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Matt Kap New user Seattle, Washington 67 Posts |
I just took a look at Jason Byrne's video on his site: Video
The level of originality in his manipulation routine is stunning. I do understand that he is performing some well known effects and techniques - but the overall act is refreshingly different. How do magicians come up with routines like these? I'm not expecting to become the next Lance Burton and win the FISM, but creating an entertaining and quality act is hopefully every magician's top priority. I always picture my act from the audience's perspective. I ask myself- would they enjoy and understand it? This seems to work to an extent, but I was wondering if you guys had any more techniques? Visualize your act from the audiences perspective Find old material that has been overlooked and put a spin on it Create a character and structure the act around him/her Experiment
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious." -Albert Einstein
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Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
Jason Byrne and his old partner have always been creative in their magic from a young age. Some people have the gift and others do not.
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Frank Simpson Special user SW Montana 883 Posts |
Indeed some have "a gift" and some do not. But too, those who do have a gift are also not afraid of long, hard work. You can just bet that an act such as his "Feather Fantasy" has gone through many variations on its way to becoming this final, extremely polished act.
As far as spurring creativity, what works rather well for me is simply a lot of experimentation. Many (many, many!) years ago when I was creating my Zombie routine, I had an arsenal of "moves" but wanted to turn it into something more cohesive. I first decided on what I wanted the general "feel" of the effect to be and then found appropriate music. Then I would spend about a half an hour a day playing the music over and over and just letting it suggest moves that would go with it. I would just start moving without "thinking" too much about it, getting a good feel for the "phrasing". By just playing around in this fashion I was one day doing a move that you would NEVER do, as it was blatantly exposing the method (in the privacy of my living room), but through this playing I was actually inspired to do a sequence that I could do, and it went into the act. I suppose the bottom line is this: great inspiration for routines and effects seldom, if ever, occurs quickly. Working, re-examinig, reworking a routine is what gives it that "extra something". Your dictum of considering the effect from the audience's perspective will most definitely serve you well. Keep practicing, keep dreaming, keep refining, keep entertaining. You may just surprise yourself with a FISM-worthy act! |
Matt Kap New user Seattle, Washington 67 Posts |
A while ago I was listening to a soundtrack (I think Titanic) and I just closed my eyes and thought up a impossible and crazy act in my mind...cane to silk to ball to floating to zombie routine etc. I then realized that all of the "impossible" series of effects I imagined could in fact be done.
I am now working on a new act - but want to stray away from cliché tricks associated with magicians while still maintaining the classic look and style of one. Thanks for the motivating words Frank. Any other ideas? -MATT KAP
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious." -Albert Einstein
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DerekMerdinyan Inner circle 1030 Posts |
One thing that I love most about magic acts, particularly manipulative acts is the flow and connection from effect to effect. Like writing a good essay, the transitions between thoughts (ideas) must make sense otherwise, the reader or viewer will get lost and confused.
An example of traditional flow may be making a silk appear, changing its color, producing a rose from it, grabbing a petal off, changing it into a billiard ball, etc. I do like your idea of viewing the act from the audience's perspective. I think that that is something that not as many people do that should do it. I also believe that there is a point where you can't put everything into your audience. If you tried to please everyone in the audience by touching on their likes, you would have a terrible act. You do, while keeping the audience in mind, slowly observe your character develop and then base your show or act around that. Magicians sadly are not generally getting the same praise they once were. On street magic shows, how many times do they show people WALKING UP TO Criss Angel or David Blaine and asking them to do a trick? The magician always goes up to them and asks. A good magician should be able to draw people to himself for who he is (as a magician) not who he pretends to be, a character that does not suit him or herself. Derek Merdinyan |
DJ Trix Inner circle 1197 Posts |
All these ideas are great!
