Hey all, I've been talking magic with friends a fair bit recently and I thought I'd share something which has a bit of relevance to Theory11. This will be a long-ish post, if you can't be bothered to read it, that's fine, don't read on, it won't be succint. But I would firstly like to say I respect Mr. Kenner a very great deal, and at no time during this post am I intending to insult, degrade or otherwise diminish anyone from Theory11 or their actions.
I've wanted Totally Out of Control (hereafter TOoC) the book for a while. So why is it not on my extensive list of wants anymore? Because the DVD set is coming out. I'm aware that a few people made this argument when the project was first announced. But in a few months, or whenever this gets released, every young magician and his rabbit, top hat, wand and animated silks will be performing stuff from TOoC. Ew.
Let's take The Trilogy as an example. First off, I'll say that I hate the D&D tricks, I think they're shocking, I would never perform any of them, I don't like them, and they're not the type of magic I would perform in any case. But, putting that aside for a moment! How many variations of The Queens are there? How many people here perform The Queens? Tivo? How many YouTube videos are there of people performing The Queens? I don't want to perform something that that many people perform.
Every transposition made by the newest generations of magicians engrossed in the world of T11, E and Penguin, convinced that these three companies are the world of magic, is called a Tivo. Tivo freaking 3.0. Tivo freaking 2.4.7.4.87.5.531258796298765837265. The average knowledge of magic of young magicians these days extend only to these three companies. If they don't stock it, no-one knows about it, no-one cares about it. Take The Gecko. On sale for a while. Nothing. On sale by E. Huge buzz. From people who are convinced that the magic offered by these three companies is the ONLY magic around. Take The Queens. Who knows who created The Queens? Not many people. And genericism breeds generic performers. These are the types of magicians who will mostly be performing from TOoC.
Do I really want to be associated to magicians like this?
Call me a mentalist, but I believe the same will happen to TOoC. Which is a pity.
But don't get me wrong. I don't mind. I don't mind that the majority of people my age are going on a DVD craze and ignoring the classics. That's cool, I'll learn from Vernon, from Cervon, from Tamariz and Ascanio and Jennings and Carney. No, you guys leave all those books to me, give them all to me. I've got a stage gig coming up, a real show, a real theatre - and these classics are why, I'm proud to say.
That's what sets me apart, so I honestly don't mind if lots of people buy and butcher and copy TOoC. But I won't buy it. I bear no ill wishes to Theory11 and I do understand that they're a company so of course, by all means, I hope this is a product which sells well for you guys.
I believe that with a routine like The Queens, performed so often, it stifles the need to make yourself different, and make your performance different. And no, I don't mean creating a variation so that change x is now change y. I mean make the way you perform it, more than the method, but the way you perform it different. It doesn't mean it's impossible to be yourself and to be different. But routines like this certainly tend to in my view prevent people from thinking of how to personalising it. And if you asked many magicians how they'd personalised the routine, they'd say "I exchanged the Clipshift for x." Give me a break, that's bull****. That's not personalisation.
Originality means a big deal to me. I see a lot of people on these forums say, and a few are probably thinking this now, "But originality doesn't matter to laypeople!"
Incorrect!
Perhaps it might be better phrased thus: Originality doesn't matter to laypeople who have never been influenced by magic before.
Originality doesn't matter to people who have never seen magic before, who have never heard a story about magicians from a friend before, who have never seen magicians on TV before, who have never thought about magic or magicians before, who have never had the time or circumstance to create preconceptions about magic or magicians.
But if you think about it, a lot of people do have their own preconceptions about magic, don't they? If people think of magicians as a certain mould of character, I believe that it is imperative that we break this mould. And herein lies the importance of originality. If we perform for someone who has seen magic before, originality matters. If someone has heard about a trick before, originality matters. If someone has seen Criss Angel or David Blaine on TV, originality matters, in fact, as long as the audience has some sort of thought on magic, originality matters, because whatever you perform, your audience will have expectations. You may want to follow these expectations, you may wish to subvert them, but in either case, originality is exceptionally important.
No, not many will say "I've seen that trick before." But if someone even thinks about your magic and associates it with a stereotype, an anecdote, an experience, then that's when originality matters. It matters because you're you, you're not Lance Burton, or Dai Vernon or Mr. Chris Kenner. And that matters for your magic.
Sure, for a few people, originality will not matter at all. None of these will apply; whether you perform something known or unknown, steretypical or not, will not matter. But for more people than you'd think, it does.
So why not simply strive for originality? Some won't care. But it will affect many more than you'd think. And then what, if not originality? So for the sake of those many more, please try to be original, it really does make much more sense. Spectators won't care that your routine has been done before - at least not openly in that sense. But they will care when you conform to or subvert what they feel about magic. And that, when your magic has been performed, means a great deal indeed. When you guys get your copies of TOoC in the mail, please try to be different about it.
