Magicians - best spectators & worst audience

[Maaz Hasan]

What's up guys,

I just wanted to write a bit about something I've been thinking about, and hopefully we can get a good discussion out of it .

My point here is going to be simple. When watching a performance, Magicians are both the best and the worst audience at the same time. How is this possible? It's all about how we differ from the average layman. Note: Here, I'm talking about a legitimate performance, not a YouTube video where you have people trying to expose the magician in the comments and seeing who gets it right. A legitimate performance.

First of all, we are the best audience because we love what we see. We differ from laymen in this because we all have a higher passion for magic. After all, the reason we started practicing is because we had that drive to start learning the actual magic. We crossed that line because we really wanted to learn what goes on behind the actual trick. And for that reason, we began to eventually appreciate performances even more. When we see a performance, we immediately try and soak it in because we still have that same drive within us, not to figure out how it's done, but rather to know this new concept that we are seeing.

At the same time, there is a downside. Because we practice and have such a drive to learn, we don't watch like a normal layman. Yes, we can try our best to sit back and just enjoy the performance, which a lot of us do. I personally think it's messed up if we're trying to catch the performer. But at the same time, we end up noticing things that change the way the performer has to perform if he's performing for magicians. We notice things that are unneeded, like if a performer stands a specific way, or does specific moves. For this reason, the performance changes for the performer. If the patter isn't amazing, it is sometimes ignored. Other times, they can't do some things that they would do normally. And this is only the magicians that try and actually watch the performance. A lot of magicians watch a performance just to decrypt it (something that really annoys me).

Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The performer can make the show entertaining for both laymen and magicians, though it requires a lot of work. Take a look at P & T and you can see how they do one thing to for the audience whilst simultaneously adding things to mess with magicians and entertain both.

So while magicians will watch a performance with awe and truly enjoy it, the performer changes the way he does things, sometimes inadvertently to try and make the performance perfect. For this reason, magicians are (imo) the best audience that we can be, but to a performer, they can also be the worst spectators to perform for,

And yes, there are sooo many exceptions to this, but for the most part, this is how I feel. How about you guys? I'd love to know what you think.

 

[Al e Cat Dabra]

I find that there is a common denominator between performing for magicians and for laymen. That is, clean, smooth handling and execution and an engaging script, whether it be humorous, inspiring or just a good story to go with the routine. Even if the trick/routine is one to which the magician knows the secret, they will still appreciate it if the method is good and the handling is clean. It's just that a magician is likely to express his/her appreciation in a different manner than a layman, by saying, for example, "That was a nice retention vanish," or "You palm well," or "Your loading of the final loads was smooth and well-timed," whereas laymen are more likely to express their appreciation in a more generalized way, like, "I have no idea how you did that!" or "WTF, that was amazing!"

In any event I have a collection of zingers just for those occasions when magicians come into the bar "to check out the magician." Some involve sleights; others are self-workers, or depend on subtlety. I have found, through experience, that some of these magician-foolers are simple tricks that you might not ever think would baffle a magician. But usually, unless you are dealing with an egomaniac or someone rude, if you fool a magician, or at least execute the magic well and in an engaging way, they are entertained and impressed, and not afraid to tell you. I always treat my audiences with great respect, whether layman or magician, and this almost always elicits a positive response. As Paul LePaul wrote, "If people like you, they will like your magic."

 

[Lord Magic]

What's up guys,

I just wanted to write a bit about something I've been thinking about, and hopefully we can get a good discussion out of it .

My point here is going to be simple. When watching a performance, Magicians are both the best and the worst audience at the same time. How is this possible? It's all about how we differ from the average layman. Note: Here, I'm talking about a legitimate performance, not a YouTube video where you have people trying to expose the magician in the comments and seeing who gets it right. A legitimate performance.