Personally if I am working on an act in practice or thought I like to smoke a little joint. This really gets the ideas flowing, and all the pro's do it... ...Whoops |
C Christian Loyal user 288 Posts |
Hey Matt Kapp,
I like how you humble yourself by saying that you wont be the next Lance, oddly enough niether did Lance! He knew he had a good act maybe even a great one but he wasn't sure he had a winning act. You have just as good chance as anyone to win the next FISM. As for how Jason Bryne and other creative manipulators get their acts...is by listening to what people say about their acts. Sure they all practice a lot but in the end they learned to listen to people smarter than them and made a lot of choices/mistakes and kept testing things out till all they got was gold!!! hope this helps... Chris |
RandyStewart Inner circle Texas (USA) 1989 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-01-23 00:52, Matt Kap wrote: You don't have to be the next Lance Burton or win FISM to be as good as he or better. Although no magician has ever been hurt by winning the most prestigious award, if it happens to you then "You dah man!". If you've noticed and were impressed by their originality then perhaps you are on your way to creating your own? Never know. Hey maybe you'll create something the rest of the art can use. Great to see that you are interested in being as original as possible. I'm sure Byrne and Burton don't care to see others steal their ideas. Can you imagine having your own theater on the Vegas strip and an award winning act that spawns clones? I'm sure pros like them appreicate your originality. I noticed your topic title and can tell you with so many people "thinking outside the box", don't overlook what's in it. Lots of good stuff in there. |
DerekMerdinyan Inner circle 1030 Posts |
Quote:
I noticed your topic title and can tell you with so many people "thinking outside the box", don't overlook what's in it. Lots of good stuff in there. De'vo Vom Schattenrich once said: "Think inside the box because too many people are thinking out of it." Maybe there is some truth in it. Personally I think you need a bit of both. Many gems are overlooked and many have yet to be discovered. Derek Merdinyan |
Matt Kap New user Seattle, Washington 67 Posts |
The "box" has a lot of good tricks that were created through time, energy, and tested by many magicians over the years. You can use the stuff you find as new material as well as a foundation for completely new effects.
Where is this box? -MATT KAP
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious." -Albert Einstein
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Eric Leclerc Inner circle Ottawa Ontario 1185 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-01-24 02:47, DJ Trix wrote: same here...BUT... careful all your practice time isn't spend blazed... cause then you'll need to blaze before the act to be in "normal mode" Was that comment too hardcore for this site?? hehehe |
DerekMerdinyan Inner circle 1030 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-01-25 22:39, Eric Leclerc wrote: No Eric, but your picture is, I love that picture lol. I showed it to my girlfriend and she got really grossed out hahaha. Derek Merdinyan |
Eric Leclerc Inner circle Ottawa Ontario 1185 Posts |
Nice!!!! hehehe... thanks!
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magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Below is something I wrote a while back pertaining directly to the lack of creativity in manipulative routines and how anyone can learn to think creatively on a different level by focusing the manipulative magic in a different direction. I figured it has some value and may be of help to some so I thought I would post it here. I hope it might help some or at least get you thinking.
My first question to anyone putting an act together may seem a bit strange or sound like I am being too harsh, but read on and I think you will see what I am referring to. Some of these tips relate to manipulative magic, but the tips can be used for any type of an act. My big question to you is: WHY?!!!!! I told you that it may seem a bit strange, but let me go on now to tell you about what I am referring to. To a magician, we are fascinated with cards and flourishes and vanishes and anything related to manipulation. We are amazed by the technique and the method and skill involved in doing the executions of the routines. This alone keeps us striving to learn more and piques our interest and curiosity. However, this is often NOT the case with a lay audience. A lay audience does not see manipulative magic in the same way we do. They do not understand the techniques and skills involved and nor should they if what we are doing is supposed to be magical. With this in mind, the audience often will say to themselves... "WHY?". Why is this magician doing the same thing over and over again? Why? Because the magician knows he is doing different vanishes and each one is slightly unique. However the audience only knows that the card vanishes, the card returned and now your doing it again. This is why an act of manipulation is very hard to do well if your doing it for 7-8 mins in a normal act time. You do not want your audience ever going "Why?" at any time in the routine. So how do you work around this problem of boring your audience to tears? Well that is where research and creativity comes into the picture. It gets back to the point that in a manipulative act you must give the audience "more". It is not good enough to simply show an 8 minute act of pure skill alone doing moves that appear the same to any audience. So how do you give your audience more? Well you can give them more through the use of themes, character, style, pacing, transition effects and emotional response to just name a few. Let me go on to talk very briefly about each of these I just mentioned. Each could be an article all in itself but I will just give you my tips on each one for now in hopes you can grasp what I am referring to. - Themes: You can give more to your audience in any manipulative act if you simply add in a theme to the act you are doing. This can be a generalized theme in regards to the objects all relating that you are manipulating, or the act itself can be themed around a storyline. In this way you are performing a small 8 min play that just so happens to have magic in it. The audience can relate to the themed objects or the story and get more involved with your act and with you. - Character: Every act you do should have a strong