Just transferring some articles/threads to get some discussion going here!
Hey Everyone,
Lately on the Forums, I have noticed people asking questions about how to perform, what to perform, and so on. They had an "idea", but they couldn't get it right on the money, or it wasn't within their reach yet. So what I am going to do here, is go down the list for each on of these subtopics: Who, what, where, when, why, and how. Now why would I want to do this? This is so you guys can have some thoughts on how to make your performance your own, depending on these few things. Now our first one, is Who.
Who should we perform for?
When about to perform for someone, or several people at a time, it is important to know what is about to come your way. This does tie in a bit with how to select your audience members, by their body language and other aspects of them, but it is important to know who they are in literal terms. Before you perform for them, make sure that you get to greet them, and introduce yourselves to each other. This will come in handy later, because it gives you a little preview of their personality. You can then later on take that, and adapt it to your performance to make it fit THEM. Not you, not the president, but them, and them only. Why? This is so they can relate to everything, and have a better experience. Some awful magicians have performed to me, and it didn’t fit my personality. The performance was all dark, and black magic-like, and it didn't fit me. Even when he introduced himself, I was a cheerful guy just going along with it. This is a great thing to think about, and a great thing to use in your performance.
One more thing to add to this is something to do when introducing yourself. That last thing is to ask questions. Be a friendly person, trying to get to know them better. Of course ask for their name, but other things like are you a student, or so on. They are just little questions that will also add to your patter maybe later on. Maybe they say they are a college student at Lawrence University. While performing for them later on, use that in your story line. Maybe you are performing a 2CM routine. You can mention something like..
"Now your in college right?"
"Yes"
"So in other words, you’re a pretty smart fella"
It doesn't have to be in terms of a guy either, but when you ask those questions in the beginning, you can bring them back later on. It is all apart of knowing "Who" you are going to perform for.
What should we perform?
Most of us when we perform already have an idea of what we are going to do, and/or we have a set out routine that we are going to abide by in our performance. But what you perform can also be affected by knowing "Who" they are, from your greeting, which we just talked about.
With this example, lets say that the girl you are performing for is a very jittery one. She is extremely conscientious, and is easy entertained. (This was all found out in the greeting). But the problem was, that your routine consists of...
Sandwich
ACR
Card to mouth
(This isn't a thought out routine; it is just for the example)
Now all of those effects are great, but you want to really freak her out with something. So this is where adaptation comes into play. Instead of the Sandwich effect, maybe do Stigmata. Then modify Stigmata, so once it appears on your wrist, you spread the cards out and the only one flipped over is their signed card. Then continue to do your ACR. Instead of doing a basic card to mouth, add the effect Warning with it. So when you pull the card out of your mouth, smoke comes out as well. This will possibly enhance your performance, and it will possibly give that "jittery" girl more of a shocking performance.
But remember, all of the information to modify your performance, and know "What" to perform, comes form knowing "Who" they are.
Hey Everyone,
Lately on the Forums, I have noticed people asking questions about how to perform, what to perform, and so on. They had an "idea", but they couldn't get it right on the money, or it wasn't within their reach yet. So what I am going to do here, is go down the list for each on of these subtopics: Who, what, where, when, why, and how. Now why would I want to do this? This is so you guys can have some thoughts on how to make your performance your own, depending on these few things. Now our first one, is Who.
Who should we perform for?
When about to perform for someone, or several people at a time, it is important to know what is about to come your way. This does tie in a bit with how to select your audience members, by their body language and other aspects of them, but it is important to know who they are in literal terms. Before you perform for them, make sure that you get to greet them, and introduce yourselves to each other. This will come in handy later, because it gives you a little preview of their personality. You can then later on take that, and adapt it to your performance to make it fit THEM. Not you, not the president, but them, and them only. Why? This is so they can relate to everything, and have a better experience. Some awful magicians have performed to me, and it didn’t fit my personality. The performance was all dark, and black magic-like, and it didn't fit me. Even when he introduced himself, I was a cheerful guy just going along with it. This is a great thing to think about, and a great thing to use in your performance.
One more thing to add to this is something to do when introducing yourself. That last thing is to ask questions. Be a friendly person, trying to get to know them better. Of course ask for their name, but other things like are you a student, or so on. They are just little questions that will also add to your patter maybe later on. Maybe they say they are a college student at Lawrence University. While performing for them later on, use that in your story line. Maybe you are performing a 2CM routine. You can mention something like..
"Now your in college right?"
"Yes"
"So in other words, you’re a pretty smart fella"
It doesn't have to be in terms of a guy either, but when you ask those questions in the beginning, you can bring them back later on. It is all apart of knowing "Who" you are going to perform for.
What should we perform?
Most of us when we perform already have an idea of what we are going to do, and/or we have a set out routine that we are going to abide by in our performance. But what you perform can also be affected by knowing "Who" they are, from your greeting, which we just talked about.
With this example, lets say that the girl you are performing for is a very jittery one. She is extremely conscientious, and is easy entertained. (This was all found out in the greeting). But the problem was, that your routine consists of...
Sandwich
ACR
Card to mouth
(This isn't a thought out routine; it is just for the example)
Now all of those effects are great, but you want to really freak her out with something. So this is where adaptation comes into play. Instead of the Sandwich effect, maybe do Stigmata. Then modify Stigmata, so once it appears on your wrist, you spread the cards out and the only one flipped over is their signed card. Then continue to do your ACR. Instead of doing a basic card to mouth, add the effect Warning with it. So when you pull the card out of your mouth, smoke comes out as well. This will possibly enhance your performance, and it will possibly give that "jittery" girl more of a shocking performance.
But remember, all of the information to modify your performance, and know "What" to perform, comes form knowing "Who" they are.
