"Move over here, you'll get a better view."
I recently had to explain this to a young man. In one of his videos he showed himself doing a card trick at a bizarre distance from his audience. He repeatedly insisted he was trying to accommodate people to his sides, though none were visible. As a result, it was very difficult to tell what was going on. It's an all too common mistake of amateur magicians and even some professional ones. They forget that as the performer, you are in control of the situation. At least, you should be.
Robert Greene once wrote in "The 33 Strategies of War," "Instead of trying to dominate the other side's every move, work to define the nature of the relationship itself." Most performances are very reactive to the audience rather than the other way around. How much better would it be if you were in control of the very situation itself so that you needn't worry about the reactions?
This is challenging, but by no means impossible. A big part of it is simply refusing to play on other people's terms. A schoolyard bully will seek out any victim he can, but they all inevitably encounter one who give as good as he gets. My brother was such a case. In grade school, there was one bully who gave him a lot of grief, but two incidents in particular changed that. The first was when the bully tried to pin my brother to a wall, so my brother placed a strong kick in the boy's most open and vulnerable spot: the groin. The second time was at a school recital. The bully was standing behind my brother on the bleachers the student chorus was using, jabbing him in the back of the head through the whole show. At the conclusion, as the students were filing off the bleachers, my brother wheeled around and punched the kid in the chest so hard it actually knocked him down several rows of seats to the stage floor. In front of the whole assembled audience of parents and grandparents and the entire class. After that public humiliation, the little parasite never messed with my brother again.
You don't need to be overly aggressive to get this dynamic going however. It's simply a matter of making sure people understand that you know what you're talking about. You have experience. You have authority. You have expertise. And even if you're not a 20-year veteran of the industry, fake it till you make it. I know some people abhor that phrase, but forget them.
More often it all starts with something simple. "Move over here, you'll get a better view." Those eight words are some of the best in crowd control you'll ever learn. People will accept your word as authority if you establish from the outset that you are the expert.
And example that comes to mind is Mystery Science Theater 3000. When they were first picked up by Comedy Central, then the Comedy Channel, they were flown in and shown the offices where the channel worked. They were trying out a concept of a stage surrounded by offices and cubicles to streamline communication. Joel and crew saw this was a terrible place to work, but knew they couldn't say that out loud. Instead they said things like, "Oh, you're ceilings are only 12 feet high? That'll never work. We have guys in puppet trenches." The bosses at the Comedy Channel had never done anything like MST3K before, so they just took the Best Brains crew's word for it. After a little negotiating, Best Brains set up their own office in their hometown in the Midwest. Away from the main hub of the Comedy Channel, they had more freedom to do as they pleased. And being coastal natives, the bosses only flew in to check on Best Brains a couple times a year. Even then, whenever they arrived, they would rent giant SUVs and only stay for a couple days because they had heard all the jokes about Midwest weather and were terrified of being snowed in.
With that level of autonomy, Best Brains had the freedom to do pretty much whatever they wanted. They had completely gamed the system by changing the playing field. It was no longer about the Comedy Channel trying to do things their way. Now they were suddenly at risk of losing programming their fledgling channel really needed.
This also works on tough spectators. I once had a girl burning my hands. I was running out of things to say and knew that the pacing was going to be ruined if I didn't do something. As I spoke, I kept lowering my hands to about waist level. I trailed off in mid-sentence when I looked at her, then pretended to follow her line of sight. I moved my hands a little as if to follow her gaze to my groin, rolled my eyes, snapped my fingers at her and said, "Hey! My eyes are up here, honey." She blushed, but she was laughing. So was everyone else. I had completely reframed her attitude to the audience. In that off-beat moment when no one was paying attention to my hands, I was able to get the move done. And she was none the wiser.
One of the greatest masters of this principle is Uri Geller. He would move people about however it suited him, always endeavored to appear on his terms and his terms only, and never broke character. The latter especially was useful in affecting the audience-performer dynamic. Every time a spoon bent or a compass moved he had the same attitude of, "I have no idea how this happened, but I'm pretty stoked that it did!"
A less controversial example would be Docc Hilford. When he goes to a party, there are people who will say, "Hey, there's this woman who wants to see some of your mind reading." To which he will reply, "Great. Tell her I'm over at the bar." It's all on his terms.
Learn to start altering the relationship between you and your audience, and you'll never stress out over reactions ever again.
Showing posts with label robert greene. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robert greene. Show all posts
Monday, November 8, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Time to forgive Criss Angel...