character present on stage. The audience needs to be able to connect with this character. If you can connect the audience with you, then they become more attached to you and can relate to what you are doing on stage. Ask yourself if your character is suave, comical, athletic, hip, sad, down on his luck. Each of these can become a strong character that can be conveyed in your stage movement and even your music. - Style: With style, I mean the way you move on stage and the way you conduct and hold yourself throughout the act. It is something that must be learned over time. It is those little things that make a huge difference to an audience liking you or not. It can be the way you pause at the right moment and look at the audience and wink right before a big production. It could be the way you move and look and smile at the audience as if saying thank you without moving your mouth at all. - Pacing: The way you pace and time your act can make a world of difference to an audience. In many manipulative acts, the audience is being barraged with too much visual input. They can not follow it all the time and so start shutting themselves down from even watching what it is you are doing. You must pace your act and place in it pauses that give the audience a chance to catch up, breathe a bit and give them a chance to applaud you before going into the next sequence. - Transition effects: These are the simple things you can place into your act that changes it up a bit and adds so called "spice" to the act. It gives your audience something more to watch and breaks up the act from being too repetitive. For example: You could be doing a billiard ball act. You do a few vanishes and produce the ball. The ball gets tossed up and as you catch it it turns into a white silk. You do a knots of silk effect and the knot becomes the ball again. In this way the ball to silk becomes a transition effect that gives your audience something more to be interested in. - Emotional Response: This is a HUGE one and can work so wonderfully if done well. If done right it can make your audience connect with you long after you have left the stage. It is causing an emotional response in your audiences by allowing them to connect and relate to your character and the predicament presented on the stage. It can also work closely in with the theme you are presenting. Every person in your audience has experienced something in common. What is common to us all is emotions. We have all felt fear, love, confusion and happiness. These are common to every person know matter who you are performing for. So if you can connect with them on one or more of these emotions, you can get that audience member to really relate to you because they are remembering a similar situation when they too had that exact same emotion or situation happen to them. They can relate. For example, your manipulative act could be all about this guy at night who is just trying to reach a bus to get home. It is late and he misses his bus and the entire world seems to be passing him buy. He sits on a bench to wait for the next bus and turns on his radio. He drifts off to sleep only to awake moments later. He realizes that magic starts happening to him even though he does not know exactly why it is. Throughout the act the magic that happens to him causes him to smile and to realize that life is full of wonder even if we may not always see it. Now this is just a very vague example but you can see how the entire act could be a manipulative routine but now you are relating to them a story of a very well defined character with a well defined theme. You give them an emotional response to the act because most can relate to being in a similar situation in their own life. In this way they relate better to what you are doing on stage. Now these ideas are not meant to be the bible for a great act by any means. They are simply some of my own understandings on what I have experienced that has really worked not only for myself but to other acts that have really "made it." They are meant only to be reviewed and given some thought to. Take even one thing from them and I think you will see your act reaching your audiences in a whole different light. So I simply ask you to ask yourself. WHY? Kyle
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
FCpreacher Elite user PA 439 Posts |
Well said, Kyle. Superb advice from a truly creative magician.
FC |
magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Thank you FC for the kind words. I appreciate it.
Kyle
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
The GodFather Regular user 105 Posts |
Another good poind is that an act must have 3 parts:
Opener, middle and closser. Same like a 3 page essay. The opener is just to say what is about. In the middle play with it and experience it and at the end you make your point. Of course you can do that by combining relative visual effects but MOST IMPORTANTLY you have to do that 3 phase routine psycologicly. Let me give you an example so you understande perfectly what I mean: Cardiny was the magician who been copied the most, but non of his imitators could amaze people as he did. The imitators could do the exact same routine (visual effects).What they couldn't imitade was the psycology. most importantly his personality and theam, created a psycological atmosphere in the spectators minds. 1st the opener: Cardini apears as a british tipsy getleman coming come after a long day at work and suddenly magic took place without he to force it. Actually he is supriced and he doesn't know what is going on. (as you see here the opening establish what is that going to be about). In the middle the magic happen again and again without him forcing it to happen. Sometimes when he tried he did some magic too but he didn't complity understud what it was realy going on. At the end cardini make his point, by finally be able to control all this magic that happen around him all the time and make it work for him. As you can see the imitators didn't know the psycology of the act so they were just imitading the visual effects. But the visual effects was just the vehicle so he could express the psycology and make his point that ... "magic is all around us all the time. Is according to you how good magician you are and be able to experience it and make it part of your life" - The GodFather Magician
"My goal is to spread around happiness and entertainment, by erasing the illusion of time and live in eternity "
The GodFather Magician |
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