Dustings #41
/For supporters: The next newsletter will be coming out around the 30th of this month. If you have an ad you’d like placed in the issue, get it to me by next Thursday.
Here’s something to think about for anyone considering creating a magic show for a theater setting.
Often a magic “show” is just a loose collection of tricks. I don’t see anything wrong with that. It’s like seeing a musical artist. They can just perform a dozen songs. They don’t need to be thematically linked in any way. That’s perfectly enjoyable, and I think it’s perfectly enjoyable for a magic show too.
But sometimes performers feel the need to present something a little more cohesive. And there are a few ways this can be done.
Message-focused - Sometimes the show is tied together with a message. That message might be, “Stop Bullying” or “Jesus Is Lord.” Or it might be a message about how our minds can be deceived. Or something generic like “the power of wonder” or something like that. Or—most confusing of all to me—is a message like, “This show is about one thing: You can do anything you put your mind to!” Which is a fine message for any type of demonstration except the one where you’re faking stuff you can’t really do.
Character-focused - In recent years, people like Rob Zabrecky and Carisa Hendrix have found success building their performance around a unique character. Sure, most magicians would say they have a “character.” But if you made them break it down, their character is usually, “Guy pretending to be suave who puts bills in lemons.” The problem with doing something character-driven is that for the character to really register, it usually has to be pretty out there, like Rudy Coby or something like that. And not a lot of magicians can, or want to, do something that broad.
So if you’re looking for some way to present a cohesive stage magic show and you haven’t hit on any strong message or character you want to pursue, I would suggest looking into a premise-focused show. A premise-focused show would be one where the show would be performed in a different context besides just a magician on stage performing tricks. It would add another layer of theatricality on top of that. So, while I recommend stripping theatricality from social magic, I think a formal show benefits from more of it.
What would be an example of a premise-focused show?
I’ll give you three. Note, that in all of these you would be playing a “character.” But I wouldn’t call them character-focused because it’s not some quirk of the character that is interesting. It’s the premise that is interesting.
The Rehearsal - You come out on stage and tell people that you’ve left your corporate job and the rat race and you’ve decided to pursue a passion of yours and do some good in the world by becoming an anti-drug magician who does school shows. “Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a catch-22 here. Before I can do some school shows they want to see video of my show in action. But I can’t take a video if they won’t let me do a show. So for the next 40 minutes, it would be great if you guys could help me out and stand in for the 11-13 year old’s who will make up my target audience. Just to give these decision makers a feeling for what the show would be like.” So you’d have the magic show, but also the comedy of you shoe-horning in the anti-drug message, and interacting with your audience as if they’re pre-teens. “What’s your favorite subject in school? Do you have a little boyfriend?” What I love about this idea is the sheer layers of artificiality involved. You’re you, but you’re playing the part of a magician, who is rehearsing the role of a magician. And your audience is playing the part of an audience who is playing the role of a different audience. It’s bonkers. And I could see it being very fun to do. “I know these may look like ropes, but what I actually have here are three different lengths—one small, one medium, and one long—of doobie.”
The Wake - Here’s a kind of melancholy one. You play the part of a 70-year old man whose wife loved magic. And you had been planning to surprise her by learning magic so you could perform a show for her on your 50th wedding anniversary. But she passed away a few weeks before that could occur. And now, here at her wake, you’d like to show the mourners (i.e, the audience) the show you had planned for her. Too sad? I don’t know. I think it could be sort of depressing yet sweet.
HR 642 - This is an idea I think would be fun to perform. Even though I don’t intend to do any stage performing myself, this is the sort of thing I would do. I’d open up by explaining to people that House Resolution 642 has been debated in Washington D.C for years now and things have been at a stalemate. “Is magic an art? Isn’t magic an art? No subject has been more hotly debated in U.S. politics for the past five years.” Then I’d explain the big news to the crowd… the Supreme Court is in the audience for the show and at the end—based on my performance—they’re going to vote on whether magic is an art or not! [Yes, I know it’s not something the supreme court would decide. I just think it’s funnier if that’s the premise.]
This is a show that would allow me to swing between playing a cocky idiot one moment and then a nervous doofus the next when things aren’t working out. And it would be fun to perform some of the tricks with a pretentiously artsy theme to “prove” that magic is an art. “Is magic an art? Gee… I guess that’s not for me to say. But allow me to show you this next trick that’s representative of my childhood in West Virginia—son of a racist coal miner, and struggling with my sexuality. I have three lengths of rope…”
Because of some older posts, I occasionally get asked for recommendations of where to learn origami.
I will give you two general recommendations.
First, I recommend the work of Jeremy Shafer. He has a lot of videos on youtube. But if you’re brand new to origami, I would probably start with his books instead. I find it easier to learn origami from books. Yes, occasionally you’ll get stuck on a fold and need to see it in action, in which case you’ll want to see a video. But that’s sort of the exception. The more common situation is that the video is going either too fast or too slow and it makes learning the piece annoying. So I recommend learning from print, and supplementing that with video when you get stuck.
What makes Jeremy’s work fun to study is that he often creates origami that does stuff. So it’s a little more fun to play around with than folding a turtle that just sits there.
Also there is sometimes a magic element to his work. Although they’re generally not the most mind-blowing tricks you’ve ever seen, they can still be mildly amusing to play around with.
For example…
Origami Floating House
Origami Switch Blade
Origami Balancing Eagle
The second recommendation I would give is to learn dollar bill origami (for those of you that have foldable paper money in your country). This is good for leaving a memorable tip. And it allows you to do some origami in a casual moment without carrying around any special paper, like a weirdo. (I mean, I guess some would say that money is the ultimate “special paper,” but you know what I’m saying.)
I like this book by Janessa Munt, although you should probably have the basics of origami down before you pick that book up. The pieces aren’t ridiculously hard, but they’re not for pure beginners either.
Saw this add from TCC about a lecture featuring Michael Ammar.
A Michael Ammar lecture is always good. But Michael Ammar and CUM… yes, please!
(I know this is primarily a Michael Ammar lecture, but as a big fan of Chinese Underground Magician’s work, I hope we don’t just get a sprinkling of CUM. I hope we get a big load of CUM. I—for one—can never have enough.)