For being successful. You heard me right. Criss Angel is to magicians what abortion is to political ideologues. No name in the magic community has the power to stir up quite the same level of argument. I bring this up because a friend of mine recently decided to drop the hand grenade at Ellusionist and Theory 11's forums. Links:
E forums
T11 forums
Among the assertions I made as my contributions to the discussion is that most magicians tear Angel down because they lack an eye for realism. They refuse to accept why Criss is successful and their idols aren't. Some have responded by listing their own accomplishments, even though a great man shouldn't need to tell you he's great. Others have insisted that Angel doesn't count as a magician. They uniformly fail to understand that there is a lesson to be learned here.
In "The 50th Law" by Robert Greene, the eye for realism is discussed in detail as a powerful tool for success. You need to see everything as it truly is, not the way you want it to be. I would argue that bizarrists need this more than anyone as our sub-genre of magic is a particularly hard sell. Most of it is masturbatory, over-long, over-complicated, or just flat out boring. Most bizarrists don't see things as they truly are.
Think about your magic for a moment. What does the audience get out of it? You need a better answer than just, "Entertainment." You need a sense of what they want, what they need. How can you give it to them? What can you offer that nobody else does?
This is in part where charm comes from. Most people have no idea what that actually means, but a charmer is someone who voluntarily gives up their spotlight temporarily to make someone feel better about themself. Charmers maintain eye contact, are excellent listeners, and express a sincere interest in your opinions. They want to like you, so they give you the opportunity to tell them about yourself. That kind of thing is magnetic. Not surprisingly, many of the most charming people I've ever met were also realists. They were keen observers of people and the world around them. That knowledge made them successful at any effort they undertook.
I want all of my readers to do me a favor. Think about what you want. What audience are you looking for? Do you want to perform as a hobby or professionally? What does the market in your area look like? Are the people you're looking at as clients open to trying new things? Keep asking questions like this. Look at it as a realist. Assess your strengths, weaknesses, obstacles, and opportunities. Post in the comments section what plan of action you're going to take to get your magic in front of more people.
This is what all successful magicians did that the majority of their peers never have. It's time to forgive Criss Angel for being more successful than us and learn what he did right that we never even attempted.
E forums
T11 forums
Among the assertions I made as my contributions to the discussion is that most magicians tear Angel down because they lack an eye for realism. They refuse to accept why Criss is successful and their idols aren't. Some have responded by listing their own accomplishments, even though a great man shouldn't need to tell you he's great. Others have insisted that Angel doesn't count as a magician. They uniformly fail to understand that there is a lesson to be learned here.
In "The 50th Law" by Robert Greene, the eye for realism is discussed in detail as a powerful tool for success. You need to see everything as it truly is, not the way you want it to be. I would argue that bizarrists need this more than anyone as our sub-genre of magic is a particularly hard sell. Most of it is masturbatory, over-long, over-complicated, or just flat out boring. Most bizarrists don't see things as they truly are.
Think about your magic for a moment. What does the audience get out of it? You need a better answer than just, "Entertainment." You need a sense of what they want, what they need. How can you give it to them? What can you offer that nobody else does?
This is in part where charm comes from. Most people have no idea what that actually means, but a charmer is someone who voluntarily gives up their spotlight temporarily to make someone feel better about themself. Charmers maintain eye contact, are excellent listeners, and express a sincere interest in your opinions. They want to like you, so they give you the opportunity to tell them about yourself. That kind of thing is magnetic. Not surprisingly, many of the most charming people I've ever met were also realists. They were keen observers of people and the world around them. That knowledge made them successful at any effort they undertook.
I want all of my readers to do me a favor. Think about what you want. What audience are you looking for? Do you want to perform as a hobby or professionally? What does the market in your area look like? Are the people you're looking at as clients open to trying new things? Keep asking questions like this. Look at it as a realist. Assess your strengths, weaknesses, obstacles, and opportunities. Post in the comments section what plan of action you're going to take to get your magic in front of more people.
This is what all successful magicians did that the majority of their peers never have. It's time to forgive Criss Angel for being more successful than us and learn what he did right that we never even attempted.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Reactions and Bad Taste
I mentioned earlier that I had heard some real horror stories about bizarrists who thought that any reaction was a good reaction. Today we're going to develop that thought. No, I will not name anybody as they have long since either learned from their mistakes or will probably never learn at all. Let them be anonymous here.
