Mailbag #23

I just finished a 3-week class with Danny Garcia, about creating magic. It was really fascinating to get some insight into his approach for generating ideas and effects. 

It got me wondering if you had much to say on (or had previous written about) that topic. 

As an extremely prolific creator of very unique magic, and someone who seems quite procedural/regimented in how they get work done, it seems possible you have some kind of framework for developing material. I'm curious if that's the case and if you have any broader thoughts on "creativity" —LH

I wish I was smart enough to have an answer for this. I don’t really have a process for such things. My only process is “spend a lot of time on it.” Which is kind of the opposite of what people want to hear. I haven’t found a shortcut that works for me yet.

The only real bit of practical advice I can offer is to have a system for collecting your ideas—whether that be a notebook or a note taking app or something—regardless of how small the idea may seem. I think the mistake people make is that they think they’re going to just spontaneously get good ideas. That’s not true with the creative people I know. Yes, occasionally you’ll get a huge strike of inspiration and a great idea will come to you fully formed. But that’s the exception. More often a good idea comes from thinking about a small dumb idea and building on it and exploring it over time. Small dumb ideas are like seeds that grow good ideas every now and then. You plant these seeds by capturing the ideas on paper, and then you water the seeds by revisiting them every couple weeks. The likelihood of any one particular seed sprouting into a good idea is low. But the likelihood of at least one good idea sprouting from amongst all the seeds is high.

Now you might say, “But how do I even get small dumb ideas?” If you’re asking that question, then I don’t think creativity is probably your strong suit. Maybe there is some way to go from nothing to something creatively, but I have no idea what that process would be. If you figure it out, let me know.

You once told me in an email that you went to Bloomfield College. You mentioned to a friend of mine in an email that you went to San Diego State University. Did you go to both schools? Or is there more than one person behind the site? —FN

Hmmm… I went to neither of those schools. Without looking it up, I don’t even know if I could tell you where Bloomfield College is.

There was a time when I would throw in fake biographical details into emails (and into posts) every now and again. Like, if someone wrote me from a University of Minnesota email address, I’d say something like, “You go to U of M? My high school girlfriend went there. I visited a few times before we broke up. You all still party at Stub and Herbs?” I would do, like, 8 seconds of research and name a local place.

I don’t really do that anymore. Save that email, it’s a collector’s item.

This just crossed my radar. It's probably the best corporate promo magic video I've ever seen, just beautifully put together and perfectly executed. And yet...

There's something in how this kind of thing fundamentally shifts the relationship of magician to audience that seems to be unexamined in the magic world. We act like trade show magicians are an integral part of the magic space. But this kind of "promotional" magic is the only kind where the magician specifically does NOT serve the audience. The magician properly serves his or her Master, which is the person or corporation paying the check. And the magician's job is to lure people in using nice tricks and then turn them into leads. In other words, it's a form of using "dark patterns" to manipulate your spectator towards a goal of some unaccountable third party.

That Jackson promo is quite straightforward. But because its focus is on pitching Four Seasons hotels it's weirdly detached from the kind of lived experience the best magic can give you. But you can't deny it's precision and eloquence.

Trade-show magic is gospel magic but for Pringles.

I would agree with you that it seems artistically unsatisfying. But it’s also one of the better paying gigs in magic. It’s one of the better paying gigs because it’s artistically unsatisfying.

But I would disagree with this point:

“[T]his kind of ‘promotional’ magic is the only kind where the magician specifically does NOT serve the audience.”

Would you prefer that video if there wasn’t magic? Probably not. So the magic does serve the audience, in a way. Assuming you have to sit through a promotional video, you’d probably take the one with magic over the one with a guy just flipping through a power-point presentation.

And at least everyone is on the same page with a trade-show magician. His purpose is clear. He’s a hired gun, there to sling a product. I don’t see an issue with that. I find that far easier to deal with than the magician who is performing solely in service of his own ego.

Now shouldn’t you be out somewhere throwing a brick through a Starbucks window or something?