Famous magicians

[DannyT]

I was performing for some people the other day and after the performance they give the usual "after-trick conversation." You know, about how their gonna take you to Vegas and set up a corner for magic and make mad money and all this other stuff we hear at the end of every performance.

"Your gonna be famous and I'll be your manager."
I'm pretty sure everyone here has heard this speech plenty of times before, right?
I play along, "Yeah, Yeah, it will be great." blah blah blah.

I dislike when people say, "You'll be famous."
To tell you the truth, I don't think magicians should be famous.

I'm not talking about magicians like Wayne Houchin and Daniel Madison, because their only famous because we make them famous. If you walk up to a person on the street and asked if they knew Wayne Houchin, they would have no idea who that is. (Sorry Wayne, no offense)

I'm talking about magicians like David Blaine. I don't wanna hate on him, because I really like his style and respect him and all of his consultants. He's a true performer and artist, but however I'll just use him in this situation.

If we are always asking, "Look what magic has done for you," to the spectator, whose really the main focus on?

We thrive on reactions when performing magic. That's why were all here. Not to collect fame, but to just do our jobs creating, performing, and just having fun with it.

So my question would be, how do you perform by getting all the attention on the spectator, and little on the magician? How can you make the performance be all about the spectator?
Misdirection to what extent?
Aside from answering the questions, I want to hear everyone's thoughts on this as well.

 

[CardGuy90]

That is a great question and topic, and if i wasnt half asleep i would give more feedback lol.
il post again in this in the morning, cant wait to see what others are going to say.
- Steven

 

[tomohamano]

I would put all the pressure on the spectator, telling them to believe or imagine that something is happening; and say that if they imagined strongly enough, the magic will happen. So a perfect example is Joel Paschall's Believe, where you ask a spectator to really believe that the card is theirs and if they believe it enough, the card will change. And once the card does change, then you tell them that they made the magic happen by believing and with their help, the magic happens.
Another good example is FLOW by Dan Hauss where you tell the spectator whose holding the bottle to imagine that the water stops flowing and to concentrate all their energy on the bottle. When they see that the water has stopped, u tell them to keep concentrating on it. And when you want them to let the water out, u tell them to just let go of all that energy and let the water out. This is a good example since the magic is happening literally in the spectator's hands and so all attention is one them.
Oh, also, another one is Bad Influence by daniel madison where the spectators are asked to pick a card without looking at the faces of the cards and in the end, the cards they picked were the cards that they were asked to pick. This is a good example since you are telling the spectator to choose the card that they have no clue where it is, but they end up choosing it. It shows that the spectator did everything and the magician only shows the chosen cards in the end.
Another similar example is Heritage by d+M. It is quite similar to Bad Influence where the spectator chooses the missing card in a 5 card poker hand. It shows that the spectator is the only one who could have manipulated the end result of the poker hand, and they end up choosing the missing card; thus the magic is happening on the part of the spectator.
These examples will make it seem like the magic is happening on the part of the spectator, not the magician. However, some people may say that the magician did the magic. That is why you should really point out that the magic is happening with the help of the spectator - by saying things like "I really want you (and the audience) to imagine, if you don't imagine it, it wont happen" or "I want YOU to pick out this card, and really feel for the card. If you feel like that is the card, then take it out." or something along those lines.

Wow, that was really long, haha. I don't know how I wrote so much. But, its an excuse from doing homework i guess, heh
But anyways, I hope that answers your question. I don't know if I sidetracked somewhere in my response, but I wrote what I had in mind
Great question btw, maybe that's why I had much to say about the topic.

 

[praetoritevong]

I have to go out in a sec but in short, I believe the answer lies in how well you can perform for a spectator and involve them in the experience of magic; as opposed to amazing stuff done by you, it's the amazing experience which is important. You are not the star of the show but rather the catalyst for this experience to take place. Essentially it's something about the performance which has to be unequivocally unselfish.

 

[tomohamano]

I have to go out in a sec but in short, I believe the answer lies in how well you can perform for a spectator and involve them in the experience of magic; as opposed to amazing stuff done by you, it's the amazing experience which is important. You are not the star of the show but rather the catalyst for this experience to take place. Essentially it's something about the performance which has to be unequivocally unselfish.

Couldn't have put it better (and as short) myself.
Totally agree with you.

 

[KevinOwens]

I would put all the pressure on the spectator, telling them to believe or imagine that something is happening; and say that if they imagined strongly enough, the magic will happen. So a perfect example is Joel Paschall's Believe, where you ask a spectator to really believe that the card is theirs and if they believe it enough, the card will change. And once the card does change, then you tell them that they made the magic happen by believing and with their help, the magic happens.
Another good example is FLOW by Dan Hauss where you tell the spectator whose holding the bottle to imagine that the water stops flowing and to concentrate all their energy on the bottle. When they see that the water has stopped, u tell them to keep concentrating on it. And when you want them to let the water out, u tell them to just let go of all that energy and let the water out. This is a good example since the magic is happening literally in the spectator's hands and so all attention is one them.
Oh, also, another one is Bad Influence by daniel madison where the spectators are asked to pick a card without looking at the faces of the cards and in the end, the cards they picked were the cards that they were asked to pick. This is a good example since you are telling the spectator to choose the card that they have no clue where it is, but they end up choosing it. It shows that the spectator did everything and the magician only shows the chosen cards in the end.
Another similar example is Heritage by d+M. It is quite similar to Bad Influence where the spectator chooses the missing card in a 5 card poker hand. It shows that the spectator is the only one who could have manipulated the end result of the poker hand, and they end up choosing the missing card; thus the magic is happening on the part of the spectator.
These examples will make it seem like the magic is happening on the part of the spectator, not the magician. However, some people may say that the magician did the magic. That is why you should really point out that the magic is happening with the help of the spectator - by saying things like "I really want you (and the audience) to imagine, if you don't imagine it, it wont happen" or "I want YOU to pick out this card, and really feel for the card. If you feel like that is the card, then take it out." or something along those lines.

Wow, that was really long, haha. I don't know how I wrote so much. But, its an excuse from doing homework i guess, heh
But anyways, I hope that answers your question. I don't know if I sidetracked somewhere in my response, but I wrote what I had in mind
Great question btw, maybe that's why I had much to say about the topic.

I agree with this completely. If you want to make the spectators recognize you less, then you have to choose certain effects that put the attention on the spectator. The examples he gave were very good.

Another example of this kind of trick would be the invisible deck. Have a spectator carry around an invisible deck that you gave them, have another spectator pull out an invisible card and invisibly reverse it, and then change it into a real deck and show the magic that they have just done. Bill Maloe uses this style of routine on his "On the Loose" series.

-Kevin

 

[freedom92]

IMO, mentalism tricks does make the spectator not to focus on you.
I don't know weather this is true or not.
But whenever i do card tricks, they are a few people who constantly
looking my actions. Whereas when i do mentalism tricks, they tend not to focus on me.

 

[praetoritevong]

It kinda depends. If you're doing a mindreading piece such as number/zodiac/picture divination I'd say they'd focus on you. For card revelations, perhaps less so. Depends what sort of mentalism IMO...