Spectators don't care...

[Creeper]

if your original. I read this somewhere, and I thought about it, and its a really good thought. They don't care if you don't have an original thing in your whole act. Yes, its great to have fantastic original material, but when it comes to it, the only thing required is entertainment. just a thought.

 

[Deleted member 2755]

if your original. I read this somewhere, and I thought about it, and its a really good thought. They don't care if you don't have an original thing in your whole act. Yes, its great to have fantastic original material, but when it comes to it, the only thing required is entertainment. just a thought.

Of course. The reason they don't care is because they don't know what IS original and what isn't. Most people don't have the pleasure of seeing a different magician perform every single day.

However, it is nice to have original material because you don't exactly want to be known as unoriginal by other magicians. Even if its just patter, its good to change something up in an effect.

Also, if you plan to take magic professionally, you don't want to be seen doing magic exact as its been done previously.

To a certain extent, you are correct. (At least in my opinion.)

-Doug

 

[Brad Henderson]

Unless you want to work.

Get an agent to talk about the generic magician. If your act has the same tricks as everyone else, they have no interest in booking you.

Besides, if everything you do is someone else's, where is the "you" in your act?

Brad Henderson

 

[praetoritevong]

To some extent, if they see another trick they've seen before, it does affect entertainment. I agree with you in that many spectators won't care because as Doug said, they won't know. But if they do, it's a problem, and it's also a problem in the situation Brad pointed out.

That said, originality for me is something to pursue to augment entertainment. The more things you can do that are totally different to what they may have seen before, the better. And from a personal point of view, it's satisfying also.

 

[cedwards90]

Originality may not always matter now, but eventually you are going to have to add your own work into your act if you want to be successful. If spectators have seen the effect before on TV or something, it will take away from the reaction.

 

[Deleted member 2755]

Originality may not always matter now, but eventually you are going to have to add your own work into your act if you want to be successful. If spectators have seen the effect before on TV or something, it will take away from the reaction.

I completely agree with you. However, those cases are most likely extremely rare. However, I always try to make my patter original and different to the original effect that I learn. I used to use the original patter taught, but as I grew to know more magic, I felt it was important to be original and yourself. However, if you did effects exactly as they were taught, just as I said earlier, the spectator would not know.

-Doug

 

[Creeper]

I'm with you sinful all the way, I'm just saying that in my opinion spectators sometimes ONLY care if they are entertained. You can do that with original material or not.

 

[RikAllen]

The biggest thing in my experience is doing tricks to people who do watch magic on TV. The Blaine specials and Mindfreak (though mostly stage style-illusion, has close-up in it).

And doing something as simple as two card monte, as DB handles it, is like 'Wow, you're like David Blaine, how did you learn his secrets?'
...okay so it only happened like once, and the person wasn't exactly bright...

Onward,
I will almost always change patter (where possible...some tricks are only so adaptable, Sinful-for instance...sure you can change it up...but how many presentations can you think of that include slamming a quarter through a soda can?)

And changing patter can easily change the effect. Where you place the corner for Angle Zero can dramatically change the way a spectator sees it, and two people can describe the same effect completely different.

Upward?
I would guess original material helps progress you as a magician. Just like the first time you change the handling of an effect makes you see all of your magic differently. "OH! I can do all of these differently, and make it easier for me."

A lot of magicians never change the way they do the tricks...learn it one way and that's how it's done. The same ones still mimic the original scripts (not a bad thing...but not exactly productive either).

Just a few (scattered) thoughts.

-Rik

 

[Brad Henderson]

Is it that rare?

Let's think about it:

Chances are that if you are performing somewhere, it is the kind of place that would have a magician. And, chances are, the people who show up are the kind of people who frequent those kinds of places. So, since these are people who are in the kind of places that would have a magician, chances are they've run into one before.

What that means is: when you do a trick that is popular, you are automatically inviting comparison. Now, if you are the bee's knees and KNOW that no matter what they've seen, you are totally better than whatever the other guy could have done - then there is nothing to sweat.

Otherwise, there is a chance people will leave your set thinking, "yeah he's good, but remember that other guy. He did that trick so much better. " Even if you ARE better, they still end up thinking about the other guy (who sucked) and they remember you as having done the same trick as the suckey guy.

Now, not everyone has seen magic in person, but a lot have. Why set yourself up for the inevitable if occasional comparison when, with just a little bit of work, you can avoid it all together.

Laziness and comparison vs. work and knowing you are giving your audiences something unique and special (you know, like magic)

Seems to me there's only one smart choice here.

Brad Henderson

 

[MitchellStafiej]

For original patter I feel that if you try to copy another person's style that it possibly won't fit you. This patter was written and created for THEM! Not you. You personality and your tone might not be able to make the patter the best it can be. Therefore not having an interesting presentation. And I can guarantee you that if you don't have good presentation the reactions won't be as stellar as they could be.

As for effects, not everyone creates magic. So using other people's effects but making it your own should give you an edge over the every day magicians. Always make your magic YOUR OWN.

Mitch

 

[Randomwrath]

I was working on my patter for my ACR recently and I showed it to my friend for the first time with patter. My ACR has always been a little 'see the card go in the middle, now it's on top' if you know what I mean. It definitely had a lack of patter.
Now this friend, I hang around with a lot and therefore he's seen me do magic a lot. He's probably seen my ACR roughly 15-20 times now and therefore it isn't particularly impressive any more. So anyway, I asked him if he could be a test dummy for my new trick. I didn't say what I was about to do, just launched into the routine. After getting him to sign the card, I didn't mention the deck at all until the finale (the card disappears altogether). I just told a story and the deck was the physical representation of what was happening. He stood there, stunned, for a minute and then said in a vaguely flabbergasted voice:
"That has to have been one of the best tricks I have ever seen you do."

There you go. It wasn't even a different magician that had shown him the trick, it was me for the thousandth time. But with a little originality, I showed him a different trick that he had never seen before and it worked wonders. I've always been one for going with the script I am given and leaving it at that. I've also never had especially good reactions (with the odd exception). I only made the link a few weeks ago. Which just go's to show, spectators do care, even if they don't realize it. Originality is the barrier that separates the people that do magic tricks from the magicians.

 

[FOO:L]

heh. the "spectators dont care/spectators dont know the difference" train of thought has been running about in my mind for ages. Was gonna write something about it. But anway, I'll start off with a little story.
I'm helping someone out with learning magic and she stumbled across d+M's CHANGE video. Upon being totally and utterly fooled, she asked me if i knew the method. I decided not to lie and told her the whole story behind the CHANGE incident and the subject got tossed aside. A week or so later, i did the shapeshifter, but with an added wave back and forth infront of her and she exclaimed "I THOUGHT YOU DIDNT KNOW HOW TO DO CHANGE!"

moral of the story? Spectators see the same thing no matter how many thousand different technical moves you use in a routine.

 

[Jack Webster]

if your original. I read this somewhere, and I thought about it, and its a really good thought. They don't care if you don't have an original thing in your whole act. Yes, its great to have fantastic original material, but when it comes to it, the only thing required is entertainment. just a thought.

its also kind of like they dont understand how much work clip shift campares to the CCC. As long as it looks cool they like it.

 

[praetoritevong]

As a general rule, even if the spectators don't care, even if they don't realise, it often matters anyway. Why? Even if we are not consciously aware of the difference between method a and method b, even if we are not consciously aware of the psychology behind an effect, it's always there, and always present. Just because we don't recognise it doesn't mean it can't affect us, it's like the hiding behind one's hands approach.