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Did a few tricks for some people over the Christmas break (as you do) and as I was doing them I noticed I was being clocked by someone who wasn't part of my group of friends. When we broke off he came up to me and did three self-working tricks for me.

Now, I have no problem with this because the effect is king at the end of the day with regard to audiences but what shocked me was the fact that there was no patter. Ot was like watching a robot do magic. Every move was practised and smooth and yet there was no chat just three tricks.

I wasn't drawn in and in fact wasn't needed for the tricks as far as the performer was concerned, after all he was doing magic and this meant that all that was needed was him and the magic for the world to be happy.

As I was about to leave, I hastily drew him into a conversation and found these few facts:

1. He wasn't a member of a magic club because he was fed up with their attitudes to him. Every one he'd been too had applauded his techniques but told him to develop a personality.

2. The whole point of magic lay in pleasing the performer. He claimed he had an arsenal of over two hundred tricks (all of which were self-working) and he happily told me that some nights siting in the pub he would do the same trick for people between ten and twenty times.

3. He was shocked when I gave him my card and suggested that we perhaps got together to develop some routines with stories, plots, tensions and the like (patter and shape basically) as he felt the trick were 'strong' enough to stand on their own!

I got the impression that he reads TM and so write this in the hope that dialogue and discussion will persuade him (and the many others who are like him out there) to become part of the family, understand that no matter how good a trick is, words are usually a part of that trick (silent treatment being an obvious exclusion to this ) and most of all realise that doing tricks in isolation might please the performer but limits them to a glimpse of magic rather than the full glory of what it is.

Happy New Year,

Vic

vic_vdb wrote:3. He was shocked when I gave him my card and suggested that we perhaps got together to develop some routines with stories, plots, tensions and the like (patter and shape basically) as he felt the trick were 'strong' enough to stand on their own!

I think this was very kind of you! I would have jumped at the chance, my patter is fairly poor, but 90% of my tricks are un-gimmicked.

I did a few card tricks over christmas that was about it
Happy new year!,

Yeah Vic your spot on, I'd say the patter/presentation is by far the most important part of the effect. It would be good for this guy to see some of his tricks performed with personality and patter as he would see a ghuge difference in the reactions that were recieved.

In terms of card magic, I'm really getting into the underlying mathematics of self-working effects. This is because I'm not incredibly dextrous and because self-working gives me the chance to develop patter that completely hides what can be quite a counter-intuitive principle in the first place. I also like taking self-working effects apart, finding their parameters, finding how changing them affects the outcome, finding what you can safely have the spec do, and building new effects from the underlying principles.

What gave you the impression that he reads TM? I'm just wondering

If he only does self-working tricks, then most of the time these effetcs will be pretty boring unless you add patter. It makes the trick, the experience mush more fun and exciting

An interesting post Vic.

It appears that the person may have a misconception about magic clubs in general and I wonder how many others share that? I've nothing but positive things to say about magic clubs based on my own personal experience but there will often be the exception. He's either been unlucky or hasn't taken advantage of the experience of others, including yourself Vic.

I'm interested in why the person feels that there has been an attitude towards him. I've found that if you're approachable, warm and friendly then you're quids in as more often this is how people will take you. I've also found that the more you ask, the more people will offer in terms of advice and guidance. However, there comes a point when they switch off if you show a general lack of interest or respect. You don't have to agree with what people tell you, just be open minded.

There are a lot of tricks out there that are strong but it's the presentation that makes them magical and the magician memorable.

If that person is looking in then just take that step and spend some time looking at what's on offer.

Primarily magic is about creating wonder and I suppose that can be done without the use of patter...

BUT

The patter is what gives magic the human element. It's kind of the emotional connection to the magic - through the performer's words, or even just his expressions, the magic has a human feel to it; people aren't going "who's this guy?" and can enjoy the magic better. Plus it makes the performance fun and can aid the effect.

But really the human interaction is what many people crave - they get to know you, find out more about this guy who's doing all this cool magic. And if they like you, there's a good chance they'll like your magic too.

