You are The Method
You like my awesome prop? It’s like colorful and has these three colored balls, and this cool lookin’ Joker-face-box thing with this awesome white tube. It’s awesome! And then I can put the balls in this clear tube and stuff. Ok, fine, I’ll admit it, the Stratosphere effect is a pretty cool effect, but what the heck are those props? Are they normal? They scream . . . I’m Gimmicked!
Does that mean you shouldn’t use them? No. I think they’re still safe, but they must be given some sort of context. To just bring out some strange prop – whether it be this one in a kid’s show or an Okito box in a close up show – you’ve got to give it some, however small, meaning. I don’t necessarily feel that all magic tricks must have meaning. For example, why did I tear a card and restore it? Because it’s a demonstration of something that is impossible. It doesn’t have to be deeper than that.
However, when introducing a prop that is not an ordinary item, then some level of meaning must be assigned to the prop so that it’s more than just some weird-thing-that-you-bought-at-the-magic-shop-that-does-all-the-work-for-y0u . . . even if that’s exactly what it is.
Root:
Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root: You are The Magician and the Method. Be more than your props. They are merely tools. Remember Captain Karl? Karl Wagner . . . author of Safety Magic. He had a routine that used Stratosphere to teach the kids traffic safety. You’ll notice that the balls represent the same colors as a traffic light. Wagner took advantage of this and made a career of teaching children how to be safe in a variety of situations. He gave the props, albeit small, meaning. The balls represented the light, and the tube helped them remember to proper order, etc.
David Regal has an excellent effect where he uses what looks like a medium sized ring from a linking rings set. The effect is a coins through table routine. However, he uses the ring as a center point on the table and the coins are placed in the ring on the table and that is the point where he penetrates the coins through the table. The ring, as Regal points out, gives the routine a nice focal point. But that alone is not enough, and Regal recognized that, so he gave the ring meaning. He refers to it as “a hole that can bend time and space.”
He peppers it with a couple of jokes, and bam, you’ve got a simple and cool prop that ads a ton to the routine and it has some meaning. The fact that the “meaning” is all malarkey, is irrelevant. The point is that the audience is not assaulted with a bunch of props and forced to merely accept their existence with no reason whatsoever.
Branch:
Let’s build our branches. I’m sure you’ve got a handful of props that you use in your act. Do they mean something? Granted, some props, their meaning is inherently obvious. For example, you don’t need to give meaning to your Sharpie. You’ve already told the audience that you want them to sign the card to make it different. Obviously when you pull out your Sharpie at that point people aren’t going to wonder what you’re doing. On the other hand, do you do a ring and rope routine? I do. I use the Dan Fleshman’s routine and string that he sells. The string looks like a neon green shoelace. So with that said, I simply refer to it as my daughter’s shoelace. In fact, sometimes, depending on the venue, I will ask to borrow a shoelace and a ring.
Your job, for the next thirty days is to take a good hard look at your props and give them some meaning. Even ordinary props (such as the string) in some cases need meaning. Come up with some ridiculous meaning, like a hole that bends time and space, or something more simple and realistic, like a representation of the traffic lights. Either way, the more meaning you bring to your props, the less focus they get from the audience. If you take a moment to explain the prop, without going overboard, you’ve answered questions about the props, and they become invisible, thus leaving the focus on you, the magician and true method of the effect. Now go study the classics, and go discover your true magical self.
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