Hi, i've been watching some old vids by McBride, and he has mentioned that in Magic one can use The Tension and Release method.

My interpretation- pls correct me if i'm wrong.

Where the Tension of the Magic is build up to the point where the Magic Moment has yet to happen. And to Juice it up and Drag the time in between keeping the suspence for as long as possible [without loosing them ] and finally releasing it when the magic moment has happened...

Question: Are there any instances where this cannot be applied ???

Oooo....very interesting question. I hope this generates some interesting discussion. B)

There are 2 situations that i can think of now which build up of tension by deliberately dragging the time to the revelation/climax cannot be applied to.

First is time critical effects. By that i mean effects where the supposed speed at which it is done is a big part of the magic. For example, metamorphosis and quick change. And in close up settings, some color changes and most very visual effects.
In this type of effects, the short "cover time" before the magic happens is critical to the "instantaneous-ness" of the magic. Dragging the revelation would only dampen the "punch".

The other is kicker effects. By that I mean effects that follows a main effect shortly after the main climax. E.g. coin matrix routines and cups and balls routines.
In my opinion, timing for the kickers are critical. They cannot be too early, and they cannot be too slow.
Too early and the spec hasn't regain balance after the 1st climax yet and might have missed the impact of the 2nd one. Too slowly and the 1st climax has fully subsided and the kicker climax cannot ride the "wave" to bring a stronger impact climax.
So the timing of the kicker climax cannot be dragged and has to be delivered according to the state of the audience at the right time.


Very good discussion topic Bluecow. I certainly hope to hear more opinions on this. B)

I believe that this "Tension and release" thing is more applied to body language. Gary Kurtz has a treatise on this before and it is a wonderful principle(s) to apply into your performances.

Tension is applied when you want the audience to experience the magic moment. For example when the card is going to change into another. You lean forward and do a magical gesture. This creates tension. This cues the spectator to watch you closely. Of course in fact all the dirty work has been done already. So to the spectator, at the point of leaning forward and gesturing, he is to expect something to happen at that given moment.

Release can be also termed as relaxation. When the supposed moment is over, you relax and the spectators are digesting the climax that you have just created. This is the perfect time to do a sneaky move. As it is well put, you relax, others relax too. I'll break this down.

Basic posture --> lean forward to have card replaced --> lean back (control happens in the process) --> basic posture

That is to say, the dirty work is done at the "release". By the time you are back at your basic posture, there is nothing to see.

This application of "release" is just only one example on which it can applied.

I have been doing Dunbury Aces for a long time (an effect by Charlie Miller and David Lederman) and I have developed my tension and release states in which I create climaxes and also moments where I perform the sleights in. If you are familiar with this effect, I can tip these points to you. Do drop a PM if you wish.

Tension (from what i read) is anticipation for a final WHOMP so it will only work for effects in which the audience know before hand what's going to happen.

It doesn't mean that you tell your audience the whole effect before hand, but the audience subconsciously know what's going to happen. Eg. Nesting Boxes. You may disappear/vanish something and when you open each box extremely slowly, you are building tension. You did not implicit tell everyone that the object is going to be there, but subconsciously they will think that its probably going to be in there and they are kind of suspended, they want to see if its really in there.

Then the release comes when finally the final box opens and VOILA! its really in there *applause from audience*.

Hence, as Aloy mentioned, tension and release will not work for effects that have kicker endings, ie. surprise element. One of which is the cups and balls final load. It won't work is because neither you (well seemingly) nor your audience are in the aware that something's going to happen. Even if you are aware, the audience are not supposed to be aware so there's no incentive to get their attention. There's no anticipation.

However, i don't really agree that all visual change cannot have the tension and release. Numberground by Mickael Chatelain is visual, but it still has the tension factor. When the audience sees that the card you predicted is wrong, there's a confusion, and when you start 'shaking' the card, there is tension. There's this anticipation of what's going to happen and when its finally seen that the written prediction has changed, that's the release. Similarly so for classic colour change. Most of us will do a rub rub kind of thing and not reveal straight away because that's the building of tension. However, one must be careful to let the emotional memory fade away too long before the reveal, or else, the whole effect will be lost.

