Hi John

Thanks for being here.

Could you please share some of your experiences on how you have put your personality into your stage/parlour magic and perhaps offer some advice for those magicians who want to create original presentations for classic effects.

I love the classics of magic like the rings and egg bag. I want to continue to work on these classics but become more original in my presentations.

How do you stand out from the crowd?
I am currently working on the bill to impossible location for stage. I have done it to lemon before but I am now working on making the bill appear in something other than a lemon, something I think is funny and more "me". Am I on the right track?

Thanks

Simon

Unless we have honed some acting skills, the worst thing we can do is try to be someone we are not. Super cool and slick illusionists or manipulators can come off as corny or out of touch with the styles of today.

Unless we have the acting skills, we should just be ourselves, only bigger...... Just taken up a notch. It is far more effective to be pleasant and fun loving, than to try to be funny if you are not. And if you are not a hunk, don't go for the hunk angle. If you are not a mystery man, be a collector of oddities which you can't wait to share with others.......just as amazed as they are.

Any trick can be re-worked in terms of presentation. Its just a matter of having the discipline to sit down and write or explore the possibilities. I am a big list maker. When I am trying to get something off the ground, I will take a piece of scratch paper (or a blank word document) and just start listing associations. Some are things off the top of my head, others from books, or off the internet. Make a giant list, then start picking through it, looking for possibilities. Most likely it will not be whole and complete, but it will get you started in a direction.

Egg bag........powers of invisibility.......a zone zero or black hole........which came first, chicken or the egg........the beginning of life..........nature's perfect shape......chickens.........Rocky Balboa breakfast.......etc....

when you think you have all you can think of, challenge yourself and do not one more, but twenty more. The perfect idea may be just waiting to jump out if you are willing to enter the dark forest.

Now that you have a list, you have something to work with, some elements to kick around, and most likely, you will end up discarding most of them. But if you only write down one idea, you aren't likely to find what you are looking for.

To stand out from the crowd, Steve Martin said, "You have to be so good, they can't ignore you"......that means a lot of work. You may think it comes easy to the geniuses, but actually they are who they are because working harder than the rest.

Bill in anything can work....a novel location is one way to stand out.......but you could do bill and lemon and still find a fresh approach. Its not just the props.

Think about concepts, not just tricks. Situations, not just effects. Ideas, not just moves.

rave on,
carney

John,

Thanks so much! I am going to write some lists! That seems like a great way t come up with some ideas.

I love the Steve Martin quote!

Simon