Patter Help

[tsevenhuysen]

Hi everyone.

I'm hoping to draw on some of the collective experience here for some advice to an inexperienced performer...

There are times when I find myself needing to distract or delay for a moment to direct the spectator's attention away from my hands. The top change is the simplest example of this: it's the exact opposite of invisible, so I need to misdirect. But sometimes I've said my bit of scripted patter, and they haven't given me the right timing for the move, so I end up fumbling verbally for a few seconds, looking and feeling kind of stupid while I try to pull their eye contact so I can pull the move off.

What are some examples of things you say or do to buy yourself a moment to breathe when you've run out of scripted patter?

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

You're not engaging the audience. Stop looking at this as a mechanical, step-by-step process. In fact, put the props away and just focus on learning how to have a normal conversation without any crutches. Once you've gotten good at holding a conversation without relying on props you'll find 'misdirection' happens automatically because it's part of the conversation for them to pay attention to you.

Understand that magic performance is an interaction. It's not like a play where the actors are on stage and (usually) never acknowledge that there's even an audience. It's the magician and the audience working together and taking that energy and turning it into an unforgettable experience.

 

[tsevenhuysen]

Thanks Christopher. That's exactly my challenge. When having a "normal" conversation, there's a topic to follow. But when I'm presenting a trick, the topic is the trick... So if I'm presenting something like, "Okay, that was pretty weird, let's try it again a little differently..." and they haven't given me a free moment, I can't just change the topic to restore eye contact. I've already redirected them to my hands somewhat.

I guess it's more about ensuring a conversational interaction from the start?

I'm sure I'll come across a lot of the answers to this (that work for my personality) as I gain experience. But I know a lot of you probably have existing strategies for recapturing the audience's attention when they're wandering or getting too focused on your hands and you're losing the interaction a bit.

 

[RedbeardThePink]

Have you tried asking a meaningful question? Saying something that elicits an actual thought will almost always draw attention. Saying something that's just plain confusing is another option. That can turn the conscious mind off entirely, allowing you to do something while the critical factor isn't even functioning.

 

[tsevenhuysen]

I like the idea of asking a question! It's probably a great way to engage in general, regardless of its use as a misdirection technique. Thanks!

 

[RegtheGremlin]

I guess it's more about ensuring a conversational interaction from the start?

That's it. If you only look up during the sleight, the spectators' attention won't shift. The cards should be treated as a secondary object. Half the battle is done long before you're doing any mischief - if you're directing your audience well, you've already won. I'd recommend watching Derren Brown's three card routine; pay attention to where his focus is, even before anything has really happened. Derren's audience control is fantastic, and watching his early card work helped me leaps and bounds with my own presentation and trick handling.

Asking a question or drawing the focus to the spectator is a great way of misdirecting. For years, I'd refuse to palm cards, not confident in my own ability to pull off such a bold move. Finally I discovered my problem was a lack of misdirection and bad audience management. I'll share a wee snippet of my current routine as an example: first, I'll switch their card* and get ready for the palm. I'll ask a spectator to hold their finger out, demonstrating with my hand as I do. I look first at my finger, then expectantly at theirs, drawing all the attention away from the cards. As my hands come back together, I execute the palm, whilst saying something along the lines of 'hold it a bit higher', still looking at their hand. I'll then ask them to push in 'their' card using the outstretched finger, now that the move is complete. I've found doing this has boosted my confidence and success rate massively. I hope you can apply the idea to your own trick. Of course it's important to make sure you can do the moves without looking, so make sure to practice where your eyes point as much as what your hands are doing.

*Interestingly, once you've switched a card, you can use that to misdirect a spectator. You should find that after you've done your topchange, if you bring the focus back to 'their' card, you can get away with just about anything with the rest of the deck - maybe set up for the next phase of the trick?