HOW LONG DOES YOUR MAGIC
BY SHANE COBALT
LAST ?
Let me tell you a story about YOU !
So , your show has just ended , and one group of four people is getting in the car they came to the show in and so starts the car ride home .
Person 1 : “ So , what did you guys think of the show ?” Person 2 : “ It was okay ” Person 3 : “ He was pretty good , but I saw how that trick with the chicken worked .” Person 4 : “ It was amazing ! Did you see the card change in my hands ??"? Person 3 : “ Yeah it was just two cards , I googled it .” Person 4 : “ Really ? That ’ s disappointing . It has to be more than that !” Person 2 : “ Some of it was good , he did that thing with the rope that was really cool .” Person 1 : ” I forgot about that ! That was really cool . I have no idea- ” Person 4 : ” Me either ! I have no idea , that was a great trick !!” Person 3 : “ That was the one thing I couldn ’ t figure out either !”
There ’ s a lot of ways we can measure how good a trick is . Unfortunately , I feel we rely solely on how much noise an audience makes during the actual performance far too much . It ’ s a very commercialized approach if you have a single person that books you and you need to make sure they see , hear , or feel that you did a good job in the moment . Of course with the hopes of future bookings . That is one way . If your goal is strictly financial , this is hard to compete with it .
But I ’ d like to introduce the idea of the car ride home . Yes , the bare minimum requirement for magic is that the trick worked in the moment . You performed or did something deceptive and it was unnoticed . If you feel your work is successful as a magician without this single element , I must be the bearer of bad news … Don ’ t get me wrong ! Things happen , I take many risks in my shows and as is often the case , things fail from time to time , and it when it does , we hope it ’ s an anomaly not a norm , and we fix what isn ’ t working as magic .
In any case , roll with me here . You ’ ve just done an incredible show ( obviously when this virus is gone or in New Zealand right now ). They loved it ! They clapped , they laughed , it was amazing . But there isn ’ t really room here to ask about how good the magic was or for the audience to give you that reaction , because we are often distracting under the guise of “ entertaining them ” but when the show is over , and you stop telling jokes or using one liners , there is the ugly truth . Until they are out of your presence , they won ’ t be talking about the actual magic and whether or not you were good as a magician ; how good you were at choosing and performing impossible things .
After this discussion , “ were you good or not ”, which I promise you is given very little time , they will discuss specific tricks if they can remember them , liked the most or least , and of course they will discuss which things they may or may not have seen something they shouldn ’ t have for , or for tricks they have an idea of how they work . This is our next test in magic .
Google-proofing . Do you perform magic
20 SEPTEMBER | 2021