The Three Performance Roles

When you perform a trick, you can take on one of three roles.

The Magician

“The coin disappeared because I made it disappear.”

When you play the role of the “Magician,” you are the all-powerful force behind the magic.

“The ace will disappear from this packet, and reappear in this one.”

Why did the ace do that? Because you made it happen.

When you’re going to a theatrical show, where you expect some level of artifice, it’s easy to accept someone in the role of the Magician. Just like it’s easy to accept someone in the role of Hamlet. Or to accept someone in the role of Starchild (in my upcoming stage production of Scooby Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery).

Seeing a magician on stage isn’t that awkward or unusual.

But it can feel out of place at your friend’s BBQ. Just like it would feel out of place to see Hamlet at your friend’s BBQ. “To die, - To sleep, - To sleep! Perchance to dream: - ay, there's the rub! The barbecue rub. Can you pass me that Tonya? I want to get these ribs on the grill.”

And yet, this has been the standard way to perform magic for… centuries?

The Bystander

“What’s going on here? These coins keep disappearing. What the hell?!”

You can present magic as if you’re just a bystander. You don’t know how it’s happening. You don’t know why it’s happening. It’s just happening.

You ball up your paper napkin and toss it toward the trash and it disappears. “What just happened?”

You ask your friend to count how much money they have on them. “This is creeping me out,” you say. “Someone just pushed this letter under the door. It says, ‘I’m watching you. You have $11.63 in their pocket.’ I knew it wasn’t me because I don’t have any money on me. Why would someone write this? How would they know this?”

You act like something creepy or something unusual or something wondrous is “just happening” around you.

It’s a fun way to perform. But there’s no longevity to this style. The minute the second or third strange thing happens, people think, “Ah, I see. It’s just a trick. He’s doing a trick for us and pretending he’s not.”

It has the same issue as playing the part of the Magician. It’s inherently theatrical.

The Enthusiast

This is the third role you can take. You are “someone with an interest in magic.” I could also call this the Dabbler, the Explorer, the Experimenter, the Aficionado, the Seeker, The Hobbyist, The Student, The Participant.

It’s far less awkward to inhabit this role because it has the benefit of being true.

Not only that, but when you embrace this role, you can take on the role of Magician or Bystander now and then, and they won’t come off as “inherently theatrical.”

If everything you do is a demonstration of your “power,” that’s going to ring false. But if you’re an enthusiast of magic, then perhaps occasionally you could access some seemingly real ability. Perhaps not an ability to vanish the statue of liberty or produce doves. But maybe to make that matchstick move with your mind? Hmmm.

If you don’t take credit for any weird thing that happens around you, that’s going to come across as sort of obvious. But if you’re an enthusiast of magic, the perhaps occasionally something strange would happen, or some unusual third party would do something incredible, that you actually weren’t responsible for.

When I perform tricks for people, they certainly will extend into the realm of the fictional and the fantastic. But they always start off with the people involved relating to me as me. Not as some all-powerful god-like being, and not as some phony innocent bystander whom weird things happen around.

And because they know me as someone who is interested in magic, and unusual phenomena, and old rituals, and superstitions, and so on, they’re much more susceptible to letting their guard down and enjoying the experience, because I’m not playing a “character.”

I’ve been banging this drum for a while now—that you should establish yourself as someone with an interest in magic. But I think sometimes people find that hard to do without seeming corny. In an upcoming post, I’ll talk about how to embrace the magic enthusiast role without looking like a goon.