MagicGizmo

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Much of the time, magicians picking out their first illusion, do it at random. They often pick one that they’ve enjoyed seeing another magician do. They buy one on sale. They ask their friends what illusion they like. Then they wonder why their first illusion doesn’t work for their show. My first illusion was the Crystal Casket. It was a terrible choice.

After I produced my assistant at the beginning of the show I had no other place to go but to the linking rings or the professor’s nightmare. An illusion that involved an audience member would have been a better choice. Perhaps, the Harbin Sawing or a Lester Lake Head Chopper would have worked better.

After this, I made some other choices; some good, like my Sub-Trunk, some bad, like my Sawing a Woman in Half.  Figuratively, I kissed a lot of frogs and found only a prince or two. Many magicians kiss frogs. Some embrace them. Some revel in the fact.  One of the many things I do as a consultant for magicians and theatre is make sure that once in a while, the client for whom I am working kisses a prince occasionally, or at least finds some really cute frogs.

I have seen magicians use illusions that were simply bad choices for their show. They would re-theme them, they would change music, costumes, and hire and fire assistants. The problem was not necessarily in the presentation. It was in the choice of the illusion itself. Picture this: David Copperfield performing the Temple Screens. The magic is good, the performer is good, but never the twain shall meet.

Design is an important factor in creating the look for your show. The design of your costume, the design of your illusions, and the design of your smaller props all contribute to your audiences first impression of your show. Some sort of continuity is important.

The way you look is important as well. Make sure that the clothes you wear flatter you. If you are heavy, don’t wear tight clothes or tightly fitted suits. If you are thin do not wear clothes that hang off you.  If you buy a suit, make sure that you get it tailored. Tailoring clothes is not expensive and the difference, even in suits that are expensive and seem to fit well in stores, can fit dramatically better after being professionally tailored. Classic styles of both suits and Tuxedos are always a safe choice. Try to stay away from clothes that are too trendy. Styles change much more often than most magicians can afford a new wardrobe. Stay abreast of, but don’t be a slave to current styles when you choose a wardrobe. Though the cut should be classic, accessories don’t have to be. Now that the seventies and the early eighties are getting further and further behind us, the age of Blue Tuxedo Magic is mercifully fading. Once or twice a year, some tux shops have large clearance sales and there is always a large number of magicians that flock to these sales to pick up their tuxes. The reason that these clothes are on sale is that they are so out of date that the rental houses can’t rent them anymore. If you want your audiences to laugh at you, go ahead and pick up an out-of-date tux and ruffled shirt at one of these sales. Keep aware of what is going to be a fad and what is a classic. Think back and name the magic superstars that still wear tuxedos. The numbers are limited and shrinking. Magicians are finally getting the gist that the reason that the old time magicians wore tuxedos is that they were the style of the period for formal wear. That is no longer the case in most instances and the modern magician must dress for the occasion. Unless you purposefully choose a “period” style, stay away from fashion that will “date” your clothes.

 

One of my big pet peeves when watching about 90% of the illusion shows I've seen is The Magician, and even worse,The Assistants, wearing black.  Many theaters have black backdrops. Many magicians have black backdrops.  This means that when a person on a black stage wears black.. whatever is on stage that's NOT black is the most visible (and therefore most important) thing on the stage.

 

Another great tip for assistants is to put them in clothes with some volume.  It's one thing to produce an assistant from a small box wearing a leotard. It's another to produce an assistant wearing a clown suit... making him/her look as if they'd NEVER have fit in the box.. let alone the base.  Fred Gwynne really got this. When he produced his assistant from his dolls house and Temple of Beneres...she used to have these HUGE sleeves that made her look like a giant butterfly.. not only was it BEAUTIFUL but it made her look as if fitting back into the dolls house would not be even an option. It seems like a little thing.. and it doesn't allow your show for as much T&A... but what's more important. The impression of the illusion trumps a bit of cleavage for me any day.

