A PET PEEVE

My biggest pet peeve is people who are rank beginners billing themselves as "professional magical entertainers." They're not professional, magical or entertaining.

There are far too many guys who are charging for shows and advertising that they give lessons in magic, when they should be TAKING lessons!

One guy I know of got a bunch of tricks left to him by a kindly old man at his church. He came to a club meeting to find out what the props were and how they worked. ONE WEEK LATER he was charging for shows and billing himself as a "professional!" That was several years ago, and he is not much better now.

This same guy came to a lecture by David Roth in my home. Now mind you, this guy claims to be a "professional magician" in close up as well as stage, kids shows etc. He has been performing in restaurants (usually very short runs). Roth showed his shell coins across and this guy asked, "How do you get that shell to fit over half dollars? I got one with my Scotch and Soda, but it won't fit over a half dollar." David patiently explained to him what an expanded shell was, and after the lecture commented to me that it was nice to have a "beginner" like that feel unafraid to ask such a question. When I explained to David that this guy claimed he was an "experienced professional magician specializing in" among other things, "sleight of hand with cards and coins," and also as "one of Idaho's best magic teachers for sleight of hand with cards and coins," David recoiled in horror!

Another guy took ONE lesson from me and two weeks later I see his flyers and business cards all over town, billing himself as "One of Idaho's Best Professional Magicians." His big selling point was that you got more value for your dollar with him, because he performed "30 tricks in 30 minutes!"

Yet another local "pro" told our club in his first meeting that he had been performing "illusions and prestidigitation" for 20 years. Later in that same meeting, he asked someone explaining a trick to, "slow down, I'm new to all of this!" A 20 year pro who is new to all of this? Talk about an oxymoron! Not long after this he got a weekly gig at a restaurant, which shortly thereafter fired him.

The biggest problem in magic, the thing that bothers me most, is that people seem to think that it is EASY to be a real magician, professional or otherwise. This attitude shows no respect for the art, the people who love it, or the audiences upon whom they foist themselves.

Doing magic WELL is most definitely NOT easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is. It is HARD work, and it is the HARD that makes it GOOD! If you don't enjoy the HARD--if it doesn't thrill you and inspire you to strive to excellence--you should not perform in public.

The method behind a trick may be very easy, and you may learn it quickly. But that just means you are someone who knows how a trick works--it doesn't make you a magician. Knowing how to take a number of effects (whether the methods are easy, difficult, somewhere in between or a combination of all of the above), adapt them to your performing persona (after you've established one), routining them to flow and build to a climax while holding an audience's interest by entertaining and amazing them--THAT makes you a magician, whether you get paid for it or not!

(He slowly steps off his soapbox, turns, and quietly walks away, realizing that the people who agree with him didn't need to hear this, and the people who needed to hear it aren't listening...)

Out of Date?

"How many ideas have there been in history that were unthinkable ten years before they appeared?" – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

There is a line of reasoning regarding classic texts in magic and the legendary creators and performers of a generation or two ago that I must confess I simply do not understand. True, magic has come quite a long way since Modern Magic, or even Greater Magic, for that matter. True, there are avante garde techniques today that Hofzinser, Robert-Houdin, Vernon and Slydini didn't even dream of. It's also true that technology allows us a whole range of effects not previously possible, from high-tech methods involving micro-electronics to low-tech methods thanks to synthetic material that is hard to see and often used with an ITR or spooler of some sort.

Having said that, it is unfathomable to me that some people would use the progress of the art as a reason for casting aside the classic works like so much garbage. It's true that much of what we have at our disposal today makes effects possible that would have been unthinkable ten or more years ago. But this truth in no way negates the validity of work older than that!

Imagine for a moment how far students in other areas of study such as mathematics, science, music and theatre would go if they had this mentality. All of these fields of endeavor have fundamentals and build from there. They all have "classic" work that one has to learn. Imagine a music student refusing to use the notes of the scale in his melody because they are "hackneyed." Imagine a scientist stating that the Law of Gravity is "dated" and that other, newer and fresher laws have been discovered since the days of Newton which make gravity obsolete! Modern day theatre companies still regularly perform the works of Shakespeare.

