Few days ago, I did the Crazy Man Handcuffs for one of my managers (a lady). As a typical Singaporean, she appeared predictably unimpressed. So, with my magician's pride at stake, I decided to pull a Stigmata on her.

After watching the initial appeared on my hand, she didn't freak out.. but after a few seconds, in a very serious tone, she asked, "Axl, are you dabbling in some Satanic stuff?" (both of us are Christians... and Jerome did warned me about doing Stigmata to Christians...)

Wow!!! It was the first time people think I possess "real" powers!!! And, as a magician, it was a real ego booster!!

Anyway, I spent quite some time to convince her that it was only a illusion (w/o exposing the secret of course). I mean, how often do you HAD To convince people it wasn't real magic, instead of the other way round?

PS: Anyway, she thinks that Criss Angel is a Satanist too... and David Copperfied sold his soul to the devil.. seriously

I agree with her. B)

Ha.........

Yeah you go bro! :lol: Yeah Stigmata Rocks! Salute to Wayne Houchin...

I can totally understand how you feel when your manager asked you in that serious tone. She must hvae looked at you with a very concerned look hehe.. This is a very clear situation where the spec is definitely impressed but was too shocked to react and immediately she relates our art to Satanism. Haha... :lol: I have to agree, these are Ego trips that fuels your enthusiasm. When I nailed the version 3 of the thought of number on my sis-in-law. She squealed and said, "Hey thats freaky, thats freaky" She immediately squeezed her own arms and I was laughing haha.. :lol: She also thought I have some weird powers. That was my Ego booster trip :P

Stigmata is that powerful but more important than the effect itself, is the art of presentation. Many a times as Magicians we are focusing too much on the effect that we forget about structuring our patter and performance to garner the reactions we want. I too have this problem and I'm slowly learning from each of my performance. How your effect turns out really depends heavily on how you present it. This is really the psychological part of magic which is the epitome of our beautiful art. Even simple CMH can create wonders for you if you can really conquer the psychological aspect. Something which I too am learning each time. I have to quote this from Aloy's post previously on the 3 pillars of magic by Tommy Wonder.

"Magic is possible with Psychology and Manipulation, or Psychology and Mechanical, but magic is NOT POSSIBLE without Psychology (i.e. Manipulation + Mechanical). Therefore, psychology is the most important element, and sleights and gimmicks are just tools to assist the psychological aspect of an effect."

Thanks Aloy for this great insight :D

Opps I realise I wrote a bit too much. I shall stop here :P

PS: Its not recommended to perform Stigmata at places of wordships unless you're prepared to undergo a Exorcism ritual hehe.. :lol: Have fun creating your magic moments ^_^

that's very good to hear. and i agree with jeromefang that above all else, even the effect itself, presentation is very VERY important. sure you could wow me with the blood moving around and stuff, but you could totally bowl me over if you added in some crazy psychic 'fact' like, "grab my arm tightly. do you believe that if we are under the same wavelength, if you void your mind completely of any other thoughts except for your selected card/name/whatever, the image of your selection will be so powerful that it will be able to translate itself onto my arm? watch."

make them believe what they're doing is real. of course unless you're with a truly devoted christian then you gotta watch it just a tad.

i did the biddle trick to one of my classmates. and i used the kind of presentation that would be along the lines of what criss angel would do. i think i said, "concentrate hard enough. concentrate! you've got your card? ready?! 1, 2, 3, NOW! is your card still here?!"

yeah, she took off. quite far away from me actually.

so really, well stigmata is a visually impressive effect, you could heighten its impact by delivering a presentation equal to it.

:off: I used to advocate the same thing: Presentation is VERY VERY IMPORTANT. The problem is, nowadays, anyone can say it without really understanding it.

All in all, I think the effect is also equally important. No one does an effect with utter crappy moves but with good presentation.

Anyway, magic moments come and go. Don't dwell too much on it. Use it to fuel your imagination and passion and move on.

Question: Do you really want to be telling the person what to expect, and give up the surprise factor, which itself is a very strong component of Stigmata? Both Banachek and Houchin makes it a point to not tell them what to look out for first, and that aids in the illusion that the blood is really moving about, and is thus more shocking when they see the word/number appear on the arm. Both of them have been performing this for many years, so maybe they have a reason for doing it the way they do.

If this was ACR, then yes, of course you'll tell them that the card will jump to the top. But I wouldn't want to be performing a dove-cage vanish by saying beforehand, "I will shortly cover the cage with this cloth and then carry it up stage towards you. Do you believe then that as I throw the cloth up in the air, the cage would disappear? Well watch, watch, watch..." Of course if you choose, you can do that, but then you are sacrificing the surprise factor. The audience knows what to look out for, and it becomes less of an impact when it does happen.

And people will not talk about it as much then! Look at horror films. If a friend watching a horror movie with you keeps telling you each time a "scare" is around the corner (e.g. "Eh watch the mirror, a face will suddenly appear later"), you'll probably bash his brains in. Or worse if some other cinema-goer sitting behind you is narrating the whole movie before the events happen on screen. You'll come out of the show disgruntled and it wouldn't be a good movie experience in your opinion. Contrast that with the movie where the scares are cleverly hidden and subtle, and gets you every time. You'll leave the theatre talking excitedly with your friends about how "the fellow just came out of the ceiling like that! Damn totally caught me off-guard... Scaaaary..."

Same then with something like Stigmata. Done right, they'll be saying, "So he just told me to look at his arm, and then suddenly I saw the red marks move and form the number I was thinking off!! I was like totally !%&@$#%..."

(BTW, the above paragraphs is usually the normal thought process of someone trying to work out a proper presentation to an effect. And here we've only covered one tinnnnny aspect, whether to tell the spectator beforehand what's going to happen or not. There's so much more to consider and think about in a full presentation. Which hand to use? How to lead in and create the atmosphere? What to do after the effect? Do it straight or let on it's just a trick? Keep patter minimal or go on a spiel about spirituality, mind over matter etc.? Ask them to think of a card, number, or name? What to do if you screw up? etc. etc. etc.)

Presentation is important, but not easy. And presentation has to fit your personality first and foremost. While Houchin and Angel would present Stigmata as some kind of demonic possession/weerd freaky satanic thing, The Amazing Jonathan or Mac King wouldn't fly with this kind of serious-serious approach.

And any presentation has to be YOUR presentation for it to be any good. Why do you think the advice that most experienced magicians give to newbies is to have your own style, and not to copy other magicians? No one enjoys seeing a Copperfield clone, because they know that's not Copperfield there, and even if he's a brilliant magician, the audience would still have liked it more if Copperfield himself was doing it. Why? Because the humour, the clothing, the style of the patter, the movement, the atmosphere, the effects performed, the "feel", the experience is essential "Copperfield-esque", or rather a poor copy of it.

So if you want to be presenting your magic ala Criss Angel and going around scaring people by making them believe what you do is somehow real, then good for you, it's your choice. But at the end of the day, you might find that all you'll ever be is following behind Criss Angel, and having no unique identity of your own.

Presentation is very important, yes, but it's so much for than just doing justice to the effect; it's about doing justice to yourself as performer, and to your audience as well.

This daily looong post is brought to you by the constantly bored, and damn free Maddened, professional Heckler.

hmm that pretty much put it in perspective for me. never thought of it that way. sorry Maddened, i'm not worthy.

Don't worry, I'm worth less than you. I'm sure you actually perform more than I do, and experience is the most important thing, above all. ;)

These are just stuff that everyone'll come to realise eventually... I just like to talk a lot, and hopefully what I say may help someone somewhere... ^_^