Beginners thoughts on tricks vs routines

[inn3rs3lf]

I discovered magic via David Blaine in his street magic video that hit our shores in the '90s. Yet I have only recently started to actually try and do magic myself (This has been explained elsewhere, but I do believe it is important, as I am not a professional with all the know-how and why's so this thread is based upon my limited understanding).

The craze on YouTube nowadays is just to bombard the viewer with one shot sleights. Colour changes, ACAAN's faster than Sonic, and the like. Even as a beginner, I am jaded with these onslaughts and find almost no joy in it. Yes, I do understand the skill that is needed to perform such feats, as I have been trying this for a few months now and know how hard it truly is; yet when it is so fast and so plenty, it loses everything it is meant to be.

I am finding myself being drawn to the 20-minute routines more often than anything, watching a plethora of artists tell a story incorporating the same sleights, in such a way that even if their delivery is botched worse so than the "YouTube" sensations, I appreciate the act in its entirety more than anything.

As a beginner, I feel these "trick" videos do nothing for the card magic in the greater scheme of things. This is where you get the whole "I saw what he did there, if you slow it down" nonsense, vs enjoying an art form being...performed. Am I off base here? Or do you seasoned magicians feel that there these trick videos are a welcomed sight?

 

[RickEverhart]

As a performer with 20 years of experience I will say that yes, social media magic does have its own place and it does have a following because I see this happening with my son who is 14. These videos are what excited him and hooked him, which then led him to joining our local IBM ring that I am a member of and then taking that next step into actually going out and performing for actual spectators. That being said, I do not like seeing "exposure" videos where little Timmy's rich mom and dad just bought him all of the new latest and greatest magic and he records himself in his bedroom purposely exposing the methods to gain followers and likes. That's ridiculous and angers me, but it is what it is.

I also have a hard time watching the older style magicians who talk and talk and talk and narrate an effect to the point of drawing it out for 10 minutes.

I feel there needs to be a happy medium between the story telling/interaction and the magic. There needs to be an emotional hook and value to the performance. Why does the spectator "want" to see your character perform for them.

 

[Theorist19]

I agree with you. The fact is that when buying or learning something it’s extremely easy to fall in the trap of visual and “YouTube sensations” tricks.( I think that’s not casual that this kind of tricks are the most sold and produced by most of the magic producers and well-built routines are mostly explained in books and DVDs by expert magicians).
Merry Christmas
/TCM

 

[Theorist19]

As a performer with 20 years of experience I will say that yes, social media magic does have its own place and it does have a following because I see this happening with my son who is 14. These videos are what excited him and hooked him, which then led him to joining our local IBM ring that I am a member of and then taking that next step into actually going out and performing for actual spectators. That being said, I do not like seeing "exposure" videos where little Timmy's rich mom and dad just bought him all of the new latest and greatest magic and he records himself in his bedroom purposely exposing the methods to gain followers and likes. That's ridiculous and angers me, but it is what it is.

I also have a hard time watching the older style magicians who talk and talk and talk and narrate an effect to the point of drawing it out for 10 minutes.

I feel there needs to be a happy medium between the story telling/interaction and the magic. There needs to be an emotional hook and value to the performance. Why does the spectator "want" to see your character perform for them.

Starting from this thoughts, we can hypotesize that nowadays most of the people don’t want to see you showing magic tricks, but things following the stereotypes of what’s magic. (Of course, I hope things are not totally like this).

 

[Theorist19]

I agree with you. The fact is that when buying or learning something it’s extremely easy to fall in the trap of visual and “YouTube sensations” tricks.( I think that’s not casual that this kind of tricks are the most sold and produced by most of the magic producers and well-built routines are mostly explained in books and DVDs by expert magicians).
Merry Christmas
/TCM

Really, a few (just a few) of the YouTube tricks you can see can impressed me permanently, but when you watch one of this tricks and then you watch an entire routine, well, this second one is MUCH MORE satisfying and impressive.

 

[RealityOne]

Even as a beginner, I am jaded with these onslaughts and find almost no joy in it.

