Magic is annoying me...

[Mentalizing]

Magic is and has been an obsession of mine for a good time now. I have been doing magic to alot of people lately, around work, school, neighborhood. Probably increased my performances by about 300% total if I had to guess, but the problem is that people are treating it more and more like a trick and it's annoying me. This was about two weeks ago and haven't done any magic since, and I got a few tricks in recently but they aren't impressed as much.

I put a hold on any buying until then and people are always calling me out whether they are right or not and it's very annoying and ruins the tricks. Never really has happened before and maybe time will set things right or just a bad ass variation of something. So any suggestions?

 

[James Wise Magic]

Wait, are you talking about the magic creators are treating it more like a trick?????

If so, what website do you think treats it more like a trick?



Even so, what it boils down to is, that it is a trick, though you can take a great effect and make it your own. Put your own presentation around it. Be unique. And when you present it, make it about whatever you want!

 

[ZacEckstein]

simple solution. preform less. i might get bashed for saying this but whatever. listen, it is great that you preform but you gotta pace yourself bro. your problem was increasing your performances 300% lol. maybe increase 10 or 15% here and their. Then chill out and preform every now and then. if you do that, you'll have them begging To See More MAGIC Rather than tricks. hope this helped dude.


- Z-M

 

[cm763]

Along those same lines, you'll want to work on how you actually present and perform your magic. If you're performing that often, with like a steady flow of effects, then sure, it'll likely be "what trick does the performance monkey have for us today?" going through your spectators minds.

Obviously, you don't want them to have that mentality. So work on presenting magic, not showing them tricks.

 

[Mentalizing]

My presentation is where I like it to be but I guess just trying not to be a show monkey is the best bet. Any advice on how to get them away from just thinking it's just a trick? Basically like would time make them want to see it more or something else?

Also, no I think the magic creators are doing a decent job right now, a few bloopers like X finger and eXile but everything else I have seen looks pretty hard hitting. Thanks everybody

Drew

 

[praetoritevong]

Read Strong Magic. By Darwin Ortiz. It'll be worth more than any book or DVD of tricks you own, and improve your magic by ten times anything else. But yes - in short, presentation is the key. It might be where you'd like it to be, but in my opinion it does sound like it's not where it needs to be. Depending on how you present the magic, the audience will respond accordingly - this is what changes them from treating it as a puzzle or a trick, to magic.

"...everything else I have seen looks pretty hard hitting." - Please don't feel like I'm calling you out or criticising you unnecessarily, but I would just like to note too that I also think you should have the attitude of making the effects hard hitting yourself. A strong effect poorly presented may get reactions, but it still won't be the best it can be. However by and large, it's your presentation, and it's you, rather than the effect, which is hard hitting.

 

[ZacEckstein]

Basically like would time make them want to see it more or something else?

definitely! It is kinda like going on strike. watch, after a week they will start to beg for magic. Don't do it yet. wait till they stop begging and then it is time to preform again.

 

[Mentalizing]

Read Strong Magic. By Darwin Ortiz. It'll be worth more than any book or DVD of tricks you own, and improve your magic by ten times anything else. But yes - in short, presentation is the key. It might be where you'd like it to be, but in my opinion it does sound like it's not where it needs to be. Depending on how you present the magic, the audience will respond accordingly - this is what changes them from treating it as a puzzle or a trick, to magic.

"...everything else I have seen looks pretty hard hitting." - Please don't feel like I'm calling you out or criticising you unnecessarily, but I would just like to note too that I also think you should have the attitude of making the effects hard hitting yourself. A strong effect poorly presented may get reactions, but it still won't be the best it can be. However by and large, it's your presentation, and it's you, rather than the effect, which is hard hitting.

I understand what you mean but I don't think it's the presentation, maybe it is but I kinda want to clarify it a bit better. I did maybe a trick a week at the most then I did eight effects in a day and the next day I did about five or six. The following day about 3, my presentation is the one thing I always work on. I will ask a buddy of mine to check up on it and practice in front of him and see if it's my presentation that is sucking. Most of the time my presentation is interesting, but everybody makes mistakes. I will have to post some of my school or street magic up here to show you how I present effects. Thanks Praetoritevong.

