How do you create a presentation?

[Philipp S.(4)]

Hey there,
how do you create a presentation. Do you fit you're presentation to the trick or do you fit the trick to the presentation?
AND:
Someone posted a link to the video by Derren Brown with the rose. I felt emotionally touched by that. Could you show me some other videos with presentations as good as this one?
Cheers

 

[krab]

I make the effect's presentation and patter fit me and my character.

You have to look at yourself and pick your performance style. Now having said that, you have to make sure that what you pick matches where you are in life. It would be hard to pull the seasoned card shark at 17 years old. And it is okay to evolve the character as you change in life and get older. This is where taking an effect, breaking it down and not parroting the presentation on the DVD, but making it your own. It keeps you from going from style to style between effects.

I would suggest spending the Eight euros and picking up Steal Like and Artist.(Yes I was nice enough to find the German translation.)

It walks you through how to find your own style by looking at the style of those you like. How to find you in a sea of your influences and heroes.

 

[Randy]

It's not something that comes easy. It usually something that you slowly develop as you continue to perform said routines and start to learn what does and doesn't work for you. What I would suggest doing is first taking the "stock" presentations and writing them down word for word in a script and then leaving the script alone for a week or two and then coming back to it and slowly changing things around to fit your taste and style.

 

[RealityOne]

The easiest ways to try. Try to write your own script. Try out different ideas for each effect. The more you try the better you become.

There is no one place to start. Sometimes I start with an effect. I brainstorm different presentation ideas. Pick one. Script it and them go with it.

Sometimes I start with the presentation. Something I've read, something I've seen, a funny story and try to put an effect with it.

Recently, I've been taking effects and playing with them to suit me and then using my own presentation. For example, Robert Neale has a routine using prayer beads and talking philosophically about prayer. I've subtitled worry stones, added a phase, included a discussion about how worrying is similar about prayer and then made it my own by telling a story about my mother. Another example is that I took Tom Stone's Benson Burner routine and substituted sponge bunnies and a collapsible top hat for the props. The story is about why I no longer have a rabbit in my magic act (throwing in a snippet from Barry Manalow's Coppa Cobana).

The process is creative and requires you to focus on what.nthe effect means to you.

 

[meggisonj]

What you need Phillip is inspiration! What do you feel when you see a young child? Love, optimistic, or annoyed? Then see WHY you feel that way.. and put those feelings into magic. And by magic I mean changing the emotion of others. David Stone claims something I am paraphrasing "It doesn't matter what tricks you do." So make sure you tug at the heart strings of others (not sure if this translates so "create the same emotion you feel when looking at something you love.") I also highly suggest steal like an artist. The reason I suggest this is because you are actually stealing the emotion that you get when looking at your girlfriend (or your kids.. or a playing card, whatever gives you feeling) and tweaking it to go beyond the playing card.. or your girlfriend.. and play to a wide range of people. We are all able to feel the same emotions. And Jay Sankey's "beyond secrets" is worth the read.... in gold.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

As others have stated, this is a process that becomes very individual.

Personally, I generally start with the effect I want to create and work backwards. IE: "I want to show how people are connected and what that means" - I then pick a method which can do this, and write a script to suit. I then rehearse it, and perform it to see what needs to be tweaked, and then adjust as needed. This is a lengthy process, but it's responsible for my best material.

When you are beginning magic it is a necessity to copy presentations. This is the way humans learn. Paraphrasing, we see, we copy, we understand, we create. Personally, I believe we should try to get away from the copying phase as quickly as possible so it doesn't become an ingrained habit. To practice this, take a trick you enjoy performing and strip it of all presentation. Right down to the bare bones of method. Then think of an aspect of your character you wish to display, and link the two. You'd be surprised what you can logically link. For instance, I have been developing a triumph-styled effect themed around hypnosis.

Do this enough and it will become second nature to learn tricks by their method only, and not be so influenced by the presentation given when learning it.

 

[meggisonj]

Tidbit: Mark Nizer (a professional juggling) told me "don't watch youtube videos" Because then your trick isn't yours. It's the community. The only true way to create originality is to steal from other sources away from magic and tweak it for fit you.

 

[Craig Browning]

Presentation centers on many key components the most important being your own persona and backstory (the latter being very important to Mentalism. . . and since you mentioned Derren Brown I fear you're talking about Mentalism).

