talkmagic.co.uk

Tommyrot. I have achieved brilliance in many fields. I am a wondrous children's entertainer, I happen to be the greatest svengali pitchman of all time, I am a psychic consultant and mentalist without parallel, I have a terribly wonderful stand up magic act and most importantly of all I am one of the greatest close up magicians the world has ever known.

Actually I wanted to say that I am the greatest rather than one of the greatest but I did not want anyone to think that I had a large ego.

Heaven forbid. Do you guys have a regular habit of trashing threads?

Alas the youth of today have no sense of humour. I expect the young man from Tennesse will grow up to be a mentalist.

my advice is thus:

if you're not willing to/can't afford to by the books recommended, then you're at a bit of a disadvantage, you really do need to know a bit of theory on the subject unless you're naturally very outgoing or a bit of a thespian at heart.

I'm at a disadvantage all round really, I'm quiet, I don't have much interesting to say, and I've got butterthumbs instead of fingers. However, thrust a Rocky Raccoon, a set of sponge balls or a chop cup in front of me, and I'll have you rolling around the isles in no time.

Where did I learn my stage persona from? I learned it by watching other magicians, and studying what they did to entertain/make people laugh/captivate their audiences.

Firstly, let me ask you a question:
What do Criss Angel & David Blaine have in common?

Answer: neither of them have much of a personality, they mumble something like 'let me show you something' then they use whatever technical ability they have to astound you.

How do I know this? Because I've seen them on the telly. There's my recommendation to you - watch a LOT of telly. Have a look at TV Magic on http://www.magicweek.co.uk and you'll see what's coming up over the next few weeks on TV.

Obviously, you don't want to be copying people or stealing their jokes - you have to be you, otherwise you're performance is going to be unconfortable and quite probably rubbish, but at the same time, you can learn a LOT from watching what other magicians do.

YouTube is another excellent source of free material. Search for famous magicians (you can find a list in the Magicians Hall of Fame section here), and watch what you can of their performances on YouTube.

You'll get stage grandure, presence etc. etc. from the likes of David Copperfield, you'll get comic timing from the likes of David Williamson, Bill Malone or any magician you personally find funny, and you'll get the true art of storytelling from the likes of Eugene Burger (not sure if he has any clips on YouTube though, but it's well worth a look).

My advice is therefore very simple. Consume as much magic as you can. There's a big difference between the major TV magicians - Blaine and Angel aren't going to be a huge amount of use, but you can learn a lot from the likes of Eugene Burger's performances and maybe Derren Brown or Max Maven, depending on what sort of thing you want to do.

What's also very handy is to look at some of the rubbish bedroom magicians peddling their nonsense on YouTube, some of the stuff is very funny for all the wrong reasons, but it teaches you how NOT to perform.

In the end, your journey is going to be one filled with trial and error until you find your feet, but I urge you to study other magicians (and not copy), learn what makes a good retort or why they pause in a particular place etc. and from there you will have a good grounding.

As others have said as well, it's a good idea to bring another interest into your magic, so you have some sort of passion in your performance. There's no good introducing a trick with a background history of ancient chinese warriors battling evil or something if you've no interest in history. If you like gambling, then work on some gambling routines. If you're interested in music, use music to your advantage, if you're into fast cars, then talk about sprockets or something. You get the idea.

When you've got a bit more money, then get the books others have listed, as you really need a bit of theory to properly crack it, and fully 'get' it.

Until then, a LOT of practise (and by that I mean actual performance), a lot of studying other magicians, and a lot of thinking carefully about what you're saying and why you're saying it is important. There's not really a short cut unless you're a natural showman unfortunately.

Magikmax's post alone should set you on your away! Read it, and learn from it! I know I sure did Cheers Max!

Gee, shucks!

