Caleb,

Congratulations for a beautiful piece.

You need to find the way to make it happen.

There are some theatrical pieces along those lines out there right know: four moments on the same person’s life runing simultaneosly on a creepy house (I think that one was in Hamburg), with the audience walking freely between rooms, or an entire “theatrical tour” that happaned here in NY last year, with the play evolving in different locations over a given period of time.

That make obvious the fact that today’s audiences are looking for that kind of shows. Just do it!

“And I have done a great and terrible thing...” Would be a GREAT title, BTW...

Changing the world...

When you are done, some things are different.

And some things might be better unchaged.

How does it feel then?

I was away from the forum for a few days, and came back to find this very interesting twist to this tread. I would like to make only a few brief comments regarding the directions of bizarre magick.

First, I believe that there are several reasons that the bizarre world tends toward the dark. The first is simply tradition. Much of the early bizarre performances and writings tended toward the dark, so those who were attracted to the darkness were attracted to the bizarre.

There is a second, and far more important, explanation. Bizarre or storytelling magic is about touching peoples emotions. People like to be scared. They like to be taken on flights of pure fancy. That is why horror and fantasy novels and movies are so popular. It is often much easier to send a shiver down someone’s spine than to bring a tear to their eye.

Most of my material is unabashedly dark. I won't apologize for that. I love it and so do my audiences. That said, it need not be so. I love
to tell tall tales, even fairy tales, illustrated by magic. I am one of the few that I know that does "bizarre children’s magic." Very little of it is dark, though there may be touches here and there.

The point is, I will agree that bizarre magick tends toward the dark. I will also agree that it need not be so. But again, the medium lends itself to dark themes. Why not capitalize on that? On the other hand, even I feel that it would be a mistake to limit ourselves and to fail (to continue with the analogy) to explore the use of other colors on our pallete.

After all, even if darkness falls, somewhere there should be a light...

Okay, enough of my ramblings for now.
Thanks for the brain food.

Dave

Everytime I think I have a bead on it, it moves...

You all make some great points. Bizzare magic, to me, seems to lend itself well to the "dark" side of our pallette- but I think there is more to explore.

It's discussions like this that make the Magic Café so useful to me, a relative beginner in this wonderful experience we call magic.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Back to the begining- and I know I'm REALLY late out of the gate- but the only part of this AWESOME piece that I question is asking the audience to be open and sharing in an evironment that has been set as less then homey. Perhaps the answer to this ties back to mithanders posts about colors-
While walking in white curtains can be back lit with orange, making a trail into a smaller area marked off by similar curtains- after the house lights go down- these walls could be moved further back allowing the unprotected open space feeling you were talking about.

well that's my day late and 98 cents short.

And really let me also thank you for sharing the post-

Whitelephant,

I really like the idea of using curtains. Part of the thinking of the set-up is its incongruity - the seating is oppulent, yet the setting is industrial and decaying. What is going on? Should we settle down into the luxurious throws and cushions, or should we sit nervously on the edge of our seats?

The moveable curtains slots into that ambiguity and dramatic tension very nicely. Thank you for sharing.

As for the dynamics of the group, that's another interesting point. How do we develop and maintain rapport, and even intimacy, in larger settings?

Regards,

Caleb Strange.

As you wrote in your original post:
"Several ideas suggest themselves. A Q and A that's based around the idea 'if you could live in one moment in your life, what would that moment be'. Needless to say, many precious memories are shared, and you do your readings amongst the audience themselves. "

WOW-this is magic- how to get a group of people to open up and share special memories. This is what I thought that curtains could do from the begining giving a "womb-like" atmosphere. Further affecting peoples emotions can be done through sound. A recorded heartbeat that is slowed down before playback either alone or as part of music will have the phisiological (words to big for me to spell right:) effect of slowing the heartbeat of the listener. Theoreticaly this will also help to calm people and can be turned around (faster) to increase tension.

In asking others how they thought a group of strangers could be encouraged to open up-the best responce I got was get them drunk. so much for my friends.

To push the curtains one step further- (just dreaming here) if three sides have the ability to be projected on-with multiple projectors on each- then you could create whole environments -forset-beach-airport-... this way pictures can be drawn with words and become more imidiate with images.

Again I only think of the curtains because of how much I like the open space-and I think that it works best when 'sprung' on the audience.

All I can say is Wow. I've been working alot with the "time" theme, (long before I read this post) and how my magic pertains to it. I'm not even close to creating something that cohesive and powerful, although that type of thing is what I'm striving for.

I'm new to bizzare magic, mainly because I've grown tired of the antics of regular magic. I want something real, more than casual entertainment. I'm a believer that magic is, and should be, theatrical -and that it should invoke emotion just like any play or movie.

I'm curious, how long did it take you to come up with that whole thing? Also, how long have you been in bizzare magic, and what resources have you found most helpful? Thanks.

Michael

Michael,

You wrote:

'I'm new to bizzare magic, mainly because I've grown tired of the antics of regular magic. I want something real, more than casual entertainment. I'm a believer that magic is, and should be, theatrical -and that it should invoke emotion just like any play or movie.'

For a self-proclaimed Bizarre newbie, that seems to me to be a VERY solid basis on which to build.

As for my autobiography, this is kind of off-topic, but I've been asked for it here before, so here is Caleb 101:

Like many magicians, I did my fair share of performances for church groups and youth clubs when I was growing up. At University, I got heavily involved with party planning, and it was through that that I did my first bits of spooky magic (including my first seance!). After University, I spent a few years as a juggler, doing the odd spooky party here and there. About ten years ago, I found myself wanting to tell more and more stories in performance, which is when I became more serious about Bizarre magic. This has led to different kinds of parties, various performance work, workshops for retreats, and a few other related things. I'm proudest of the stuff I've done in Residential and Nursing Homes, trying to explore the therapeutic and normalising patterns that can be found in some stories.


Resources I have found most helpful? Well, aside from this wonderful Café, I've always been partial to the work of Tony 'Doc' Shiels. However, I try to keep my reading broad, and largely non-magical. Recently read volumes that I can wholeheartedly recommend include:

'Tales from the Bazaars' by Amina Shah

'Human Givens' by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell

'The Complete Short Stories of H.G. Wells' ed. John Hammond

'My voice will go with you' ed. and commentary by Sidney Rosen

It has helped me, I hope, to keep my influences as varied as possible. If nothing else, such books (as listed above) can remind one that reinventing the wheel is heroic, but ultimately dumb .

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I guess we have all found people who, while they know nothing of Shuttle Passes and Bottom Deals, know a great deal about magic.

Regards,

Caleb Strange.