Clean Up Your Act!
Have you ever been in this boat? It’s a fictitious scenario for the purpose of this article. However, I’ve actually been in similar situations myself. Have you?
Root:
Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root: Organization and Economy of Motion. I’ve seen so many magicians who think that because they have a bunch of colorful (even beautiful) looking props littered throughout the stage they have a good stage and a good stage presence. To quote my mother, “Horse Puckey!” There is nothing “good looking” about it. It’s crap.
Start here . . . walk there . . . then over there . . . then dig through this bag and pull out this trick, etc. Close up guys . . . don’t think that you’re off the hook. Ever seen this: Here let me show you this trick . . . then dig through my packet trick wallet . . . here’s another trick . . . dig through my tackle box of crap . . . here’s another trick . . . You need some choreography folks. You need some organization.
Each effect should flow from one to the next. You shouldn’t be foolishly walking back and forth across the stage from table to table. You shouldn’t be clunkily walking around on stage. Stop. Plant yourself in one spot for a moment. Look at specific people in the audience. Talk directly to them. Then, maybe, move to another part of the stage and audience. Again this holds true with close up work too. Pause. Breathe. Give the moment time to sync in.
The effects in your act . . . are they too complex to reset? Do you have a big box full of garbage that you have to dig through to reset? Do you look like an chaotic idiot?
Branch:
Let’s build our branches. Your challenge: Clean up Your Act. Take a good hard look at everything you do. Are the effects long-winded and convoluted? Start there. Clean up the script and the handling. Make the whole effect a clean smooth journey from point A to point B. What about between effects? Are you bumbling and mumbling? Stop it. Script these parts of the act.
Are you digging through your close up bag or your stage box/bag for your next effect? Stop it! Clean up your act. Eliminate all unnecessary movement. Un-clutter your stage, and un-clutter yourself. Consider the stuff that gets used up in every show that has to be replaced (e.g., flash paper, mouth coils, etc.). Are they worth keeping in the act? How much will it impact your act if you can’t do those effects because your ran out and couldn’t get replacements in time for your show? Do you have a back up plan for just such an instance?
I can very clearly remember a show I saw a few years back where it literally looked like the magician went through his basement and found all his old boxes of magic tricks that he used to play with as a kid. It was as though he took these “found boxes” and just set them on the stage.
Then for each effect, he literally dug through one box or another looking for this prop or that . . . all the while, his back was turned to the audience and he was mumbling aimlessly. What’s worse is that often part of the trick would be in one box, and part of it would be in another . . . so he’d have to go dig through multiple boxes to put the trick together so he could do it. He looked very foolish.
Watch yourself on video. Do you look like that? Be objective. Your mission is to streamline everything: Your words, your movement, your transitions, your props, your handling, your methods, your stage, your reset.
Read what the master, Eugene Burger has to say on scripting: Editing Our Scripts
Now go study the classics and go discover your true magical self.
