In your opinion, what sorts of things severely detract from an otherwise great performance? By this, I am referring to performers whose acts are obviously nicely-routined and well-rehearsed, but have a glaring issue that keeps them from living up to their potential.

Here are a few of mine:

1. "Gratuitous" dancing to kill time
2. Cheesy or overused music
3. Messy looking or dated props
4. Inappropriate or insulting patter

Sounds like the topic I started all over again. I agree with all of the above and would like to add 'a lack of context'. Singing can be good dancing can be good. Even dated props can be good as long as there is CONTEXT. You could have an antique prop and explain that it is a gift from your grandfather. You can do a drum illusion with dancing and drumming if you're good at tribal drumming. Gaudy props and singing and dancing with illusions have gone a bit overboard. And wheeling a gugantic prop onstage and doing a trick with it for thirty seconds is a complete lack of.context. The more context the better.

Those cornball poses most often seen at the end of a routine...but sometimes throughout,
where the Magician (illusionists in particular) who has his assistants 'drape' themselves all over the magician...as if starring in a bad "AXE' commercial.
This is often an attempt to create the impression that the performer were some kind of irresistible 'sex god' .
It's overdone, it's cheesy, and I think the only one fooled into believing it works...is the magician himself.

There's more...shall I go on?

- Lack of connection with the audience by the character
- Bad acting
- Incoherent personality on stage
- "I need something practical" instead of "I need something astonishing"
- ...

Outdated costumes
Plastic, feather or other artificial flowers
"I am too sexy" attitude
Drunk performer/assistants

I would ammend the comment above to say, for me, it's lack of "dramatic context."

Jim

Wearing all black on a black stage. I'm sure you're wonderful, but I can't see you!

Spandex and Sequins.... unless you're Chezeday.

You mean like this?:

http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/image......28/l.jpg

Doug

That'll do it...although I suspect Rudy is well aware of it's impression, and is ironic in his intent.

I used to call it the "Spellbound Wrap" because in that 1980's-90's touring show... each illusion performed by the dueling illusionists... would finish with some 'babe' striking a pose of adoration or repressed desire for the macho man of mystery!

So many young people saw some version of that show over the years, that when they decided to do magic...they assumed that was how each trick is supposed to end! LOL

Spellbound Wrap! LOL! I love it. I am going to use that term now!
Okay--my list-
Wearing puffy shirts ( didn't anyone see Seinfeld?)
Not being what you are on stage-- geeks trying to look cool
If I can tell that your wife is your assistant ( as in you should hire a pro assistant)
Cliche effects and intros- "I never saw snow" Followed of course by the ending pose of arms extended and slowly revolving.
Humiliating audience volunteers. Examples I have seen include- calling them idiots, carrying them over your shoulder to the stage, not learning their names and thinking it is funny to call them "Bob".
Not helping volunteers on and off stage ( stairs).

Obvious lack of rehearsal...

There's a HUGE difference between PRACTICE and REHEARSAL. REHEARSAL comes AFTER PRACTICE... and it's so important.

it has lights.. it has staging.. it has music cues.. and it doesn't happen in a garage or living room.

If it does.. and doesn't happen enough you can tell. Always.

The number of times I've watched magicians mumble through a routine or blow a joke or blow a whole routine because they've run it through their head a thousand time.. but never or almost never out loud.. or with an audience of even their friends is so FRUSTRATING.

Magic is not improv. It can't be faked. Rehearsal is so important... Magic is theater.. and real magicians rehearse. I've worked for some of the big guns.. and I've consulted for countless magicians as an illusion engineer, builder and performance consultant... YOU CANNOT JUST MAKE UP A ROUTINE and hope it plays off the top of your head.. really...

Well, I can...

I agree with Chris. You can do improvisational magic or "jazz" magic. But that only comes after a decade or so of performing and it's limited to a specific area. For instance, I can improvise a routine with rope or coins or a puppet. But really only with those areas. I've been working with those three areas so much and for so long that I can make it up as I go along. And I really wouldn't recommend it unless you have serious proficiency.
It's also easier to do in a close up situation than it is in platform, and easier on platform than it is on stage.