Good is good and sound theory and philosophy is sound theory and philosophy, whether it is 3 years old or 300! I was astonished to see that some people on The Magic Café were pooh-poohing Stars of Magic, saying that it was out of date, that it contained no good material and that it was absolutely useless for today's magicians. I'll warrant without fear of correction that any performer worth his salt would soundly wow these critics and any lay-audience with virtually any routine from this classic tome. In my opinion, it is one of the best buys in the literature, with more solid, commercial material (especially for the price!) than just about anything else out there! I have repeatedly fooled large groups of magicians at lectures and conventions with material straight out of The Tarbell Course in Magic, Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic, Greater Magic, Stars of Magic and many other books 50 or 100 years old.

Isaac Newton said that if he could see farther than those who had come before, it was because he stood on the shoulders of giants—those who had come before. I'm not suggesting that all books and material put out recently are worthless. To the contrary, some of it is very, very good. I am saying that this fact in no way diminishes the worth of the older good books, but rather enhances and builds on that worth. I am saying that while the quote above from Dostoyevsky is true, the inverse is also true:

"How many new ideas have there been in history that would have been thinkable without the ideas that preceded them?"
-- Scott F. Guinn

HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO ENJOY WATCHING MAGIC

DON'T:
-Act like you are smart and they are stupid because you know the secret and they don't.
-Perform a trick 5 minutes after you get it, in spite of what it says on the box.
-Do routines that make them look/feel like an idiot. Fooling them is a lot different than making a fool of them!
-Buy a couple books, DVDs and tricks, maybe take one lesson and then bill yourself as a "professional magician," charging for shows a couple of weeks later.
-Force magic on people who have not indicated that they want to see it. Not everyone loves magic as much as you do.
-Interrupt people deep in conversation, in an argument, in the middle of a business deal or divorce, etc to "show them something."
-Take your deck of cards or coins everywhere you go and "fiddle with them" to get people to ask you to show them. Especially at weddings, funerals, church services, and other magicians' gigs!
-Perform every trick exactly as you saw it on the videos you own. People will think you have Multiple Personality Disorder!

DO:
-Find good, solid material that suits your personality and style. (This assumes that you have a personality and some style!)
-Practice that material until you know it forward and backward. Then rehearse it just as much. Practice involves the sequence and mechanics of the routine; rehearsal involves the presentation of the routine.
-Treat people respectfully. You can play around with them and tease them tongue-in-cheek, but they have to KNOW you are playing. It can't be mean-spirited.
-Involve them in your act, but not right off the bat, especially in close up. Give them a minute or two to size you up before you start asking them to "help" you.
-Have fun! Let them see the joy you have and it will become infectious.
-Make the show about the audience, not about you! In other words, not "here I am" but "there you are!"
-Be sensitive to the situation, venue and emotional state of the spectators.
-Put yourself into the material. Jokes about marriage and a career are not well-suited to a 14 year-old magician.
-Read, study, examine and critique your own performances. There is ALWAYS room for improvement. Only those who are constantly striving to improve will do so.
-Make it your goal every time you perform, whether you do one impromptu trick or an entire formal show, to leave your audience thinking better of magic and magicians!

Tough Room!

If you perform for pay much at all, I guarantee that you will, sooner or later, have a tough show. I'm talking about one of those shows where you would just as soon be sitting in a dentist's chair getting a root canal with no Novocain. So what do you do?

I have heard (repeatedly) in magic forums, lectures, conventions and sessions, the old cliché: "There is no such thing as a bad audience; only bad magicians!" I think there is some truth to that, but I don't think it is an absolute. In other words, I think that sometimes, there ARE "bad audiences."

I had a show once for a group of guys who worked for a major heavy equipment manufacturer. It was the last night of a training conference. They were liquored up, they'd had dinner, and they had been told that, "as soon as the magician finishes his show, we're all gonna go to the strip club!" For the next 45 minutes, THAT was a tough room!

