talkmagic.co.uk

I appreciate that the title of this thread sounds a bit depressed, but it's not what you might think...

I've seen a few magicians performing in close-up, walkaround situations, and I myself have performed under similar circumstances, and have found that for some reason when certain people are really amazed by a piece of magic (such as a phase in an ambitious card routine), rather than applauding they walk away. I've always found this rather strange. Surely they appreciate that it's all just clever methods and psychology? Surely they can't think we are voodoo practitioners and will curse them if they hang around for too long? And surely, if they were so astounded by that bit, they will want to stay and see more?

I can understand it to some extent in a group situation, because one person walking out can often cause a big laugh among the rest of the group, and as such acts as a bit of a joke. But in very small groups and the occasional one-to-one situation it seems quite bizarre to me.

I also find it difficult to believe that they have got fed up with the magic and are just too polite to say so. After all, if someone is too polite to say "Thanks, but I really must get going" or some other excuse, would they not be polite enough to just stay and watch to the end? Personally, if I am watching close-up magic, the last thing that would cross my mind would be to walk out, whether as a joke or out of boredom, but maybe that's my more reserved personality and it's different for others.

I would be grateful to anyone who can shed some light on this unusual thing.

I might be able to shed a little light on this, though it will only be a partial answer.
Back when I took the Davenport's Magic Course, one of the teachers (Paul Brown) told us one week that the next week he would teach us an effect that made him feel physically ill the first time he saw it. We were all racking our brains as to what it might be. Turns out it was Crazy Man's Handcuffs. At the time this seemed odd to me, CMH was the second rubber band trick I ever learned in my childhood and I didn't find it particularly sickness inducing or warranting such gravitas.

I didn't understand for about a year, then a few months ago I was on a plane to Stockholm and I was sat next to a teenage girl who was sitting listening to her iPod. In the relative solitude of people around me paying no attention I started playing with the rubber bands on my wrists, practicing a few penetration moves and idling away the time when suddenly I heard the girl say "What the hell did you just do?"

I stopped, looked up and saw that she was staring at my hands in disbelief. I repeated my rubber band through the thumb display, this time so she could see the effect properly and said "I'm a magician, I was just practicing."

She wanted to see it again but I followed the rule of never showing a trick twice and ran her instead through my repertoire of other effects. I did penetrations, transportations, jumping band, and then wanted to do linking bands but only had one. But I asked if she had a hair band I could borrow, and I instead linked to that.

She was mesmerised but when I linked and unlinked her hairband, there was a change in her expression. As I handed it back I got the distinct impression that she felt she'd witnessed something which shouldn't be possible. Previously it was me me messing with my own rubberband which as far as she knew could have any kind of mechanism in it (I know, right? I once got told my sponge bunnies must have some kind of locking mechanism to separate them into two), but now I'd upped the stakes by involving something she knew was totally ordinary.

And she said "I think I feel ill..."

I'd guess if someone walks away even though they enjoyed the trick it may be a defence mechanism of some sort because they feel unwell as a result of having their world view flipped upside down by the impossible. This is of course a compliment on your performance, even if it may not seem like it at the time.

It's only happened to me once, but I don't really perform to lay folk as often as I should.

-Stacy

Basically, people are weird. what brought them to that position we'll never know, but they're all weird in their own peculiar ways. Some have very weird reactions, others not so.

So they don't have to pay you

People react differently to magic. The ones that walk away are stunned & in some state of shock at what they've just seen. Being unable to talk is usually a by product of that state.

Normally a good performance of something receives applause or some kind of accolade. This can be the case with magic but expect also to experience other reactions - stunned silence, laughter, fear & the quite common 'burn him at the stake'.

As long as they're not telling you you're rubbish or catching you out it's all good.

Tomo wrote:Basically, people are weird.

Ha ha! I LOVE that!

Tomo wrote:Basically, people are weird.

Seconded...

Tomo wrote:Basically, people are weird.

It explains a great deal... in fact, just about everything.

If people walk away it is possibly because they do not understand why you are performing.
if I tell a joke in a pub then people might laugh then walk away because they are not expecting me to stand there and do a 30 minute comedy routine.
if I show a magic effect people might say 'well done' then walk away. they are not expecting me to peform a near-professional close-up magic routine.

