Your Performance Persona

Jun 20, 2008
16
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First of all, sorry to bring back a few week old topic, but I think this is one of the most interesting threads I've seen. I'd love to continue this conversation if anyone else would; I think it's one of the most important and overlooked topics in magic and by discussing it I think we can get a much better idea of not only what we should do, but how we should do it.

I very much agree with Big_Hoos' idea of people remembering you for you and not for the tricks that you did. To bring in another quote from the great Darwin Ortiz (from Strong Magic), "As a performer, I don't see myself as a medium for conveying the magic. Rather, the magic is a medium for selling my personality." To all of those who say they're themselves when they perform, I'll be the first to admit I'm not a very interesting person. Honestly, I wouldn't want to buy my personality. A shy, lazy, socially awkward college student? No thanks. Certainly I could mold these characteristics into an interesting character, but if I was to perform as my genuine self without amplifying some characteristics and supressing others, I would almost certainly just make my spectators bored and uncomfortable.

While we're on the subject of Darwin Ortiz, one of my favorite tricks of his is Beat the Devil. I can't help but cheer him on every time I see this trick; the plot of the trick itself it basically "Look, I'm holding different cards than I was at the beginning." Wow. But the way he presents it makes me think "You know, Darwin Ortiz is the only guy I know of who could outsmart the devil in a game of cards." The trick is not interesting to me because Darwin Ortiz performed a small amount of rather simple sleight of hand while I wasn't really paying attention, the trick is interesting because Darwin Ortiz used it to tell you about Darwin Ortiz.

Anyways, I'm beginning to ramble. One thing I've seen in this thread is the idea of incorporating what you like into the routines. And this is definitely half of the process. But what seems to me to be the more difficult part to figure out is not what you like, but who you are (or who your character is). This gets a little bit harder for me to understand and a little bit harder for me to explain. I guess what I'm getting at is personality; not interests, but personality. What is it and how do we figure it out? Steerpike, I can see it clearly for your more serious charater, the Shadowlander. How have other people gone about this topic?

P.S. Steerpike, your description sounds very interesting. Do you have any videos of you performing? Even if it's just you and the camera (I know it's not the same!) I'd love to see what you've come up with in action.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
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P.S. Steerpike, your description sounds very interesting. Do you have any videos of you performing? Even if it's just you and the camera (I know it's not the same!) I'd love to see what you've come up with in action.

I don't have any videos of myself performing right now simply because I have other projects to use all my DV tape stock on. I have a project in the pipeline right now with the working title From Beyond. It got shelved a few months back to deal with some family issues, but there's a very real possibility that it will go into production sometime before the end of the year, and most certainly before the winter of 2009 is over.

I'll be posting any and all news of this at my website.
 

BrianationX

Banned
Jul 13, 2008
263
0
I dont have one of those
My magic doesnt need anything to be justified
I just do the magic and get reactions
I stay away from patter because it takes away from the magic
 
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