Magical gestures

[sourboarder]

Do "magical" gestures help with the performance aspect of magic? Like a snap or a wave over the cards "casting a shadow" I either read or heard from Paul Harris, if you were a (real) magician you would not need to do any more presentation, you would just do it. What are your ideas about this?

Personally I feel it's pointless in most cases.

 

[2ndDeal]

I believe that magic most often needs a moment for the magic to happen. Magical gesture, if not overdone, does that in most cases.

 

[Brad Henderson]

Skinner was a big advocate of the magical moment. Ultimately you must ask yourself "how am I doing what I am doing?" Once you decide what your "fiction" is, then you should do everything you can to define it. "When does the magic happen? How does the magic happen? Does it happen fast or slow? Does the power come from me or from somewhere else?"

All of these must be clearly answerable not only by you, but by the audience who watches you. They should be able to "see" the answer to these questions in how you handle your work.

Brad Henderson

 

[CoryOOreo]

A lot of the time I'll be performing for my friends, so the idea of using a magical gesture is a little absurd. You don't want to embarrass yourself, because spectator's can be smarter than you think.

 

[Brad Henderson]

You could extend that line of thinking thusly:

The spectator (being smart) does not believe in "magic," so the very claim that something magical is happening - one card changing into another, someone reading your thoughts - would be absurd and lead to embarrassment.

A magic gesture serves to define WHEN the magic is allegedly happening.

Dai Vernon said, "Confusion is not magic."

If the spectator leaves not knowing what happened, we have failed. In the big scheme of things, that includes knowing when it happened and (allegedly) how it happened.

Are you a psychic, a gifted sleight of hand man? Do the cards change on their own? Does the coin vanish or are you just hiding it?

These are the questions one must answer before presenting magic to an audience. Otherwise, you are telling multiple stories that have no connection - or worse, no clear story is told at all.

I would suggest reading WOnder's The Books of Wonder for more on this. He really captured the importance of thinking magic through from this perspective. If you ever have the chance to work with a director, this is how they think. What does the audience see and what does that lead them to conclude? If the audience does not "see" a clear and congruent story, then it is bad theater.

Magic - up close or on the stage - ultimately, is theater. We know the person didn't REALLY die at the end of Les Mis, but we suspend our disbelief and go on a journey which allows to us feel what it would be like if they had. Magic allows us the chance to give that gift of feeling wonder to a person. Wonder produced by performing things that are unreal - but creating a safe place to allow people to suspend that disbelief and "play."

Brad Henderson

 

[Ineski]

Magical gestures are very powerful and important in my opinion. If they are overdone they're gonna look redicilous of course. Well planted magical gestures can serve you in many ways. You can suggest to your audience that now is the moment when the magic is happening eventhough the technical stuff has been completed long before. It also provides some nice time misdirection and you will have an excuse to show your hands empty without pointing it out by saying it out loud.

 

[Dylan P.]

magical gestures can make your effect be complete depending when they are used and if they are appropriate. You also don't want to overdue it.

Now, I don't want to get anyone upset but I think Criss Angel is the best example. He is not my favorite guy but some of his effects woul;d be great except for the fact that he overdose the presentation. He breaths too deaply and too ludly for too long. He also tends to wave his arms up and down in a flapping motion slowly. Then he levitates and acts like he is a cancer patient and starts screaming and moaning.

I don't want to get anyone mad but I think that is just a bit over the top. Just a snap can be a good one if you want to make the card jump to the top. Or even a wave over the car in their hand.

Hope I could help.

 

[sourboarder]

I agree with brad. To each his own. I mean, lately i have learned that i go way too fast, and is slowing down my presentation by adding a gesture proper? I don't think so. I mean were magicians, not wizards with magic spells and words like locus focus.

 

[2ndDeal]

Let's take the Ambitious Card as an example. I think that there are two possible effects: the card rises to top on itself. Magical gesture wouldn't make much sense.

The other is that magician causes the card to rise to the top. Snap of fingers, riffling deck or anything clarifyes the effect.

 

[jimmah01]

yeah you just generally do something.

like 2nddeal said, you need a specific moment when the magic occurs.


but you can just make it humourous, like i was doing an ambitious card routine once and i said 'kiss the deck for it to come up'


they complied.


it came to the top.

then i did at again with a different card and said "watch.. when you DON'T kiss it, it doesn't come up (double)"

then they kissed it again and it came up.

you can really make people to anything just to see the result.


"do the magic backflip"

 

[Jakeh]

The audience needs to know "when the magic happened." Say, you're doing Triumph.. you do all the technical work and then you just spread the cards and say "LOOK! WOW!" That, to me, is stupid. If you snap your fingers or something, it just makes more.. sense.

 

[PlethZorb]

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Magical gestures are the absolute key to success in the realm of magic.

Without them, we are nothing but seedy showmen.