How To Be A Person With an Interest In Magic
/In last Tuesday’s post, I wrote about the benefits of inhabiting the role of the Enthusiast. And I’ve written in the past about how I think it’s important to come off as someone with an interest in magic.
I find many magicians are loath to do this. In fact, they’re much more comfortable showing someone a magic trick than they are suggesting that they themselves have an interest in magic. Which says a lot, considering many magicians aren’t at all comfortable with performing.
But I think it’s important for me to clarify what I mean by portraying yourself as “someone with an interest in magic.” I’m realizing that phrase can be really misinterpreted in a way.
I’m not saying you should go around telling everyone about your “hero” Lance Burton.
I’m not saying you should put up a bunch of Houdini posters around the house.
I’m not saying you should walk around wearing a two-piece Criss Angel outfit.
That sort of thing isn’t going to do you any favors. When I say that I try and come across as a magic enthusiast, I don’t mean that I’m a fan of magic performers or that I watch a bunch of magic on tv or something.
What I want to portray is that I am an enthusiast for the concepts behind the premises I use when I perform.
I’m someone with an interest in magic. Specifically, things like sleight of hand, mind-reading, strange psychological quirks, hypnotism, rituals, secret societies, gambling, memory, unexplained phenomenon, etc.
My story is I was once a kid who was into magic tricks and David Copperfield specials, but that interest has metamorphized and shattered into all these different interests that I can tie back to a general interest in “magic.”
Expressing these interests is much more fascinating and potentially relatable than saying, “I like watching magic tricks on youtube.”
Here are a few quick ways to exhibit this “interest” in magic that don’t involve performing. (If the only time you express an interest in magic is when you’re performing, it suggests that you’re only interested in magic insofar as you can use it to get adulation from people.)
Decline Invitations
If you weren’t going to take someone up on their invitation in the first place, you can always decline their invitation with a somewhat intriguing excuse.
“Oh, I wish I could come to your cat’s birthday party, but I’m busy tonight. I’m going into the city for a gathering of this… like it’s this group I’m in that gets together to talk about obscure magic concepts. There’s this 98-year-old hypnotist/psychologist guy that they’re bringing in from Belarus who can supposedly cause people to lose their ability to read temporarily. And he’s going to try and teach it to us.”
Or…
“Oh, I wish I could come to your cat’s bar mitzvah, but I have a bunch of shit to do tonight. I’m trying to get into this… I guess you’d say it’s a ‘secret society’ but it’s just this group of magicians in the northeast. But to get in the group, you have to accomplish a magic challenge that they design for you. It’s corny. But anyway, I have to figure it out and submit my video to them by midnight tonight.”
Leave Breadcrumbs
Leave an old strange booklet on your office desk.
Or a strange crystal, or a stack of half dollars, or an interesting deck of cards, or some inscrutable instructions for a “Coincidence Ritual.”
If someone comments on these things, don’t go into a trick. Just say, “Ah, it was something I’ve been playing around with. I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere.”
Usually, people assume a magician’s tricks are something that anyone could do if they knew the secret. The idea that you’re dipping into something that might not pan out suggests something more interesting at play.
Again, this all just to push and pull against the idea that the next time you show them something, they can automatically dismiss it as “just a trick.” Sure, it was a trick, of course. But what exactly is behind some of these tricks?
Ask “Magic” Types of Questions Without Going Into A Trick
For example, you ask your friend if they have a minute to help you with something.
“Imagine you’re walking down a path in the woods. The path splits in two. There’s a sign that says Red and a sign that says Black. I want you to think about it and let me know which path you’d choose if you had to.”
Then you continue on like this, taking them to paths marked Hearts and Diamonds and so on. Essentially you’re equivoque’ing down to one card… except with no equivoque and no payoff. This is just part of your “interest” in regard to “something you’re working on.”
So they give their answers, and you maybe make notes or just nod to yourself, “Okay, okay,” as if this is all meaningful to you in some way. And that’s the end of it.
Or you ask them to hold a quarter in each hand, and you say you’re going to concentrate for a few moments, and you just need them to hold the coins for the moment. After 30 seconds, you say, “Okay, this might be easy to do or not easy to do, but if you had to say one of those coins was hotter than the other… which would you say is the hot one?”
Again, there’s no payoff. This is just you playing around with some concept related to something that interests you.
But at a later point in time, when maybe you bend a coin for that person in the future, they might think, Wait… did that have something to do with the thing I helped him with?
Sometimes people will express a very distinct interest, wondering what it is you’re working on. Great. Tell them you’ll show them in a week or two. You’ve set the hook. And now you have a week or two to figure out what the hell you’re going to show them.
These sorts of things allow you to engage someone’s imagination without actually showing them a trick. This accomplishes a few things:
It builds anticipation for when you do show them a trick.
It gives you a way to transition into a trick, e.g., “Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when…?”
It creates a richer backstory for your performances. It’s not just about this 2-minute moment, but there is a history and some mysterious underpinnings to what they’re about to see.