Improv on stage with magic has been achieved by magicians, but very, very rarely and rarely is it better than rehearsed magic. Some of the professional guys in Vegas make you "feel" like what they are doing is improv (or that it's the first time it happened), but that's all an illusion. A lot of people also have set routines but try one or two other moves or one or two new jokes so as to constantly improve the routine (in other words, only a tiny unit is improv, the rest is rehearsed).

Sorry but I was kidding. I rehearse my ass off, I was just giving Mike a hard time because I like to bug him.

I have been known to perform something I have never tried before and it can be done if you have a conscious stage attitude, control over the confidence in your voice. Solid knowledge of misdirection, audience applause cues, and more.
The trick or effect can be secondary in the hands of a true performer, but that takes years to pull off.

Sounds like you hit a nerve there, Mr. Stolz.

I guess so!

I think there is a difference between performing a polished act word-for-word and rolling with the punches when you 'need' to. Martin Nash actually showed me how he had written down every line for every effect he did. It was scripted down to the letter - but you'd never notice unless you had seen it multiple times. His castle acts were so polished as a result, that the time was identical to the minute.

My show is fairly scripted with the exception of anything that happens to be funny. I do a ton of theatre and improv and I'm always funnier when I toss out the occasional line or joke off the cuff. That being said however, every move, look and moment of misdirection is rehearsed to death before I hit the stage - it's only the occasional joke in between routines that isn't as planned.

I see no reason to grab a bunch of coins and make up a routine as I go along with 700 people watching. They'll know very quickly what's going on but more importantly, the lack of thinking ahead means that it's much more difficult for you to....well be ahead. Being a few steps ahead of the audience is key and it allows you to plant ideas long in advance to enhance effects that are to come.

It's funny actually, I'm consulting for a theatre production right now in which I need to teach an actor 6 magic routines. It's amazing how unconscious many of the looks, beats and movements have become for the ones I've done the longest! We keep taping me doing it and playing it back so that I can see them and point them out!

Performing on the fly is something I'd expect from a magic dealer. They get so much new stuff in that it becomes second nature to "demo" the trick in front of other magicians (potential customers). In that context, I fully understand and have no issue with. It is impossible for them to rehearse EVERY trick they do. The terms "demo" and "performance" are not interchangeable, though. Performing demos might lead to false sense of confidence. Just sayin'...

Regarding the OP:

Poorly designed props that account for the deceptiveness, but miss the mark on aesthetics. Frankly, I'm tired of seeing asymmetrical, "skewed" boxes and frames. It was a nice concept at one time, but has been over-used and not always rendered with intelligence.

For the same reason, I feel the "industrial" look has played out. We get it. You're supposed to be an angry street god. <yawn>

Granted, I am viewing from a magician's POV, which normally I'd consider unqualified, but there is still something to be said for not being a lemming following a trend toward the cliff's edge. I highly respect any one who creates a unique personna and look to their show. Give me something different and fun to watch. In this regard, I think guys like Rudy Coby and John Bundy are geniuses. Their shows always have definable context and it's highly unlikely that you can compare them to anyone else in the field.

@ JNeal - Yes, please do go on. I'd love to hear more!

For me, what kills it right away is not having a clue who the performer is, why he's doing what he's doing, or whether he's telling me anything. Like other audience members, I respond to what I see, not to what's inside the performer's head; so, if the performer doesn't clue me in, I have no way of knowing. As someone said above, there's a huge difference between performing a feat of magic and demonstrating a gadget.

In theater and the movies, there's a huge difference between memorizing and reciting lines and actually bringing a character to life and giving the audience someone to relate to, either positively or negatively. One of the worst sins an actor can commit is to create a "flat" character, one that the audience has no feelings for. In an otherwise good production, one of these flat characters can jump out at you and actually distract you from the story. I'm not talking about spear carriers in an opera: I'm talking about characters in the story.

The other thing that kills it for me is lack of craftsmanship, which is most often the result of little preparation, practice, and rehearsal. If I go to a grammar school pageant, I expect a certain level of craftsmanship, and that's okay. If I get more than I expected, that's great. However, when I see a performer who wants to be perceived as a pro, I expect him or her to have the material down cold. Ever watch Yo Yo Ma in action? It's unbelievable, and he's "just sitting there."