My goal is suspension of belief.
As in "Forget what you believe to be true and come with me on a journey..."
I want magic to be so much more. I WANT to have it stand for something.
What does for "stand for something" mean? It means that the audience has an emotional reaction to your magic that is more than admiring the seeming impossibility of what you have done. The best example is the first 8 minutes of the movie Up! Every adult that watches that sees a combination of their lives and their parent's lives. They reflect, even for a moment, on what is important in life.
But, everything doesn't need to be the same sentimental type of emotions. I am working on a needle swallowing routine that has a monologue about how my day went with various puns (the people who needle you, waiting on pins and needles, those pricks you have to deal with) as I drop needles in a glass and then wash them down with some wine. The reaction I'm aiming for is a nervous laugh that is the result of the juxtaposition of bad puns and the macabre idea of swallowing needles - the feeling that this shouldn't be funny but it is.
I have a card to bottle where I use a story about how I got into magic which is really about my Uncle Jim... who "used to commune with the spirts... if you know what I mean" (I say as I pantomime drinking from a pint sized gin bottle). "He would go downstairs every night, sit in his Lazy Boy chair and study old texts on magic... we all knew he was just trying to get away from Aunt Bertha." I tell about what "would have been his most famous magic trick... but there was one problem.... it didn't work." The routine is to evoke a laugh at a funny story that explains where the magic came from.
I have a routine using worry stones that talks about prayer. I start with a pop singer (who says worry is useless), quote a Russian agnostic (who says prayer is like asking God that 2+2 equals five), turn to a Dutch Theologian (who says prayer doesn't change God but changes the person who prays) and explain how my mother taught me to pray (ask God for the strength, courage or knowledge you need). I end the routine by having the spectator reveal that the four worry stones in her hand have now become five - "and just maybe, if you pray the right way, two plus two could equal five." It is a bit more intellectual... challenging the audience to think about worrying and prayer.
I have my egg bag routine which is the story of a little girl named Margarite who lived in Nazi-occupied France. I open that routine by talking about the stories my mother used to tell me when I was growing up that taught me courage, perseverance and values. I explain that this routine is for her. The crack in my voice when I say that is genuine. Through the story, Margarite learns that people sometimes are not what they seem and that there is a magic her wishes.
Eugene Burger talks about "texture" in magic shows. To me that means utilizing a variety of props and plots but also to have different emotions conveyed through magic. The emotions I try to evoke go from whimsicality, to humor, to sentiment, to suspense, to unease, to the intellectual to the arcane. However, it is important to get your audience to trust you before you do something that is very emotional.
Developing performance pieces (a term from Larry Haas's book Transformations) that make the audience feel something isn't easy. First off, many effects just can't carry the weight of a strong presentation. John Bannon's B'Wave is an amazing effect, but to try to put a powerful presentation with it would ruin it. Other times, it is difficult to find a presentation that goes with the effect. I've been brainstorming presentations to go with Kainoa Harbottle's Victorian Coins for more than six months with nothing that I like. I also think that it is a lot harder to develop presentations for card tricks and coin tricks than with other effects. The other problem is that it is too easy to come up with a presentation that is trite or overly emotional -- "think of this card as someone you love."
When you guys perform, how do you think of the concept of suspension of disbelief?
Part of it is to start with strong magic and strong methods. The problem with "just a coin disappearing" is that there is nothing more. What is the point of that? For the audience to figure out where it went? For the audience to be impressed by your skill? A Three-Fly routine or a coins through table routine is stronger because it shows where the coins go. That is step one.
Step two is to answer "why?" Why does the magic happen? Why should the audience care? My coins through table routine (which can be found in Bobo's) is based on times in my life where I had to confront challenges and do what seemed to be impossible. The presentation started out generic - when you are under pressure (press on coins), feel like you are in a glass bubble and everyone is watching you (under a shot glass). It has evolved into personal stories of challenges and talking about what helped me to do the impossible (advice from parents, faith, friends, etc.).
The desired result is a synergy between the magic and the presentation. Both have to be strong enough to be interesting on their own but they need to work together in that the magic needs to illustrate the story and the story needs to explain the magic. When I talk to people who have seen my magic, they refer to the presentation pieces I perform by saying, the one where you talked about [insert presentation] and did [insert effect].
So if you do that right, how does it affect the audience's belief? I think that a good presentation engages the part of the brain that wants to figure out how you did what you did. It is my special effects theory - when you are watching a good movie, you know that it is an actor and special effects, but you are so wrapped up in the plot you don't care about how they did the effects. If your focus as a magician is on the props, the audience's focus will go there two. If your focus is on entertaining, the audience will focus on being entertained.
There is one more element at play here -- consistency with character. Take Harry Potter. In the final scene with Voldomort, did Harry acquire new powers, learn a new spell or act in a way different than his character acted throughout the books? No. Contrast that with the last Star Wars movie, the Rise of Skywalker where an untrained Jedi can use the force in ways that my mentor Yoda could not ("heal with the force one cannot") and where Palpatine survived because of a Horcrux and had to get Harry's blood to return to a corporal body (or something like that). Your character needs to tie your show together. It is easier for me to talk about life's lessons because at age 52, I've experienced a lot. As a teenager, you really can't talk with experience. But, you can talk about stories from your parents or lessons from your grandparents.
As a final point, not everything I perform has a well developed presentation. If I'm casually performing for family or friends or other magicians, sometimes the presentation is just about the effect. However, for me, if I'm doing a more formal show, the presentation should be more polished and thought out.