Was re-reading Henning Nelms' "Magic & Showmanship" these few days, and thought might just share with you some views here:

1. In the chapter of "Eliminating Departures", he wrote, " If your theme were genuine, words like tricks, illusion, routine and act would not enter your mind..... the same thing is true of technical terms like silk for hankerchief or vanish for making disappear."

I do realize many of us (including me sometimes) use the word "trick" when we are performing for others, as in "ok... let me show you a trick". I agree with Nelms that the word itself already suggests trickery, and besides weakening the conviction, it encourages the spectators to try to see through your "trick".

And we all know when spectators are looking only to catch you, there's really not much point in performing for them... we'll never win.

2. On the same chapter, he wrote, ".... your skill should be your most cherished secret. As long as you conceal it, you can appear to work miracles."

Again I totally agree with him on this. I've seen too many youngsters now who WANT people to know they are skillful, either by doing fanciful flourishes or showing off how fast they can do a pass. Their magic has been relegated to just a display of juggling... and I'm not sure about you, juggling, no matter how impressive, never amazes me like seeing David Copperfield flying.

That being said, I have nothing against flourishing (in fact, I would love to be able to do all those), but there could be a case of TOO MUCH flourishings.

3. Nelms also talked about being consistent with the character you are portraying.

I think this is one of the biggest reason why most of us find performing for friends such a difficult task. A lot of magicians seem to turn into another character when performing, perhaps mimicking the guy they watched on DVD (don't worry, I was guilty of that too).

For strangers who never know the "real" you, they certainly can't tell that you are not being yourself but for friends who knows you for years, they will instantly know you are faking it, and again, reminding them you are doing a "trick" to fool them. Who likes to be fooled?

Ok, realized it have been a long post... if you have any comments, please feel free to contribute.

Oh that is SOOOO true... besides, as sum people are so fond of saying, "Tricks are for dogs."

Anyway, this is really a great post from Axl... I think I'll come back and post something more later. Right now, I'm just skiving from some work.

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