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Routines - A deeper look...
- Thread starter AlfieWhattamMagic
- Start date
Magicians always have routines which are made up of several tricks... If you are a 'good' magician you should have no more than 20 tricks which you actully could do in your sleep. Know some magicians think 20 tricks is to much. I agree... I think you should know 10 tricks which you can perform blindfolded. Getting back to routines I think there are 2 types- A short one and a long one. The short routine consists of 1-2 fast tricks like Biddle trick/Card to mouth/2 Card Monte/etc... This type of routine is good for when someone says can I see a trick or in a strolling enviroment. The long routine can be bad for many reasons, some would be that you perfor to many tricks so the spectator dosent remember them well... Although this routine can be good. For example if I did 3 fast tricks like Biddle Trick/Card to mouth/2 Card Monte/etc... then a longer trick for the finisher like Greed/Clutch/Spongeballs/etc... the routine would work well and the spectator would remember at least 3 of them well and one would be the closer. What I am trying to say here is you should have maybe 2-3 short routines for the strolling enviroment and 2-3 routines for the table setting, close up show enviroment.... Some of you may not agree with me and feel free to post why but I feel strongly about routines over tricks. What do you do? Cards, coins, other, all? I personally like to vary my magic but like to stick with the same item when doing a short routine... I also think its important to have a favourite short routine and a favourite long routine which you have your best effects in... In conclusion dont just do tricks off the top of your head... have routines where you know what to do. Thanks
I don't think that this is accurate. A "good magician" isn't based on the type or amount of tricks, but the quality. It doesn't matter the length of the tricks. It doesn't matter about what type of tricks. It doesn't matter how many ticks you have. A good routine is based on quality.
I'm going to side with Canada on this. I know I sound like a kiss up but, "The difference between a professional and an amateur is that a professional does three amazing tricks and all of them perfectly and an amateur does a ton but none of them well..." Lee Asher
Well, in my experience, if I am doing a walkaround type of thing, then I would do the fast tricks. If for a show, then I would like to perform an opener (a fast trick) to catch the audience's attention, a middle which will contain a long routine and the end, something for a closure. Again, it depends on what type of environment.
Once upon a time, there existed a fantastic magic podcast where the hosts also decided to help out beginners by guiding them through essential reading for certain kinds of magician. Here is an episode from their beginner's podcast series on the Royal Road to Card Magic. It is a nice introduction to routining.
http://vimeo.com/1299740
After listening to this, I'm sure you will probably want to hear more from Go Magic Go. http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail?pid=20186 Here you will find a backlog of episodes which I am sure any magician will enjoy listening to, regardless of how out of date some of the news is now.
Note that there are many kinds of routine. In fact, the definition can sometimes get a little hazy. Magic aside, a routine is simply steps happening in sequence following certain rules - a procedure. In magic this can mean what is sometimes referred to as an effect, but an effect, really, is what the audience experiences. A routine followed by a magician can produce an effect. This is why when we describe what the audience sees, we call it the effect. If we increase the scale of the procedure, the routine can contain several effects. A routine can span an entire show and be made up of many smaller routines. A small routine might follow a single presentation, while a greater routine binds the smaller routines with some kind of meaning or theme. Sometimes a routine may be bound purely by the character of the performer.
Joe
http://vimeo.com/1299740
After listening to this, I'm sure you will probably want to hear more from Go Magic Go. http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail?pid=20186 Here you will find a backlog of episodes which I am sure any magician will enjoy listening to, regardless of how out of date some of the news is now.
Note that there are many kinds of routine. In fact, the definition can sometimes get a little hazy. Magic aside, a routine is simply steps happening in sequence following certain rules - a procedure. In magic this can mean what is sometimes referred to as an effect, but an effect, really, is what the audience experiences. A routine followed by a magician can produce an effect. This is why when we describe what the audience sees, we call it the effect. If we increase the scale of the procedure, the routine can contain several effects. A routine can span an entire show and be made up of many smaller routines. A small routine might follow a single presentation, while a greater routine binds the smaller routines with some kind of meaning or theme. Sometimes a routine may be bound purely by the character of the performer.
Joe
I wouldn't say that the biddle trick is a fast trick. You've got three effects in one there, and if it's fast the effect is totally lost on the audience. I'd say it's one of the longer tricks.
Sorry, just had to throw that in there
AlfieWhattamMagic:
I think the point that people are trying to get across when they advise magicians to only learn a certain number of effects is that magicians should focus on mastering the performance and presentation of a few effects rather than just learning the secrets to multiple effects. What is important, as Canadamagic and the other posters have said, is the quality of how you perform the effects you know, NOT how many tricks you know the secret but can't perform. I agree that if you want to perform an effect, you should be able to perform it blindfolded (or at least while looking at your audience).
I also agree you should limit the effects in a routine to two or three effects and that if you perform too many unrelated effects that you will lessen the impact on the spectator.
However, I'm not sure I agree with your assertion that short routines are good and long routines are bad, to the extent you are talking about how long the routines take rather than the number of effects. For example, performing three "fast tricks" in three minutes is not an effective routine. In that case, there probably isn't enough patter provided for each effect (which is necessary to build up the impossibility of what you are doing), there isn't a common theme leading from one effect to another and there isn't an escalation of astonishment.
