Audience-centric Revisited

Do you have tips on turning magician-centric presentations into audience-centric ones? I feel stuck in that regard. —SC

Magician-centric presentations can cause the audience not to fully engage because it’s very easy to come off needy or ego driven. When an audience goes to see David Copperfield, they’re asking for a magician-centric experience. But when you offer to show someone something they didn’t ask for, it can be off-putting if that thing you’re showing them feels like it’s meant to shine the spotlight on you. You may say that that’s not your goal. Your goal is just to entertain them. But you’re doing so in a way that puts the focus on you. So even if this is truly an altruistic gift of entertainment, it’s easy for the audience to construe it as needy or self-serving.

It would be like if I showed you a documentary about what an awesome guy I am. Even if it’s a truly interesting documentary, it seems kind of desperate.

Which is why I’ve pushed the idea of audience-centric presentations.

But some people got hung up on that term. They figured if “magician-centric” magic was a demonstration of the magician’s power, then audience-centric magic was a demonstration of the audience’s power. So they assumed I was promoting spectator as magician/mentalist effects, or something like that. But that’s not what I was getting at.

Instead, think of it like this: Magician-centric = Ego-centric. Audience-centric = Story-centric.

And I don’t mean “story” like it’s often used in bizarre magic, where there is a story that is illustrated with a magic trick.

I mean what is the story of this interaction

If the story is, “Here is a demonstration of my power,” then you have a magician-centric presentation that may come off as a need for attention and validation.

If the story is pretty much anything else, then it’s much more likely to be seen as something you’re showing them to entertain them. And therefore it will feel like something you’re doing for them, rather than for yourself.

For example, if you do a five-phase 10 Card Poker Deal routine and your presentation is simply, “I can make you lose despite you making all the choices,” that’s a straightforward magician-centric presentation.

However, if you show people the same trick, but explain that you have this lucky rabbit’s foot that allows whoever holds it to win the game, the presentation becomes audience-centric. Not because it’s about the audience, but because you’re not making it about you. By not making the presentation about your skill, it’s more likely to feel like it’s something you’re doing for their benefit, not yours. Magician-centric and audience-centric, aren’t terms I use to describe who the trick is about. They’re terms I use to describe for whose benefit it seems the trick is being performed.

Even though the audience knows—at least in their rational minds—that there is no such thing as a lucky rabbit’s foot and this is just a framework for your trick, the fact that you’re not seeking credit with your presentation will make it feel that wasn’t your intention in performing for them. This will allow them to see it more as a piece of entertainment to be enjoyed than some sad show-off thing. This is the magician stereotype that you should try to avoid.

Magician-centric material isn’t inherently bad. But if you’re an amateur, and you’re performing for the same group of people more or less, then over time a bunch of performances that amount to, “Look what I can do,” “Look what I can do,” “Look what I can do,” are likely to wear thin.

But if you mix up your presentations, including some that shift the focus off yourself, then your magic is less likely to be seen as a celebration of yourself, which makes it much more sustainable in the long term.