Doing A Trick That Doesn't Fit Your Style

[Luis Vega]

So..I learned something about style and how your tricks should fit it...thought I would share...

I work in an english pub at friday´s nights, it´s a pretty awesome place to work, the staff is friendly and nice people goes there...recently I bought "Touch" by Hanson Chien...which I think is a great trick to do!! anyway I decided I use it last friday and this is what happened...

To everyone, my style usually is "everything I do...is real" or at least that´s how it looks, so I chose tricks that leave souvenir (thank to Cedric Taylor for the tip) and usually are imposible to explain...anyway I have a nice rubberband routine (usually it ends with Ringnature by Ed Ellis, but this time I decided I´ll give it a try to touch) So I did it sometimes all night...

And it sucked!!! the trick itself is pretty nice...I totally love it...but when I did it people just looked at me like "so?" and I think myself as a good magician... I realize this effect didn´t fit my style, so no matter how good I did it, it wasn´t going to work...because it´s seen as a trick...

I think is more a matter of want to use that trick...even if you know it doesn´t fit yourself and being reckless about it...
Anyway hope you enjoyed it!!

 

[nIvan]

Any trick can change all context with the right patter. Tell a story that relates to another trick you did earlier, sometimes no patter is the best option. With a trick as open as touch I have a hard time believing that you can't fit it into your routine at all.

 

[Ang]

Any trick can change all context with the right patter. Tell a story that relates to another trick you did earlier, sometimes no patter is the best option. With a trick as open as touch I have a hard time believing that you can't fit it into your routine at all.

I agree completely with you. Any trick can be adapted to your own style.

 

[Mat La Vore]

Any trick can change all context with the right patter. Tell a story that relates to another trick you did earlier, sometimes no patter is the best option. With a trick as open as touch I have a hard time believing that you can't fit it into your routine at all.

I appreciate your optimism but must disagree. You're not going to see David Blaine doing the Mindreading Goose any time soon, same as you won't catch Derren Brown performing sponge bunnies. The material you choose does need to be congruent with your character. The material you select to perform is just as important as how you present it. In short--effect matters.

@Luis Vega - I agree with you, man. I had a tough time coming to the same conclusion several years back in which it led to me putting away the sponge balls for good, and then later giving up rubberband magic as well as many other effects. I know what you mean--in general rubberband magic is great and can be very entertaining and elicit huge reactions from audiences--no denying that--but most of the time it is going to feel like a trick as opposed to a real impossibility. Also, it's not the classiest of props to be pulling out of your pocket when you're in a suit at a corporate event. Again, I'm not denying the reactions rubberband magic can elicit, but it is something to consider what your props say about you as a character, and whether or not the effects you choose to perform are congruent with the performer you want to be. It's like a song--every note played needs to be serving the purpose of the song. No matter how cool that jazz chord is or how amazing it sounds, sometimes it just doesn't fit the song you're trying to craft. Sometimes you need to kill your darlings in order to serve the greater whole of what you're after, and that can often be a very, very tough thing to do. Part of what makes "the Greats" the Greats is they know who they are as performers, and everything they do as performers serves their visions.

 

[RickEverhart]

Thanks for sharing this Luis. I have been there in that situation as well. Kind of makes you want to have a "do over" ha ha and pretend that you didn't just perform that effect.

 

[b_08]

That's an interesting point, Luis. And I agree that tricks have to fit a magician's character. For example, David Copperfield turns down a lot of illusions because it doesn't fit his style and image. But hey at least you know your character and know when something doesn't work!

Just a quick suggestion: Sometimes a trick doesn't seem to work very well by itself, but paired with something else it can be entirely different. Like for me I'll do Raw Linkage, then two versions of Crazyman's Handcuffs, and then Friendship Band 2 or Touch or Stairway (it depends on the situation and audience, I decide which one on the spot). If I did them separately it may or may not get great reactions, but together in a packaged presentation, it works fantastic....each trick building on the previous and it works great for me.

My premise is that "magic often times can demonstrate that science isn't always correct, for example one of the basic laws of physics is that a solid can't pass through a solid....so tonight I'm going to try a series of demonstrations that show that is not always true".

So for me Touch does work but only in a packaged presentation.

 

[RickEverhart]

b_08 makes a good point that indeed somethings need to be paired with other effects to get maximum value / entertainment.
Heck even the order of the effects is a major concern.

I will do CMH, band through thumb, 2 to 1 melt away, and then finale with Ringnature or Star Gazer.

 

[Luis Vega]

That's an interesting point, Luis. And I agree that tricks have to fit a magician's character. For example, David Copperfield turns down a lot of illusions because it doesn't fit his style and image. But hey at least you know your character and know when something doesn't work!

Just a quick suggestion: Sometimes a trick doesn't seem to work very well by itself, but paired with something else it can be entirely different. Like for me I'll do Raw Linkage, then two versions of Crazyman's Handcuffs, and then Friendship Band 2 or Touch or Stairway (it depends on the situation and audience, I decide which one on the spot). If I did them separately it may or may not get great reactions, but together in a packaged presentation, it works fantastic....each trick building on the previous and it works great for me.

My premise is that "magic often times can demonstrate that science isn't always correct, for example one of the basic laws of physics is that a solid can't pass through a solid....so tonight I'm going to try a series of demonstrations that show that is not always true".

So for me Touch does work but only in a packaged presentation.

I agree...but as Mat La Vore said in an earlier post...I think my character is way to serious to use rubberbands in the first place...I am a fun person, but I don´t do magic in a comic or relaxed way...since my premise is "everything I do is real"

I do have a rubberband routine..starting with ring and rubberband, then linking rubberbands, (I usually say that the rubberband has a little crack so when you stretch it you make it bigger, so making possible to link or pass through the rubberband) then crazy man cuffs in their hands...and then I finish with touch....and the whole routine doesn´t seem to work the way I used to do it anymore...since I do more mentalism nowdays...

yeah!! I can finally say I easily know what tricks fit or don´t fit...but sometimes we love a trick so much that we love to do it no matter what...one of the tricks it almost killed me to stop doing was "Pressure" darn!! I loved that trick!!

 

[eostresh]

I have discovered the same thing that both Louis Vega and Matt La Vore have mentioned. However, I will say that if I really like an effect or particular magician I like has just released a multi-effect DVD, I won't immediately exclude it from my "wishlist" just because I know it won't fit my style. Learning a particular principal sometimes has applications you will never consider. Months, or years, down the road you might be working on an effect that does suit your style and realize that you can incorporate some, or all, of the method of another effect for one that does suit your style.

 

[RickEverhart]

Eostresh is correct. That is how new effects are created all of the time. Go back in the old linking rings from the 50's 60's 70's or go through Tarbell. 99% of what is on the market today being performed is in those resources.....it is just applied differently and has a different outer coating if that makes sense.

 

[formula]

What you do has to fit the spectator to a certain extent for them to react really well to it as well. Almost everyone get's excited by Extreme Burn because almost everyone loves the idea of making money from paper, lottery tickets or whatever version you may do.

I've done some of Hanson's rubber band work to people before and from what I gathered they weren't impressed because of the idea that rubber bands are easy to twist and stretch around fingers so they ended up asking to see more card tricks. Some people without that opinion of rubber bands have been blown away by it though. So I think it's important to remember that sometimes a trick won't impress a spectator for a personal reason.