I understand what you mean about David Blaine's personality, he came across all dark and mysterious but it did him no good. I remember seeing someone trying to interview him unexpectantly and he had nothing dark/David Blainish to say, he was just confused and unprepared. He had quite a big influence on me, I just wish he put some of his talent to good use!

wasnt that on richard and judy or something?

he just looked stoned! and sooooooo dull...

Thanks magik, that's probably the most helpful post so far, though there were a few good bits further back (all of which are now in my notebook). That's how I learned my awesome British accent (totally believed by all Americans yet; I've yet to get up the never to try it on my Brit friends), so I can imagine how I could pick up that x-factor through emulation. And as I've said before, I've got plenty of money to buy stuff, I'm just not interested in spending it on things I'm not sure about. I know I would be very disappointed with Burger's videos had I purchased them on some people's advice on here.

Anyway, I bought Win the Crowd and read the first few pages on Amazon; it looks good.

blaine used that persona for very good reason - it was to elicit/induce a kinda trippy strange sensation in the participants...and added to the mystical wierdness of what he did...

if he was a cheeky chappie and then made ash leap from his hand into yours it would of seemed at odds to itself...he's a good lesson in character i reckon - you may not like it or enjoy it, but at least he was consistent with it...

and it was the irish fella off GMTV i believe you're tlaking about - from what i read he was trying to induce a light catatonic state in the interviewer, but came off as someone who's smoked something rather smelly...

Yeah, I always kind of liked Blaine's street magic persona. It's a pity he went all silly, sitting in boxes etc. It was Blaine who totally turned me on to the possibilities of "conjuring" as a way to connect emotionally with the spec. Previous cheeky chappie magic personas such as Paul Daniels had always been a turn off for me personally.

With Paul Daniels you always knew it was a trick. With Blaine you can see how the specs actually believed the magic was real.

Good advice already on this thread, so I'll just repeat what the Oracle at Delphi said: Know thyself.

Your performing character should be like you (it's possibly exactly you, but unlikely unless you're really quite odd all the time), and the only person who can really find the right persona is you.

Please don't delude yourself. I remember one young chap (who got a bit of a rough ride here), and his insistence that he could easily capture all sorts of moods, and be chraming, funny, etc. at the drop of a hat. Maybe he could, but he sure didn't come across that way.

Sometimes, as a performer, faults can become your strengths.

The most important thing in presenting close up magic and possibly the stage environment too is to "take their guns away"

I had better explain. When an audience watch a magician there is a subconcious resentment to what he is doing since nobody likes to be fooled. This resentment may not manifest itself on a concious level and the spectator may not even be aware of it himself.

Magic is the only entertainment art where there is an inherent challenge. I will do a trick and you have to find out how it is done. When you approach a table to do magic for example everyone will have their guns of defensive resentment trained upon you. You have to find some way of disarming them. How you do that is up to you but do it you must.

In other words "take their guns away". There are various ways to achieve this. However you do have to put some thought into it as it may apply to you.

Contrast this to the magician who talks in a too confident manner implying superiority, or the conjurer that has an arrogant bearing when he works. This compounds the problems he already faces because of the inherent challenge of magic and he may wonder why he isn't going over as well as he could. I would say that fully 50% of the close up magicians I have seen do not take steps to alleviate this problem.

That means that 50% of the people on this forum are guilty of this omission. Think about that. Half of you could double the reaction you get from laymen if you consider this point.

How do you do it? Aha! That is where the real secrets of magic lie.

Get them on your side. Be nice to them. Show them how all you're doing is helping them to get in touch with the magic that's inside them. Your "tricks" are team-work involving you and your spec working together to achieve something wonderful - a shared experience.

Never ever ever show "tricks" to people in order to impress them or show how clever you are. They will think you are a dick.

Magic Wand's post could almost be interpreted as advice to subjects on stage who are about to be put into trance in a hypnosis show.

Ormond Mc'Gill used to tell his subjects that it was team work and it involved the hypnotist and the subject working together in a shared experience. An eerie coincidence.