But in the end it won't matter to me, because I'll still be doing my thing, so unfortunately, because of the release of TOoC, that means I won't be getting the DVD or the book.
I've wanted Totally Out of Control (hereafter TOoC) the book for a while. So why is it not on my extensive list of wants anymore? Because the DVD set is coming out. I'm aware that a few people made this argument when the project was first announced. But in a few months, or whenever this gets released, every young magician and his rabbit, top hat, wand and animated silks will be performing stuff from TOoC. Ew.
Let's take The Trilogy as an example. First off, I'll say that I hate the D&D tricks, I think they're shocking, I would never perform any of them, I don't like them, and they're not the type of magic I would perform in any case. But, putting that aside for a moment! How many variations of The Queens are there? How many people here perform The Queens? Tivo? How many YouTube videos are there of people performing The Queens? I don't want to perform something that that many people perform.
Every transposition made by the newest generations of magicians engrossed in the world of T11, E and Penguin, convinced that these three companies are the world of magic, is called a Tivo. Tivo freaking 3.0. Tivo freaking 2.4.7.4.87.5.531258796298765837265. The average knowledge of magic of young magicians these days extend only to these three companies. If they don't stock it, no-one knows about it, no-one cares about it. Take The Gecko. On sale for a while. Nothing. On sale by E. Huge buzz. From people who are convinced that the magic offered by these three companies is the ONLY magic around. Take The Queens. Who knows who created The Queens? Not many people. And genericism breeds generic performers. These are the types of magicians who will mostly be performing from TOoC.
Do I really want to be associated to magicians like this?
Call me a mentalist, but I believe the same will happen to TOoC. Which is a pity.
But don't get me wrong. I don't mind. I don't mind that the majority of people my age are going on a DVD craze and ignoring the classics. That's cool, I'll learn from Vernon, from Cervon, from Tamariz and Ascanio and Jennings and Carney. No, you guys leave all those books to me, give them all to me. I've got a stage gig coming up, a real show, a real theatre - and these classics are why, I'm proud to say.
That's what sets me apart, so I honestly don't mind if lots of people buy and butcher and copy TOoC. But I won't buy it. I bear no ill wishes to Theory11 and I do understand that they're a company so of course, by all means, I hope this is a product which sells well for you guys.
I believe that with a routine like The Queens, performed so often, it stifles the need to make yourself different, and make your performance different. And no, I don't mean creating a variation so that change x is now change y. I mean make the way you perform it, more than the method, but the way you perform it different. It doesn't mean it's impossible to be yourself and to be different. But routines like this certainly tend to in my view prevent people from thinking of how to personalising it. And if you asked many magicians how they'd personalised the routine, they'd say "I exchanged the Clipshift for x." Give me a break, that's bull****. That's not personalisation.
Originality means a big deal to me. I see a lot of people on these forums say, and a few are probably thinking this now, "But originality doesn't matter to laypeople!"
Incorrect!
Perhaps it might be better phrased thus: Originality doesn't matter to laypeople who have never been influenced by magic before.
Originality doesn't matter to people who have never seen magic before, who have never heard a story about magicians from a friend before, who have never seen magicians on TV before, who have never thought about magic or magicians before, who have never had the time or circumstance to create preconceptions about magic or magicians.
But if you think about it, a lot of people do have their own preconceptions about magic, don't they? If people think of magicians as a certain mould of character, I believe that it is imperative that we break this mould. And herein lies the importance of originality. If we perform for someone who has seen magic before, originality matters. If someone has heard about a trick before, originality matters. If someone has seen Criss Angel or David Blaine on TV, originality matters, in fact, as long as the audience has some sort of thought on magic, originality matters, because whatever you perform, your audience will have expectations. You may want to follow these expectations, you may wish to subvert them, but in either case, originality is exceptionally important.
No, not many will say "I've seen that trick before." But if someone even thinks about your magic and associates it with a stereotype, an anecdote, an experience, then that's when originality matters. It matters because you're you, you're not Lance Burton, or Dai Vernon or Mr. Chris Kenner. And that matters for your magic.
Sure, for a few people, originality will not matter at all. None of these will apply; whether you perform something known or unknown, steretypical or not, will not matter. But for more people than you'd think, it does.
So why not simply strive for originality? Some won't care. But it will affect many more than you'd think. And then what, if not originality? So for the sake of those many more, please try to be original, it really does make much more sense. Spectators won't care that your routine has been done before - at least not openly in that sense. But they will care when you conform to or subvert what they feel about magic. And that, when your magic has been performed, means a great deal indeed. When you guys get your copies of TOoC in the mail, please try to be different about it.
But in the end it won't matter to me, because I'll still be doing my thing, so unfortunately, because of the release of TOoC, that means I won't be getting the DVD or the book.