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themagicwand wrote:Just think to yourself, "If I was really possessed, what would I do?"

An ambitious card routine.

themagicwand wrote:Just think to yourself, "If I was really possessed, what would I do?"

If I were possessed the only choice has to be sponge dong routine.

Do it as a comedy tribute to the Exorcist:

"What does your mother suck in hell Father Carras?" and get the spec to open their hand, bang sponge dong.

Real class routine.....

Lord Freddie wrote:If you are doing obvious 'tricks' the possesion part, unless you are an amazing actor, will be laughable and out of context like some camp, tacky comedy horror film. It all depends whether you want to be believable or come across as silly.
Posession can be done in the right setting and context, but for an array of obvious 'tricks' no one will find it believable.

"Ahhh...my body has been consumed by an evil spirit....what sort of hell awaits me.....what will happen....ah.. I'll do some magic tricks!"

I have to agree with this.

Paulzorin, I dont do this style of presentation but I assume that to do something like this justice there will have to be important considerations for atmosphere and setting the 'scene' - and 3 minutes isnt very long at all. I love watching this sort of thing when it is done well - which is an art in itself - but, as has been pointed out, its too easy to just look daft.

jim

Thanks for your advice guys!

Im doing wounded by Robert Smith aswell as Tears Of Blood. Its kind of subtle which should add some flavor to my 3 minute act.

I will let you guys know how it goes.... Im sh*tting myself hahaha

Im not familiar with your chosen effects, but the best of luck with the show, hope it goes well for you.

jim

You have 3 minutes? Put the magic away and put your time and effort into acting the part. That will convince them more than any type of effect.

paulzorin wrote:Thanks sleightlycrazy! Yes I'm only allowed 3 minutes for my audition. Hers what I was going to say...

from the age of 5 Ive had a spirit by my side his name is Ronnie. My spirit is always by my side like a guardian angel, we all have a guardian angel only most of us cant see them. I however have the ability to see my spirit, i see him every day and he's my best friend. He has advised me that I should audition for this part as this job would be good for me and brings a bright future. My spirit tells me that he is going to enter my body and attempt to scare you. I must stress that I have only ever let Ronnie into my body once in the past and i can vaguely remember what happened. Ronnie will be doing all the work as when he enters my body I will just be a shell and have no control...

THEN I WILL START POSSESSION...

.

ok.. the "spirit" has been with you since you were 5... Its a gardian angel... Gardian Angels dont posess your body, and make you bleed out of your eyes. Gardian Angels protect, and guide.

now you know the thing is there... its been around for a long time... It's a friend.... so.. just talk to it, and pretend to get an answer.

This is exactly what so many hundreds of "real" spiritualists do all over the world.

you can get far more, by doing far less.

If you want to see how to do this, watch Fry, watch Acorah.. hells teeth, watch sooty & sweep!!!.

You believe that the bear is alive, yet YOU never hear him.

This the kind of thing that really annoys bizarre/occult entertainers. People like this cheapening this field of the art by jumping into it without any thought, research or consideration and thinking it's the same as doing a magic trick.

The reason why bizarre/occult entertainers is such a closed community is because of people like this who you know won't listen....




And they NEVER say "what should I read?", it's always "what marketed cr@p can I buy to make me good at this instantly?"

freddie, the answer is a simple one.. market c*** (not the best) and sell it to them:)

Good idea, but then I will be held responsible for the hammy idiots who think they can do anything descending on the world.

I may sell this fellow a reinforced cushion to protect the behind he is so obviously going to fall flat on...

Personally, I don't think perfomers borrowing elements from the Bizarre arena cheapens the field in general.

If you think of it as a movie analogy, people may watch Friday the 13th and they may watch The Haunting (the original natch ) but the one they will actually remember is The Haunting.

It's all about, if you'll pardon me for being a bit pseudy for a moment, the emotion you invoke in the spectators. To extend the analogy above, one offers a constant build up/payoff roller coaster with little involvement, similar you could argue to the standard method/payoff of a magic trick, the other is a slow burning creeping buildup, that builds the emotion in the watcher and offers an occasional minor payoff but in its entirety builds an overall ambience of fear that lingers long after the movie has finished.

I love the possibilities that Bizarre offers to give the spectator an 'experience'. Which is not to say I'm suggesting that the wonder that magic invokes when done well is less valid but to emotionally involve the spectator (Derren Brown does this very well as it goes) is to leave something indellible in their minds.

Best advice: listen to the advice you've got from here (even though I know you won't...) Few people know this kind of stuff better than guys like Freddie, Paul and Craig.

Work out what you're wanting to do if it's for believability guardian angels aren't the same as demons, as Dale said. Need to get your story straight...

I'd probably take at least 20mins over the same thing...but what about going in to 'trance' and doing something impossible with your body. Break your fingers or your arm without reacting to any pain (and I'm not suggesting actually breaking anything, there are plenty of ways...) or take a knife or a needle to your arm if you really want a prop (again, don't really take a knife to your arm...)

