talkmagic.co.uk

So in close up magic, often I hear the idea that it should be modular, so that it can stop at any point.
Certainly practical if working in a restaurant / banquet, etc... but doesn't that make the whole experience a bit fragmented.
trick, trick, trick.
Unrelated effects without any reasoning behind them.

I would much prefer a mini show where all the effects tie in with a theme, and the final trick allows everything to come to not only a magical conclusion, but a logical one too.

I guess part of an answer is not to perform in those sorts of environments where you will be interrupted, and certainly recently I've been thinking about where I want to perform magic, and a noisy restaurant / bar / nightclub does not seem the right place for magic.

Just wondering what other people's thoughts are.

Derren's 3 card trick/routine is quite long, but along the way there are many places where he could stop while still leaving the specs with the "wow" moment.
(trying to avoid a very specific but appropriate phrase that would see this consigned directly to IB)

So if you have enough of these "wow" moments in a routine, you can reasonably stop after any of them. So maybe that sort of environment si wrong for a routine where the final effect ties everything else together.

I suppose it helps if the effects are getting stronger as you go through and you don't need the last tie-together to leave your audience amazed/happy etc.

Ian

My routines are all made up of a number of effects that all flow into each other but at the same time I can stop the routine at just about any point. Yoou've got to remember that the spec doesn't know your routine or what is coming next so you can quite often cut it off early without anyone knowing any different.

I get that you can create a routine that can be stopped, but shouldn't we be creating routines that build to a conclusion. Stopping short of that, misses the maximum potential of the performance, doesn't it?

My thinking is we should perform in venues where we aren't interrupted. I can''t think of another art form where performers willingly accept being ignored if something more interesting should come along.

True, but if you're doing table hopping in a restaurant and the spec's food arrives, it would be very bad manners to insist on finishing your routine while the food goes cold !

The idea that you should end strong etc, I find that a bit difficult because it's really hard to judge which effect, or which phase, is going to get the best reaction. Sometimes it's clear that one effect is particularly strong, but so often you can be taken by surprise, with one group of mortals doing cartwheels to something gentle like Starcle, and another bunch of mortals preferring the more streetwise Signed Card to Bride's Mouth.