Magic Pet Peeve?

Nov 20, 2013
169
5
What is your magic pet peeve?

Mine is magicians think the trick has to be perfect in order to perform it. I'll give you two examples of why this is untrue.

1. Most people that plan to have a kid.. just bite the bullet and do it. The timing is NEVER going to be perfect if you're nervous.. Just try it.

2. Jimmy Talksalot says something like this. It's always better to plan in the street than plan in your bedroom. (He is a magician that gets paid to perform on the street by his audience) GO OUT THERE AND TRY IT! You never know how high you can fly.

I'm not saying go out there unprepared.. just like you shouldn't have a baby when you're 14. But as soon as you think the trick is passable.. try it out.
 
Feb 18, 2014
146
0
One of my top pet peeves is when magicians overuse the word "ummmmmmm" the overuse of "watch this" "check it out" not im not saying these are bad. However, I am saying that using these words excessively makes your script poor. In essence, I strongly dislike when a magician is unable to present a trick fluently.
 

Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
2,966
1,101
Utah
I hate it when magicians think they are smarter then their audience, when they talk down to them, or are generally condescending.
 
May 21, 2014
127
6
Staunton, VA
Right now I'm gonna have to go with:

1. People who constantly whine about internet tutorials, including and especially people who complain about tutorials for tricks that have been publicly accessible for over 100 years. (To be specific, I'm not talking about piracy or other ethically indefensible forms of exposure).

2. People who whine about magicians who are more famous than they are. Regardless of the reason. It comes off as jealousy, no matter how you phrase it, how long you've been doing magic, or how you think whichever mainstream magician is "really just hurting magic by selling out and not having presentation and not crediting people" or whatever.
 
Jul 16, 2011
152
1
A few that I think about a lot...

-Overly egotistical magicians. Possibly both in personality, and in appearance. They make it harder for the audience to like and relate to you. It gives off a superiority complex.
-Magicians who deliver patter like they are reading it from a teleprompter. Can make things seem impersonal and less organic.
-Lack of presentation for a lot of magicians. They rely on the tricks to do all the work for them, and do simple "I put the card in the deck... check this out" patter.
- A pet peeve I have for spectators would be the ones who are not open and don't want to be amazed. The ones that give sympathy reactions or the ones who only react by saying "that was pretty good." Magicians should tackle these people head on. Get them to break, get them to show raw emotion.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nov 20, 2013
169
5
Mike Hankins, I laughed at your answer.

As for the rest of you. Be what you wish to see in the world!
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
- A pet peeve I have for spectators would be the ones who are not open and don't want to be amazed. The ones that give sympathy reactions or the ones who only react by saying "that was pretty good." Magicians should tackle these people head on. Get them to break, get them to show raw emotion.

I have a personal philosophy - it's never the spectator's fault when they are not entertained. It is always the performer. Either the wrong material, the wrong time, the wrong choice in volunteers - whatever. It's never their fault that they didn't enjoy what we did. It's our job to be entertaining to them, not their job to bask in our entertainment.

Does this mean I change my performance to suit everyone? No. It means I find the ones who will enjoy my style of entertainment, and I perform for them. Their reactions will often bring more folks into the fold, so to speak, and then my audience widens. But if they don't enjoy what I do - I shouldn't have done it there.
 
Jan 28, 2014
12
1
I have a personal philosophy - it's never the spectator's fault when they are not entertained. It is always the performer. Either the wrong material, the wrong time, the wrong choice in volunteers - whatever. It's never their fault that they didn't enjoy what we did. It's our job to be entertaining to them, not their job to bask in our entertainment.

Does this mean I change my performance to suit everyone? No. It means I find the ones who will enjoy my style of entertainment, and I perform for them. Their reactions will often bring more folks into the fold, so to speak, and then my audience widens. But if they don't enjoy what I do - I shouldn't have done it there.

My primary peeve involving magic is the advice found commonly in magic books and videos. Vague statements about how we as performers have to "just try" and figure it out. all too rarely are real world examples of how success and failure come from this tightrope act that is live performance.

failing won't always teach you anything.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
My primary peeve involving magic is the advice found commonly in magic books and videos. Vague statements about how we as performers have to "just try" and figure it out. all too rarely are real world examples of how success and failure come from this tightrope act that is live performance.

failing won't always teach you anything.

It will if you take the time to find the lesson instead of pushing the blame onto other people.
 

jrandom

Elite Member
Sep 26, 2007
3
0
Missoula, MT
www.flickr.com
The overly-aggressive "I'm so angry/cool/awesomer-than-thou" personalities. They make their tricks all about themselves instead of the spectator and the wonder of experiencing something "impossible".
 
Jan 28, 2015
187
24
It's more or less already been said, but when a magician presents their effects as a "Look what I can do, and you can't." way. Harry Anderson spent some time on this during one of his lectures I attended and he mentioned that sometimes magicians come across that way even when they had no intentions of doing so and to start being mindful of it during performance.

You're suppose to take your audience on a journey to discover the magic together, not apart.

-KZ
 
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