talkmagic.co.uk

Chaps,

I always refer to my magic as "tricks" with the "effect" being that which is created in the spectator's mind in reaction to the revelation portion of the trick.

"Trick", in this context, being analogous to "joke" and "effect" analogous to "laughter" if we were in the context of standup comedy.

But how do you define or differntiate these two terms?

Intrestingly enough this topic is also being run over at elusionist.

Personally I tend to use the term 'effect'. Trick seems to suggest something devious or underhanded in my mind. (Maybe making a fool of someone?).

Where as the word effect carries no such undertones in my mind.

I prefer words/phrases such as ' a little something', 'a minor miracle' or 'something which confuses the heck out of me'. The word 'Trick' always conjures up something not quite nice and possibly not too desirable. I guess we all have our own hang-ups !

i met a few ladies who did tricks once

what did they make dissapear mog?

if describing it on say here, i would use the word 'effect'. Never ever trick.

The word "trick" somehow lets the "effect" down in my mind. Trick telegraphs what it is - a fraud or deceit...

whereas "effect" is something you could maybe have an influence over...as in cause and effect...if i were to concentrate i could get an image in my mind as to word card you just freely chose...

so yes, effect all the way...

but if im talking to a few people im performing for, its neither...its an experiment or an esoteric art (as opposed to an exoteric one)...

that'll do for me tommy!

Well, I don't do "tricks"...

Yes, there are "tricks" to this trade and methods via which to decieve but these are only tools such as anyone in any other craft would know.

Our perspective -- how we look at what we do -- says a lot as to why the end results we strive to achieve often times fall shy. If we look at what we do as a "trick" we are, at some strange subconscious level, presenting something that's more of a challenge to our patrons vs. an amusement. That is to say, most will want to figure out "the trick" vs. stepping back and marveling at the miracle they just experienced.

I believe Bob Cassidy was one of the first to point out the difference in how we treat folks simply when we look at them as being a "Participant" in what we are doing vs. a "Spectator". I know Kenton Knepper has brought this peculiar truth to the surface a few times and such "little things" really do go a very long way; it's akin to that fabled butterfly in the Amazon rain-forest and how the fluttering of its wings ultimately causes a huricane somewhere in the south-pacific.

I think the biggest thing to hurt magic was when we started treating it all as being "tricks" back in the mid-point of the 20th century, short selling what we do for the sake of commercial appeal and the angle of being a "marketing gimmick". For the era it was the kind of booster shot we needed in order to help this craft through a difficult transitional period but, it has outlived its "application". That is to say, the public of today are less interested in "tricks" and far more hungry for the miraculous, which is why the new styles of magic we've seen via Criss Angel and David Blaine have become such a sensation.

Maybe... just maybe if we start shifting how we look at our magic and maybe look outside the proverbial box that's been invented for the sake of convenience, we might be able to step a bit beyond the limitations that have been known to this craft over the past couple of generations and add to the sense of reprise we are seeing via our contemporaries. This is what the public is looking for, it is the new "commercial" market and though it seems to go very much against the grain of certain factions from within the fellowship, it is a reality more and more of us are starting to recognize and taking honest advantage of. The end result of our venture being rather profitable at several levels; reputation being paramount.

Ah, now, I should clarify. I never call anything I do a "trick" in front of a muggle - only you lot.

oh i forgot to mention that i dont use the word "Tricks" either..usually something along the lines of "Effects/Experiments" or "Theres this weird thing that keeps happening"

I do effects, dogs do tricks