In the past years I started to watch carefully other magicians‘ selections of tricks that they perform in their shows. No matter where I looked, again and again I saw the same tricks (at least here in Germany, Austria and Switzerland): Chop Cup (Paul Daniels style), floating paper rose (Kevin James), floating table (Dirk Losander), $100 bill switch (10 Euro bill to 50 Euro bill and back), bill in lemon, paper balls over the head, a variation of the George Sands‘ rope trick, the passe passe bottle or the multiplying bottles. Another trick that recently got very popular is the linking of three borrowed fingerings.
Now I don’t mind the classics of magic and I don’t mind those tricks just listed, if they are properly performed. But the problem is that each and every one of the magicians I saw perform these tricks use the same old lines and patter the other magicians are using.
Maybe this is so because magicians love to go out and watch other magicians perform. When they do so they are mostly interested in somehow recording and then copying the other’s lines and presentational details for their own shows.
If these magicians later complain that it is hard to get some jobs in these times, then it is because they don’t realize that with all that copying they put magic into a sort of sameness which makes it unattractive to bookers, because all the so-called acts look more or less the same.
In my life I’ve read and studied an estimated 2000+ books. I know for sure that there is enough material to supply 500 magicians with 500 different-looking acts. Nowadays it is very easy to get access to all this knowledge and variety of material. Lack of material and ideas is no excuse.
I understand it can be trouble to search out new material and ideas, to practice and hone them, and then jump into the cold water and start to perform them in front of live audience. Simply because of the fact that at the beginning there is no ‹security› and guarantee for success. The process of making a new trick or routine into a winner in front of an audience is tough. Only very few magicians will want to take the road of hard-working troubled to finally end up with an original and personal performing piece.
I also understand that it is easier to watch another magician perform something, which registers well and brings him success, and then to simply take the piece away from him and perform it in one’s own ‹show›. Most magicians are copycats and they do this for many years. But in these times the number of magicians has increased, as well as the exposure of these magicians on the media. So what the general audience gets to see from magic looks more or less same. No wonder that the interest starts to decrease.
Magic could be really fascinating performing art if we had more real artist-minded magicians performing original and unique stuff. What we have in the majority are hobbyist magicians who are lazy, without ideas and just simply dull.
The key to real success is hard work, a creative approach and the desire to perform personalised material for an audience. All of this requires being prepared to put some effort into it.
So I challenge you: ask yourself what it is that you like about a performance, and then ask yourself how you yourself could bring your own voice to a similar creation. Is it the witticism of the patter of one magician? Is it the dexterity of another? Is it the combination of material that takes a collection of tricks and turns it into a set – a piece of theater? First give voice to what you love about that performer, and then find your own way of expressing that awareness. In other words, make other magicians want to copy you!
I understand this is too much effort and most of the magicians don’t want to invest into their magic. They want to achieve maximum success with a minimum amount of effort.
This sameness of performers and their effects makes magic dull. This is sad.
But it doesn’t have to be! Dare to be yourself. Dare to look at the acts of other magicians as a beginning for you and not an end destination for you. What makes a Harry Anderson a Harry Anderson? What makes a Bill Malone a Bill Malone? What makes a Tamariz a Tamariz? Don’t be merely a mirror: be a student of the art.
Pass it on!
