talkmagic.co.uk

Since most of the "wow" in magic is how well it's presented, I'm interested in getting some tips on learning how to present your tricks. I'm kind of lost, not knowing how to best use patter and what not. Any good threads, web sites, or books on this? Thanks.

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic20337.php

Possibly? It's a tough task, actually performing will get you used to how the audience react to your patter and presentation.

Eugene Burger has an effect all about this, called - funnily enough - Magical Presentations. Although any of his work should inspire you in terms of how to bring your own personality to your magic and the effects you perform. "Voyage to the Inner World", the third in that particular series, is also a good one, and I expect his books address it too.

Someone else was recommending a book called Scripting Magic by Peter (?) McCabe, perhaps track that down as well.

yeah - get eugene's dvd exploring magicial presentations for a short lecture and demo on it all...

and the pete mcCabe book scripting magic...

be prepared to study!

I would advise our enquirer not to fret too much if he doesn't know much about presentation because from my observation 90% of other magicians don't know much about it either.

The solution is quite simple. Buy a book called "Expert Card Technique" by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue. Ignore all the card tricks and sleights in the book. They are too bloody difficult anyway.

Simply focus on the few pages at the back devoted to presentation. It is all you will ever need.

There. Your problem is solved.

But you see, I don't want to be in the lower 90%, anyway. I'm not aspiring for greatness, but I am interested in putting on an interesting show that people will enjoy rather than them thinking "My nephew showed me that" or "Cool. ok... can I go now?". I'm not looking into spending lots of money, "books" was more of a last resort request.

I searched for all the books, but I'm not really interested in spending a good amount of $$$. Do you yourselves have any tips? (Since it seems like this is a new subject; I was thinking that this'd be a roll-of-the-eyes repeditive question and was just looking for links to other threads.) What's the difference between showing someone a trick and performing it for them?

mark lewis wrote:
"Expert Card Technique" Ignore all the card tricks and sleights in the book. They are too bloody difficult anyway.

This is actually quite true. I do find a lot of the stuff in this book unneccessary too.

I must recommend Strong Magic, by Darwin ortiz for some detailed presentational ideas, but the back of expert card technique is a good place to start

Is any of it useful?

I.D wrote:

mark lewis wrote:
"Expert Card Technique" Ignore all the card tricks and sleights in the book. They are too bloody difficult anyway.

This is actually quite true. I do find a lot of the stuff in this book unneccessary too.

And yet, presentation makes up a little over 4% of the entire book. The Mercury Fold? Yep, Expert Card Technique. Double and triple lift? Yep, Expert Card Technique. What about a crimp? Now there's a tough one, eh? Expert Card Technique.

Certainly, the advice that the book offers on misdirection and presentation is good advice, but it barely scratches the surface. As a spring board, it is excellent, but as an overall, end-all study? Not hardly.

"...books" was more of a last resort request.

Well, then, you're SOL. You'll find lots of good stuff in DVDs and other "visual" genre, but if you want to get into the study of presentation, then you're going to have to start investing in books and actually learning how to read.

Sure, I know you can read - you're answering posts here so I must assume that you know how to read. But, as Dai Vernon instructed, "You must learn to read between the lines." And that's what you have to learn - you have to learn how to read.

You must keep notebooks. Wow - just like school. School has a lot to teach you, outside of just cold, hard fact. Like how to discipline yourself, how to take notes and how to study and learn.

I could go on and on trying to help you learn presentation. The problem that I've found, though, is that if I give it away for free it is given that kind of value (in other words: It's free, so it must be worth nothing).

And, I suggest that you listen to Mark Lewis for the most part...While he'll make you eat a mountain of manure before he gives you something worth digesting, what he gives you just may be worth his making you feel like a useless moron lower than a worm to get his tiny bit of wisdom.

Mike.

I don't have any problem with books, I just am not really interested in spending the money. (I wasn't referring exclusively to books; that goes for DVDs and such, too). In fact, I've read A LOT in both books and online (though there's not much in the latter resource, I've found). I do keep a notebook, though I don't have much to put in it yet. I'm just not interested in throwing my money everywhere hoping that I land on something good. I tried reading the last couple pages on the Card Technique book, but they wouldn't come up on Amazon. (You can read parts of some books for free if you buy products from them.) IF you have any good online reading material, please give me a heads up.

The problem that I've found, though, is that if I give it away for free it is given that kind of value (in other words: It's free, so it must be worth nothing).

Well, that a wonderful piece of logicalidiocy. If I gave you a diamond, is it worthless? Of course the wonderful thing is, you can give me your diamond and keep it, too. I promise, your tips won't go to waste.

Visions articles are pretty good.

www.online-visions.com

OK, so, I'll try and offer a couple of pointers, but really this sort of thing is where books really come into their own. I really recommend splashing out on any one of the resources suggested, because as Mr. Jay insinuates, when you've paid good money for something, you really wring the most value out of it. If 200 people give their thoughts here, there might be some real gems, but you'll probably pick and choose and ignore half of them - not in a malicious way, but nevertheless, if it's just "my tuppence' worth" you're unlikely to mull on it for as long.

Any road up, here are a few tips distilled from various books and DVDs, mostly Eugene Burger.