Something like that could be built up into a longer piece or could just be done quickly to show the effects of the 'possession'. Though in 3 minutes it'd probably just be tacky and ever so slightly pish...

If it's just to give them a fright (as opposed to proper fear), Paul Zenon's book, Street Magic, has an effect called Wild Bill's Hand (or words to that effect). It's a slightly altered version of an Annemann card trick, but with a surprise at the end. Come to think of it, I can't remember if that bit's in Annemann's version.

I'd go for something like this over any kind of serious possessiony thing

Or cups and balls with plastic skulls...

Heckler wrote:Personally, I don't think perfomers borrowing elements from the Bizarre arena cheapens the field in general.

Im not so sure. Speaking from a close-up point of view, it really pi**es me off when some eejit who has been 'practising' for 5 minutes suddenly thinks they know it all and proceeds to murder a classic piece of magic, thinking theyre doing it well. There seems to be a lot of interest lately in the Bizzare and Mentalist scene, but many seem to be looking at them in a slightly skewed way. Just because someone can perform a great card trick doesnt mean they can pull off these sorts of effects, its not as easy as some seem to think.

When we perform a close-up piece we owe it to the creator, and also other magicians who use the piece, to do it justice. The Bizzarists and Mentalists have worked hard to build and maintain the mystique that surrounds their art. If the ''standard'' magician wants to branch out into this sort of thing they owe it to them to study properly and correctly LONG before they even think about performing for the public. I can certainly understand why they would be peeved at someone who is just jumping in ham fisted.

Just my opinion

jim

I have had quite a few finger-flingers contact me asking about doing seances and they always ask what "effects" they should do and "stuff should they buy."

When I point them in the direction of the best books in the field, this advice is always ignored as they seem to want shiny new toys rather than boring pages of paper. In fact, to do this kind of thing convincingly you don't perform many 'tricks' at all. It takes time and experience to get these kinds of shows right and a great deal of study. It's not something you can jump into overnight.

In my books I cover creating a believable back story and making sure the props/event is based in some kind of factual basis. The more well thought out these kinds of things are, the better they work. The guardian angel story is an off-the-top-of-the-head thing with little thought into it and taking the audience for fools.

Three minutes or so is not long enough to build up the kind of atmosphere you need. Find some freaky looking magic tricks and stick to those. Forget the trance act. It will not 'scare' them or 'freak' them out and no one will believe it. It appears a lack of thought has gone into the whole thing and this will show in performance.

Lord Freddie wrote:I have had quite a few finger-flingers contact me asking about doing seances and they always ask what "effects" they should do and "stuff should they buy."

When I point them in the direction of the best books in the field, this advice is always ignored as they seem to want shiny new toys rather than boring pages of paper.

Say it's not so! Especially the "shiny" and "new" part. . . that's so terrifying. Especially when you consider the months of work that goes into creating proper bizarre pieces like. . .



Or something revamped, such as my nearly completed refacing of Death Toll (Taylor Engineering)

In fact, to do this kind of thing convincingly you don't perform many 'tricks' at all. It takes time and experience to get these kinds of shows right and a great deal of study. It's not something you can jump into overnight.

Few realize that Séances of old entailed HOURS of sitting time during which very little happened outside a bit of "automatic writing" in the form of channeling by the medium, a OUIJA type system, and proper Table Rapping via which the taps were counted and correlated to letters or numbers via which a message could be composed. Hollywood and cheap horror novels are the cornerstone from which we believe 1001 things are to happen; toss in the magicians addiction to tricks and showing off and voila! You have a Disneyland attraction.

In my books I cover creating a believable back story and making sure the props/event is based in some kind of factual basis. The more well thought out these kinds of things are, the better they work. The guardian angel story is an off-the-top-of-the-head thing with little thought into it and taking the audience for fools.

Magicians, especially those with a skeptic leaning mind, have a nasty habit of doing this, it's why certain idiots out their tell you that you can assign any name and meaning to the lines of the hand when doing "Cold Reading" and the same with cards, runes, etc. It's arrogance plain and simple and a grotesque lack of respect for your public let alone the "art" of which you are supposedly representing. Theater isn't masturbatory, it has purpose and focus via which a combination of elements creates a whole. When it comes to Seance work you can simply put folks in the dark for 20 minutes after sewing a short tale tied to local legend; they do the rest and you get the praise, so stop trying so hard.

Three minutes or so is not long enough to build up the kind of atmosphere you need. Find some freaky looking magic tricks and stick to those. Forget the trance act. It will not 'scare' them or 'freak' them out and no one will believe it. It appears a lack of thought has gone into the whole thing and this will show in performance.

Agreed. . . even though I do know for fact, any good Reader could dig deep into the soul of the judges during that period of time, and scare the ever-liv'n sh** out of them