Finding Your Style - What's a Great Trick You Wouldn't Perform?

A Quick Note On Yesterday’s Post: I got a number of people telling me they were going to pick up Deep X after my post yesterday. After seeing the instructions for Deep X, I myself won’t be getting it. I prefer Deep Clear. If you already have Deep Clear, I would wait for a full performance video of Deep X before you decide to “upgrade.”

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One of the hardest things for magicians, especially younger magicians to do is to find their niche and their performing style.

Personally, I don’t think you should overspecialize. You’ll often hear someone say something like, “I only do mentalism. Doing regular magic takes away from the power of my mentalism and makes those demonstrations feel like just tricks.”

If you think this way, I have some hard truths for you. When your friends mention your interests when you’re not around, they don’t say stuff like, “Oh yeah, my friend Paul is a genuine psychic savant. A bonafide clairvoyant who impossibly plunges the depths of the human psyche in ways both beautiful and terrifying.”

What they say is, “Oh yeah, my friend Paul does magic tricks.”

At the same time, though, I do think it’s helpful to focus your performances in some way. Not necessarily in the type of material, but in the feeling you’re going for.

And one of the ways to help you understand the vibe you’re going for, if you haven’t determined it yet, is to identify a trick you think is great, but that you don’t see yourself performing.

What’s a great trick you wouldn’t perform?

I’m not looking for an answer like, “I wouldn’t perform David Copperfield’s Flying. Because I’m too poor to buy it, and no one would pay to see me in a stage show.”

I’m suggesting you identify a trick that fits your performing situations, and that you think is really good, but that you wouldn’t perform. When you examine why you wouldn’t perform it, you’ll get some greater insight into the style of performance you do want to pursue.

For example, MiniBook Pro by Noel Qualter and Roddy McGhie is a great trick.

The little computer is cute, the way it gets plucked out of the screen is a cool visual, and the ending—where it transforms into their card—is a total surprise. Not to mention, it leaves them with a legitimately fun souvenir that will instantly remind them of the effect.

If I was performing professionally, I’d get this in an instant.

But I just don’t see myself performing this for my friends casually.

Why?

For my purposes, it’s almost too perfectly formed. And it announces itself as a trick too early on.

When I show someone something, I generally want it to not be framed as a trick. Or, if it is framed as a trick, I want it to feel very “rough” around the edges, as if there’s some uncertainty of how it will play out.

For me, magic’s greatest weakness is that it’s very far removed from the fabric of people’s everyday life. Music is seamlessly integrated into our everyday activities—it entertains us on our commute, it enhances social gatherings, it can pump us up or console us. Movies and TV are usually reflecting emotions and situations we can identify with on some level. But a two-minute demonstration of magical powers is a very artificial and contrived experience, exhibiting powers that people can’t relate to. So when I look at a trick, I’m often thinking, “How do I unravel this a little? How do I make it sloppier? How can I make it seem less performative? How do I make a MAGIC moment also feel more relatable and real?’

You wouldn’t have these concerns table-hopping. In fact, you’d probably be looking to do the exact opposite thing.

But that’s the style I go for. And part of identifying that style was looking at great tricks and realizing what it was about them that wasn’t for me.

You might look at this trick and think, “It’s a good trick, but I don’t like that it uses a little computer and a phone. I think I prefer when magic eschews all technology and feels more natural and elemental.” And that thought might give you a style to pursue with your magic.

Or you might look at this trick and say, “That’s dope. I want to do that.” Which makes complete sense. I only have good things to say about this trick. I only was using it as an example of the idea that by identifying what it is about a good trick that doesn’t work for you, you will be able to pinpoint areas you do want to focus on and develop your personal style.