Dabbling into psychological side - Advice?

[acme_myst]

Hi,

After having spend the majority of the last roughly 18 months learning and improving upon my sleights and tricks, I'm starting to take my first steps upon the next part of this journey. Being rather fond of the theoretical side of things, I want to start focusing more on deception, performance and audience management theory. I'm almost finished with Fitzkee's Magic by Misdirection, so I'm thinking about buying some new books.

As a follow-up on Fitzkee in, let's call it deception theory, I was thinking about getting Tamariz's Five Points in Magic. I've read some good stuff about it, though I'm also somewhat drawn to Aaron Fisher's Paper Engine. He apparently highlights a lot of the thinking that goes into building those effects, which I like, however I really don't need more sleights or tricks right now. I have a feeling the tricks to theory ratio is a lot higher in the Paper Engine, so that´s more or less why I´m leaning towards Tamariz´s work right now.

As for audience management (and approaching and building rapport) theory, I wanted to get How to Make Friends and Influence People. I've heard about it here and there, but maybe somebody can recommend something better? I would like something that's a bit entry level though.

For advice, I'm mostly looking for personal experience and comments on the books, as well as possible alternatives you think might be better suited and/or should be read before any of the ones I suggested.

On a side note, I'm also thinking about getting a brick of the red Stingers. They don't seem to be reviewed as thoroughly as some other decks, so if anyone cares to comment on their performance and handling, in particular with regard to stiffness, smoothness and dribbling and DL capability, that would be great.

Thanks!

 

[praetoritevong]

Hi,

After having spend the majority of the last roughly 18 months learning and improving upon my sleights and tricks, I'm starting to take my first steps upon the next part of this journey. Being rather fond of the theoretical side of things, I want to start focusing more on deception, performance and audience management theory. I'm almost finished with Fitzkee's Magic by Misdirection, so I'm thinking about buying some new books.

As a follow-up on Fitzkee in, let's call it deception theory, I was thinking about getting Tamariz's Five Points in Magic. I've read some good stuff about it, though I'm also somewhat drawn to Aaron Fisher's Paper Engine. He apparently highlights a lot of the thinking that goes into building those effects, which I like, however I really don't need more sleights or tricks right now. I have a feeling the tricks to theory ratio is a lot higher in the Paper Engine, so that´s more or less why I´m leaning towards Tamariz´s work right now.

As for audience management (and approaching and building rapport) theory, I wanted to get How to Make Friends and Influence People. I've heard about it here and there, but maybe somebody can recommend something better? I would like something that's a bit entry level though.

For advice, I'm mostly looking for personal experience and comments on the books, as well as possible alternatives you think might be better suited and/or should be read before any of the ones I suggested.

On a side note, I'm also thinking about getting a brick of the red Stingers. They don't seem to be reviewed as thoroughly as some other decks, so if anyone cares to comment on their performance and handling, in particular with regard to stiffness, smoothness and dribbling and DL capability, that would be great.

Thanks!

Hey man,

It's good to see that you care about this side of performing; many people don't take it seriously and their performances suffer. After all, we're magicians, which is really a form of theatre, and certainly a form of performance - yet few people study either like they study tricks. Of course we know that tricks don't make magicians.

I can certainly sympathise with your theoretical tendencies. I find that I'm usually far better at that sort of critique when it comes to my magician friends. Truth be told, I'm an actor first and a mentalist something like fourth or fifth (a sad reality).

Anyway, back to your question. Tamariz is a great place to go next. Five Points in Magic and also The Magic Way if you can get a hold of it are great books. Other suggestions that are popular and very, very good are Darwin Ortiz's Strong Magic and Ken Weber's Maximum Entertainment - both are also compulsory reading sooner or later. I also agree with your preference over The Paper Engine. It's a great book, but you're right - the lessons are usually orientated around moves or sleights. I also feel that much of the advice in the book relates to the theorical of technical ability (for example, ideas on tension are very much theoretical, but also much more heavily based on technical skills than, say, Five Points).

The Carnegie book is very well recommended as well. It's old but still very much in vogue and for good reason.

I don't know how theatrically based you are. I personally like very much a book by Peter Brook called The Empty Space. It's an in depth compilation of his work on the nature of theatre and different types of theatre. However, it is also a very difficult book to read through, particularly if you haven't had experience as an actor or some other role on/back stage. You will have to think to apply it to magic, but I think it contains some of the most incredible thinking on theatre. In the last few pages, I found a quote which has now come to define and summarise my entire perspective on the role of performance (theatre, magic or otherwise) in life, and it affects every performance I do. It may not be for you, but it's worth a cursory glance.

 

[rich23]

I Really feel the best place to go next is tommy wonders Books of wonder vol. 1 & 2
They are two of the best books you can read, if you want to learn tricks or sleights look
somewere else but if you want to learn the real workings of magic the psychology,timing,
audience management the who what were and why of this art then these books are the way
to go.
Fitzkee and Tamariz also have good stuff but not as good as tommy's and The Paper Engine
is good but not my first or second choice.

 

[acme_myst]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Prae,

Thanks for the kind words. I definitely know what you mean when you say that a lot of people seem to focus mostly on getting the hottest new tricks out there. On a slightly related note, I'd personally love to see some more theoretical discussion on these boards. Though I'm not really an active poster, I've been lurking these boards for quite some time, and I really think it's a shame that the Cerca Trova boards haven't had any new threads for almost two years.

On the subject of theater and theatrical skills, I'm very much just starting to learn about this. This is also the reason that I requested a somewhat entry level book on this subject. I'm still struggling somewhat with actually going out there and approaching strangers, so I'd really like to focus on approaching and rapport building for the time being. This is also the main motivation for getting Carnegie's book. Weber's Maximum Entertainment sounds like it's a great and valuable read as well, but I'm rather afraid it might be a bit too advanced for me right now.

I was definitely already planning on getting Ortiz's Strong Magic at some point. What's drawing me towards Five Points for now is the fact that the latter seems to focus more on actual deception, whereas Strong Magic seems to be more about impact improvement of effects. Though obviously related and also important, I think I'd like to focus more on the actual deception part for now. If I'm wrong in this assessment, please do tell me. To clarify, this was also the reason I picked up Fitzkee in the first place, since I wanted to learn more about misdirection and how to apply it.

With regard to Tamariz's Magic Way, isn't this focussed more on effect and routine design? I'd definitely love to pick up some stuff on this topic, but for now I'd like to focus more on actual performance theory. For when I do get around to it though, I'm also somewhat torn between this and Ortiz's Designing Miracles. If anyone has any comments on either that would be helpful for the future as well.


rich23,

I'm really not sure about Books of Wonder. Though I'm aware that it's a well-recommended set of books, I have a feeling that, like The Paper Engine, it's still mostly focussed around effects and their motivation. Again, if anyone feels different about this then please don't hesitate to tell me.

 

[Jenai]

I recommend looking into Jay Sankey's Beyond Secrets. I LOVE THAT BOOK! It has alot of theory and some amazing insight. It also has alot of information on how to connect with people emotionally, it also covers some much debated topics in this art (including whether or not it is an art). I highly suggest you look into it.

- Jenai

 

[YRAMagicMan]

I can't say much for the books you asked about because I still need to read them, but I can add another book to the list, Sleights of Mind. This book is written for laymen, but it's helped my magic a lot! It's similar to Magic by Misdirection, but it takes a more modern and scientific viewpoint, explaining why things work almost at the root level. The talks about concepts such as change blindness, "false memories" or confabulation, and other useful things that we take advantage of, sometimes without even knowing it.