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About Posting: Only Registered users can post new topics and replies in this forum Username: Password: I forgot my password! Message: Click Here to review the topic. [quote] On 2011-05-21 16:04, Tomer wrote: Did you ever think about it? How many people know magicians by their name? I'm talking relatively between magicians and other "performing artists", such as: Singers, actors, movie stars, stand-up comedians... among those we are remembered the least. Why is that? Why is it that when I tell someone I'm a magician, he immediately thinks where are my cape and hat to pull the rabbits from? Or dares to asks me "Can you do the trick where you cut a lady in half? How is that one done anyway?" I think one of the main reasons is that - For other people, we are all the same. Let's take cards for example. How many beginners don't perform any of the tricks from "Born to Perform" DVD, word for word? How many actually put time and effort to come up with their own presentation and patter for their tricks? Most magicians just look for "the easy way out". They see a trick they like, buy it, read the patter... and just present it as it is, or even worse... as they saw someone else do it. Think about how ridicules this is... You buy a DVD to learn a certain trick, with a certain method and a certain presentation, and you just go out and try to be that same magician. It's like watching a stand-up comic, and doing the same jokes with the same tone as he does. Did you ever watch an advertise such as: "Born to be funny! In just 2 hours after learning all these next bits, you can be the next great Stand-Up comic!" It doesn't work like that in any other art... The difference is, in my opinion, that it's easier to become a "Beginner Magician", than a beginner in any other performing art. By easier I mean, that if you take a 10 year old kid, with no talent as far as he knows, and he has a talent show in two weeks, what should he do? Should he try to write jokes? Learn to sing a song? Or buy a few gimmicks from the Magic Shop around the block that would at least get A reaction? I believe that in the "Magical Art", it's quiet easy to perform magic, and be a beginner magician. What's hard, is to become a GOOD magician, and even harder... to make people appreciate you and your magic. So... why doesn't anyone care about magicians? I think, that mainly it's because most magicians make it about the trick. "I'm now going to take your card to the middle.. With a snap of the fingers it jumps to the top..." and again I proved how much smarter I am than you are. Most magician present magic as it was a puzzle, or how smart they are, instead of magic. People trying to "catch you", instead of experiencing something completely different. It's like I'll send you a really funny Youtube video, you won't think I'm funny, you'll think that the video is funny. Same goes with the trick - you won't think I'm amazing, you would think the trick is amazing. How do we change all that? Well, I think first you need to change your thinking. You don't need to have the best or strongest magic effects in your act in order to be a GOOD magician. You need effects that you can relate to. If Michael Finney can do "Professor's Nightmare", and Jeff Hobson can do the "Egg Bag" with unbelievable reactions, I think you can do anything that will fit you as well. Well, so how do you become original? There are many books out there about creativity, originality, writing, comedy, acting, and believe it or not... Performers actually read those books! Instead of practicing "The Pass", for the millionth time, or trying to do a "Diagonal Palm Shift", pick up a book that will teach you a thing or two about performing. I think that these days magic is so open, and anyone that would really want to know how something is done, could just go online and look it up. A magician that wants to stick out, would have to do it by being different, and projecting himself to his audience. So... what do you do different from everyone else? How do you make your audience remember you? Also, if there are any books / movies / different artists that inspired you in some way or another, post them up. Best of luck, Tomer [/quote] [HTML is Off] [BBcode is On] Options: Disable BBcode on this Post Disable Smilies on this Post

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