Mailbag: Engaging With a New Audience.
/I'm not sure if this something you've covered before, but I don't really remember reading anything about it. I've read your posts about establishing the "face" of your magic persona, as someone who used to be interested in sleight-of-hand etc but is now into more obscure things. I've recently moved somewhere new and have made a few friends, but haven't really mentioned my interest or past as a magician to them. It recently came up in conversation, and I just offhandedly mentioned what I used to be into, but how my interests have changed over time. I guess this is a perfect position to be in. I guess I was wondering what the best response would be if someone asks me to teach them something. I was thinking of just pretending I don't really remember the old "sleight of hand" stuff I used to do, and what I'm interested in now...I guess isn't something that can be easily taught? I'm not sure really. It's been a while since I've shown people tricks, but I know I want to go into another direction, less magician-centric. I know we've talked about similar things before, but I guess I just want to make sure I set the stage properly as it were, to be able to go in many directions with it afterwards, whether it's some distracted artist stuff, wonder-room type effects, rituals, etc etc.
Hope that makes sense. Also, do you feel like these presentations would work just as well with a small group of people? Of course, the effect won't be the as strong as if it were one-on-one, but still better than a classic magician-centric presentation I imagine. —ML
Yes, that’s correct. As you said you’re in the “perfect position.” You have no past baggage to bring into these interactions. If you were, like, embarrassingly trying to pass yourself off as a gambling expert for 6 months when you were 15, nobody here has to know.
Before I answer your question, I want to talk about a related subject. It’s something I think that is important to consider when being introduced to a new social circle. A new job. A new school. Moving to a new area. Or whatever the case may be where you’re being introduced to a potential new audience.
As you meet this new audience consider what your end goal is regarding how people will view you and the magic you show them. There are few answers that pop out to me.
Goal #1 - You just want to show people tricks. And you don’t really care how they perceive your performance (other than that you hope they enjoy it).
This is easy. If this is your goal, the tricks and presentations you choose will be the ones you enjoy performing the best. That may overlap with tricks audiences like the best too, but not necessarily. (We’ve all seen performers who love practicing and performing tricks that audiences are indifferent about.)
Goal #2 - You want them to genuinely believe something that isn’t true. You want them to believe you have some real powers of magic, or gambling skill, or psychological manipulation, or reading body language, or whatever other ability or combination of abilities you want them to believe.
If that’s your goal, it’s simple enough to downplay magic as a hobby (or never mention it at all) when you meet new people.
If this is your goal, the tricks and presentations you choose will be those that support the belief you’re trying to establish.
The audience-centric end goal is more like this:
Goal #3 - You want to show people magic, but you want them to relate to these types of interaction in new ways. Their perception of the experience is paramount.
If this is your goal, you won’t be choosing material solely based on how much you like it, or how much it’s in line with a power you want to claim. If this is your goal, you’re going to be choosing material based on how easily you can use it to create different, memorable experiences for the people you perform for.
This is more of an amateur’s goal than a professionals, typically, because it presumes the same people seeing multiple tricks over time.
The key to this goal when you first meet people is to get them to drop their guard and any preconceptions of magic as puzzle, a challenge, or a validation-seeking exercise.
But you can’t really get people to drop those preconceived notions unless you tell them that you’re into “something different” than traditional magic. That’s the key. To be open to something different they have to know to expect something different..
I’ve hit people with intensely strong magic soon after meeting them. And they often recognize that what I did was on a much higher level than what they have seen before. But if I haven’t laid some groundwork that the sort of stuff I do is of a different nature than magic they’ve seen in the past, then they still tend to approach the experience the way they would previous tricks: looking for the secret or putting up their guard in a way that undermines the experience because they don’t want to look or feel foolish.
But if I tell people—“Yeah, I had an interest in magic as a kid. But I don’t really do those types of tricks anymore. I’m into something that’s kind of different now.”—now they will start doing the work of differentiating what I’m doing from the magic they’ve seen in the past.
Similarly, if someone said to you, “Yeah, I grew up learning ballet. But I’ve taken that interest in a new direction and doing some unusual things with it.” You would be expecting something “new” when they eventually danced for you. And you would be attuned to the “newness” even if what they showed you was firmly rooted in ballet.
To get people to engage with your tricks in new ways, the tricks can’t just be better than what they’ve seen in the past. There needs to be something different about the way the trick unfolds. Many of those ideas in regards to differentiating the context in which you perform can be found all over this site.
So that’s my goal when meeting a new audience. At some point (likely not immediately upon meeting them), I want to introduce the fact that I have an interest in magic. But as soon as possible after that I also want to establish that my interest has spun-off from the “traditional” sleight-of-hand card tricks they might be imagining and now it’s gone into more unusual areas.
In regards to teaching others magic, here is how I handle it.
Yes, I absolutely teach people magic if they ask. I don’t necessarily do it at that moment when they ask. But I find it corny and unsocial not to do it at all. If someone told you they played guitar and you asked to learn a couple simple chords and they said “No” that would be a little off-putting.
It goes without saying I wouldn’t teach them anything that reveals any overly useful secrets, of course.
I use the teaching to plant seeds for future interactions. And also to illustrate how my interest in magic has evolved.
“Yes, I’ll teach you something. I don’t remember a lot of the sleight-of-hand tricks. But I have some notes from my former mentor that I can look at.” Ah, a mentor! A former mentor? Is there a current mentor? Either way this suggests something more interesting than just learning from a book.
“I’ll teach you some stuff, but I’m a little rusty at it. I’ve recently been studying more obscure types of things that aren’t related to standard sleight-of-hand. These things aren’t really ‘teachable,’ but I’ll demonstrate them for you in the future.”
Not really teachable? What does that mean? It could mean you’re not in control of it. Or you don’t understand it. Or that for some reason you’re not allowed to teach it. Or it may be something like meditation, where I can give you the basics of how to do it, but that doesn’t really explain the breakthroughs that come from devoting years of your life to the practice.
“Yeah, I’d be happy to teach you something. I haven’t really done that type of magic in a few years, but I still remember a few things. But if I teach you something, I’ll need your help with another thing I’m working on.”
Etc.
As far as your other question, the audience-centric stuff tends to work better one-on-one. It’s all very doable for a small group as well, but there is something about being alone that seems to allow people to react with the least inhibitions (assuming they’re comfortable with you). With a smaller group, people can often feel like they’re on display to the other’s watching along. And they will sometimes modify their response to fit-in with those around them. That’s just the way it is. That doesn’t prevent me from performing for small groups. I do it all the time. But I do tend to save the most affecting tricks for one-on-one performances.