I had another show where I was performing at an all-night graduation party for a wealthy private school. I went on at three in the morning. All of these kids drove nicer cars than I do. They were excited, spoiled, tired, and feeling like magic shows were for little kids. THAT was a tough room, too!

Another time, I was doing a Christmas party for the employees (and their families) of a large corporation. There had been a great deal of tension between management and the workforce. Both sides were there and they had been drinking heavily for about three hours. A couple of fights actually broke out during my act! Talk about a TOUGH ROOM!

Then there was the time I was playing at a nightclub. It was my fourth engagement at this club in about 18 months. The first three times, I was a HUGE hit. But this fourth time, right after I had been introduced, the BIGGEST, meanest-looking guy I've ever seen outside of a biker gang or pro wrestling event stood up, started yelling obscenities and throwing tables across the room, and threatened to KILL me and anyone who stood in his way. THAT was a REALLY tough room, in more ways than one!

Over the years, I've done literally thousands of shows. About 75% of my business is comprised of repeats and referrals. I regularly get standing ovations at the end of my show. It "plays," to people of all walks of life - construction workers, insurance agents, CEO's. I know it's a good show, and I've done it enough times to know everything that could go wrong and how to cover it. And still, maybe once in every several hundred shows, I find myself playing to a tough room. Most of the time, the audience simply needs to "warm up" a bit, and by the end of the show, I've got 'em. But sometimes…

So what does one do when those "sometimes" become THIS time? Well, it depends.

Whenever possible, I "soldier on." That's what I did at the first two gigs mentioned above (the guys waiting to hit the strip club and the grad party). It wasn't easy, and it was like pulling teeth to get audience volunteers to help me, but I did the time I had been booked to do. I focused on a few people who were really trying to enjoy the show. If a certain genre of trick didn't play well, I cut out anything similar to that genre later in the act. Conversely, when I had a "hit" (albeit a minor one), I tried to play to that. I took my check, thanked the person who booked me, and apologized that it wasn't better received. In both cases, that person apologized to ME for the behavior of the audience, and thanked me for being a professional.

In the latter two examples from above (the manufacturing corporation party and the nightclub), well, that was a different story. My safety (and the safety of others) was at risk in both cases. In my performance agreement, it very clearly states that I will be provided with a safe environment in which to perform. At the first event, I looked at the boss and said, "You've got to do something about this." When he didn't move, I said, "I can't work like this." I packed up and left--and I kept my paycheck. At the second event, I stopped and waited as the manager called the police and told the aggressor (who was on parole) that the cops were on the way. He left, and then I went on with the show.

It is perfectly legitimate to evaluate yourself after a performance; to try to figure out what you could have done better to "put the show over." But gang, sometimes, no matter WHAT you do or could have done, the show wouldn't have gone better because that particular audience (or at least a portion of it) didn't WANT you to go over well. That audience would have treated Houdini or Copperfield the same way. So, if at all possible tough it out, knowing that better days are ahead. But if safety becomes an issue, better safe than sorry!

In a Rush to Put Out the Trash

This is gonna be another one of those articles that generates angry email. But I have to vent, and I figure I have this blog to do just that. So here goes.

I'll start by saying this: I just don't get it!

When I was a kid, one of my jobs was to put out the trash. I HATED IT, even though it didn't take very long to do. It was just not something I enjoyed or was in a big rush to do. It was something I did because I had to. Given the choice, I never would have done it.

So it is just unfathomable to me why so many new and/or young magicians are in such a big burnin' hurry to "put out the trash" in the magic community! It seems that not a day goes by where there isn't some newbie somewhere putting his "latest greatest creation" on the market! Everybody is writing a book or working on a DVD or marketing tricks. On a magic forum I frequent there was one kid who, admitting he was a total beginner, was asking everyone how the most absolutely basic effects and sleights were done. ONE DAY LATER he starts a topic about how he is writing a book on magic! Not only did he know nothing about magic, he couldn't put two intelligible sentences together--without misspelling at least half of the words--if his life depended on it!

