc. But I wouldn't be so quick to pan this idea.

I'd say do your research, and come up with a sample to see if it's something you'd want to commit to. If it flys with you then do it.

There will always be a market for people who don't want to create their own material. Sadly, not everyone has an ambition about doing this magic gig 24//7. There are some who make it a lifestyle, and others who just enjoy doing a trick for someone every now and again.

It takes all kinds in this world.

 

[praetoritevong]

The thing is though, creativity isn't something you can study, or learn by example. "This is an example of how one might express creativity" doesn't really work.. I can definitely see the merits of such a book/compilation, but still... I'm wrestling with the idea that such lessons can and should only be learned through personal exploration. It's a hard lesson to learn, how to script effects, but I'm not sure that such an effort to quicken the learning would be conducive to better learning, per se.

Of course, not to put down your question or anyone's ideas, per se - just discussing theoretically.

But Draven put forward, towards the end, a more interesting argument: What about the hobbyists that really don't mind?

Of course, I would agree that in certain circumstances, this is not without merit, as a collection of ideas in certain situations.

 

[RickEverhart]

That is sort of where I was going with this. I had the hobbyist and beginner magicians in mind who may not care about an ounce of their own creativity and just need a reference book to look up patter for various effects. Oh well. I may eventually start typing out ideas or maybe not, depends how busy I get with gigs and teaching.

 

[Randy]

You should come up with your own patter. Scripting Magic gives you a general idea of what a magic script would look like. IE: The format and everything. That way you know how some of the top guys do it and you can do just go from there.

The thing is that you shouldn't rely on stock one liners and jokes. Sure they can be funny at times. But I recall Morgician saying that they also tend to get as over used as people asking the same questions 900x over. Thus you need you throw them away and come up with more organic writing and humor. Otherwise you'll just end up looking like a robot. No matter how professional and polished you think your act is. People don't like robots, they like people.

 

[Mr Zsasz]

The great strength of books like Strong Magic and Scripting Magic is that they provide tools to improve your magical presentations and scripts. Those tools are worthless without you providing the hard work to think about what you've read and applying it.

I think that an understanding of the basics of scripting, effect construction and other topics covered in the books can only help promote your creativity. If you have an understanding of the types of processes used by others, you can use that as a starting point. Even if you disagree with what you're reading, at least in deciding why you disagree you're forced to think.

If the only thing Scripting Magic accomplishes is to remove the word "patter" from the magic community, it would still be a valuable book. I can't stand that word, and Pete McCabe explains why he hates it in the book.

 

[Morgan B]

If the only thing Scripting Magic accomplishes is to remove the word "patter" from the magic community, it would still be a valuable book.

I couldn't agree more. I have always felt "patter" is so close to "filler".

Reverhart - I would also recommend "Transformations" by Hass, he uses his presntations as examples on how to build connected presentations that the audience will care about - rather than words attached to what you are doing that build on some morbid character that your audience feels uncomforable around - which seems to be the trend around here.

The thread I started "How would you present this" I was hoping to create a place where we could put out approached to random effects and give feedback on them, to put to use some of the princples used in these recommended books and in building scripts - pre-written or interactive.

I wouldn't want to see a book of all scripts, as it wouldn't be me...I know one guy that copies presentations of other magicians so closely, that he changes to an English accent when doing a Guy Hollingsworth effect, and a Texas one when he does Ammar...and it is not to be funny - he just copies word for word what they say. He thinks he is wonderful, because people laugh at the jokes and respond to the magic...but really, a robot could reproduce what he did.

I think at one point, we may start like this...but we have to learn to grow past these moments and make the magic meaningful by adding ourselves. If we are copying the effect of another...and the presentation of another...are we really an artist or a copy of an artist? To put it another way - you can't consider yourself a professional singer, if you are doing karaoke at a bar.

I always look at an effect as what is the plot...what happens - then what can this plot represent on it's own.

Actually, if you win by writing a good script in this thread for a colour changing deck, or a sponge ball routine - I will send you a colour changing deck idea that kills!

http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?p=266211#post266211

Good luck!