You are not alone. @Steerpike (there are probably six or fewer people on the forums that remember him) used to always say that a performance has to answer the question "why should the audience care?" What you see on YouTube is "look at what I can do" magic. It is easy to to see the performance as just a trick... or "fast hands." It gets old quickly.

I also have a hard time watching the older style magicians who talk and talk and talk and narrate an effect to the point of drawing it out for 10 minutes.

Ah yes... a combination of banter and the narration of the adventure of the props in the hands of the magician.

There needs to be an emotional hook and value to the performance.

I think that is one way of explaining why the audience should care about your performance. I hate to say it, but way too many magic performances are cringeworthy... either because it is "look at what I can do magic" with "say-do-see" patter or because it is a bunch of hackneyed lines with the magician trying to be funny and failing.

Ask yourself a question... what makes a move a great movie? Watch the first eight minutes of the movie UP. Not a single word was spoken, but so much was said. Watch a Disney movie or a superhero movie. You want the main characters to succeed. Think of the feeling you have at the end of the movie when they do succeed.

Ask a second question... how do you get your magic to be great? I think the answer is the same.

 

[Gabriel Z.]

I remember @Steerpike.... I got into it with him on a thread about Filming... @Lyle Borders verbally reprimanded me.... But this was a long time ago... Wow how the years go by.


Here is the thread: https://www.theory11.com/forums/threads/how-to-improve-your-videos-overnight.34197/

 

[Josh Burch]

You are not alone. @Steerpike (there are probably six or fewer people on the forums that remember him) used to always say that a performance has to answer the question "why should the audience care?" What you see on YouTube is "look at what I can do" magic. It is easy to to see the performance as just a trick... or "fast hands." It gets old quickly.



Ah yes... a combination of banter and the narration of the adventure of the props in the hands of the magician.



I think that is one way of explaining why the audience should care about your performance. I hate to say it, but way too many magic performances are cringeworthy... either because it is "look at what I can do magic" with "say-do-see" patter or because it is a bunch of hackneyed lines with the magician trying to be funny and failing.

Ask yourself a question... what makes a move a great movie? Watch the first eight minutes of the movie UP. Not a single word was spoken, but so much was said. Watch a Disney movie or a superhero movie. You want the main characters to succeed. Think of the feeling you have at the end of the movie when they do succeed.

Ask a second question... how do you get your magic to be great? I think the answer is the same.

Steerpike! That's a blast from the past! For a second there I thought he might be back on the forums.

 

[MohanaMisra]

Am I off base here? Or do you seasoned magicians feel that there these trick videos are a welcomed sight

I dunno about seasoned magicians but well...

I think these videos do a bit of both.

A few weeks ago I had asked all my contacts, and their contacts and their contacts (so as to make the ''research'' more widespread) whether they liked the quicker flashier stuff or the drawn out storylined tricks.

Apparently it depends. An equal number of people (around) voted for both. I thonk you should make sure to include some flashy elements in your tricks wih a story kinda like the starters, so as to pique their interest and make them want more.

No denying that the shorter videos do indeed work as greater promotional videos, you know?

That is for what the laymen think...as long as the trick is good, I don't think they care avout its length.

Now the fact is that today the audience has a very short attention span online, and magic must like other art forms utilise the internet. So we cannot ignore the good these super flashy tricks do to the magic world.

Also, imagine if you reallt were a magician. Honestly, you would change and vanish and make things appear, right? You wouldn't take their card 'go back in time, make it change, make it change back and then make the tabled card transform into it'. Nah. Real magic would indeed be direct.

All in all, it is still a matter of preference. So I do not think the anybody should really sloght the other form...both, a shorter and longer performance are equally good.

The longer performances do better for the performance aspect for the art.

The shorter performances pressurise the artist to keep inventing better techniques, which are faster and in some cases, even not that angly.

Finally, of course, it depends on the person. But yes yes of course, if the market becomes too saturated with one type of magic, the audience will start demanding the other type soon.