First, the patter... A effect without patter is just a demonstration of slight of hand or a "card trick." Use your patter to make your effect seem more impossible and to establish a connection with your audience.
Second the theme... The theme is the relationship between the effects you are performing. That relationship could be that all the effects involve a reversed card (1 - simple reversed card in deck, 2 - spectator inserts "indifferent" card upside down into deck only to find that the reversed card they inserted is the selected card, 3 - Invisible Deck) or that all the effects demonstrate the principle of "sychronicity" (1 - Do as I Do, 2 - RRTCM's Double Reverse, 3 - RRTCM's Intuition with Cards) or that all the effects play off one spectator in a group's ability to influence the outcome of an effect (1 - Here then There, 2 - RRTCM's Ewephindit, 3 - Rich F.'s Tagged performed by having the spectator try to transmit their thought of word to another spectator and having that word appear on the other spectator's arm). The theme ties the effects together, providing a reason for doing all three of effects together (other than "here is something else I can do."). The theme also helps the audience remember what you did because all three effects are connected in some way.
Finally, the escalation of astonishment. Every effect in a routine should be more astonishing than the effect before it. You start with a more basic effect and become progressively more astonishing. Again, this helps the spectators remember their experience. You can almost here them saying, "The magician did this, then he did that and then, you wouldn't believe what he did for the finale."
All of that takes time to develop and time to perform. So shorter isn't always better. Take your time in presenting your magic. It will make a huge difference in the reactions you get.
Finally, I agree that you shouldn't perform "tricks" off the top of your head, but just performing three unrelated effects in a row doesn't make it a routine. There is more to a routine than that.
So here is my question.... can you turn the Biddle Trick / Card to Mouth / 2 Card Monte and Greed / Clutch into a routine that has effective patter, a common theme and an escalation of astonishment?
One final note, spongeballs generally are a routine (generally having three phases) in and of themselves.
I think the point that people are trying to get across when they advise magicians to only learn a certain number of effects is that magicians should focus on mastering the performance and presentation of a few effects rather than just learning the secrets to multiple effects. What is important, as Canadamagic and the other posters have said, is the quality of how you perform the effects you know, NOT how many tricks you know the secret but can't perform. I agree that if you want to perform an effect, you should be able to perform it blindfolded (or at least while looking at your audience).
I also agree you should limit the effects in a routine to two or three effects and that if you perform too many unrelated effects that you will lessen the impact on the spectator.
However, I'm not sure I agree with your assertion that short routines are good and long routines are bad, to the extent you are talking about how long the routines take rather than the number of effects. For example, performing three "fast tricks" in three minutes is not an effective routine. In that case, there probably isn't enough patter provided for each effect (which is necessary to build up the impossibility of what you are doing), there isn't a common theme leading from one effect to another and there isn't an escalation of astonishment.
First, the patter... A effect without patter is just a demonstration of slight of hand or a "card trick." Use your patter to make your effect seem more impossible and to establish a connection with your audience.
Second the theme... The theme is the relationship between the effects you are performing. That relationship could be that all the effects involve a reversed card (1 - simple reversed card in deck, 2 - spectator inserts "indifferent" card upside down into deck only to find that the reversed card they inserted is the selected card, 3 - Invisible Deck) or that all the effects demonstrate the principle of "sychronicity" (1 - Do as I Do, 2 - RRTCM's Double Reverse, 3 - RRTCM's Intuition with Cards) or that all the effects play off one spectator in a group's ability to influence the outcome of an effect (1 - Here then There, 2 - RRTCM's Ewephindit, 3 - Rich F.'s Tagged performed by having the spectator try to transmit their thought of word to another spectator and having that word appear on the other spectator's arm). The theme ties the effects together, providing a reason for doing all three of effects together (other than "here is something else I can do."). The theme also helps the audience remember what you did because all three effects are connected in some way.
Finally, the escalation of astonishment. Every effect in a routine should be more astonishing than the effect before it. You start with a more basic effect and become progressively more astonishing. Again, this helps the spectators remember their experience. You can almost here them saying, "The magician did this, then he did that and then, you wouldn't believe what he did for the finale."
All of that takes time to develop and time to perform. So shorter isn't always better. Take your time in presenting your magic. It will make a huge difference in the reactions you get.
Finally, I agree that you shouldn't perform "tricks" off the top of your head, but just performing three unrelated effects in a row doesn't make it a routine. There is more to a routine than that.
So here is my question.... can you turn the Biddle Trick / Card to Mouth / 2 Card Monte and Greed / Clutch into a routine that has effective patter, a common theme and an escalation of astonishment?
One final note, spongeballs generally are a routine (generally having three phases) in and of themselves.
After talking to a few dealers/friends I have found that a magician can have a perfectly good career from literally having no more then 4-6 tricks at their disposal. If each effect has an emotional hook, entertains the audience and invites interaction then the idea of an routine gets compressed to a single memorable point. Remember that if you are working in a tourist environment spectators are going to only see you once. Pushing one self to get the perfect routine is fair enough as there are differences in focus between magicians but in my opinion I wouldn't want my presentations to become diluted due to the theme being spread out over many tricks.
Matt
Matt