talkmagic.co.uk

Tapion1ives wrote:

Duplicity wrote:Who the devil opened this can of impromptu worms anyway?! It's Christmas.

i fear that was me. I'm sorry.

I had a helping hand too. This debate comes round every now and again, I do like to sit back and watch them ramble on...
It seems the lack of proper definition is usually a major contributing factor to the arguement.

I'm not sure any of it makes a difference. But just to keep things going. Have a look at Weber's book Lifesavers. He goes into a shop picks up a magazine 'peels' back (this is hard to describe) part of a picture, say the hood of a picture of a car, and as he peels it back you can see the engine inside. Is this impromptu? You can even pull the magazine out of somebody's hand and do the same thing and hand back the magazine. Or get in line at a drug store. Pull some lifesavers off the shelf in front of the clerk, break it open and there rolled up in the lifesavers is a 5 dollar bill. It all looks and feels impromptu. I can do it anytime anywhere because I'm prepared, I am a magician, it is what I do and I'm always prepared to perform something. If you happen to see me in the street ask me to perform a magic effect. I can do it on the spot. Does that make it impromptu? Most Lay people seem to think so and I let them believe it, isn't that what its all about? Perhaps not.

And yes I can borrow a deck and perform out of this world. My set up is actually part an effect I do first. I no longer know if it is impromptu or not.

Again not sure it makes a difference. But I too like to watch the responses, it is a message board.

Sounds like a good book to me. I'll have to get it. How much is it?

well i've always taken impromptu to mean any effect that can be performed with knowledge and skill as opposed to gimmicks etc....

like if your naked in a field and someone gives you a deck of cards and says do some tricks and you can.

For my tuppence, "Impromptu" is a word bandied around too frequently within magic, and dealer's advertisements, to hold any kind of constant meaning.

In my head, I separate this into several categories:

Apparently impromptu - for example, a card revelation where you've had to prepare the environment beforehand - stuffing a duplicate six of spades in a loaf of bread, run up a telephone pole and covered in bees, which you "just happen" to be passing. For my money, a pre-stacked deck would fit here.

Impromptu - a set of "magic" tools you can carry around with you, to unleash the moment when the time is right. Possibly even an (unstacked) deck of cards, TT, loops etc. would fall into this category. The term "impromptu" I do not think is technically accurate here, but I think it fits it's common usage. Much like the term "Mentalism". in fact, which of course has nothing to do with reading minds.

"Jazz" or improvised magic fits into the above category - having the basic tools available to raise hell and all their little wizards, without necessarily a routine in mind, or not a fully fleshed out routine at least.

Unprepared Hardcore. Possibly no routines, certainly no props. Psychological forces, and sleight of hand with borrowed objects. As this morning, in fact, when a fortuitous bowl of chestnuts and some coin moves came into unison


There are probably more definitions, and these are only my opinions, which rarely mean anything