What inspires your magic?

[Antonio Diavolo]

I rewatched The Matrix recently and saw a ton of potential for magic trick presentations in it.

It made me curious as to where you've found inspiration for magic? It could be from other magicians or it could be from other forms of media entirely like movies, books, authors, genres, songs, etc.

I'm just curious as to what things inspire your magic and creativity the most and what about them inspires you?

Looking forward to your responses!

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

My material is mostly designed to allow the audience to experience things I've found interesting throughout my life. A lot of it is sourced from 'Unsolved Mysteries', or historic oddities, ghost stories, etc. My general interests, really.

Examples - I have a lengthy routine based around Sin Eaters that talks about that practice and then has a volunteer sort of experience it.

I have another routine that explores the idea of pictures stealing a piece of one's soul.

My old PK Touch routine was based around the idea that all living things are connected.

But I also have some routines that are intended to set up atmosphere or get the audience into a certain mood. An example of that is my Smash and Stab routine, which is entirely based around the idea of me trusting the audience to keep me safe. This, in turn, builds the audience's trust in me.

My seances are modelled after Victorian era seances, and the idea behind that is to have the audience experience what it's like to be inside a ghost story.

 

[RealityOne]

There are a lot of inspirations. One big one is theme parks like Disney and Universal - the immersive feel of some of the rides that foster the suspension of belief is very much what my goal is with magic. The other big one is stories. Stories are how we communicate our humanity. The third is what I'd call intellectualism - the power to make people think. That uses magic to reflect an idea or concept and then take that idea to the edge of reality. Finally, bad puns. Without bad puns, life is meaningless.

 

[Justin.Morris]

I love using movies as inspiration for my storytelling in effects. It great when many people are familiar with it, but still fine when nobody has seen it.

 

[VagueTheory]

Being able to tell a story through each routine/effect is very fun to me and is my basis for practicing and creating magic.