Anyone reading this who is NOT a member of a magic club or society should have a look at Bananafish posts as he has a link to a directory of clubs on them.

I think the problem is that just as, in my early years, I was a hacker (in the original sense of the word) and did my stuff in dark rooms on my own there are a number of people who are 'mechanics' (people who do the handling really well) who do the same.

Magic seems to have a number of people sitting in bedrooms doing the moves over and over again until perfect might derive great satisfaction from their prowess but for me the buzz comes when the eyebrows of those watching go up and they ask those wonderful words "How did you do that/where did it go?"

Problem is that satisfaction with own's own prowess means that others making suggestions or changing what they do is not well received. Perhaps the key might be that some people don't want peers they want applause.

Join a club, be patient with those we meet (even when they are boring or you know the moves already) and be willing to adaptor or modify what we do in the light of received wisdom and magic as a whole will win and we will all become a better magicians.

vic_vdb wrote:Problem is that satisfaction with own's own prowess means that others making suggestions or changing what they do is not well received. Perhaps the key might be that some people don't want peers they want applause.

Spot on.

I am a graphic designer, and since my early college years, I have had to learn to accept and extract wisdom from criticism.

Performing any 'creative' task, whether magic, painting, musical, literary or even Karaoke is always going to leave one open to criticism.

The bare bones is, you are exposing a part of yourself which you feel is something to be proud of. However, if this exposure leads to negative response from your target (be it an audience, a client etc.) it can leave you feeling either rejected, or even worse, angered.

As I mentioned, in my job as a designer, I have to submit proofs on a daily basis. These proofs are MY work, MY inventivness. And I have become very thick-skinned as to accepting responses.

After all, everyone has their own opinion, and any creative work is purely subjective. You must accept criticism and learn from it rather than feel it is malicious.

And my thick-skinned approach helps greatly with my magic. When I write or perform an effect, I am quite ready to hear any criticism. In fact, it helps greatly.

I have also, over the years, learned that practice, practice, practice is so much more important than performance, performance, performance.

I.e., perform when you ARE ready, and your performance, whether good or bad, will indicate whether or not you WERE ready. Your audience can often knock you off your pedestal, and this is a valuable lesson! It will PROVE to you that when you THINK you are ready to perform, you probably are not.

OK, soapbox returned

My personal feelings on this matter are that s trick without patter is just that: A TRICK. But a trick with your own patter weaved into it's performance is YOUR TRICK. How do you want the audience to see you as a guy who knows some tricks that no-one else has shown them before? Or someone who is shoiwng their art to them?

In essence it's the difference between the effort you put into your GCSE (or O Level for the more "Life Experienced" amongst us) art project and the painting in the Cistine Chapel. I know which I'd prefer to be seen as.

magic_evmeister wrote:My personal feelings on this matter are that s trick without patter is just that: A TRICK. But a trick with your own patter weaved into it's performance is YOUR TRICK.

I really like that statement. Say it more and coin it!

But I like Lee Asher's phrase more... "I don't try to be perfect. I try to go beyond it." Or something like that.

Anyhows... back on topic. I sometimes do tricks without patter but only for the fun of it. When someone is really annoyed that they don't understand something (always ambitious card), I just do the trick over and over again using many different methods (Card to mouth, card to pocket, colour change, let them shuffle the deck and find the card, etc...) but I don't talk to make them feel like "ARGH!! Tell me how to do it!" lol. A bit harsh but funny also!

Too late - been said before and by a few of us! BUT

when people say that it means that there's another proper magician out there rather than a clone, which is more important than owning the sentence. It's what we call in my profesion an 'ontological' reality - magician is not what you do it's what you are!

The problem with doing magic to wind up is that people quickly get ticked off and assume that magicians do the stuff to make them look silly or to wind people up or to be flash (delete as applicable).

Fun when you start out but like a domestic it can lead to something quite unwelcome! Just a thought,

Vic