How do you introduce yourself ? what have they been told about you ? are they paying for your time ?
How do you link your effects in order to keep their attention once one effect has finished ?
Do you put effects within effects to keep them hanging-on for a finale ?

I do a lot of work in pubs. People walk away for many reasons:-
1) they are weird
2) they dont like someone else being centre of attention
3) they are drunk
4) they need the toilet
5) their mobile phone is more important than anything you can do or say
6) some people are genuinely scared of things they cannot explain, scared of magicians and/or scared of clowns.
7) Some people may not actually like me or my personality.

I agree with the above, especially if they aint paying for it . You often see people gawping at a street magicians in Covent Garden .. in a crowd of say twenty people at least someone is leaving after every trick and they often just move on and out without flinching , even if the guy made a Monkey dissapear..sometimes it means nothing

Point five is possibly the most poignant of the entire thread. The world is changing, recently I was at two shows during the course of a week, one magic show, one Punch and Judy. At both the audience seemed reluctant to clap. The kids barely joined in with the P&J at all.

People are becoming so used to entertainment being a thing which just happens effortlessly on TV with no need to respond or interact at all. Just gawp and consume with no idea of the value.

-Stacy

I heard a quote on TV this week, can't remember where or the exact words (senility is a terrible thing!) but it went something like:

These days the word seems to expect magical answers to all their problems, the trouble is that few want to believe in magic any more.

Discombobulator wrote:I
People walk away for many reasons:-
1) they are weird
2) they dont like someone else being centre of attention
3) they are drunk
4) they need the toilet
5) their mobile phone is more important than anything you can do or say
6) some people are genuinely scared of things they cannot explain, scared of magicians and/or scared of clowns.
7) Some people may not actually like me or my personality.

This is the smartest, most realistic of all the posts in this thread but I want to draw particular attention to #6

When I did traditional magic and table hopping, I would run into many situations in which people would get all religiously nuts on me, claim I used Voodoo or some other evil to make the ball vanish from my hand into theirs, etc. I've even had club owners ask me to not do certain routines because they frightened their clients . . . in this instance it was a high end Beverly Hills hangout for black actors & athletes; people that come from a culture in which Voodoo is very much a real part of their lives alongside other "religious" issues.

This Fear Factor is interesting though, in that it also become a lure by which people are drawn to you, but "secretly". I've seen this more when doing Mentalism, but I have folks that will call me up for a private meeting and not in a public place -- they would be terrified of others discovering that they're meeting with a "Psychic" (some parts of the U.S. such a thing could cost you your job and more, thanks to religious stigma and redneck mentality).

Everything on this list is on the mark + one more thing -- a lot of people simply hate magic and magicians. They think it's lame, immature and childish and "beneath their station" so to speak. Sadly, magicians have done more to encourage this particular thought train in the public mind, than not. That however, is a very long story we needn't move into, presently.

Oh, this is a common thing. As a svengali pitchman I have to be careful not to make people laugh so much that they have to leave the crowd because they can't stand it any more. I call them back when it happens. They are just so stunned by what they see they have to escape so that their brains can recover. This particularly common when performing to black ethnic groups like African Americans, Jamaicans and West Indians who are an incredibly good audience. In fact so good that when something amazing happens they start to walk away laughing with the astonishment of it all.

Of course if people walk away without showing any astonishment whatsoever it may well be a sign that you have bored them stiff.

mark lewis wrote:Oh, this is a common thing. As a svengali pitchman I have to be careful not to make people laugh so much that they have to leave the crowd because they can't stand it any more. I call them back when it happens. They are just so stunned by what they see they have to escape so that their brains can recover. This particularly common when performing to black ethnic groups like African Americans, Jamaicans and West Indians who are an incredibly good audience. In fact so good that when something amazing happens they start to walk away laughing with the astonishment of it all.

Of course if people walk away without showing any astonishment whatsoever it may well be a sign that you have bored them stiff.

You really are the stone cold nuts!! If Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had you with them when writing the Office, Brent's character would have been even better

Someone's reaction yesterday actually meant she missed the best part of the trick! My barber sent me to a friend's house as she needs a magician for her daughter's 7th birthday party, so I popped round quickly to discuss what I would be doing and viewing the area etc...took a deck of cards, and showed her Ultimate Transpo which she freaked at, then I did Two card monte...unfortunately she reacted so strongly with her head on the table screaming she missed the aces coming out of my pocket