I was involved in magic for over 20 years before I put my first product on the market. And then, I was hesitant—almost reluctant. Just like when I was a kid, I was in no rush to put out the trash. If something was gonna be out there with my name attached to it, I wanted it to be something GOOD. Maybe not the best ever and I understood that not everyone is going to like it, but I wanted it to be good, practical and useful. I didn't want to put something on the market just so I could say I had something on the market!

What is with these guys? Why in the world would you want to market something that stinks? You've got to learn to crawl before you can win an Olympic medal in the marathon! It takes dedication, effort, commitment, research, talent, and training. You don't go from first grade arithmetic directly to calculus! You have to learn how to do something before you can begin to teach it to others.

But that is not even the worst part. The worst part is how many of the magic "old-timers" coddle these beginners! Heaven forbid that someone should advise the cadet to wait a while, actually learn the craft and take some basic grammar and composition classes! In the name of "brotherhood" these "benevolent boosters" harangue anyone who tries to lead the dilettante to the true path and give him a better picture of reality, while telling the clueless novice to "ignore them and act on your dreams!"

In the case mentioned above, I was surprised to see that the people admonishing the kid for stealing others' material and claiming it as his own (he'd been caught red-handed) were "called out" more than the kid was! He blatantly plagiarized others' posts from that very site as his own and then after he was caught, tried to defend it and explain it away. Overlooking that with excessive permissiveness and making special dispensation because he is young will not help him to grow or mature in the least. If we do not show youth how they are going astray, how can we ever expect them to stay on the right path? No one was calling him names or telling him never to write a book. Rather, virtually everyone in the topic encouraged him to continue in magic and to go ahead and write a book--later down the road when he has more experience and is better equipped to do so.

I agree that that the kid should be nurtured. His parents/guardians and family should have the largest role in that for life in general. I agree that he should get a mentor if possible. He should also be encouraged--encouraged to keep learning magic, encouraged to use and develop his creativity, encouraged to try to understand that one must learn to crawl before one can win an iron man triathlon, and encouraged to study hard in English, creative writing, drama and other such classes so that he can learn to effectively communicate his thoughts and ideas--something where, even for a 13 year-old, he needs a lot of work. These are not insults or "flames" or "calls out," but rather exhortations to keep the faith, fight the good fight, and earn his stripes, so that when the time comes that he DOES put a book out, it will be the BEST book he could have done--a book that will garner appreciation and rave reviews rather than disappointment and ridicule.

The magic community should try to HELP newcomers! We should WANT them to succeed! But if you put out a book at this point—this infancy—in your magical life, with poor writing and communication skills, you are virtually assured to fail. Spend the next few years learning how to speak, write and think effectively, learning how to solve problems, honing your material through the baptism by fire of real-world performance. Then, ask some folks with more knowledge than you to proof-read your writing and others to provide credits for the routines. If you've got good enough stuff, and if you are willing to pay the price, you WILL succeed!

It's all well and good to have a goal. But you have to take steps to reach that goal. You can set a goal of say, making a billion dollars in your lifetime. But if you don't come up with a business plan, do the research necessary to be successful and then work your tail off to implement that plan, you'll never reach that goal. If you think you can set the goal and skip all the steps required to reach it and wake up tomorrow morning and find a billion dollars in your bank account, you're sadly mistaken.

Again, no one was saying this kid should never write a book. Writing a book is a perfectly legitimate goal. But he needs to take the steps required to put out a book that will be successful. Those steps include learning his subject matter and how to communicate it effectively. He needs to learn how to write a paragraph before he attempts to write a book. He needs to learn what basic effects and methods are before trying to write a book about them.

Encouraging someone to go ahead with a project for which he is clearly and totally unprepared does not help him in the least. Much better to help put him on the right path by encouraging him first to become prepared and then to move forward with his project and do what you can to put him in touch with the resources that will do just that. Then you will have set him up to succeed rather than to fail.

