Monday Mailbag #40
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I’m trying to picture this: You’re sitting in a coffee shop and someone you don’t know is sitting next to you. Do you really just turn to them and ask them if they want to see a magic trick or ask them to “help you with something you’re working on”? You’ve inspired me to perform more and I’ve had a lot of success using your ideas with my friends. But how do you start something with a stranger in public? —HH
I’m sure it has happened, but it is very, very rare that my first words spoken to a stranger would be asking them if they want to see a magic trick.
A lot of the issues magicians have with the concept of “social magic” are really just an extension of their issues with social interaction in general. So let’s forget the “magic” aspect for a moment and just talk about how to initiate an interaction with someone you don’t know.
Since you brought up a coffee shop, I’ll talk about that environment. If I want to try out something with a stranger, this would be my approach. I’d go sit in their general vicinity. When they look up—as people generally do when someone enters their surroundings—I’d make eye contact. Smile or nod my head in acknowledgement. And then say, “How’s it going?”
When I break it down, it sounds stupid. And I don’t really think of it in these steps. This is just normal human interaction.
Now, asking how someone is doing can either be just a casual greeting or it can be an opening for a conversation, depending on how they take it.
So if they say, “Good. Thanks.” Then that gives me some idea of their openness for engagement.
If they say, “I’m good. Finally getting a chance to enjoy some sunshine. I thought it was going to be cloudy all week. How about you? Did you get outside today?” That would obviously indicate that they are much more open for a conversation. Then, at some point after we’ve been talking a while, it’s not too difficult to transition into a trick. “Hey, I was reading about something,” or, “Hey, my friend just taught me this weird thing that I’ve been wanting to try out. It’s like a magic trick, sort of.” I don’t try to be too clever about it.
And even if the other person does just give you a sort of cursory, “Hey, I’m good. Thanks.” response to your initial hello, you’ve at least cracked the conversational seal a little bit so it’s less awkward if you turn to them later on and ask them a question.
In a coffee shop you need to take notice of what the person is doing. If they have their headphones on and they’re banging on the laptop, then I’m not going to bother them. But if they’re sitting at the counter just enjoying their coffee, then I find, more often than not, they’re looking for some kind of interaction.
You should also make it a point to get to know the baristas (assuming you’re not somewhere that is just a constant stream of customers). Very often my conversations with new people start as conversations between me and the barista, then some stranger joins in, and then I break off and continue with the stranger.
I could go on, but I’m getting away from my original point which is: Don’t think of it as, “How do I get into a magic trick with a stranger?” Think of it as, “How do I start a conversation with a stranger?” And you do that simply by putting out a welcoming vibe and saying hello.
Once the conversation is in full swing, a good way to get into a trick is to build off something they say about themselves. This is something I use a lot. If they tell me they’re an artist, then I’ll ask some questions about the type of art they do, and look at some examples on their phone or whatever. After that—almost as an afterthought—I’ll say, “Oh, wait. Can I try something with you? You’d be perfect for this. I’ve been wanting to try this with someone with your type of artistic skills.” And now I’m pulling out a business card for them to draw on. Of course I could do something similar if they said they were studying math, an athlete, a writer, or whatever.
Tying something they say or something they’re interested in into a trick you want to perform is a skill in and of itself, but it’s a pretty easy one, in my opinion. The big moment of friction is to get that conversational ball rolling. Once you do that you’ll be fine.
[Referring to this post about online exposure.]
I think you’re underestimating the harm that the exposure of tricks on facebook/tiktok/instagram etc is going to have on magic. I realize that you’re coming at this from an amateur’s perspective, but as someone who makes his living performing tableside and bar magic, it’s terrifying to see classic magic tricks and methods exposed so casually. —CF
I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t think I’m underestimating it. I think the traditional magician-centric manner of magic performance is more or less doomed, if it’s not already dead. And it’s death is due to the internet which makes it:
Easy for people to see magic whenever they want
Easy for non-magicians to track down the secret of a trick (or at least track down that it is something with a secret that can be learned—and not some unknowable mystery)
Easy for non-magicians to be exposed to secrets unintentionally
These things are all very bad for magic as it was traditionally performed, in a manner that usually stressed the magician’s power and the secret. So yeah, I’m not underestimating the destructive power of the the internet on that style of magic. In fact, a lot of the ideas on this site and my entire last book was about alternative presentational techniques to give your magic performances some elements that can’t be undermined by something the spectator sees online.
Yes, there’s a lot more you need to navigate these days if you want to create a long-lasting, powerful experience for people. It’s not just a matter of having access to a book that 99.999% of the world don’t have access to, as it was 30 years ago.
But I will give you two positive points you may want to take with you:
#1 - Regarding magic exposure on Facebook et al., I think there’s a good chance that people don’t remember this stuff as much as we would think they would. I’m specifically referring to the type of casual exposure you stumble across in a facebook video (not something the person specifically searched out). Have you watched any cooking hack or life hack videos with their clever solutions to common problems? I’ve probably watched 556 hours of them. And I don’t remember anything I saw in them. I would not be surprised if—for people who don’t care that much about magic—any particular magic method they stumble across doesn’t fall into this same sort of “clever solution” memory hole. It probably just doesn’t mean enough to those people to remember. Admittedly this is more of a personal theory than a fact I can prove.
#2 - You are performing for people live and in person. You should be able to find limitless opportunities to do things that just cant be replicated online. Things that should feel more personal, and vital, and relevant to the spectators. If the experience of seeing you live table-side is the same thing that they’re getting watching facebook videos of magic, then you’re material needs a complete overhaul.
Fantastic trick idea today Andy. I’ve been thinking about it and I’m curious about something.
Would you class the overall effect as being able to produce a ‘randomly’ selected loved one? Or something weirder?
The way in which you seem to change into Cousin Greg means it could work as a transposition instead, where you swap places with him and the pay off is phoning Greg’s wife and you’re there in his house. —JS
Yeah, I gave that some thought. I think it’s all going to depend on who the person is that you’re “producing.”
The question you would need to ask yourself is: What is the bigger surprise? Is the bigger surprise that you changed into this other person? Or is the bigger surprise that this person is here at all?
If you’re just changing into a random buddy from your bowling league—someone who lives in town and who your target audience sees frequently—then go ahead and build up the trick aspect. Make it more of a transposition. Climb out the window and leave. Have your friend act confused like they were literally just transported to your house from theirs. Is there a way to play a pre-recorded video over a video call as if it’s happening in real time? If so you could record something at your friend's house at an earlier point and then make it seem like you’re calling from your friend’s place moments after you disappeared.
Maybe have your friend’s wife call and be furious because you transposed with the person when they were in mid-sexual intercourse. And you ended up busting a nut in her.
(That’s just one way you could go with it.)
My point being, if your spectator’s focus is going to be on the trick, then feel free to extend that as long as you want.
But, if the spectator’s focus is going to be on the person—if you’re doing this as a way to surprise them with someone they care about who they haven’t seen in a while—then just do the change and be done with it. The trick isn’t the important thing after that.