It has been something that I have pondered for a little while now. Please do post your frank opinions to see how popular either of two different ways of performing are in our local magic community.

1. Chatty charmer: The performer who uses plenty of patter to pad his routine. It could either be for audience absorption and comprehension, misdirection, comedy or just plain performance style.

2. Silent sensation: The magician who does not speak throughout the entire routine, relying only on ambient music, pure tehcnical showmanship and psychological influences.


I'm seemingly attracted to the performances of the magicians who utilize the 2nd ambient setting. Lack of words seem to strenghthen the impact of an effect. Also, silence allows the essence of mysticism and the surreal to flow into the effect, which in my opinion is an extremely classic way of exaggerating the impact of magic. All of us know that performance magic are actually cleverly devised effects of technology, misdirection and skill rolled into one. But just imagine conjurors of a long-forgotten era: The revered, the gifted, the unreal and the feared. Wizards, conjurors and mages of the past have such strong holds over their audiences, especially during the unindustrialised ages where superstition is chosen over science. These antiquated performances are usually silent, with the performers quietly gesturing and flourishing and mimicking movements that seemingly display whatever great powers they are granted.

Of course in a modern age of information technology, mindsets have changed. Most of the general metropolitan public knows that every magic trick has its explaination behind it. That's the reason why I find the "silent" performer so mesmerizing; it makes it feel like "real" magic.

To give you an example of what this means, I for one prefer David Copperfield when he does his general stage illusions without the patter, as compared to his comedy or mental routines where he interacts verbally. Don't you think that the performances where he keeps silent are the ones that are the most captivating?

A good post again Moondust :) , here's my 2 cents....

Personally, I can never do the motor-mouth comedy patter styled kinda performances, because that's just too not me. So i am also more attracted to the silent/serious/mysterious style of performance. However, here's my take on the comedy routine...

Like you said, few people would believe that real magic exists, especially not in card tricks. They know it's something sneaky that you did.
But that doesn't have to diminish the entertainment value of magic.
And comedy during the performances is a very effective way of increasing the entertainment value of it. They might not feel an impulse to worship you or start a cult based on you after your show, but they will remember they have had lotsa fun and laughs and you did some amazing things which did shocked them as well. Now that is good for business when you are doing entertainment.
There are other magic related advantages of a motor-mouthed comedy patter.
It is a very very good tool for misdirection. Maybe better than any psychological subtlities that you can employ. And it's very disarming and can really get the audiences on your side. When I am watching a good entertaining comedy performance, I stop trying to catch them doing their moves, i just want to sit back and enjoy the performance and laugh at everything. You are less likely to face a heckler. Lastly, some tricks that HAS to be done with a comedy effect. Like magic insurance or the 3 and 1/2 card trick.
Honestly, I often wish I have the personality to do comedy routine sometimes, but if i do, it's gonna sound so mechanically scripted it's gonna make local variety show look like impromptu wit.

So for me, the more serious (silent) style is the "easy way out". But it is something that's really not easy to pull off, almost a bit risky. Trying to come off as mysterious and mystical may just appear very lame and fake and even laughable if not done correctly/well. Attempts at trying to project a Mystica the Magician persona may very well make you look like Mickey the Clueless Geek without you even realising it.

Luckily it's not all just black and white between the 2. There are a thousand shades of grey in between that we can try to strike a balanced combination of the 2 with. Which then brings up the debate of whether trying to be a bit of of both makes you neither of either, but THAT is another story in another thread.... :ph43r:


Cheers

I guess so. Those "shades" of grey with blurred lines of definition... I guess it's something that we can fall back on once we ventured into the extremities but are unable to pull it off. Thankfully with the correct approach, it's easy to adapt from one setting to another, as long as not too much emphasis is put on enforcing these extremities.

Based on your performance experience, is it really true that patter can reduce the chances of being heckled? Gee I always thought that hecklers will be less likely to bother you (don't not about foreign culture, but at least in ours) if you perform something that only requires them to sit back and watch, i.e. the silent performances because lesser audience involvement is required, provided the performance is done well...

I consider myself still extremely lacking when it comes to performance experiences, so this is very much an IMHO thing.....

Rather than patter disengage hecklers, I think it's more like good PRENSENTATION discourages hecklers. Or more specific to our thread, comic and entertaining patter, which may or may not involve audience participation. Generally speaking, getting someone to laugh at/with you makes them on your side, and makes them think they like you. So they ease up and let their guard down. Also getting someone to laugh is the most effective way to stop them from burning your hands constantly.
Can you do that with a more "serious" performance? Probably. But for me it's harder to do?

I don't know, but maybe it's the difficulty of being unable to concentrate properly while pattering... I find that I can do better if I don't talk during a performance.

I know what you mean, it's a men thing i suppose. B)
And I always catch myself keep on repeating a few phrases for the patter....

"Go ahead and do this....go ahead and do that...."

"What's I'm going to do is this....what i'm gonna do is that...."

"What happens is this....what happens is that...."

I hate that. Makes me feel like a goon, but I couldn't help it. I try to stop myself whenever i can but i can't seem to move it along smoothly....

Yeah dude! That's EXACTLY the problem! :lol:

Worse, it's easy to go into a patter talking in Singlish and such... not that I've anything against our local culture, but it doesn't sound too...er... legit.