 

The design of your props plays a part in the way your audience perceives you as well. That’s not to say that all of your props need to look the same, they do need to have some sort of design continuity. If your show is set into separate vignette segments, as some shows are, the props within the segment should be decorated appropriately. On top of that, all the props in the show should have some sort of underlying theme. One of the best ways to do this is to have all props sit on a similar base. This serves several purposes. One is to help unify the design of the show. Another is to keep attention away from the thick, bases, tables and props in the show. The whole idea behind the base of the prop, which seems to have gotten lost in the past twenty years or so, is that it’s merely a table that is holding the prop while it is being wheeled out, not something that is necessarily an integral part of the prop itself.

 

If you want to have a Doll’s House in your show,  you want it to look like a doll’s house. Put it on a simple, thin wooden table, similar to one a real doll’s house would rest on. Not a table that is as substantial as a bridge buttress. If you have a crystal casket, put it on a base that looks as if it has been covered in thousands of quartz crystals. Sometimes, carrying the theme of an illusion into the base is sometimes as effective as trying to make it look paper thin.

 

The trend in today’s illusions is to make them look as innocent as possible. Several virtually boxless illusions have become popular recently. Gone are the days of the original Sawing a woman in half cabinets with boxes large enough to hold a small family and was as mystifying as a dove pan. With the newer thin model sawings,  we have the same effect that’s less than half the size and is much more magical.

David Copperfield’s designers, Jim Steinmeyer and  David Mendoza, are both masters at taking an illusion and fitting it to the needs of its performer. You do not have to have a Copperbudget to have an illusion custom painted or altered slightly to suit your needs. It’s rare, unless you are purchasing a Zig Zag, that any prop you order is going to be pre-constructed and pre-painted. Even if the only alteration is the paint job, at least you won’t have the same prop that the manufacturer sells to everyone else.

The design of the prop must not be thought of as just a paint job.  Several good performers recently have shown that magic boxes do not have to be square with black edges and chrome trim to be a magical prop. Modifications can be made to the shape of the box, the method originally used and the paint to distance you and the illusion from the stigma of the usual “magic box.”

Modifications are certainly possible to make life easier for both the magician and assistant in many of his/her props. A specific example of a prop that was customized without excess expense follows...

I used a Cutting a Woman in Thirds several years ago in a show for Paul Osborne. The routine is simple. An assistant lies on a table. A box is placed over her and is trisected by metal blades. The middle section is lifted off to show her middle cut out. The prop was a mechanical wonder built by David Mendoza. It consisted of a long box, a table and several blades. The problem was that her costume kept getting caught on part of the illusion and she couldn’t get up from the table (the prop became known as the assgrabber.). I called our producer to ask the former solution to the problem. He said that the same props and costumes were fine the season before and the problem had to be with the performers. He wasn’t much help.

We fussed and tried all sorts of possible solutions from modifying the construction to having her hike up her costume while in the box, none of them worked consistently or was practical. Finally, I took a trip to the fabric store and bought some heavy duty black Spandex and covered the top of the table and the costume rode the Spandex up past the part that was catching every time. We never worried about it the rest of the season. The next season, the magician that used the prop called me up to thank me for the solution too. Apparently, he had used the same prop in his park show the year before and it HAD been a problem

Don’t be afraid to customize a prop yourself after it arrives. You bought it and anything you do to make it easier for you to perform will not lessen its resale value. It can only enhance it. The next magician that owns it might even thank you for dealing with a problem that he might have run into. The first time I took a saber saw to a new illusion to do some modifying, I had huge butterflies in my stomach.  I had bought a used Zig- Zag and completely dismantled it and cut a little here and there and put it back together. The modifications saved so much time that the butter flies were worth it. Don’t be afraid.

However, the simpler the solution to a problem, the more likely it is to work each and every time.

After any prop is designed and built, it must be practiced, rehearsed and performed. There is a big difference between practicing an illusion and rehearsing one. Practice is when you find the kinks, fix them, and find the best and fastest ways for you and your assistant to make it through the trapdoors or whatever. Rehearsal is going through the whole routine with sets, lights, music and costumes. The thought that goes into the routine and performance is the key to the success of an illusion. You could hire Michaelangelo to design the sets and Mozart to compose the music, (if they were alive) but if the proper thought doesn’t go into the routine behind the effect, then the illusion is a lost cause.