I'm going to start with the most common mistake of all: the Death tarot card. There is a time and a place for everything, and more often than not, the Death card does not belong in your act. I've heard no less than half-a-dozen stories of magicians doing a tarot effect using this card that ended with an audience member in tears. Usually, the bizarrist was congratulating himself for getting such a strong reaction, but riddle me this: if someone scared the hell out of you or a relative or a friend in such a way, driving them to tears and genuine grief, would you ever book that person for an event again?
This is one of the reasons bizarrists so seldom perform for live audiences. They have no concept of how far is too far. That may sound strange coming out of my mouth, considering I've gone on the record saying that for me there is no too far, only too soon. But I know for a fact that not everyone agrees with me on this. In Robert Greene's bestselling book "The 48 Laws of Power" he states that law 38 is, "Think as you like but behave like others." There are many times when it is best to put up a veneer of agreeability and keep your more unconventional ideas to yourself. Being in front of an audience is one of these.
So with that in mind, what kind of reactions have you been hoping for that would be a bad thing? That might actually be offensive to others? Consider it from the perspective of the other audience members. The magician reveals the Death card to a woman and she bursts into tears. You know the reason she's crying is because she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Yes, this actually happened. Once again let's say hypothetically that this happened to a relative or friend of yours. A mother, sister, girlfriend, fiance, that sort of thing. What would you think of the magician? If you're anything like me, you're probably deciding whether you want to break his arm or his leg.
Let's say the magician does something to make your child cry and become inconsolable. How about a parlor show that ends with the magician "dying" and no one sees him for the rest of the night? Doing a Russian roulette routine with spikes and then using a spectator's hand? All of these things and more have been done and they seldom end well.
It may look cool to you, but you really need to step outside of your own head. Once you've crossed a line, you've created a lot of ill will. That damage is incredibly difficult if not impossible to repair. You permanently close doors in doing these things.
I've met young magicians starting out as bizarrists who go for scariness for its own sake. I understand where they're coming from and know the thrill of creating something frightening. As a lover of horror movies, I totally sympathize. But audiences won't. You need to give them a reason to want to see this, and by virtue of magic being a live, interactive experience the rules are different from film or music.
So consider what reactions you want, why you want them, and what the audience will think of them. Do this with every act or effect you're working on and you'll end up dodging a bullet that could seriously damage your reputation and magic more than once.
I'm going to start with the most common mistake of all: the Death tarot card. There is a time and a place for everything, and more often than not, the Death card does not belong in your act. I've heard no less than half-a-dozen stories of magicians doing a tarot effect using this card that ended with an audience member in tears. Usually, the bizarrist was congratulating himself for getting such a strong reaction, but riddle me this: if someone scared the hell out of you or a relative or a friend in such a way, driving them to tears and genuine grief, would you ever book that person for an event again?
This is one of the reasons bizarrists so seldom perform for live audiences. They have no concept of how far is too far. That may sound strange coming out of my mouth, considering I've gone on the record saying that for me there is no too far, only too soon. But I know for a fact that not everyone agrees with me on this. In Robert Greene's bestselling book "The 48 Laws of Power" he states that law 38 is, "Think as you like but behave like others." There are many times when it is best to put up a veneer of agreeability and keep your more unconventional ideas to yourself. Being in front of an audience is one of these.
So with that in mind, what kind of reactions have you been hoping for that would be a bad thing? That might actually be offensive to others? Consider it from the perspective of the other audience members. The magician reveals the Death card to a woman and she bursts into tears. You know the reason she's crying is because she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Yes, this actually happened. Once again let's say hypothetically that this happened to a relative or friend of yours. A mother, sister, girlfriend, fiance, that sort of thing. What would you think of the magician? If you're anything like me, you're probably deciding whether you want to break his arm or his leg.
Let's say the magician does something to make your child cry and become inconsolable. How about a parlor show that ends with the magician "dying" and no one sees him for the rest of the night? Doing a Russian roulette routine with spikes and then using a spectator's hand? All of these things and more have been done and they seldom end well.
It may look cool to you, but you really need to step outside of your own head. Once you've crossed a line, you've created a lot of ill will. That damage is incredibly difficult if not impossible to repair. You permanently close doors in doing these things.
I've met young magicians starting out as bizarrists who go for scariness for its own sake. I understand where they're coming from and know the thrill of creating something frightening. As a lover of horror movies, I totally sympathize. But audiences won't. You need to give them a reason to want to see this, and by virtue of magic being a live, interactive experience the rules are different from film or music.
So consider what reactions you want, why you want them, and what the audience will think of them. Do this with every act or effect you're working on and you'll end up dodging a bullet that could seriously damage your reputation and magic more than once.
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