Drew

 

[praetoritevong]

Sure man, no worries. Look forward to hearing the results - and i hope this does get sorted. Incidentally - whether or not it is presentation - do read Strong Magic as soon as possible, it really is that good

 

[William Draven]

If you're having people treat it like it is a trick then it's probably your presentation or the people you are performing for.

If you are performing 300 times a day five days a week then that's great! That's close to 1500 performances. So that means you'll get a lot of practice and time to really define each and every aspect of your effects. The bad news is if you are performing all those times at the same places for the same people (IE: Your school) Then you are satchurating your market. People will become de-sensitised to magic from over exposure. To prevent this you need to do one of two things. 1) Stop performing the same effects so damn much for the same people or 2) Go haunt some new locations that haven't seen you do your stuff.

If none of that above applies then it probably means you are not putting enough value into your art. Your audience will precieve what ever you want them to. If you treat an effect like it's just a 20 dollar trick that you picked up last week on your spare time then they'll think of it as such. But if you treat it like it was the next best thing to breathing then you'll have a fricking miracle on your hands! It's just like misdirection; The audience will look where you want them to look, and they will think what you want them to think. You have the power, use it!

 

[RickEverhart]

Here is a thought. Take it for what its worth.

Pick one of your effects that people are "calling you out on" or an effect that you think is strong but you aren't getting the reactions.

Only perform that trick for an entire week to MANY different audiences. Old people, young people, kids, etc. Try to perform it with with different types of style / patter etc. Start trying to see which way you are getting the better reactions. Keep modifying it to fit your style and to keep the good reactions. If it still isn't working...at that point I'd take that trick out of your arsenal or put it on the back burner.

I agree with everyone who said it is all about presentation. I am in the middle of Strong Magic by Ortiz and it is teaching me SO much that I never really thought of before.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[nexusmagic]

Okay I took the time to read some of the posts and know here I am writing now.
I recently had a week run on Simulcast our morning announcement. 2 of my video are from this week long event. After that I was extremely popular, or so I thought. everyone was asking me to do magic for them, it was cool for a little while then it got really annoying. Sssooo I just stopped performing magic at school. It has since died down because everyone who has asked me to perform a magic trick for them gets the separating thumb trick.

Now that is not to say they will never see me performing magic again because in April I will be back.

 

[Lex]

Do you perform for the same people repeatedly?

If you do, then they might be taking you for granted--as a "performance monkey," as cm763 put it.

Alternatively, they are learning to watch you critically. Think of it this way: When you do magic, you are challenging your audience in a specific way. "You think the world is this way--but with a flick of my wrist I show that it is actually that way." When you perform for someone multiple times, they begin to watch critically and perhaps to try to catch you in the change from this to that.

If you're looking for feedback, that's a great thing ("I saw you do something funny with your pinky finger this time"). But at that point, they know it's a trick from the start and are watching it as such. So if you're looking just to amaze, it isn't such a great thing.

So this leads to a more complicated question: why are you performing for them? For feedback or for amazement?

Answering that question can give you several options in response:
1. Don't perform as often overall;
2. Don't perform for the same folks as often; or
3. Recalibrate your expectations from the start.

 

[Mentalizing]

Why are you performing for them? For feedback or for amazement?

Answering that question can give you several options in response:
1. Don't perform as often overall;
2. Don't perform for the same folks as often; or
3. Recalibrate your expectations from the start.

I perform for feedback for my magician friends so anything out of the ordinary can be fixed. I most likely need to perform less and in a different atmosphere, not saying no magic in school but set the atmosphere like WH did in Control for the party. I do perform tricks for the same people most of the time but every week I do perform I have new people.

I really enjoyed that post but just quoted what I was going to answer and appreciate everyone's feedback. I think I know what I am going to do now and it is pretty much a little from everybody's. Thanks again everybody

Drew