First of all, we are the best audience because we love what we see. We differ from laymen in this because we all have a higher passion for magic. After all, the reason we started practicing is because we had that drive to start learning the actual magic. We crossed that line because we really wanted to learn what goes on behind the actual trick. And for that reason, we began to eventually appreciate performances even more. When we see a performance, we immediately try and soak it in because we still have that same drive within us, not to figure out how it's done, but rather to know this new concept that we are seeing.

At the same time, there is a downside. Because we practice and have such a drive to learn, we don't watch like a normal layman. Yes, we can try our best to sit back and just enjoy the performance, which a lot of us do. I personally think it's messed up if we're trying to catch the performer. But at the same time, we end up noticing things that change the way the performer has to perform if he's performing for magicians. We notice things that are unneeded, like if a performer stands a specific way, or does specific moves. For this reason, the performance changes for the performer. If the patter isn't amazing, it is sometimes ignored. Other times, they can't do some things that they would do normally. And this is only the magicians that try and actually watch the performance. A lot of magicians watch a performance just to decrypt it (something that really annoys me).

Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The performer can make the show entertaining for both laymen and magicians, though it requires a lot of work. Take a look at P & T and you can see how they do one thing to for the audience whilst simultaneously adding things to mess with magicians and entertain both.

So while magicians will watch a performance with awe and truly enjoy it, the performer changes the way he does things, sometimes inadvertently to try and make the performance perfect. For this reason, magicians are (imo) the best audience that we can be, but to a performer, they can also be the worst spectators to perform for,

And yes, there are sooo many exceptions to this, but for the most part, this is how I feel. How about you guys? I'd love to know what you think.

I guess, as you pointed out, we can be the extremes of both sides.
Disclaimer:-Whenever I say 'we', I exclude magicians who are so immature that they become hecklers when being an audience to other magicians.
~~~~~°~~~~~
We do appreciate the performance of a magician. We appreciate the work they have gone through. We may spot a center double, but the elegance of the performer makes us spellbound! Do check out Richard Turner's P&T appearance. You'll see that, although we know exactly what he is doing (mostly because he tells us)...it amazes not only us, but the laymen too. At that time, everyone, even the biggest layman knows WHAT he is doing, but we all get amazed by HOW he does it.
And frankly speaking, his performance, where I know ALL the methods amaze me as much as Shin Lim's performance, where I know nothing.
So cleary, knowing a bit about something actually makes you appreciate that thing more. If I showed you a cricket match and you didn't know a thing abt cricket, would you awe over the shots of the batsman? If I cracked an amazing Harry Potter joke and you have never read the books, would you understad how brilliant the joke is?
So since we magicians understand the workings (because whether we do a sleight or not, we know ABOUT most sleights, like many don't DO the pass, but know ABOUT the pass) and know what magicians do and when, we are really some of the best audience members around.
And not to mention we also are some of the best guinea pigs around! I mean, if you want advice on how to improve your SLEIGHTS, perform to a magician, who'll again be the best audience at that time for you.

We can be the worst audience any other magician could dream about. But that's partly because some ''magicians'' know very well when another one does, say, a DL, and therefore that ''magician'' cries out, "So just show that top card again?" or something. We are afraid these 'magicians' will let their heckler spirits take control (because accept it or not, every magician has an inner-heckler, we just keep it under control). So these ''magicians'' become the worst audience. But if there are no ''magicians'' in the audience and instead there are magicians there (not the inverted commas kind), from a performer's perspective, I don't think we are the worst audience.
As for noticing stuff, well, I still find some card tricks using a key card blow my mind.
On the other hand, I can't help notice when a performer cuts 2 packets from the bottom of the deck to ''lose'' the card even ''more''.
So it really depends on the performance level how much I notice things like these.
Unless one has ''magicians'' in the audience, I don't think they are bad spectators. Because heck, sometimes I act amazed for my friends even when they do stuff like,"Think of a number, add 1234, subtract 1234, subtract your original number, you are left with zero"...because we
1) Know something called "Performance is more important than method and effect"
2)Know something called politeness.
3) Now sometimes, I may just be in a sarcastic mood, and my sarcasm is so good that it ceases to be sarcastic.