That's of course, what i think, correct me if i'm wrong.

A. ^_^

Very simply, tension and release just refers to control of the audience attention, aka misdirection (which some may call a misnomer).

Technically, if I define this tension and release thing as being the magnitude and direction of audience attention, then ALL effects can and should involve this.

As what Kenneth and Adeline have mentioned, a visual card change can involve that tension and release by marking the exact magical moment. Aloysius is also correct to say that in such an effect, it is not necessary to BUILD up that tension, unless you want to be dramatic for some purposes, since the tension can just be the 2 seconds before the change. In other words, in such 'time-critical' effects, it is vital that tension is quickly built up and released asap at the appropriate time.

In fact, I think that this is the very reason why many would call mindless productions in magic just eye-candy and not 'good magic', since it lacks that tension and release. Imagine a production act where the magician just produces and produces, changes and changes, vanishes and vanishes. A layperson would sooner or later get bored because of the lack of that changing tension that keeps him interested.

Regarding kicker or 2nd effects (which I believe are different in that the first implies a sort of a sucker effect whilst the second builds up the main effect with an additional effect), I think everyone here has an agreement on it. Timing is crucial, and it's mainly in order to control that tension and release. After the main effect, there is a release in tension, but a point must be found during that release such that a buildup (however fast) for the second effect is pronounced and logical (ie. not too early and not too late). The buildup can be as simple as peering under a loaded cup before revealing the load, as opposed to revealing the load straight away by lifting the cup whilst everyone is clapping and talking to each other.

On a side note, the theory of building up and releasing tension at the right time can be attributed to many people and is a basic thing taught in drama schools. For example, this has had an important impact on people like Henning Nelms and Tommy Wonder who were trained in drama.

Finally, I concede that there is a minority of effects that need not have buildup. The one that springs to my mind is when Tommy Wonder lifts a cup after a transposition supposedly from it, and he says "and of course, there is nothing under this cup" while the audience is applauding, and out rolls the pompom.

Ahh...we have some interesting discussions :)

Good point. I think a prime example of it is suspense/horror movies.
Usually there will some noise or something the the protagonist will (foolishly) try to investigate. There will be some creeping camera angles and more creepy music. What is going to happen next is not explicitly made known but the audience can "feel" that something is gonna happen, thus the build up of tension. Without these expectations and tensions, most horror flicks would be deadly boring.
So it is the implying that something (that the audience cares about) is going to happen and this anticipation that produces suspense.

A little :off:
It is very common in suspense or horror movies to have the creepy music going for a while, making everyone at the edge of their seat, and then delibrately drop the suspense (by maybe showing that nothing is found or a cat was making the noise), before springing the "scare" at you suddenly.

So it's actually

build-up, Build Up, BUILD UP, drop, BOOM.

As opposed to

build-up, Build Up, BUILD UP, BOOM.


Can this approach be translated into magic? If so, how? Anyone? B)

Hmmm...i agree. Perhaps it's more about the nature of the effect then, rather than on the "style" of the method.

Actually, i disagree with that, that all effects can and should use tension.
But perhaps it's only a difference in definition. Because I am referring to "Tension" here as a reference to "Suspense" (the deliberate dragging of tension to create a bigger climax), as opposed to tension arised out of conflicts or surprises.
I agree all magic should have climaxes and "emotional waves" or the audience will fall asleep. But the use of Suspense this way is more suitable for certain effects and virtually inapplicable is others.

For "revelation type" effects, for example, this building up of suspense could be use to great success. Which is maybe why it is used a lot in mentalism.
It is the anticipation of what the audience suspect is going to follow next yet they are unsure if their suspicions are true that causes suspense.
The creation and release of tension/suspense not only allow successful misdirection (direction) but is also crucial in making the whole experience enjoyable too.

