Dustings #45
/After re-linking to an article I wrote for Vanishing Inc’s blog in Monday’s Post, I received a few emails essentially saying that one of my best analogies was over there on VI’s site. That can’t stand! So I’ve excised that part of the post and I’m putting it here for posterity. (I get the inside scoop from some VI guys. That place is losing money hand over fist. They might be around another three months at this rate, but I wouldn’t bet on that. Download any videos you have in your account, because they probably won’t be there long.)
The point of this analogy is to express the importance of giving your trick a context, especially for the amateur magician.
The reason many people feel card tricks are lame or boring is because so many of them are inherently meaningless. If people can't connect to what's happening—even if what they're seeing is impossible—then there's going to be a limited shelf-life as far as how long they will find that sort of interaction entertaining. If you found out your new roommate could legitimately make playing cards change and transpose and all of that, you would be fascinated the first night he showed you, but then, by night three when he said, "Do you want to watch me make playing cards change?" you'd say, "Uhmm... nahh...that's okay, buddy. I want to pick at this thing on my arm."
If you're a professional and you're continually cycling through new audiences, that doesn't matter that much. But I come from the perspective of someone performing for friends and family. I want to keep them engaged in the magic I show them over the course of months and years, ideally.
So let's go back to your new roommate. This time, instead of being a true wizard, he's just a guy who always has a funny or interesting story about his day to share with you. You would listen to that for the rest of your life.
Good stories never get boring, meaningless impossibilities do.
To beat this point home, I’m talking about interesting stories as contexts in which the tricks exist. I’m not talking about shitty “story patter.” Talking about a guy walking into a bar and his twin brother walking into a bar, then a black-haired lady, and a red-haired lady, and that sort of thing—that’s not an interesting story. That’s a meaningless story laid over a meaningless impossibility. That doesn’t really get us anywhere.
I mentioned the new Ellusionist tattoos in last Friday’s post. If any of you idiots is willing to get this garbage tattooed on your chest, with your nipple as the sponge ball, I will use Jerx funds to pay for it.
The “Wild Card” video from Wednesday’s post reminded me of my least favorite type of presentation. If your explanation for why something is happening is because a certain card is “the most powerful one in the deck,” you have told us absolutely nothing about what’s supposedly going on. You’ve just explained one vague concept, “this card does magical things,” by renaming the phenomenon: “this card is the most powerful one.”
“The most powerful card,” “the most magical card,” “the leader card,” these are all designations that a card would get because of some reason. Swapping out one designation for another doesn’t really tell us anything. And it just stalls the story.
It would be like if you wanted to write a story about a teacher and her “favorite student,” but you didn’t have much more to go on than that. So we start workshopping the idea and I ask you why this is her favorite student. And you say, “Because it’s the one she likes the most!” That doesn’t help. Those are both just designations. But if you give the reason for the designation, then we can build off that.
“It’s her favorite student because he’s the kindest, and she was always bullied when she was a kid.”
“It’s her favorite student because he’s very funny. And she used to have dreams of doing comedy when she was younger and he’s rekindling those dreams in her.”
“It’s her favorite student because he’s the smartest, and he lifts the average test scores for her class right above the state-mandated minimum level. But now his family is moving out of state and she needs to take drastic actions to make sure that doesn’t happen. ”
The reason is the story.
And you might be saying, “Who gives a shit? It’s Wild Card.” That’s fair enough. It’s just a dumb packet trick. You don’t really expect anyone to care much about it one way or the other. I’m just trying to make a more general point that if you want to create a performance that can engage an audience beyond just the visual interest of the trick, then a good place to start is with a rationale for what’s happening that is not just a matter of semantics.
I don’t usually ask for help with methods, but I’m stuck with something, so maybe you’ll have some suggestions.
I saw on reddit that this video of a guy not being able to open a bottle was the second most viewed video on the MLB’s youtube channel.
I’m trying to think of a way to make a bottle un-openable by a spectator, and then at a certain point (of my choosing) they can open it. Let me know if you have any ideas (other than switching the bottles completely).