Do you get poor response when you perform magic to your friends, relatives or strangers? Have you ever asked yourself why? Maybe you think your trick or effect isnt strong enough. Maybe the audience doesnt like magic.

I am not the best magician out there. I may not have alot of knowledege in magic, but what i know is that the reason behind this poor response has nothing to do with the trick or effect. It boils down to presentation and attitude.

There are many people in this world who hate bad magic. There are even some who hate good magic. Magic to them, means that if you win, they lose. If the audience catches you, they win and you lose.

We as magicians have to present our effect in such a way that both the audience and the magician wins. No one likes to be to be fooled. No one likes to be stuck with a puzzle they cant solve. A magician shouldnt feel happy when the audience get fooled. The magician is there to entertain, not to fool.

To me magic is somewhat similar to the movies or WWE ( wrestling ). People who watch this stuff know that wrestling and the movie effects are not real. But they still watch them and 80% of the time, the enjoyed it. Why?? Because they are entertained.

Magic is all in the mind. We have to make our audience believe. The next time you perform magic for someone, think about how to make it a win-win situation.

hmmm. a win-win situation...does that means i have to include patter into my presentation? i was thinking 'why do some ppl seem to loath my performace? is it becus i don't speak much during my presentations? or do they just think i am arrogant?'

any way how do u know when someone is amazed by you or simply fooled? i can't really tell the diff most of the time...

Well Ruffy. Different people have different philosophies and approaches to magic. For me, respecting the audience is very important. Dont challenge them (doesnt include hecklers ). Some may disagree with me but let me give you an example why you should not challenge.

Slydini always challenged his audiance, but he was a master in the art. After fooling the spectator, slydini would ask, " you know why you dont see? because you no watch!" This actually translate to "You know why you didnt catch me? because youre stupid" in the spectators mind.

Clarity and keeping the the effect short and sharp is important when you perform for a layperson. When you perform for a magician, he/she will respond more strongly to the method than the presentaion.

As for knowing 100% if your spectator enjoyed your performance. I dont have an answer. To me asians are very conservative with their feelings. The may be thrilled and amused by your performance but they might not show it.

Agree with sherman, Singaporeans are not conservative abt their feelings. U wont see a singapore wow and run abt cursing and swearing. But well, hmm so it really fall down to reading their expressions.

To me, hmm, i read their expressions, which is hard at times. Maybe u can stop and ask them, so how is it? Some time they will ans, i'm lost. (which is not good) some time they will ans, i'm impressed. (which is good) sometime they will not be answering. (which is good, cause they lost in words)

So, it depends though.

As for sherman's win win situation. Its quite hard also. in the end, its abt being a fool of urself. Well, you may disagree with me, but hold back before u do that. Wat i mean is that, ur presentation and style in bringing the trick to the people decided whether people feel being a fool or "you" are the fool that fool them. Hmm, most of the time, i wont make it a point to make sure that the audience follow me, but whenever they dun, like they are distracted or wat, i will make a fool out of me to make a "fool" out of them, take an example. you are doing half way through and someone talk to them, then they turn back to u, but half way of the magic is lost. but u tell them this, "look like i am not handsome enough to attract u here, but well, lets finish here," so u see here, its a small joke, it doesnt mean alot to them, whether u are handsome anot. but its a joke abt urself and most of them feel that u are corny and lame. But u shouldnt be worried abt that, you should be concern that at the end of the magic, u impressed them. Boom! they will set to think, " Wow how he did that?" and then ur small joke is meaningless to them, but it did what it suppose to do. Set them into thinking u are a small little fool, but end up impressing them off.

Hmm, maybe i end up confusing alot of people here. If anyone of u could understand wat i want to bring out, please kindly explain to the rest of the people here. Anyway in short, to me, in order to bring out the most powerful impact into people, dun set them into thinking u are doing something to fool them, bring them off guard first, then u bring out the real essence into them, then they are entertained than fooled.

Hope anyone got wat i meant. My 2 cents thoughts and my thinking towards presentation.

I totally agree with Sherman. I performed to someone today and their reactions aren't great. I thought about it long and hard. The problem does not lie in the effect. It's the presentation and attitude.

It's hard to make it a win-win situation. It's something that cannot be learnt overnight. Got to take time and experience.

Sometimes you might finished an effect, cleanly, flawless in your handling, presentation and everything else, but do not get the reaction that you've been looking for.

Everybody is different, they reacts to things differently. When they do not express their amazed face, or jump around cursing and swearing, that doesn't mean their not impressed or amazed by ur effect.

Sometimes when i finished the effect, i don't get a reaction. But i know it's not because i didn't present it correctly, but because the audience is deep in thoughts on how on earth was that "possible". We have to give each audience room for reactions.

The only time when you know something is wrong with ur effect is when at the end of the effect, the audience says... "ok.. and? Thats it?"

well...i personally feel that there will be people who dislikes about magic because they probably have the concept that magic bluff people and also some might think that it is a black magic. It is very important to choose your audience to avoid hecklers or those who are stubborn. Different people have different reactions when they have seen the magic. Some may be conservative by not showing their amazement out. In Singapore, its hard to find those audience with a lot of reaction like "WOW!!!!!" "OH MY GOD!!!".So to me, presentation is very important. It is the presentation that makes the magic effect awesome. Ermm,i also notice that those who are middle age people often like magic which involves more on gambling effects.

