The Emotional Appeal

[CaseyRudd]

Hey guys, hope you're all having a great start to the week! I was doing a bit of reading last night and something from Roberto Giobbi's Hidden Agenda popped out at me. It was the entry from April 11th, and Giobbi describes this:

"In the DVD series Revelations Volume 1, the Professor quotes David Bamberg (Fu Manchu), Okito's son, having said, 'Every good trick needs an emotional appeal.'"

Giobbi then begins to describe that there is an effect by Henry Christ called "Dead Man's Hand" (see The Jinx, issue 33, June 1937) in which as the performer turns over the hand that "Wild Bill" Hickok held as he was shot, a loud bang should be heard. According to Christ, without the bang, the trick is less than half as good.

This got me thinking and further realizing that magic is extremely powerful for a spectator when you give them a reason to feel something. Whether it's this moment of matching the presentation with an auditory cue, using the presentation to connect with a spectator on a more personal level, or to make them laugh, I think it's extremely beneficial to find ways to connect with your audience. After all, you don't want to be like every other magician they have seen prior. You want to be unique with how you present your magic.

So with that said, what have you been doing lately to up your presentation game? What are some things you have changed about your performance style to get better reactions? Is there anything you want to start changing NOW? Curious to hear your thoughts!

 

[Gabriel Z.]

To answer your first question... Nothing much. I like practicing by myself, not to say that I'm not good enough to perform in front of others. I just feel as if I get more accomplished by myself. I want to start changing the fact that I don't have much interactions aside from the online magic community...sad but true. Although I don't think that's something that you can do overnight , I'm willing to start somewhere. If you could hook me up with local people that are at my same level Casey that would be so cool!! I guess the main thing I'm trying to drive home is where do I belong in the card magic world? I would like to start getting more questions answered!!

 

[TylerScottIllusionist]

When I was writing my show I noticed a lot of parallels in storytelling with how I approach my film scripts. One key particular element was something I learned from Nerdwriter about this concept called Scenes vs. Moments. At the early stages of rehearsals I explained to my team that this is what I was trying to accomplish with my stage show as well as future films. I'll post a link to the video for context:

 

[RealityOne]

Giobbi then begins to describe that there is an effect by Henry Christ called "Dead Man's Hand" (see The Jinx, issue 33, June 1937) in which as the performer turns over the hand that "Wild Bill" Hickok held as he was shot, a loud bang should be heard. According to Christ, without the bang, the trick is less than half as good.

I love that effect. A deck of 1800s and some bang-snaps and you've got a great effect. But I think that without the STORY, the trick is half as good.

This got me thinking and further realizing that magic is extremely powerful for a spectator when you give them a reason to feel something. Whether it's this moment of matching the presentation with an auditory cue, using the presentation to connect with a spectator on a more personal level, or to make them laugh, I think it's extremely beneficial to find ways to connect with your audience. After all, you don't want to be like every other magician they have seen prior. You want to be unique with how you present your magic.

I think people make three mistakes regarding emotional connections. The first is to think that a fleeting moment of astonishment is an emotional connection. The second is thinking that an emotional connection is using a simplistic cliche -- "think of this card as being someone you love and every time you think of them, they will come to the top of the deck." The third, is thinking that making an emotional connection has to be this deep, serious exploration of significant emotions.

Emotional connections are an exploration of our shared experiences of being human. Most often, we make connections with people through stories. Stories can be funny, inspiring, sad, ironic and heartwarming. Have you ever noticed that when someone tells one story, another person then tells another story that they thought of after hearing the first story? When you are among a group of people, sit back and listen to the conversation -- you will notice that stories are how we communicate. If you look a most of our entertainment, it is based on stories - movies, televisions and plays. Stories can be our own stories, fables, historical stories, fictional stories or a combination.

The hard part is integrating the story into the magic effect. Many magic effects are too simplistic to support a story or an emotional connection. Both the story and the magic effect should be strong enough to stand on their own. So, when you combine them, you get something strong.