Presentation : Your Views

[thanatos]

What makes great magic, a magicians presentation of course. what makes great presentation is it great patter, confidence or just having fun? your views guys how can you better your performance? Does great patter always make magic stronger? or does it take away from magic at times? I admit i have alot of work to do on my presentation, but i decided to post a new thread to discuss presentation. i apologize in advance if i should have just used the search option.

 

[praetoritevong]

Briefly: What makes presentation great is a mixture of all those things you mentioned, and then some: clarity, for example. Patter doesn't necessarily make magic better, though; if it's bad patter, obviously, the magic will suffer. However, with the exception of magic performed to music in the right circumstance, presentations done correctly will strengthen magic.

 

[thanatos]

im thinking of adding jokes and slight humor into my presentation but im afraid it might be a turn off. On another note, iv been putting a lot of thought into patter for my tricks but what i came up with isnt exactly believable in my opinion, and i dont wanna go back to the '' pick a card any card. and your card comes up to the top with a snap of my fingers'' kind of presentation. guess i got to put my time into thinking of ideas

 

[TKH]

Too many people think that you need to either tell jokes while performing, or tell a burgeresque story. All that is needed is some, very little, narration of the effect, to aid the audience in following it. Adding a process in how the magic is accomplished is great! Paul Harris talks loads about presentation in TA.

The key is be who you are, if you look like santa claus and tell ghost stories a lot, go for it, if you know a little something about comedy, and think that might help convey "you" to the audience. Again most of this is just being repeated from TA, I suggest you check it out.

-Alex

 

[datskanars]

well it depends on your character and the reaction you want to have. You can present an effect however you like. I like to usually just sort of narrate if the trick is sth rather "simple" ("simple" can have many meaninigs but i wont discuss that right now) but usually i try to offer to my spectators a possible solution. What i mean is that i give the spectators something to hold on to.
For example when performing an effect in which i vanish a signature of the back of a playing card , i usually say sth along these lines: "Do you believe that it is possible to hypnotize someone in order to see things that never really existed ? How would you react if i told you that i "made" you see the signature on the back of the card when in reality nothing's there?Look at the card on your hand " (i took this patter from a d+M book . I am a huge fun of Daniel) .

I hope that makes sense


George

 

[michael_weiss]

Presentation

I think presentatiion starts when you first meet the spectator, your eye contact, your handshake, your body language. If your confident in your skills as a performer you will suceed in leaps in bounds. But thats my 2 cents....

 

[GusEds]

This is going to sound cliché as HELL!, but:


Presentation? Just be yourself.

Gustav

 

[magician]

I like to pull down my pants just to make everyone around me a little more comfortable. It provides good misdirection as well.

 

[Mr.MadMan]

This is going to sound cliché as HELL!, but:


Presentation? Just be yourself.

Gustav

This is actually very true!

Being yourself is the essence of everything!

Chris Kenner talked about this one time, he talked about how some magicians go from totally calm to "ooookaaaayy, lets do this now yeah, pick a card from this deck of 52 cards yeaah..."

If your not a funny guy dont try to be one, its pointless! If your not funny you cant get funny by taking someone elses words and speaking them.

Peace,
/M

 

[GusEds]

I like to pull down my pants just to make everyone around me a little more comfortable. It provides good misdirection as well.

*faceslap*

I have no idea how to react to that xD

Gustav

 

[michael_weiss]

Yah...just bein yourself an learning to interact with you spectator(s) can help determine whether or not they are willing to stop an astond them. Especially if u approach a stranger an want to show them something, if you dnt present yourself properly you might not get them to play along an have fun..they might ignore you..or even..bored...this is what i have learned over the years an from magicians/performers at my local magic shop.

 

[Mr.MadMan]

I like to pull down my pants just to make everyone around me a little more comfortable. It provides good misdirection as well.

Hahaa...

That just made my day

 

[MagicShadow9]

Darwin Ortiz talks all about this in Strong Magic. What makes good presentations are:

Substantive Meaning
Sense of Progression
Dynamic Structure
Suggestion
Character
Audience Management

Stuff like that. I won't explain what those all mean cuz i think that's exposure.

 

[datskanars]

This is actually very true!

Being yourself is the essence of everything!

Chris Kenner talked about this one time, he talked about how some magicians go from totally calm to "ooookaaaayy, lets do this now yeah, pick a card from this deck of 52 cards yeaah..."

If your not a funny guy dont try to be one, its pointless! If your not funny you cant get funny by taking someone elses words and speaking them.

Peace,
/M

i love your signature

George

 

[Steerpike]

This is going to sound cliché as HELL!, but:


Presentation? Just be yourself.

Gustav

What do you do about 99% of the population who have no idea who the hell they are? And what if you know who you are, but you aren't happy with it?

This is actually very true!

Being yourself is the essence of everything!

And turns your dreams into sunshine and rainbows!

God I hate platitudes.

As an aside, if words were people, I would find patter and bludgeon it to death in a dark alley. I hate that word almost as much as I hate platitudes.

 

[DannyT]

Honestly, presentation has a lot to do with your magic. I would say when I'm learning new effects, I constantly make sure I can do the trick correct. I'm watching my angles, trying to see what would look casual, trying to figure out how to do the method in general.

I'll admit that I'm concentrated 80% on the effect and not so much on the patter, when really it should be 50/50.

Learning the trick is actually the easy part, but perfecting it and being able to put it together so it flows with your patter nicely is hard work, and I think we as magicians looks over that factor and just want to learn the effect for now and pull the presentation out of our @ss when we perform for people, and that would be a trick in itself.

I think solid presentation could make our magic so much more stronger than it is if we only practiced it more.

 

[RickEverhart]

Honestly, presentation has a lot to do with your magic. I would say when I'm learning new effects, I constantly make sure I can do the trick correct. I'm watching my angles, trying to see what would look casual, trying to figure out how to do the method in general.

I'll admit that I'm concentrated 80% on the effect and not so much on the patter, when really it should be 50/50.

Learning the trick is actually the easy part, but perfecting it and being able to put it together so it flows with your patter nicely is hard work, and I think we as magicians looks over that factor and just want to learn the effect for now and pull the presentation out of our @ss when we perform for people, and that would be a trick in itself.

I think solid presentation could make our magic so much more stronger than it is if we only practiced it more.

Nice...Danny. You definitely said it right. Many of us, myself included, get the effect down and immediately want to show someone to see what the reaction is and we just let "garbage" come out of our mouths. There may be some cohesiveness and meaning to the patter but it is probably half ass or just rushed through.

 

[RikAllen]

What do you do about 99% of the population who have no idea who the hell they are? And what if you know who you are, but you aren't happy with it?

"I'm not the one who is confused, you don't even know Who you are!"
-Rafiki

To those who don't know who they are: Stop practicing magic and go find yourself. It'll help you a lot more in life to know who you are than it will to know how to get two balls under one cup.

To those who know, but don't like: Take the democratic approach--strive towards change!!! It may not always be for the good, take the new stimulus package, but it is something different. And hey-even a blind hunter hits a squirell every once in a while...or something like that.




-Rik

 

[ZacEckstein]

If You Can Amaze your audience without talking, then you have achieved optimal visual technique. Then you put your patter in, and act like every audience member is your best friend, you are the best.

 

[aznofspades]

This is going to sound cliché as HELL!, but:


Presentation? Just be yourself.

Gustav

It's helps to know who you are first.

And then use your performance to try to convey that to the spectators.

That's how I do it.