Can you imagine what will happen if J.C. Sum goes out to the President during the President's Star Charity and says "Umm, 'scuse me ah Mr. President. But you choose wan card and sign hor, can onot??"

Man, that's what's gonna happen to me if I get nervous and can't co-ordinate my movements properly.

is this where i realise that its only 2 people posting in this thread? ^_^

anyway, loads of good patter is very good misdirection. then again if one performs certain umm.. undetectable moves really flawlessly a silent effect may work better.

hmm.

patter shud only aid in the misdirection. misdirection shud be done using physical or psychological methods. what u make them think is more powerful than what u do, and is more powerful than what u say.

i prefer 1. Chatty charmer ^_^

Now that would be me. So much crap comes out of my mouth so fast, the doctors have considered switching my face for my ass. Damn.

-Kev

Ha. From whom I have been inspired by, I prefer the silent sensation. Cos the silence cause the audience to become uneasy and it's quite easy to take advantage of them. (in a magic way, ahem...)

This 'silent' way works sometimes... :D

But after seeing Krypt, Huron and Kevin do their stuff at the competition, you've gotta admit that chatter and humour is very very crowd pleasing... B)

Yah... Partially both sometimes can be good too... :)

Silent performance is charming and mystical. =)

Well, yea, to a certain extent, i feel that patter does provide misdirection, but, it does allow hecklers to 'heckle'. Well, like if you say, 'Using these 4 aces...' The spectator will question that, and hecklers will... heckle. But, patter does reenforce the effect too. I think the chatty kind is good for long effects where many conditions are needed to be remembered. While the silent performer should perform something thats visual and short and sweet.

I think it needs a combination of both in the right doses.

Nothing should ever be done without a purpose. If I'm going to be talking, then what I'm saying had better be very important or relevant to the trick. If I'm NOT talking, then what I happen to be showing had better be damn amazing to watch.

As mentioned, patter is most often used to give a story to what is happening, and secondly to provide comic narration. Talking helps to reinforce the deception (eg: "With the two coins in my hand"), and it helps to provide misdirection ("I squeeze the hand tightly").

I've always found my use of jokes or lines during an effect are inserted at the crucial moment, when I need to do the dirty work. The split second they take to process what I said, and the laughter that (may or may not) follows gives me the right "beat" to do what I need to do.

Silence amplifies everything else in the picture. If I'm not talking to them, then they're focused on what I'm doing with the cups/coins/cards/spoons/etc. This is excellent if I want to place FULL EMPHASIS on what is happening (A colour change for example). This amplifies what they're seeing as they can fully concentrate on the magic.

If I start saying something, their attention gets divided. They can't burn your hands as much. So I use that slight confusion to do the work.

It doesn't have to be a "secret move" per se. For example, if you perform Out of This World, then you'll notice there's a lot of "dead time" as the specs are dealing out the cards. Talking/Pattering during this time lessens the chance of your audience losing focus on the trick.

You NEVER want them to lose focus on your effect. You may misdirect them to different areas during the presentation, but they're still engaged with the effect. The moment they start thinking of the laundry or of whats for dinner, you've lost it.

JC Sum has a good article on "Killing That Dead Time!". PM me if you want a link to it.

- Raoul

In the end of the day, you have to find your own personality.
There is no one secret formula for everbody .... but there is one style that will suit you personaly,
find, develop and build your own personality !

Pam

A simple respond from me will be....nothing beats doing it. You will normally emulate your magical idol and copy some of his/her style, but over time, you shd explore and try out a few styles and get feedback from pple which one suits you best.

Remember, the feedback from others is as important.

True... whether it's the dark premise of Eugene Burger or Max Maven, Greg Wilson's touchy-touchy destruction mode, or Acer, Sanders, or Sanket's offbeat irrevelence, there is no "default setting" for a good performance. Make you YOU.

-Kev

if you meant 'offbeat irrelevance', then I really want to know who this Sanket is... sounds like my style when I'm performing :P


Thanks,
ZzaG

i do believe he meant Jay Sankey....

No, I did mean Arthur Sanket, reknowned janitor of Psychadelicpimpostuos High School.

Alright, I admit it!!! I did a typo!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!11111one1111!!

His new name is... rain man.

-Kev

LoL. Kevin is sprouting rubish.

i prefer being a chatter...
imo magicians are entertainer,chatter jokes,entertain the spectator

If you asked me, laymen prefer performance style number one. Magicians prefer to watch performance style number two. Basically, laymen prefer a chatty performer, but we ( as magicians) prefer to watch mystifying performers.

why do so many of u guys think patter is for misdirection? I think that patter is very important to strengthen the effect not just for misdirection. Its almost like telling a story with magic if you get what I mean.

I dont favour any single one of the 2 options, so I try to mix both together depending on what effect I am doing if it is a mentalism peice i would go more towards the 2nd option(silent sensation) but if it were sleight of hand magic with cards/coins i would most likely talk alot to build up the effect.

I am usually 1. chatty charmer.

Silent sensation does not really suit me in a sense. But when I perform spoon bending, as i concentrate and bend, I will shut up.

Chatty charmer is utilized most often by me: Cards, coins, rubberbands, balloons, dictionaries, chair, teacher, whiteboard duster, you name it. I feel it brings out that fun and happy personality in me. But of course I am not a total motor mouth, I am more of Sankey and Greg put together.

Talking does keep the spectator out of boredom, in my opinion.