What Can I Do To Deliver A Better Performance?

Due to the limitations of current blogging technology, I’m unable to underline the title of this post. Because believe me, if I could underline it, I would. This simple question, this is the real shit (see previous posts to see why), everything else which you read about magic online is just baby talk compared to this post.

You might have noticed that I’ve been pretty quiet these past couple of weeks. This is because a) I’m moving house (!), but also b) because I’ve been finetuning the answers to this question at the top of this post.

Proof that I'm not JUST a blog

I’ve thought about this for a while now, and I think that I’m at the stage where I have some answers. Not just my answers, the answers. To be honest, this post is only about 20% magic theory; the remaining 80% is just common sense. Nonetheless I’m willing to debate this with anyone who disagrees: the following answers are 100% true, 100% of the time. If you’ve been searching for the holy grail in the world of magic, here it is. No bullshit!

Things I/We Can Do To Deliver a Better Performance

1. Create conflict/tension/intrigue - this is the defining feature of the performance of just about every top level magician out there. A magic routine only becomes truly compulsive viewing when it possesses some kind of emotional core with which to drive that magical experience forward. There are many ways in which performers have created this emotional engine:
• Conflict between magician and his props (ala Cardini)
• Conflict between magician and his spectators (ala John Ramsey)
• Tension around the outcome of a bet (e.g. Shell Game)
• Tension around the outcome of a trick (the bent card phase of Ambitious Card)
• Intrigue, which can come from many sources (“I’ll show you how it’s done”, “I’ll do it face up”, “I’ll do it with the deck wrapped in rope”)
• Note that a lot of tricks have elements of some of the above embedded into their design (for example, ‘sucker’ tricks), so often these things do not have to be presentational add-ons but can simply be an inherent part of the effect itself. 
• Simply put, it is far easier for our minds to get absorbed in our current activity when we have some emotion invested in its outcome. We’re entertained when we care about what is happening: the same is true in books, games, TV shows, movies, comedy. This is not unique to magic.
2. Strive for tight, consistent pacing - this is an extremely simple one, but it may just be the most important thing of all. The target is this: your performance must be structured in such a way so as to minimise and eliminate any ‘dead time’. What is ‘dead time’? Well, anything which is not entertaining - any unintended silences, any excessively long cutting/shuffling sequences, anything where there is more procedure than there is effect. For the masterclass in just how much a consistent flow helps a close-up magic performance, look again at the tight, tight flow in Jonathan Kamm’s ACR.
3. Establish a consistent character - now look, when I say ‘character’, I do NOT mean it in the godawful way which it is slung around on web forums. I just mean knowing what to say and being consistent in that persona. Several months ago I was speaking to a professional comedy juggler: he had been doing street juggling for over thirty years. I was speaking with him about some of these things regarding performance. I’m paraphrasing, but he explained this whole notion of ‘character’ to me.  

 The essence of a truly entertaining performance is to have done your act so many times, that when you step up on the stage, you know the character that you are portraying so well that you ARE that character, you know what to say before they even ask the question.  This might not make complete sense, but when you’ve done your act another thousand times, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

Are you starting to get it guys? The trick? That is not the thing, the thing which we are all chasing, and it never has been. Being a great performer is down to who you are as a person, the experiences which you have had. These are things which cannot be bought at a magic store, but need to be lived and experienced.

I know, I know. I’m scared too, guys.