talkmagic.co.uk

Having mentioned one of these on a review about Sponge by Jay Noblezada I considered posting about it on my own blog, but then thought other people might want to expand the list so wrote it here instead.

Sh*t magic trailers say. And do. Just cliches really.
"THIS IS COOL, SO YOU CAN BE COOL"
The frequent repetition of "This trick is cool" often with the preemption of existing opinions "You may think that X isn't cool, but I'm going to show you how cool you'll look performing it"

The 'pop'
Often magic, particularly visual magic, has one moment where something incredible happens, and the rest of it is a preparatory routine with a fair bit of misdirection, properly stealing items into the right places, and then an acquittal as the gimmicks or duplicates are ditched. I think we all understand this, right?
But that doesn't excuse the trailers that simply show a split second where the effect 'happens' and then cut away to something else (see below for examples of 'something else'

80% Audience reaction shots 'on the streets'
Because nothing shows you what you're buying like shaky footage of easily pleased people shouting "Oh my god!". Often shot from behind the performer so you can't see what the crowd is reacting to.

80% text buildup / animation
"thingybob magic presents"
lens flare
"A brand new effect"
lens flare
"That will blow"
lens flare
"Your"
lens flare
"mind"
lens flare
"TRICKNAME" (surrounded by flames, sparkles or fluttering cards)

Seriously, nobody reads that slowly.

Put these together and you have the mother of all trailers, 45 seconds of text slides, separated by reaction shots, followed by 3 seconds of the effect and then another slide saying where you can buy it.


Who needs friends when you have magic?
This isn't so much a thing that's done on purpose, just the feeling you get from some of the conditions in the trailers. The best example and the only way I can describe it is some of the trailers from magic geek. If performing to a captive audience (like L&L) is less organic than the street reaction shots, wind it back even further and you get the impression that the performer has to hire an escort to perform magic to.
Okay so I'm mostly talking about magicgeek here, and it's probably not his fault but the trailers all have the guy performing for one woman and she seems a little creeped out by it, as if it's a high school drama show and he approached her in the lunch hall. I always imagine two scenes later her job boyfriend gives him a wedgie, but it's okay because in the finale he makes them pay and wins some kind of award.
Hollywood.

"The method is as impressive as the effect"
I've heard this a few times recently. As mentioned recently in the 'on exposure' thread, the effect is always more impressive than the method. Because often the method is simple in hindsight. I guess people don't like paying for things which seem simple in hindsight so they say this in the trailer, often as a testimonial from another magician.


What cliches have you spotted?

-Stacy

'No wires, strings or magnets'

'A REVOLUTIONARY new method from the creators of...'

'Get ready to take your ...... to the next level'

'Now available for pre order'

'Brilliant', 'Astounding', 'F***ing incredible', 'I wish I'd thought of that' A famous or semi famous magician.

'The trick that fooled Penn and Teller'

'Ben Harris presents....'

Jean Eugene Roberts wrote:'No wires, strings or magnets'

You forgot "no sticky stuff"

-Stacy

The4thCircle wrote:

Jean Eugene Roberts wrote:'No wires, strings or magnets'

You forgot "no sticky stuff"

-Stacy

and no added salt or sugar....

In the bad days of old it used to be, 'Amaze your friends, fool your teachers!!!!'

Of course "organic" comes up.

Also, "the pop" and "80% audience reaction..." can be applied to most magic T.V shows these days.

'The blah blah ULTIMATE EDITION!!!!!!!'

'The PERFECT way to end your ACR'

Gold.

Pure gold.

Nuggets of gold. < Usually in a book review.

How about 'Award winning' - no need to explain which award is referred to, could be some form of approval from a bloke down the pub....

Jean Eugene Roberts wrote:'Brilliant', 'Astounding', 'F***ing incredible', 'I wish I'd thought of that' A famous or semi famous magician.

Or even one who is completely unknown.

"Underground" (i.e. this person is completely unknown).

"You could start your own religion with this!!!"

Where are all the kooky religions run by 12-year-old magicians then?

The principle behind this effect is only known to a few [thousand] magicians.

Revealed for the first time here [but you can also find it in my earlier books and other effects I have previously marketed]

The effect they did not want me to release ['cos I stole it from someone else]

This effect is so strong I was warned not to release it, but I decided to anyway [I need the money]

"My mind is blown! Completely blown!"

Aren't you a cheap date, then...

"The closest thing to REAL magic"

Which, bearing in mind how many new effects claim this, the margin between an effect and actual, real magic, must be ever decreasing.

Ooh, I got another two:

'practically' impromptu
or
'seemingly' impromptu
or
'apparently' impromptu.

impromptu means no preparation. If you have to keep some little doohickey embedded in your shoe in order to do this 'any time, anywhere' as so promised, that's preparation. If you need to carry a thing, that's not any time, that's any time you're carrying the thing. If the thing is visible, like a hole in your trousers (I cannot even begin to express how wrong I think that entire effect is) it's not anywhere, it's anywhere they won't throw you out of for having a f***ing HOLE IN YOUR TROUSERS.
I'm sorry that effect really gets my hackles up.

Approachability
Often combined with some plot description like "Imagine a magician walks up to you, shows you a handful of paper and then BAM, it's turned into money"
This line in trailers speaks volumes about the calibre of magician it's aimed at. Specifically the type of magician who would want to walk up to a stranger in the street, show off, and then walk away.
The worst one I saw for this recently was an effect I really liked the look of... I was going to describe it, but here's the trailer, see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5J9WeIje0s

I like that effect, I think for someone like me who does other bits of origami, it's a great way to extend an act by doing a flapping bird first, then get them to try the paper ring on (to make sure it'd fit if you made them one you might say), then the unexpected payoff. I think it's beautiful. If it didn't rely on American money I'd get it. In fact I visit the states so often these days I might get it anyway.
But the trailer... it makes a big point of doing it on the streets to strangers and it has this one line which confuses the hell out of me.
"People will ask you about the ring".
The trick is marketed at people witch such low self esteem that they want to show off magic, but want the audience to come to them, break into their little lonely bubble. Though the effect is great, the way it's shown on the trailer makes it look like the guy wearing the ring is actually making a cry for help. "PLEASE TALK TO ME, I'm SO ALONE".
It's like wearing a funny hat or comedy tie to get noticed because there's nothing remarkable about you as a person and you desperately want to stand out.
And look at the PLACES people ask in that trailer. At a hot dog stand, waiting for a bus, the bus driver himself. I don't talk to people who wait in the bus stop round here because they would knife you so much as look at you. The bus driver doesn't have time for your five minute spiel and "give me a dollar, I'll show you" guff. He wants to drive the bus!
And don't make the hot dog vendor wear a nasty ring you made from a nasty note some guy waiting for the bus gave you! It's unsanitary! He works in FOOD preparation!

I can't even... I don't... GAH!

-Stacy

As an aside, this is not really to do with the trailer but still, I really think that asking someone for a dollar (which is about 60p last time I checked) to make a souvenir from is a bit cheeky. I'd fall back to the book Gift Magic and say that if you're going to give someone a souvenir, GIVE them a souvenir, don't hand something of theirs back to them in an unusable form, particularly if it's a paid gig.