Firstly, bring ideas, themes and interests into your magic from your extra-magical hobbies. What else interests you? Is it the samurai, or artificial intelligent, or dinosaurs, or what? Because if you're interested in the way you present your magic, it will pass on to your audience. You wouldn't believe the variety of ways in which one "effect" can be presented - when I came on here asking for vegas/gambling effects, thinking I didn't know any, I actually ended up learning one new routine, and simply writing new presentations for tricks I already knew.

So, whatever you're into, think of some of the ideas, concepts and curiosities about it, and think about what effects you do now that could be adapted to include this personal presentation.

Secondly and thirdly, because these two points come hand in hand, filter out the rubbish and filler, and plan dramatic silences/pauses. If you ramble all the way through an effect it will lose much of it's power. Confidence and experience will teach you to slow down, but conscientious scripting and practice can give a similar effect. Count to 3 in your head before revealing the vanished coin, reveal their selection in a dramatic way etc. Leave moments of theatrical silence, and whilst you're at it, cut the "workings" down to a minimum. Even a trick based around a mystical story will be more powerful if it is performed neatly and concisely, with as little "filler" as possible - so make every word count.

Finally, and this gets very Burgeresque, try to connect your magic to life for people in a way that they can relate to. Doing something impressive they can't explain is one thing (and it's a very good thing), but even better is if they actually experience something, if you take them on some sort of journey, and if you can hang the magic on emotions and experiences they have had themselves, rather than just performing an unexplainable stunt.

It sounds all a bit theoretical I know; why don't you give us an effect you'd like to perform, and a presentation you'd like to use, and perhaps we can put something together as an example of how to go about it? I'm not saying I'm an authority on the matter, far from it, but it's worth a try.

Farlsborough wrote:OK, so, I'll try and offer a couple of pointers, but really this sort of thing is where books really come into their own. I really recommend splashing out on any one of the resources suggested, because as Mr. Jay insinuates, when you've paid good money for something, you really wring the most value out of it. If 200 people give their thoughts here, there might be some real gems, but you'll probably pick and choose and ignore half of them - not in a malicious way, but nevertheless, if it's just "my tuppence' worth" you're unlikely to mull on it for as long.

Any road up, here are a few tips distilled from various books and DVDs, mostly Eugene Burger.

Firstly, bring ideas, themes and interests into your magic from your extra-magical hobbies. What else interests you? Is it the samurai, or artificial intelligent, or dinosaurs, or what? Because if you're interested in the way you present your magic, it will pass on to your audience. You wouldn't believe the variety of ways in which one "effect" can be presented - when I came on here asking for vegas/gambling effects, thinking I didn't know any, I actually ended up learning one new routine, and simply writing new presentations for tricks I already knew.

So, whatever you're into, think of some of the ideas, concepts and curiosities about it, and think about what effects you do now that could be adapted to include this personal presentation.

Secondly and thirdly, because these two points come hand in hand, filter out the rubbish and filler, and plan dramatic silences/pauses. If you ramble all the way through an effect it will lose much of it's power. Confidence and experience will teach you to slow down, but conscientious scripting and practice can give a similar effect. Count to 3 in your head before revealing the vanished coin, reveal their selection in a dramatic way etc. Leave moments of theatrical silence, and whilst you're at it, cut the "workings" down to a minimum. Even a trick based around a mystical story will be more powerful if it is performed neatly and concisely, with as little "filler" as possible - so make every word count.

Finally, and this gets very Burgeresque, try to connect your magic to life for people in a way that they can relate to. Doing something impressive they can't explain is one thing (and it's a very good thing), but even better is if they actually experience something, if you take them on some sort of journey, and if you can hang the magic on emotions and experiences they have had themselves, rather than just performing an unexplainable stunt.

It sounds all a bit theoretical I know; why don't you give us an effect you'd like to perform, and a presentation you'd like to use, and perhaps we can put something together as an example of how to go about it? I'm not saying I'm an authority on the matter, far from it, but it's worth a try.

This whole post in general was really helpful, but that one part reminded me of a lecture I went to recently.
The lecture was done by Levent, and he was talking about Benson's teacher (I forget who it was.) He was saying that when this man revealed something like a card turning face up, he wouldn't fan out the cards face down to show the face up card, he'd fan them face up, take the face down card, and then wait a second or two. After that, he'd slowly turn the card around to reveal that it was the selected card. This seems to be a fantastic idea.

I quite imagine that Mr Jay is an expert on worthless morons and I won't argue with him there.

However I must advise the young man from Tennessee that sometimes there is a price for progress. In order to get something you often have to give something up. And the thing you have to give up may be time or money or perhaps both. Nothing comes easy.

Strong Magic has been suggested and I agree with the suggestion. However it will take quite a bit of work for the studying of it. And of course the book isn't free. The section I suggested in Expert Card Technique although small will also take study. You HAVE to study. There is no easy way.

However if you are in a hurry (and I get a feeling that you seem to be) and you want to know all there is to know about presentation in one sentence I shall give you all the information you need to become a GREAT magician. I know you said you don't want to be a great magician but you might as well get the information in case you change your mind. Here it is:

YOU are the magic.

Or as Dunninger put it. "Anything will do. Even nail through finger would suffice if you have some way of magnetising and hypnotising that audience"

I would suggest our young student of magic get started on Nail through Finger immediately.