Win win suitation there always is.. no reaction there always have you just have to look... when they are amaze you can feel and see it really..

Here is my take on perfroming... If you think is crap then forget wat I write here lol... Joking lol...

When perfroming in order to get the reaction you wan you need to make the people feel comfortable with you around and not a threat to them... make them feel relax and then show your effect... Start off with something simple that they can understand and see... cos if fro the start jump to a complicated effect they may not understand then how you wan them to react...

After a effect pause let the effect get in and you will see reaction.. I see some people person like machine gun after this effect they go to next never let the effect slip in and how do you expect the people to give you reaction.. Take it slow and easy you are not rushing anyway when you perfrom right lol...

This is my way of perfroming lah it may or may not suit you... so hope this helps alittle lah... cos I am still a noob and still learning.. so I will let the pros here give more pro advice :D

I agree with what sherman said, lots of people know that magic does not exist but they like it as they are entertain...

Sonetimes audience did not give good response is not because the effect is not good, nor they dont like magic.

I somehow feels that it is due to the attitude of a magician, for me, i believe that singaporean dont really like the msytic attitude, especially when you are showing magic tricks to friends. I always give a sucker effect or a very comedy way o present my rountine.

Often, audience, especially guyz felt very humiliated when you do a trick to impress by make them feel so stupid. So try to prevent doing tricks that might ended up making the audience feel stupid.

I believe that a magician should get a correct mind set when performing thier tricks. I believe that showing my skill is not just to impress the audience, but the main objective is to entertain them. :)

So when they feel entertained, they will look forward for the next trick. :D

yupz..i also agree with that.It is because sometimes when i did a trick,i often present it to amaze them instead of making them a fool.Well,some people cant take jokes too.So it is very important to choose and end the trick well.Our motive is to entertain and amaze them but not to make them as a fool.

However..if i face a super stubborn heckler,i will make him as a fool...haha..because it is very rude to interrupt a magician when he is trying his best to do the trick well.

Hi All,

Very good topic Sherman. I like your way of presenting the win lose anology. Just like any other form of art. It does not fit in well with everyone. Different people like different things. Two variables here. First the audience. Second, the magician and his presentation. The performer can control what he presents and how he presents to suit the audience so as to churn out the appropriate reaction.

Are we there to amazed? To just entertain ? Or to feed our ego ? Or from the other side , are the audience prepared to be amazed, entertained or being fooled?

One way of increasing the "happiness" value of the gathering of a performer and on looker is the on looker themselves. We may have seen how audiences played on and influence other audiences. Some may not be interested in the beginning but the fact that some others are is enough to pull their guard down and watch like a kid.

Ultimately I believe this kind of crowd management/ people handling is a magic form by itself. When people claps and leaves happily but still puzzled but they are happy that they are puzzled. And when u know they remember you, you are happy too. This is win win in its way.

Regards,
magic_performer

Well i must agree that it is not easy to get a win-win situation...especially in Singapore.... especially when you are performing to guys full of ego with their girlfriends gasping in amazement "How He Do that?" -_-

Try to shift the spotlight to the audience sometimes.... This will help... Instead of you finding the card let them find it! And say that he or she may have a gift in magic..... ^_^

Its really hard to understand the audience sometimes.... I've got this friend of mine...got to call him the King of Hecklers.... <_< Since he learnt a simple 3 card monte move, he would interupt my performance and perform his NOT YET MASTERED 3 card Monte.... 70% of the time the audience know where the card is....and yet the audience are really having a great time! I think he got better reaction than me!! Although this is a lose-win situation.... the audience seemed to be more entertained.... :huh:

maybe he is just a better performer by nature... its the presentation that makes a trick good and not so much of the trick itself...

Ya maybe he is a better performer.... Other's keep calling him the clown.... :P

Well i guess even though presentation is one of the important things in making a performance good.... You must still master the move before performing.....

Showing something (ESPECIALLY MAGIC) when you did'nt master it, get it screwed up then make a big joke out of it..... Is there any other better way to show that you don't respect magic? *sigh*

i think ace's friend does not know that the sleight is actually part of a magic routine called the 3 card monte. so cut him some slack as he is just a layman with a little insight or even none about magic. to him it may be logically and theoretically possible for a sleight like that to exist but he doesnt really know that in magic a whole routine is based on that particular sleight.

maybe you could get the originaly 3 card monte mastered and the next time he tries to interrupt your performance by saying, hey let me show you how its really done

i remember seeing a thread here talking about monte effects that they give the audience the 'ultimate fooled feeling' (aka i OwNz00rr3D j00 lol) so i guess you could make him the real clown. not that i encourage you to challenge your audience but just to not let yourself as a magician among your friends see you as a pushover. i think thats really important

i can imagine a scenario where you just got heckled and interrupted by a guy like that and he shows his stuff ladida~~~ you say alrighty guys back to my trick

thats not cool :lol: just joking heh