Captain HOOK!

“The lesson of how to use knowledge is as important as the knowledge itself.” Author unknown

Magic tricks are nothing more than puzzles. That’s it! They are not displays of intellectual supremacy; they are not vehicles of self-discovery or a means to convey some deeper meaning of life or love. And they are not entertaining to most people!

Some people may enjoy puzzles and because of that you may think then that it is entertainment. I enjoy watching the snowfall but I would not call that entertainment. I enjoy eating but it is not entertaining. I even enjoy puzzles but I wouldn’t enjoy watching someone else solve a crossword puzzle. To understand why a puzzle unto itself is not entertainment let me describe how a puzzle can be entertaining.

Many game shows at their core are nothing more than a person or a group of people trying to solve a puzzle. But there is almost always other elements added to the show to make it more interesting. Flashing lights, bells and beautifully colored, designed sets. There is the time factor. You sometimes even get to see the seconds tick away on a clock as the contestant runs out of time. There is usually a risk and loss or failure and a reward if the individual or individuals succeed. The host of the show is usually a real character, quite often with charm and charisma. But even more recently the host of some game shows has been just the opposite. Hateful, disgusting characters that the audience almost despises. The best contestants are the unusual, highly expressive people. Someone you can either root for or against. Someone who will scream with joy or maybe even get so upset with losing that they punch out the other contestants.

Why go to all this trouble? Why not just present a puzzle on television and let the viewing public try to figure it out? Then move on to the next puzzle. Because game show developers have realized that a puzzle unto itself is not entertainment.

If you have no interest in becoming a real entertainer by using magic as a vehicle than you probably should seek a different vocation. You would be better served by buying a book that just teaches a bunch of tricks. Then you can learn one or two, go out and show your friends, get mediocre response and move on. But I will assume that you want to become or are a magician and not someone who just does a few tricks. In that case remember that all steady, lasting things are built on a strong foundation. You must start by building a real understanding of what being a magician and an entertainer is and is not all about. I promise you that if you are in magic long enough you will discover that the tricks are very minor to being a good magician. I have been jolted out of my fantasy world many times by some of the world’s best entertaining magicians. Just by observing them entertain an auditorium full of people with a simple trick I learned as a child.

So what makes a magic trick more than just a puzzle?

Magic needs both an intellectual hook and an emotional hook. The intellectual hook can be “How can he do this?” or “Can he do this?” The emotional hook is “Why is he doing this?” or “Why should I care?” The intellectual hook is what most magicians concentrate on. The most popular magicians (note I did not say the best magicians) split the emphasis. Part of their emphasis is on emotion and part on intellect. One of the reasons that the emotional hook is generally neglected is that the emotional hook is more difficult to create.

Many sponge ball or color changing knife routines are like television commercials. “Eye Candy” with no depth or meaning. They may be good to capture the spectator’s attention but prolonged interest flounders without a plot and meaning. A great routine would have both interest capturing eye candy and then a conflict that the audience can relate to. Like a car chase at the beginning of a movie to capture attention of the audience and then followed by the car over turning and the driver, a secret agent, dieing which sets up a plot of international intrigue to maintain that interest.

There are several good rationales for doing magic for someone. One is to demonstrate something that happened or to tell a story. Another can be as an experiment. A third is to show the audience something that they may find interesting or entertaining. A forth way might be a challenge. Something people don’t believe that you can do. There is one really bad reason for showing someone magic. That is to show off. A lot of magic falls into this category.

The three fundamentals of all good stories are 1) Introduce and make them care about the characters. 2) Create a conflict. 3) Resolve the conflict, hopefully with a surprise.

You, the magician are the main character. You must introduce yourself and get them to care about you before the magic! This needs to be done quickly. Before you can create conflict you must establish direction or intention. You need a reason for this.

The conflict is what may prevent you from accomplishing your intention. The resolution should come quickly and logically but with some surprise. If your magic does not follow this formula it is a demonstration or “show-off” magic.

Close up theater is the most difficult type of magic theater. The key word here is theater. Perhaps I should take a moment to define what I mean by theater.

In theater you generally have contrived settings to create ambiance. These setting will quite often include props, sets, costume, lighting and sound. This is opposed to say street or bar magic where most often the settings and ambiance is dictated by the existing scenery and location.

There are many types of magic such as bar or street magic that I consider more difficult do to than theater. But as theater goes, close up theater incorporates both worlds. A script is followed as in “Stage Theater” but due to the close proximity of your audience and the encouragement of open dialog, you have the spontaneity of “Impromptu Street” or “Bar” magic. In other words not everything is completely controlled. But this seemingly uncontrolled atmosphere leads to an environment that cannot be achieved in stage theater magic.

An interesting aspect of magic is that it allows people to see things and experience things that they have never seen or experienced before in real life situations. This is one way to justify the production of something like a bird. It is unique. It is also what one might think of as a mental illusion as opposed to a visual or optical illusion.

Optical illusions confuse the brain. In magic the logical part of your brain receives a message but your eyes and ears receive a different message. This can twist the emotions. To some people this is thrilling and to some it can be irritating. As a magician you must learn to feel the response of your audience and make adjustments on the spot. Every person is different and if you are in magic long enough you will learn to sense the proper pace and avenue in which to present your art.

Here is a final note. When presenting magic please remember that it is important to give the spectator a moment to sort out what just took place and how to deal with it. The worst thing that you can do is to look up at a spectator immediately following an effect as if to say, “So what do you think?” Not only are you not allowing him the moment to digest everything but also you are stuffing more food down his throat by subtly asking for a comment or approval. You have already kicked the stool of reality out from under him; don’t make it worse by laughing at him.

David Tower