A performing magician must understand that he is performing for general people and not for the group of magicians. The general audience is going to judge you from the total entertainment you offer and not only from your clever sleight of hand. Two magicians can make silk disappear, one uses TT prop other uses the retractable reel. But for an audience, it is the just same thing that silk gets disappeared. They are going to decide who is a better magician on the basis of which of the magician gave them more entertainment in terms of humour, story, surprise, drama etc. The magician takes significant efforts to perfect the skills, but he also needs to give equal importance to perfect the script. Following are six tried and tested ways to offer more entertainment to your spectators.
Use Humour:
Let it be a movie or a magic show, absence of humour is an absence of entertainment. A magician need not be as humorous as a stand-up comedian, but he definitely needs to be humorous. A stand-up comedian delivers rehearsed comic script, but magic show being an interactive form, a magician needs to the have presence of mind to produce quick comedy punches. Mentalist should be even more concerned about humour, because most of the mentalism presented is goes without humour and with a complicated script, which unknowingly belittles the performance and reduces the entertainment.
Apply Simplicity:
“Simplicity ain’t simple” as goes the quote. The clean, clear, simple effects brings much more wonder and amazement than complicated tricks. For example, doing a mind reading effect with swami gimmick makes greater impact than doing it with centre tear method. Don’t use methods which looks different than the common course. Using an unusual method will make some
people from the audience suspicious and after your cliamx you won’t fetch full applause because those people who sensed fishy move will not give you limited applause.
Art design:
If you host your own show, then design the stage as beautifully as possible. Your stage should look inspiring and captivating. Use the new and beautifully built props. Let your audience see the things they have not seen before. I use round (circular) cards for one of the card trick I perform. As soon as I spread my round cards, people widen their eyes with wonder before I even start performing. Because round cards are something most of them never seen before. These little things which they see for the first time entertain them implicitly.
Storytelling:
David copperfield is a billionaire magician because of his skills and storytelling ability. A magician who is a good storyteller takes his audience to a different world and this feeling of sensing a different world adds to an entertainment value of your show. So build a relevant story and then deliver it like a dominating actor while performing magic tricks.
Build Drama:
The reason we remember and follow actors is because they give us visual entratinment with their expression and voice tone. It is good idea to change your voice tone and facial expressions like an actor as per your script in your magic performance. As you manoeuvre your voice and body language, audience’s feelings get hightened and it gives them augmented entertainment.
Play Music:
Just like having a background score in a movie when characters are talking is important, same way having a background music for few magic tricks can create a great impact on the audience. Because music itself is such an entertaining entity that blending it with right magic tricks will work wonders for you.
– Amit Kalantri (Magician & Mentalist)