Magic now:: What has it become?

[icannotmakeapassword]

I picked up 52 pieces of paper 3 years ago. Back then, I was performing 'YouTube' Magic. All the simple stuff. I learnt them and performed it to my friend. I remembered his reaction when I performed a super long self-working effect. He still got really shocked.

Just yesterday, I was performing Vector, Surge, and and Clench, .44 . All these effects are so highly regarded by the magic community. I find it awesome too.

When I performed it to the same friend, he just smiled, said 'cool, but your tricks last time was nicer.'
No WTFS or screaming reactions.

Now, don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to demote t11's products. Hell No. They are so awesome.

But do the spectators see it in the same light? Please help me out here.

 

[Aaron.Williams]

An effect is only as good as you make it. Maybe you did something differently with the "self-working" trick. Maybe something in your performance has changed for the worst. Maybe he just didn't like those tricks or he's gotten bored with your magic

There are a lot of different factors that can cause this reaction, but he doesn't know the difference between products from a book and products sold on theory11. For all he knows, you could've bought the self-working trick for $30 off some exclusive, underground source.

 

[TheatreHead]

It's all about how you make them see it.

 

[Foppa21]

Theory11 is selling tricks, not presentations.

A good magician can do magic with a double lift, a dove, a coin, Surge, Clench, .44, The Biddle Trick, etc...

It's up to you to do the "dirty work" : if you do, you'll have a gem in your hands, whatever the trick is.

 

[CaseyRudd]

I picked up 52 pieces of paper 3 years ago. Back then, I was performing 'YouTube' Magic. All the simple stuff. I learnt them and performed it to my friend. I remembered his reaction when I performed a super long self-working effect. He still got really shocked.

Just yesterday, I was performing Vector, Surge, and and Clench, .44 . All these effects are so highly regarded by the magic community. I find it awesome too.

When I performed it to the same friend, he just smiled, said 'cool, but your tricks last time was nicer.'
No WTFS or screaming reactions.

Now, don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to demote t11's products. Hell No. They are so awesome.

But do the spectators see it in the same light? Please help me out here.

Because Self Working tricks are, well, self working....it doesn't require hardly any sleight of hand. This lets you focus more on presentation and the way you sell the effect.

When you do .44, there are more sleights and it isn't self working. You tend to focus more on the sleights rather than presentation, and the selling of the trick gets harder for you. My advice is to get those sleights down to where you can do them in your sleep without focusing on them. But first, think of a presentation you would like to use. Then, don't focus on the sleights. When you look down to do a sleight, their eyes follow yours and they might catch you doing something you would never want them to see.

Don't drift away from the self working effects though. Self working effects are golden and simply amazing. Keep those in your repertoire too so you won't have to remember tons of sleights for each effect you perform.

 

[tjf]

I know I probably sound like a broken record, but the best advice I can give newbie magicians (and please don't take that as a slap in the face.. 3 years, you're still a newbie..) is to read Darwin Ortiz's books, "Designing Miracles" and "Strong Magic", and read them in that order (even though SM came out before DM.)

When I was younger, I was like a lot of guys on here who only cared about learning new tricks and became obsessed with the methods. Once I read these two books, my entire outlook on magic changed.

The stuff he teaches in these books will help you achieve the 'NO WAY!' reactions we are all looking for.

Good luck!

 

[William Draven]

spectators are like that. They want to be entertained not tricked. I have performed the most knuckle busting john born inspired shadow coin routines only to be told "thats nice" now do the fire wallet. I know right?j iit all comes down to presentation.

 

[b_08]

Even those of us who try to stay above the "bubble" are guilty of this at one point or another: we fall in love with a move and we dedicate months to it only to be disappointed that the audience didn't appreciate how much work was put into the trick.

The basic problem is that magicians forget to see things through the eyes of the specatators. New magicians have something that a lot of experienced magicians don't have and that is relatability. Their spectators still relate to them because they're still "normal". They don't behave like magicians...yet. This is part of the reason why the OP's friend had a better reaction to the self working trick.

We forget that spectators simply want to be entertained...as Draven already said. They don't care about how difficult your moves are, what type of custom cards you have, or how long you've been working on something. They only care about whether or not they felt some sort of strong emotion.

Every once in awhile I have to remind myself to see things through a spectator's eyes and that keeps me grounded in the reason why I got into magic in the first place.

 

[TricksterG]

One of the sad truths of magic is that impressive sleight of hand will be forgotten far more easily then entertainment or shock value, just try to make them remember what you did. One of the things I hate about the magic I do is that most of the time, people afterwards just say in describing it, He did lots of stuff, and that is probably my fault. In my opinion I like it more when an audience gives me a mediocre reaction but remembers it forever, then a big reaction then they forget all about it... Just my opinion and hopefully some food for thought.

 

[RDChopper]

Theory11 is selling tricks, not presentations.

A good magician can do magic with a double lift, a dove, a coin, Surge, Clench, .44, The Biddle Trick, etc...

It's up to you to do the "dirty work" : if you do, you'll have a gem in your hands, whatever the trick is.

+1

Word count

 

[Steerpike]

What impresses a film buff may not necessarily impress a casual movie watcher. I like David Lynch movies, but I understand that people who are not movie buffs like me probably wouldn't like them as much as I do, if at all.

I've gotten better performances out of nothing more than a pendulum and some stock cold reading lines than any of the webcam jockies will ever get with their Tivo 3.14159 variation or whatever because I understand that concept.

 

[icannotmakeapassword]

Thanks guys! I just returned from my 1st gig and took all the advice you gave and made an awesome routine with lots of presentation.

thanks once again!