talkmagic.co.uk

I've never been pleased with the reactions I've gotten from spectators. It's always been more of a "meh" moment than a "WOW!" moment. It wasn't until I started seeing myself on film more often that I really figured it out: I was rushing things.

As soon as I'd completed the effect, I'd stand there for a brief moment and then say something like, "Alright, moving on" without giving my audience a chance to react. In my mind, it made sense. "I've gotten that one out of the way--my job here is done. Let's continue." Unfortunately, that's not the way the spectators think. Instead the spectators have just seen something absolutely impossible. I just named five consecutive randomly-selected playing cards without even touching the deck. I've got to be psychic, right? As I'm continuing with the next effect in my set, the spectators are still working out how the preceding effect could be possible. Overall, my eagerness to move on (which I was previously unaware of) was proving to be detrimental to the reactions I'd been getting from my audience.

The solution? Shut the &@#$ Up! There's a little-known principle that you learn (or that you SHOULD learn) while training to be a teacher: the Eleven Second Rule. The rule states that, if you legitimately want your class to answer a question or ask one of their own, you need to wait at least eleven seconds to elicit a response. The reason being, of course, that your students (or your audience, in our case) would have to turn inward to come up with the desired feedback.

Same thing goes when performing. This eleven seconds (not a set value--just a guideline from the Education community) can be passed with an applause cue (another important skill I'm trying to develop), a few moments of silence, or even a few moments of shocked silence, followed by an applause cue! You see it all the time in L&L videos and the like. (By the way--has anyone else noticed that EVERY L&L video has the same audience. I personally thing Janell is cuuuute ). Back to the point, you'll see these audience members clapping, but while their hands are busy making noise, they're either excitedly sharing the experience they just had with their neighbors or they're staring in dumbfounded silence.

Watching my live performances on video, I came quickly to the realization that I was waiting on average two or three seconds before moving on and rarely eliciting a round of applause. It seems so much longer when you're standing up there yourself after just completing an effect than it does from an audience member's perspective. I've grown to embrace the Eleven Second Rule (really the "Eleven Second Guideline"), as well as the line, "Give ______ a round of applause." It's less pretantious than expecting a round of applause or begging for one, and it achieves the desired result.

Employ this "Shut the &@#$ Up" tactic and you'll quickly find your performances becoming more memorable, undoubtedly leading to better audience reactions, longer retention and recognition of your name and persona, and, inevitably, more bookings. I've not had sufficient time to test that last claim empirically, so it's just speculation. If I remember, I'll keep you updated

It is very hard to slow down when one is nervous. I have to remind myself each time I do an effect that the person has never seen this before and therefore have to wait for the shock to wear off before I get a reaction. However there are those out there that just don't give any kind of response no matter what. It is just in their personality. "Look" I exclaim, "I have you credit card number tattooed on my back. Whoa!" "Neat." they reply. Then calmly sit down like this was an every day event. (Which to the magician is an everyday event.) sometimes screaming at the moment of revelation gets a reaction.(just not a reaction to the trick.) I have had several people give me the "Neat trick." response. But then later I will walk by and overhear them telling a friend something like "It was totally amazing, how my credit card number got there I have no idea. I was totally blown away." Sometimes the reaction is an internal reaction.

You are correct about waiting for the reaction. However there are indeed some people who plain don't react for various psychological reasons that I pontificated upon in the past and I have no energy to repeat the pontification.

Do not panic when you meet these people. Just because they don't react does not mean they are not enjoying your work. They can often become your biggest boosters. You will get your reward from them in after the show talk which can boost your reputation.

Magic/mentalism—much like stand-up comedy—involves quite often participation.

I spoke with a stand-up comedian (who was also an illusionist of sorts) several years ago in Benidorm (yeah—I go to ALL the nice places ) and something he said has stuck in my head for a while, which was that he analyses the crowd and tries to PLAY to the RECEPTIVE ones. A very small thing he said, and I am not sure how de facto or subjective it is, but it's something I've noticed more and more.

Reactions can be contagious... a laugh can infect an audience. And I am sure that by concentrating your attention towards the more receptive can cause the rest of the crowd to catch up.

I love your 11 second thing. I would agree wholeheartedly with it in teaching situations too, as I quite often lecture, and I've also taught art to secondary school kids... and it would also seem that giving the audience time, you actually learn to pace a lot better with your act, and realise where your 'reaction' moments are.

For years and years I used to perform the old favourite 'Colour monte', without realising where the comedy moments were. By pausing at the comedy moments, the whole thing fits a lot better.

The same with applause... one real world example of this is watch the 'old-skool' performers such as Slydini, etc. They would make huge moments of pause for applause, in fact, you could see they were routined into the performance.

It was not uncommon for lots of bows to be taken at odd momemnts, almost as a cue for 'APPLAUD NOW'. And people did.

It's all about pace. Slow things down in general (unless you're Jeff McBride—in which case you'd drop a lot of cards)

Definitely. As a newly performing magician, I have to consciously slow myself down, leave a pause when something magical has happened, otherwise you find that a trick that was supposed to last 5 minutes is over in 1 and you've just raised a few smiles rather than receiving the standing ovation you deserve

You need to give people time to process the magic. How often have you done a trick with a mini-climax or "end of phase", and you've started the next phase when your specs say something like "wait a minute, that card was..." - they've only just processed the impossibility of it, and your distracting them from their wonderment!
Having said that, you need to time it correctly so you don't give the "worker-outers" time to start painfully dissecting everything you did (or even worse, saying random things that they don't understand that happen to be true ), or so that it doesn't look like you're rushing into the next phase to stop them from pondering/examining etc.

And Rob - L&L - forget Janell - I'm not usually a blondes guy but it's all about Corey Have you noticed that there are some really old people at the back?! Notice they put the low-cut tops and short skirts at the front (complete with David, the token black guy), and the plainer you are, the further back you sit...! I feel like I know the L&L audience intimately now, I'll find myself thinking "ooh, is that an engagement ring on Cassandra?" or "Scotty's had a haircut!"

I believe Paul Harris talks about this on his Reel Magic interview. "The importance of silence", or somesuch. Interesting stuff.