Mailbag #16
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In yesterday’s post you mentioned tricks that don’t have scripted jokes, but are still funny. What are some examples that you could give of that? Or do you have any general tips for being funny in “social magic”? —CC
Sure. But let me clarify what I was saying first. When you see a comedy magician, he is likely doing a standard trick with a bunch of jokes in it. There is nothing funny about cutting and restoring a rope, but it can be a funny routine if you add jokes to it. To do that professionally is one thing, but to do it in a casual situation is kind of awkward (in my opinion).
When I lived in NYC, I would occasionally find myself out at a bar with some local magicians and they’d use canned lines on people. “Do you believe in coincidence? Me too. What a coincidence!” “Clear your mind. That was quick!” “Show the card to your friends. What… I’m not your friend?” I’m probably overly-sensitive to corniness, but from my perspective these lines added nothing to the interaction and just made the performer look lame.
If you want to do a “funny” trick socially, then I think you’re better off doing a trick that has a premise which is funny in some way.
Take a trick like Cryptophasia. The premise is that your spectator is your long-lost twin. There are no jokes in the effect but there is a lot of humor that naturally comes from engaging with the presentation.
I’ll Be My Mirror is another funny premise that doesn’t really have any jokes in it.
I can’t say how well such tricks would play in a professional situation, where people are expecting scripted patter and jokes. But when you’re just hanging out with someone, premise-based humor will feel much more natural. You’re not “cracking jokes.” You don’t have to take on a new personality. You can just insert your normal personality into the weird situation. If you’re naturally funny, that can boost the inherent humor in a funny premise. But even if you’re not, it can be funny how seriously you take it. Think of the Time Traveler’s Toilet. If your attitude is, “Isn’t this funny?” It’s not funny at all. But if you’re very serious about it, and your attitude is, “Isn’t this fascinating?” or, “Isn’t this concerning? A toilet should not do this, right?” Then it can be very funny.
You’re not going to get spikes of concentrated laughter like you would if you were performing in a comedy club. But that’s okay because you’re not performing in a comedy club.
When presenting magic casually, I don’t think you should ever attempt to be funnier or more clever than you are in real life. You want people to feel like they’re having this experience with the you they know. In social magic, I think the goal should be to make everything seem normal, except this one weird thing (the trick). If you start spouting out pre-planned quips then it’s going to feel like a performance, not an interaction.
If you’re naturally funny, then it makes sense to include that aspect of yourself in your material, but you don’t need to script the humor (because you’re naturally funny).
If you don’t think of yourself as funny, then strive for being fun. It’s just as good.
The next three emails all reference my review/presentation/handling for Paul Harris’ Deep Clear which appeared in the Fall X-Communication newsletter.
I absolutely LOVE your handling and presentation for deep clear. Gave it the wife test and it fried her hard. The time delay the explanation gives you makes it virtually impossible to back track. Thanks for sharing! —MH
Just some unsolicited feedback. I am greatly enjoying these refinements on commercial tricks. You have a knack for improving/fixing presentations, which is something magicians are usually bad at. I'm voting for more of this in the next year. —GT
Your presentation for Deep Clear took that trick from the back of my “unused” drawer and made it possibly my favorite trick of the year. Please keep these updated handlings and presentations for other’s effects coming. I’m surprised none of the magic companies have hired you to do this. —DW
Aw, you sweeties. Look, no magic company has to hire me to do it because you have already hired me to. (“You” meaning the supporters of this site.)
It’s safe to say you will probably see more of that style of review in the future. When I first started writing reviews for the newsletter, I felt compelled to do timely looks at new releases, and that sort of butted against my desire to only review things I had actually tried out. What I’ve realized in the ensuing years is that nobody really needs me to say things like, “The roughing spray was unevenly applied,” or, “The stitching on the wallet is very nice.” There are dozens of youtube reviewers who can give you that type of basic information. In fact, because they’re all rushing to get their videos out, that’s about all the information they can give. You can tell a lot of them have never actually performed the trick they’re talking about.
So, rather than compete to be first, I will continue to save the reviews until I feel I have something worthwhile to say about an effect that’s borne out of performing it.
There will be shorter/quicker reviews when I don’t have much to say about an effect I like, or when an effect is unworkable for whatever reason, but I won’t force myself to be timely if I think there is some insight I might find a couple months down the line. In fact, the new version of the newsletter starting next year may include some reviews for stuff that is years old.
Loved the coins across idea... and I was thinking it could be "fun" when it goes "wrong" and the coins fuse together... like Sean Fields "One". —DY
I think that would make a good phase to the routine as well.
You could also screw up in a much more subtle way: You try to transfer two borrowed coins and you end up with a double-headed coin and a double-tailed coin.
From the feedback I got, a lot of people were taken with the idea for that premise and had other ideas about where to take the trick. I think that’s one of the benefits of putting a trick in a Context. If a trick is just about coins going back and forth then more phases usually just means more coins going back and forth. But when you come up with the Context for why the coins are going between the hands, then it becomes much easier to find other effects that fit that context that aren’t just the same thing happening over and over.