But there are a great number of effects that this suspense is irrelevant. "Surprise element" type effects are one. Like the backfire part of coin matrix routines. Or the final loads of Cups and Balls. Or as you have mentioned, production routines. Or "quick reveal" effects like quick change or metamorphosis, etc.
These obviously still need climaxes and "emotional waves" to keep the act interesting. But the use of suspense to facilitate this is not suitable.

So now the question: If don't use suspense (which is relatively easy to use), then what other theatrical device can we use? B)

Regarding this, a good example would be tommy wonder's cups and balls where by there are numerous times that he will built up a suspense for something that is not goin to happen. Eg, ball supposed to appear in one cup but actually it's under the other, ball supposed to disappear from spectator's hands but actually another ball appears in spectator's hands.

Such building up of tension and suddenly dropping it, and then throwing another climax in is very useful form of misdirection. You cause your audience to look for something that is not going to happen while you do something else that no one else is suspecting. Eg, if you tell something you are going to do coins across, no one is going to see whether you are going to steal their watch.

So yes, in magic you do sometimes build up tension, present an anti-climax and then throw in the real climax.

As to tension and release, in most cases, no matter how small the tension, it usually is present. Erdnase colour change for example, tension is built when you cover the cards. Ego change, tension is present when you rub your finger, lean forward, before you do the change. Tension is released when the change is done. In such cases, tension and release is not used to misdirect, but to heighten the feeling of magic.

Tension and release in other cases, can be used as misdirection. As Kenneth has mention, doing a dirty move during the period of relaxation is so common. Eg, going a top change during relaxation.

David williamson also uses this idea to execute many of his moves. Eg, his striking vanish, he will built up tension and make everyone look at his hands, then he will relax for a spilt second and quickly do his striking vanish. Although this will make your spectator miss some sneaky finger movements, but i sometimes wonder if it will dampen something so visual. But well, he does it so i'm not going to question him.

At the end of the day, the most important part of this discussion is to actually define what Mcbride means by tension and release. Without knowing what Mcbride is trying to say, it's difficult to focus our argument.

Of course, after saying all that, there are some 'effects' in magic that requires no suspense what so ever. Eg, rope routines where by you use your magic fingers to cut the rope. Such effects, you say it, you do it, it's over. Magic has happened. No suspense included.

ZiAn

tension and release do me is as fishing, flying a kite or teaching, ha...ha...

I agree with the first example, but not the second. The second, i think is misdirection, and not in line with the "build-up, Build Up, BUILD UP, drop, BOOM. " I would feel that the second example is more of an example of a kicker ending, when something unexpected turns up even after the climax of your coin matrix.

In this case, though its a "build-up, Build Up, BUILD UP, drop, BOOM" is the drop really a drop in suspense? Personally, i think it is not a drop in suspense but in tension. (Here, i would defined tension as anticipation build-up) The suspense here has not disappear (so to say), but, is no longer tension. Instead, it has been converted to confusion and uncertainty.

When the magician says he/she's going to make something appear under one of the cup, the audience has an aticipation (that's the tension). And when there's nothing there, the audience loses the anticipation of the appearance but starts to wonder if something has went wrong. That's uncertainty and confusion. All of that is then released and ended in the climax when its revealed that.. ah... its in THE OTHER cup.

One thing also... I think its not really appropriate to use anti-climax to describe the 'drop'. Anti-climax, i think, refers to a something that happens after the climax that gives a feeling of a 'let-down' because, the climax was stronger. I'm not too sure what would be an appropriate word to use though.

I'm not entirely clear on the other meanings/interpretation of tension that Gordon and Kenneth has mentioned though, but i suspect its slightly different from what i define as tension.

A.

Using the linking rings as an effect, the tension could be built up when up start tapping the rings to get ready for the link, while the release is the link, holding the ring in the middle of the ring sinks in it deeper.

Likewise in Professors nightmare, where the 3 unequal lengths of ropes are juiced by letting the 3 ropes become equal lengths SLOWLY.. instead of making it change in 3 seconds..

I have realized that tension helps to misdirect and allow amnesia to set it , allowing me to get away with alot of other things, and when the tension is released, voila...