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By all means be as natural as you can as you will feel more comfortable but also bear in mind that you're supposed to be entertaining folks so you'll need to be a bit larger than life as well.

i see natural but entertaining aswell, take the right persona for the right atmosphere/event/gig. i.e for childrens parties a little funny routine, for adults maybe a more confident smoothy routine.

Let your motto be: 'Go with the flow' or something similar!

even the best actors use 60% of themselves in any part they play.

use your experience and your upbringing to shape your character, dont just copy someone you like take parts of them and add them to your character.

"if but only this be true to yourself".

stand in front of your mirror and take a good look at yourself, now put on your mothers old wig, how does it make you feel ?, now add a big carving knife.... if you start to feel excited your in the wrong proffession.

seriusely though, try on some funny gear, something posh, a feather boa etc, examine what makes you comftable and go with that.

ok im going to put in my tuppence worth and say that without either the other is useless, but before anyone starts telling me otherwise hear me out...

if all a person is going to perform are gimmiked effects then peformance will play the biggest part BUT how can performance make up for ability in ANY magical sector (coins, cards etc) for instance, no matter how funny a guy is or how entertaining a person is if they are dropping cards and coins from sloppy palms or double lifts or just even making a mistake in the routine then its not going to matter how funny he is as he just blew the whole gig... they wont be talking about how amazing it was when the card appeared under aunt maudes skirt when it vanished from the deck, all they will be talking about is how funny it looked when the "magician" forgot what was coming next!


So all i can say is performance and ability are BOTH needed

i can totally understand what you are saying mog, maybe i should have added a 50/50 selection to the poll.

dont get me wrong.. i could have wasted ten minutes typing something that everyone doesnt agree with... like i said, its just my thought

Mog: I agree wholeheartedly. The performance should include the magic as part of it. Like I said in my previous post -learn the effect until you're blue in the face - then LEARN THE PERFORMANCE.

Except if you're luck enough to have been Tommy Cooper...!

Many moons ago I went to a Murder Mystery evening and the 6 amateur actors playing the parts were all ad-libbing as much as possible. Their characters were based on their own lives, i.e. if the actor was an electrician then the character was an electrician, if the actor lived in Coventry then the character came from there as well.

This meant they could talk and reply to questions with complete confidence about the character's background and lifestyle without having to memorise loads of information about their fictitious character. It also meant they were free to concentrate on the performance. I guess the lesson I learned was to be yourself, enlarged as much as you feel happy with so you entertain the audience rather than just helping them pass the time away. As Mog says, all the acting and bull in the world won't help if you can't do the stuff professionally as well - just ask Jeffrey Archer!

This is an interesting thread!

As seige quite rightly pointed out "magic is a performance art"!

Many of us forget this (I have been as guilty as many others) and I have some examples which are interesting:

A friend of mine performed a flawless card routine by Jerry Sadowitz (the one where the ace/two/three/selection become the four jacks). Fantastic jaw dropping and mind blowing effect, as far as I am concerned.

A second friend, followed with the disappearing card case.

Have a guess which received the best reaction?

It is important that effects are easy to follow for the audience and preferebly visually entertaining but more so, it is important that the magician does not have technical difficulty and so is able to relax and enjoy the performance. Enjoyment, like laughter, is infectious so if you enjoy it your spectators should too!

In addition, I believe that a magician should not perform above his ability and there is no need to. There are plenty of effects out there, which are easily attainable by most. Basically, the easier (or more practised!) an effect is, the more attention can be paid to performance.

Take Eugene Berger as an example - to my mind, he is probably one of the most mystifying magicians I have had the pleasure to see close up. Does he perform difficult sleights? NO! Does he pay attention to his performance? OH YES!! In great detail!

I went to the McBride Masterclass after years of practising fairly advanced card sleights, I believe to a good standard. After my visit, I wondered why I even bothered!! I went away performing effects such as b'wave, a simple business card effect etc... all sleight free and you know what, the reactions from spectators was phenominal!

So, to summarise, make your magic entertaining, mystifying... don't buy 100s of effects (what am I saying!!), buy one or two at a time which are within your capabilities, practise until perfect, routine (even script) until entertaining, perform until the trick becomes natural, revise your patter with any good stuff you come up with during performance.

I'm going to agree with the original statement that it's 75% performannce and 15% magic ability.

Of course if your doing tricks above your magic ability, and as a result dropping cards, revealing how it's done etc then the performance won't make up for it.

However the point is, that if you have a great performer with no magic ability and a skilled sleight of hand guy with no performing ability, by choosing the correct tricks the performer could be doing a great show in a very short time without any great magic ability. On the other hand the sleight of hand expert is never going to be entertaining without any performance ability.

The secret I think is, to keep within your limits ( as Support has pointed out ) on the trick side of things and then give the performance everything you have. If you do this then I'd have to agree with the 75%-15%

seige wrote:Magic IS a performance art, so yes, performance is everything.

From taking a simple concept, such as the ID, two creative magicians could PERFORM completely different routines - and achieve the same standard - whereas a 'newbie' with no performance incentive or 'theatre' could perform the standard ID routine FLAWLESSLY and make it look like wet tissue paper.

Performance is the key: learn the trick, practice the trick, learn the performance, PRACTICE the performance - then, finally, perform.

Performance is the extra ingredient which makes a good magician.

Agreed

It's all about the tricks - particularly if they're self workers then all the better !

(OK - I don't really believe that but I just wanted to be controversial and say something different )

I agree with much of what has been posted and personally believe that the magic and the performance are inter-twined with the percentages going up and down for each, at different times.

If you look at musicians, bands etc.... there are many who have released best selling records with great vocals that are manipulated in the studio. However, when you see them live you are sometimes disapointed because they just can't perform the song without the same trickery that the studio gives them.

On the other hand, you get the greats, the real legends who sell out stadiums over and over again for decades - because they can perform.

To me, it's not about technicalities - it's about being able to project your art to people and getting them to take notice and then holding them, manipulating them and to coin an old phrase, treating them like putty in your hand.

silver shadow wrote:Whilst do a bit of a show at my wife's work today, i noticed a guy sitting at the back with a smile on his face, so after i had finished i asked why he was smileing, he said i knew how some of your tricks where done, apparently he saw he flash a bit of card during a back palm, well whatever, anyway he said it hadn't spoilt it for him as the performace made up for it,

thus coming to my question, is magic 75% performace and just 15% your actual magic ability?

Which is more important, performance or magic ability?

What do you think?

What about the other 10%?

Performance is more important.

Performance isn't always obvious, for example:

Think about what clothes you wear. Do you use a shirt to make you smart? Bright coloured clothes for childrens shows? Do you stand up straight and give yourself an aura of confidence? Do you use patter? Maybe time things to music? Do you have your props so you can get to them, rather than have to take time searching for them?

All of these and more, are nothing to do with making the magic work, but they are all about performing for your audience.

Performance is very important. You magical skills is in a way like your raw materials. Through your performace, you make your magic abilities known and make everything that much more worthwhile to your spectators. It's no use in having a lot of magic skills but you cant present and communicate with the spectators...it'll just be another insigificant moment for them watching you doing something they cant explain. But through your performance...they can really grasp what you are tryin to do overall and make it a much better experience.