Laymen Perspective: Are Magicians Cool?

CaseyRudd

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As a response to their answer, I actually agree for the most part. With pretty much anything you do, if your main goal going into it is to BE cool, then you've already missed the point and you're going to fail miserably until you finally realize it. You have to go into it because you love it and because you want to share that experience with others.

Audiences know when performers are trying too hard, and they'll immediately label them as inauthentic. To echo what they said, let the magic speak for itself. Just give the absolute best performance you can without worrying about "will they think I'm cool?" or "I'm hoping I can change their mind about magicians being nerdy anti-social geeks". Make your performance about the audience and not your ego.
 
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Reactions: Justin.Morris
Dec 29, 2017
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As a response to their answer, I actually agree for the most part. With pretty much anything you do, if your main goal going into it is to BE cool, then you've already missed the point and you're going to fail miserably until you finally realize it. You have to go into it because you love it and because you want to share that experience with others.

Audiences know when performers are trying too hard, and they'll immediately label them as inauthentic. To echo what they said, let the magic speak for itself. Just give the absolute best performance you can without worrying about "will they think I'm cool?" or "I'm hoping I can change their mind about magicians being nerdy anti-social geeks". Make your performance about the audience and not your ego.

Yep, wear whatever you'd normally wear and just do you or your persona's thing. You're not there to peacock, you're there (assuming for a basic magic gig) to suspend people's disbelief and get them feeling that sense of wonderment. That ends up being a cool magician because the impression they left was authentically impressive. Honestly I do agree with the culture shift as well because if I said I was a magician... 20 years ago lets say, I'd be called a geek. Nowadays, heck, I've even busted out a well timed, cheesy but clever trick on a first date and she found me more interesting and found it cool I did magic.

This goes for really any performance art. The moment you quit being authentic is the moment your performance will start to falter. Classic cliche: The guy who picked up guitar to be cool in college and only knew Wonderwall and a Nirvana song or two.
 
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