There has to be a reason, or a purpose, to perform the effect. My friend, Ron Fitzgerald, in Chicago has a vampire theme to his show. Every routine is designed around the thought “ What does neo-Gothic renaissance vampire magic look like and what does a neo-Gothic renaissance magician do?” Paul Osborne designs his amusement park shows to compete with the roller coasters that most parks put right next to the stage. All of his shows use fast, sometimes funny routines and unusual music to compete with the atmosphere of an amusement park.

When racking your brain for a reason behind, or a theme for, your show, don’t wimp out and choose something along the lines of “Well, I want my show to be glitzy and fast.” That is not a theme to a show,  it is an excuse to not put much thought behind the concept. Audiences are quickly becoming tired of shows that are high on glitz but low on point and purpose.

The best magicians are those that have some sort of likable quality about them. Blackstone had that fatherly quality; Doug Henning was full of childlike wonder; David Copperfield has that cultivated savoie faire; Lance Burton is debonair. Some people work very hard to cultivate and image, and some use a more natural approach. If you are likable and funny, don’t try for an ultra serious persona, it won’t work. If you have the sense of humor of a catholic school nun, then don’t try to become the next big comedy club magician.

The idea of an image consultant or personal manager scares many people. In reality, an image consultant can help a performer immensely. Not only can they help to pick the right clothes in the right colors, they can teach you how to wear your hair, how to walk and stand properly, and can teach you how to cultivate an attitude that will steer you to success. The cost of this service is not inexpensive, but for a performer serious about his/her art, it is more than worth every dollar. A personal manager can do most of the same things as an image consultant but is also there to book shows for you and guide your career. Always remember that you are your manager’s boss and not the other way around. It is his/her job to hype your show and your job to keep up with your reputation. You do have the power and the responsibility to tell him/her to tone down the hype if it grows faster than you or your show does.

The magic behind choosing the proper props is not quite as concrete as suggestions behind proper design, or theme, or personal appearance. What are the makings of a good magical effect? First, it must appeal to your targeted audience. This is why magicians usually float a human rather than a can of Spam. Many audiences couldn’t care less if you made a can of Spam float. If you make your assistant float, then you really have something. You’ll notice that I qualified what I said by using the term “targeted audience.” It is important to know the group for whom you intend to perform. There are effects that are wonderfully magically for some audiences and are poor choices for other audiences. For example, performing the Impaled  illusion at a children’s birthday party is as appropriate as Sigfried and Roy performing Abbott’s Goofus Plant at the Mirage in Las Vegas.

Second, you must fool your audience. As I stated earlier, there is such of a thing as bad magic. A good example of bad magic is the dove pan. Once upon a time, it was not bad magic, but it has been around so long that the audience doesn’t give a second thought that the pigeon was in the lid of the pan. The actual mechanics are somewhat of a mystery, but the general method is not. Good magic is magic that fools the audience and leaves them wondering how it was done. Great magic is magic that exhausts the audience’s knowledge and makes them give up on the solution and leaves them with a sense of wonder.

Only magicians that have a solid grounding in theater, performance, magical philosophy and a grip on their own personality and an honest assessment of their assets and limitations can ever perform the best magic. How does a budding magician study the philosophy of magic? Read Dariel Fitzgee, Eugene Burger, Jim Steinmeyer, Guy Jarret, Dan Harlan, and a number of others.

Some magicians take pride in the fact that they rarely see other magician’s shows. They think that it “pollutes their creativity.” I take pride in the fact that I see as much theater as I can, magicians included. I am rarely fooled anymore, but that is not why I go, I just get really excited when I see magic done really well. Younger magicians will learn about the performance of magic much faster by watching other performers, magical or not, than trying to learn it on their own. I love theater and I love magic. I don’t go to steal tricks or routines. I go to see what I can learn about performing. I also learn about what I should avoid. The more a performer knows about theater, performing, and about magical methods in general, the greater the foundation you have on which to build your show. One of my greatest attributes is that I am a natural information gatherer. I collect information on all sorts of things related to the arts. I watch old movies, and new ones. I see good magicians and bad ones. I see live theater as often as my schedule will permit All of these things are valuable teaching tools that are available to performers in even the remotest areas.

Remember the following three words and take them to heart as if they were the most profound words that you will ever read, because that is the truth: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

The more you have the more you can use, the more you use the more you learn, and the more you learn, the more value you can be to yourself, your friends and the rest of the world.