The Demographics of the Reaction

[Electron John]

I have noticed that different groups of our society produce different reactions to magic tricks. My evidence is totally anecdotal and may mean nothing but from what I have seen from the crowd reactions in David Blaine shows as well as magic DVD’s that include reactions of people on the street there seem to be certain patterns that shows up and matches my experiences.

Some people may think that pointing out these differences is somehow racist, sexist, etc. but that is not my intent. I am only hoping to help us as magicians better predict what type of reactions we might expect or plan for based on who our spectator is or how our audience is made up. Also my experience on this topic is limited to perhaps a few hundred individuals and any input from you guys that have more or different experiences than me is greatly appreciated.

OK these are my findings (they are generalities and not absolutes):

Older Asians: strong reactions, sometimes fearful, often believing magic is real

Teenage girls and young women: strong reactions, lots of laughter and or screams, find magic to be very entertaining and enjoy the one on one attention that the magician gives them.

Young Black males: Very strong reactions, often very loud and animated. Enjoy the totally crazy and or impossible effects and are able to see them as entertainment.

Young White males: OK reactions but often look at the magic effect as a puzzle to be solved, expect questions and or requests to “check out the deck”, etc.

Older White males, especially professionals: poor reactions, in some cases will hardly admit anything out of the ordinary has happened. They will sometimes make a statement many minutes later or even days later admitting that they have no idea how you “did that”.

Children: Almost always find magic entertaining but effects should not be too complicated or take too long. The more visual the effect the better.

Retires (65 and over): Typically not very good reactions. Can see magic as a silly waste of time activity. Less likely to scream with excitement but may be somewhat entertained by it. The major exception being older Asians.

In general I find that younger people give better reactions than older people, blacks give better reactions than whites, women give better reactions than men.

Does these findings match what you have experienced?

 

[dragonwing4d]

yes i find these to be close to what i get in my high school.
although i have cliques too so there are some groups that are different.

 

[MitchellStafiej]

I think this a blatant generalization of classes and stereotypes. I can tell you that if you have the right presentation you can achieve the EXACT same reaction from any one of the people you listed. My reactions really vary from time to time, but thats because of my presentation. You can't base reactions on race, age, or social class.

Mitchell

 

[Electron John]

I think this a blatant generalization of classes and stereotypes. I can tell you that if you have the right presentation you can achieve the EXACT same reaction from any one of the people you listed. My reactions really vary from time to time, but thats because of my presentation. You can't base reactions on race, age, or social class.

Mitchell

So you use the same presentation regardless of the race, age or sex of the spectator and get the same reaction? Do you really use the same patter for a young black teenager in the city as you do with a older white businessman? I am not disagreeing with you, just want to clarify what you are saying.

 

[J-Ham]

My Grandmother loves magic tricks as well as the entire staff I work with in the kitchen. I also find that the person who wants to try to figure out the effect the most is the teenage girl on staff so that like completely breaks the stereotypes you put out. I think reactions are influenced by the persons train of thought not by age or gender.

I remember hearing at David Williamson's lecture that you shouldn't expect a big reaction either because it wont happen like that. Which is kinda sad because we spend 40 hours practicing Dave and Dan's material finally go and perform that trick for someone, and the reaction is... "meh that's pretty cool" yet when you then go on to perform something as simple as Sponge balls and the reaction you get is "Omg that was awesome you are the greatest magician ever..." It is pretty demoralizing...

 

[cards88]

My Grandmother loves magic tricks as well as the entire staff I work with in the kitchen. I also find that the person who wants to try to figure out the effect the most is the teenage girl on staff so that like completely breaks the stereotypes you put out. I think reactions are influenced by the persons train of thought not by age or gender.

So since you have one special case his whole post becomes wrong?

 

[MitchellStafiej]

So you use the same presentation regardless of the race, age or sex of the spectator and get the same reaction? Do you really use the same patter for a young black teenager in the city as you do with a older white businessman? I am not disagreeing with you, just want to clarify what you are saying.

Yes, because I don't like to single out people because of their race. I have found a good "niche" in my presentation and I don't change it around for anyone. Obviously if I'm performing at a corporate show I will need to be more mature, but aside from that, the way I present is generally the same for everyone.

Mitchell

 

[The Dark Angel]

It's slightly racist, but i agree with the original post, however, I also agree with what Mitchell has said, it just depends, I guess.

 

[Electron John]

Well it may be racist/sexist/ageist but I think it is silly to think all people are the same. Different demographics like different kinds of music, jokes, clothing, etc. Why would we expect them to react the same to a magic effect? Sure many things cross over and are liked by everyone or multiple groups but many things are not. And there is nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

Anyway I think that an older experienced magician that has performed for decades could likely write a book on this subject. It may be that we can divide people by various personality traits as well and see some kind of correlation to how they react to magic (e.g. artistic types, analytical types, social types, athletic types, introverts, extroverts, etc.).