Who is the one who is truly helping him? The one who doesn't want to hurt his feelings and so just encourages him to go for it when almost certain failure is obvious? Or the one who encourages him to learn and prepare (even though this advice may disappoint him in the short term), so that he can put out a product that will succeed? Is it the one who ignores the fact that he is plagiarizing, or the one who encourages him to study (and then to take the basic principles and go creatively in his own direction, crediting the sources that inspired him) that is truly watching out for his best interests?

This example, of course, is not just one rare exception. More and more, especially with the advent and widespread growth of the Internet and self-publishing, it is becoming the rule. It is caused by a selfish desire for ego gratification and greed, and a lack of respect for the art and its more informed practitioners. Sadly, in many cases, items put out by such "creators" even sell fairly well--until word gets out that they are just flat-out bad.

So I will make one final plea before I finish this installment, though I am more than a little suspicious that those who need to hear it are no longer listening. PLEASE, for the sake of magic and magicians everywhere, don't be in a rush to put out the trash!

More Than a Hat Rack?

I had a message waiting on my answering machine one night. A local restaurant was desperate to hire me. While flattered, I was more than a bit curious as to the reasons. So I called the manager. The story he related to me amazed me (not in a good way!), and I was even more amazed that he would ever want to work with a magician again!

It seems that this particular restaurant had hired a magician to come in on "family night" once a week to perform table to table. They made it clear up front that they did not want him soliciting tips and paid him a good wage so he wouldn't need tips, to which he agreed. So far, so good, right? Not hardly!

It wasn't long before it came to the manager's attention that this magician was selling "starter magic sets" to the kids—while table-hopping in this restaurant! That's right, without running the idea past the boss and after agreeing not to solicit tips, the guy was hustling "Skippy's Special Magic Set" to the unsuspecting patrons for a couple bucks a pop! When the boss found out this was going on, he immediately asked our "brother magi" to cease and desist, reminding him of their agreement. So, of course, the magician therefore continued to do it anyway!

Some of you may be thinking that we should be giving this guy credit for coming up with a clever idea to generate an "extra stream of income." Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! When you agree to certain stipulations in a performance agreement, whether a one-time private show or a steady restaurant gig, you are bound by honor, duty and professionalism to abide by it! Trying to "sneak by" with something like this is not only cheesy; it is downright dishonest and unethical.

However, this is not the end of the story. It turns out this guy was taking young kids into the back room privately to "show them how to do the tricks." Now, I am not implying he was doing anything beyond that, but in this day and age, what do you think the perception is going to be? A grown man taking the little ones into the back room alone—and again, without so much as asking or telling the management? Whether or not he had any ulterior motives, that is just unbelievably bad judgment! And he was immediately fired for it.

BUT… THERE'S MORE! A friend of my father-in law's asked me the other day if I knew this individual. I hesitatingly admitted that I did, especially after noticing the strange expression accompanying the query. He explained that he was at a dinner where this guy was also in attendance. With no request or urging from the hosts, our "brother" got up and started table-hopping at the banquet. Now, many of you are already starting to shudder. But wait! This event was (I am NOT making this up!) the dinner for family and friends immediately following a FUNERAL! As the late Fred Rogers would ask, "Can you say, 'inappropriate?'"

Do I need to explain to my readers why I am so appalled by the behavior of this "performer"? Not if you are a regular reader of my articles, I'll wager. But I will say that I am astounded that this restaurant bothered to make an effort to contact me to replace the guy. Typically, in situations such as this, the client is soured on magic in general and will never hire a magician again. And words cannot explain how horrified I am that a magician would begin performing simply of his own volition at a funeral!

As a kid, when I made a really boneheaded mistake that disappointed my dad, he used a line that I'll always remember: "Good grief, boy, use your head for more than a hat rack!" I think that line applies here, compounded exponentially. Not only was this an example of bad business practices, the guy was setting himself up for possible lawsuits.

If you have the good fortune and great privilege to represent our art before the public, and especially if you are additionally blessed by being compensated to do so, please make sure you abide by the terms to which you agreed when the engagement was booked. And I beseech you, for the love of our art and its reputation: use your head for more than a hat rack!