You’ve Got Talent: Characterizing the Presentation of Magic
(Chapter 8 of 15)
VIII. Practice
Like any skill, character building takes practice and time to perfect. This isn’t like a RPG game where you can design a new character should your last attempt fail. This is your career. It’s an image that people will associate with you, and as discussed previously, frequent and dramatic shifts or changes in your character will result in your audience quickly detaching themselves from your act. So how do make sure that the image you decide to go with is the one that will work for you? Practice!
The more time you spend looking at examples of character building, the more you’ll begin to understand what goes into making a good character. Try this exercise for example.
Take your favorite character from any book, movie or TV show. Then go back to chapter three and understand that characters five elements. Now skip forward to chapter five and see if you understand why the production company or author chose to dress that character they way they did, lastly compare notes with chapter four and see if you understand why the character is motivated to do the things he or she does. Now try doing this for a new character once or twice a week. Like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Here’s my example. We’ll take one of my favorite all time sympathetic villains. Erik otherwise known as the Phantom of the Opera. (I draw reference to Andrew Lloyd Webbers production.)
Step 1. The Five Elements.
· Who is he?
Eric is the cursed disfigured creature living in the bowls of the Paris Opera House, which by some accounts he helped make while in the disguise of another individual.
· What Does He Do?
Erik is a genius composer of music well ahead of his time, and has such a love for the art of music that he wants to contribute to it somehow. He finds his opportunity in the voice of a young girl, whom he tutors from a young age, with the plot to have her sing his music. He eventually falls in love with her.
· How Does He Present Himself?
He presents himself as a phantom as a means to control the people of “his” opera house. Even though he is quite human, he is disfigured only in one half of his face. He wears a mask to cover his deformity. Otherwise he dresses in upscale Parisian outfits, and comes across as a very cultured, intelligent, and traveled man.
· Where Does He Come From?
He suffers from a tragic past of rejection, and an escaped freak from a traveling carnival. By some accounts, he was ill treated while in the care of this carnival.
· Why Does He Do What He Does?
He is motivated at first to have his music heard, and then by love as he falls for the young girl he’s been mentoring.
Step 2. Wardrobe.
Erik is a sophisticated man, well educated, and highly intelligent. As appropriate to his well adjusted and cultured tastes he has a wardrobe that consists of upper class style pieces. Since the story takes place in a period setting, the clothing is period appropriate. Erik is the story’s antagonist. He is a sympathetic villain, but a villain none the less, and in the end his attempt to control the girl he loves is thwarted by the stories hero. Since it is traditional in theater to have the villain to wear darker clothing, Erik’s wardrobe is usually mostly dark colors such as browns and blacks. The only exception is his costume during the Masquerade sequence where as he is dressed as the Mask of the Red Death. An interesting choice of characterization from the author if I might add. Erik haven chosen to play a pun off his own wardrobe style by selecting a character that is based off of a mask.
Step 3. Motivations
Erik is a very complex character who is motivated by a few different things during the progression of the story. He is at the very first motivated by his love of music to have a hand in the construction of the Opera House, and it’s many secret panels and labyrinthine tunnels he later makes full use of. His love for the art of music also is what drives the artist in him to have his own music heard. Since Erik is a methodical planner, he puts things into motion to tutor a orphan girl from a very young age, guiding her voice and career path in the direction he wants until she is ultimately ready to take the stage as a diva. Once her career is launched and her popularity insured, his move to have her sing his music is ready to have action.
However, either planned or not, Erik finds himself fallen madly in love with the young girl, and will do anything to further her career success and secure her love for himself. Even if it means murder. His plans would have been realized had it not been for the arrival of an old childhood friend now turned suitor. The love triangle now motivates Erik in a new way. Rage. Rage against the new suitor who would challenge the love of his life, Rage against the new management of “his” opera house and their inability to follow his orders, and Rage against those who would not understand him, and persecute him for the monster that he is.
His last motivations as the story closes, turns back from rage and into love as he makes a very difficult choice to sacrifice his happiness for the happiness of the girl of his dreams. The constant symbology of an angel (of music), fallen angel, and rebirth / resurrection comes to a full circle in the final moments of the play. He releases her to be with her lover for ever, only to disappear into the shadows moments before the angry mob finds his hidden chambers.
Now I’m not suggesting in the least that your magician character be as complicated as the character of Erik from Phantom of the Opera. But your understanding of your own character certainly needs to be as complete as your understanding of any other character literary or otherwise. The one thing you don’t want to do is have such a little understanding of yourself that you act out of character during a performance.
Out of character is a term usually heard around a role playing game, and it is referring to a person who is behaving contrary to the established characters set morals, ethics, or beliefs. Sometimes we can even see examples of people being out of character in movies or television shows that are adapted from books. The writers, directors, or producers fail to understand the authors intentions, and characterize a character in a certain way that is adverse to how it would behave within the confines of it’s original story.
For the most part, this probably won’t apply to a lot of you since I’m sure you’re just presenting your character as a more amp’d up version of yourself. However if for example you’re chosen character or image is something like say Victorian era, and you’re talking about internet, and wi-fi in your act… something’s wrong, and should be changed quickly.
Make no apologies for who you are and stand behind yourself with all of your convictions for so long as you believe in them! Not everyone is going to agree with you, like what you do, or prefer the way you present yourself and your magic. To Hell with them, and their beliefs! The only thing that matters is you stand for what you believe in, and hold yourself to your own morals, ethics, and words so as to not be a hypocrite. If your beliefs change tomorrow, then change with them, but have the courage and conviction to hold by what ever you chose to believe. Be bold enough to accept those changes too, but also be wise enough to bear with broad shoulders the ramifications that result from a sudden change in personal philosophy. In short, Don’t expect a sudden conversion to keeping the secrets of magic from a career built out of exposure go quietly by those whom you used to offend. Just be wise enough to expect their judgments and strong enough to stand by your new convictions.
It should also be said that you shouldn’t condemn others for their chosen characters, paths, or beliefs. Tread lightly when trying to convert others to your ideal ways of presenting magic. What works for you, could be poison to them. Advise your path, offer wise council of your ways, but don’t insist that your path is the only right one, nor that others must follow you. The real annoying problem with personal development is that each person is different. What works for one person won’t for another, and vice versa. Certainly those who are intelligent enough to read between the lines will take notice of common similarities between key subjects who seem to enjoy an abundance of success in their careers, but these notes are in no way a guaranteed blueprint to your own personal future. Otherwise you’d only ever see one kind of magician character, one kind of performance, one type of magic, and only one theory to how to present it.
The hard reality is sometimes someone wins the career lotto, and makes it huge seemingly overnight. They come out of no where, sometimes appear to have no talent, and yet everyone ends up talking about them for years to come. This is happening all the while countless individuals with real technical chops, better handling of effects, and more original presentations of magic go seemingly unnoticed by the world at large. It’s going to happen. The best thing we can hope to do is polish our act to the point that when that one person who can make a difference in our life is sitting in our audience, they see the best act that they have ever seen in their entire life. Since we don’t know if that person will be in our audience tonight or tomorrow, me must make sure we perform at 200% every single time we take a stage. That is why it’s so important to make sure your character and image is as well understood and defined as your clip shift.
(To Be Continued...)
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