Theatrics
An essay by Mikk Pärg
An essay by Mikk Pärg
Im finding myself going over already posted topics. But i feel that i have much to discuss now that ive grown a little and know much more. The first topic was posted on the 1 of October, so a good 3 months of collecting thoughts. Also i will be adding thoughts by D ICE R and Shukatau who gave some great ideas in the first thread also some thoughts provided by Mr. Jane in his posts.
What is the current state of using theatrics in magic?
I would like to introduce to you David Copperfield. One of the most theatrical personas in the current age of magic.(although there are much more of this type of people)
He is the only performers of magic who does a magic show with really putting everything towards presentation, character and theatrics.
So why the hell are you telling me this?
Well if you just thought that or something similar you probably are a type of performer who wears Jeans and a T-shirt and performs solely on street. This is the new type of performing that really got noticed in the 21'st century.(Mainly by David Blane)
Whats wrong with this, many of you ask, is that this does not have anything to do with theatrics which was the only driving power of the old guys. Before the 21'st and about half of the 20th century: mentalists, magicians, comedy magicians etc. everyone performed close with the theater. A magic show was something that you went to see on stage, accompanied with beautiful women, dancing, bright lights, fireworks etc., current magicians are so lazy that they have stripped all of this and become more independent in performing.
Thanks to this people have become distant from things like rapport, personality, characteristics, believable stories, knowledge, confidence and most importantly theatrics(and much more of course).
//This is what Shakutau had to say about the sentence: How did he achieve that?
Personality, characteristics, believable stories, knowledge, confidence and most importantly theatrics(and much more of course). Which is the same principle as the sentence above.
"Experience teaches only the teachable"
-- Aldus Huxley
The fact that todays magic is distant from the things mentioned above(theatrics, rapport, characteristics etc.) is not new news. We have problems getting this point across, its not how fast you can do a pass nor how perfect of a Double Lift you have, no its the way you present them, the way you hide them. There are many subtle Psychological aspects that todays performers don't understand and many don't want to understand. I find this silly because there is so much we can do to make out life easier as performers with just using the knowledge of old guys.
I remember Max Maven talking about how everyone talked about sleights and effects with the Professor, but they talked about the Psychological aspects of performing. The subtle ways of getting points across to the people without actually saying anything. We need to embrace the fact that the old guys have gone through everything that we will be going through and can give much much good advice to further push our art.
I will take a few sentences for this, the old guys have the chance to push the art forward, teach us the young ones new princibles, new techniques only obtainable by performing for 30 years, this gives us the edge of being better before we should and making our life easier in that sense, but also this helps future performers knowledge on much deeper and complex stuff that they wouldnt get even if they performed for 60 years. This is what i believe to be the pushing of art but lets get back to the theme.
Also people don't understand basic princibles such as mirroring, building rapport, correct wording etc. everything that makes us better performers. Reading books such as Psychological Subtleties and Paul Brooks "Alchemical Tools" give you much more knowledge on performing than you could get doing street, note that im not saying that you should stop, performing on streets is good as long as you do it good and get something from it. I performed for 6 months straight when i started magic, im 16 and although i have much more to learn i have built a strong base for my magic and mentalism. But PS and Alchemical are not books for only mentalists, they are meant for both magicians and mentalists and other magic performers to make out performances more full and better. I suggest everyone having problems rebooking and having problems in performing read Alchemical Tools, those who want to make your routines more full read PS and you get some nice stuff to use in your routines that make them noticeably better.
"Our job is not simple, but if done right we make contact for 5 minutes but make a bond for life!"
Thats what theatrics do for our magic. Thats what it does to make it more memorable, its not only us that do it. Its not about misdirection, quick hands nor clever hidden devices. Its about how you present it.(taken from the original thread)
People tend to overthink the trick, the mechanics and not the presentation of it. People tend to take time to practice the mechanics but not the presentation.
This is something i understood this summer when i saw Miika Pelkonen aka. Ineski, who is one of the awesomest magicians i have ever seen, pumping himself up in the dressing room. He talked briefly about how in card manipulation, every movement, every detail has to be perfect for it to give the impact. That was when i first saw that theatrics are important, he actually practiced 1 movement for 5 minutes in front of the mirror to remember it and get it perfect for the night. While he did not have any cards in his hand, he just did the moves.
And this is what makes the impact on people, the gracefulness of the whole thing, he entertains with himself first and then the cards come in. If you ever have the chance to see him perform his act i do recommend it!
Continues....