1.) Research and Develop a Backstory around your persona.
2.) Figure out how this past helped you develop your "claim" -- your abilities (if Mentalism is your focus). . . the claim is what your primary ability is, if or not it's a natural ability such as Telepathy or a learned skill like FACS. . . BUT IT MUST BE BELIEVABLE! For a Mentalist the single most important illusion he/she must develop and "sell" is who they are and what their claim is; you can't be fickle about it.
3.) Figure out what effects work best with your claim. . . or that you can make fit the claim and from there about 2/3rds of the battle is already won in that you have a premise and foundation, the rest is just writing the script and blocking things out; how you move and why whether on stage, a side-walk (god forbid) or living room. This is where THEATER becomes the key to making your effect or routine effective and thus Affect the public.

There's a routine, I forget which book it's in, called Dinner with the Borgia. The original concept is basically a Roulette type deal in the form of a Poison Monte and how one of the Borgia members was so adept at cheating death. . . 5 goblets are shown, each with a slip of paper. . . all but the one the performer ends up with contains the word "POISON"

I've done this bit in living rooms pretty much the way it was written by the originator but then, when I did my theater show I dressed it up and turned it into 10 minutes of levity complete with a rather gay acting Town Cryer, Trumpets, a set that looked like an Italian castle dinning hall, etc. I took a $100.00 effect and turned it into a $5,000.00 production number.

The point is, I changed up on the routine based on my setting and opportunity. To do this I simply allowed my mind to naturally evolve the original concept -- imagination!

Figure out the first part first and then the rest will start falling into place.

 

[Philipp S.(4)]

no, im not talking about mentalism. he has just a nice performance. I don't own enough experience for mentalism
okay, so how would you present an ACR for example?

 

[krab]

For ACR look at Daryl's version. It's a nice starting point.
[video=youtube;w4iu5FMaR2o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4iu5FMaR2o[/video]

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I have a lot of respect for Daryl. He's got a lot of skill, he's creative, and more importantly he's just a really nice guy (from my brief interactions with him). However, this ACR video has the majority of the things that I wish we would avoid.

He's sportscasting his patter - All he does is talk about what's happening. He's suggesting methods before anyone else suggests them - which keeps this firmly in the realm of a trick, not a miracle. It's WAY too many phases. I don't know if he actually does it this way in all performances, but by the time you've repeated the trick more than a dozen times, no one is surprised when the card is on top again. Nearly 9 minutes of rapid fire "Now it's on top! I put it in the middle. Now it's on top!" Please. No. Just stop.

I actually stopped doing the ACR along with most other card work because I have found that all too often it's just impossible - not magical.

 

[Randy]

I have a lot of respect for Daryl. He's got a lot of skill, he's creative, and more importantly he's just a really nice guy (from my brief interactions with him). However, this ACR video has the majority of the things that I wish we would avoid.

He's sportscasting his patter - All he does is talk about what's happening. He's suggesting methods before anyone else suggests them - which keeps this firmly in the realm of a trick, not a miracle. It's WAY too many phases. I don't know if he actually does it this way in all performances, but by the time you've repeated the trick more than a dozen times, no one is surprised when the card is on top again. Nearly 9 minutes of rapid fire "Now it's on top! I put it in the middle. Now it's on top!" Please. No. Just stop.

I actually stopped doing the ACR along with most other card work because I have found that all too often it's just impossible - not magical.

He's also doing a demo video and performing for the LL audience so the presentation is going to be less "personal" and much more straight forward. Like a good majority of the current and old LL videos. So you have to take that into account too.

 

[krab]

I have a lot of respect for Daryl. He's got a lot of skill, he's creative, and more importantly he's just a really nice guy (from my brief interactions with him). However, this ACR video has the majority of the things that I wish we would avoid.

He's sportscasting his patter - All he does is talk about what's happening. He's suggesting methods before anyone else suggests them - which keeps this firmly in the realm of a trick, not a miracle. It's WAY too many phases. I don't know if he actually does it this way in all performances, but by the time you've repeated the trick more than a dozen times, no one is surprised when the card is on top again. Nearly 9 minutes of rapid fire "Now it's on top! I put it in the middle. Now it's on top!" Please. No. Just stop.

I actually stopped doing the ACR along with most other card work because I have found that all too often it's just impossible - not magical.

I was using it as not a patter thing but ways to make an effect your own. Even if you cut down half the phases, and I think it was this long because it was for his L&L stuff which included one book and I think video that is nothing but ACR, it is still way different than your normal presentation of ACR. His patter in his Penguin lecture is much the same but he kept saying this isn't layman patter. I would never say X Y or Z. Again, I was just using this as a presentation not for patter but how something like ACR can still be different than everyone else.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Which is all why I specified that I don't know if this is how he performs the trick for 'real' audiences.

However, due to the lack of creativity in the magic world - this is how many ACRs get performed because that's how people learn it.

 

[krab]

Which is unfortunate really. I always loved learning things with no patter. It made me work at setting my own style. Now younger guys think this is how it should be done.