Latest / The Magic Guys / Write YOUR First Magic Show #251

Transcript

Write YOUR First Magic Show #251 · The Magic Guys

0:00
They're guys they do magic they are the magic guys.
0:11
Ladies and gentlemen it's josh
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here what's up we're here for episode 251
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of the magic guys i can't believe it
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and i'm so glad you're here with us to my left we
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have nick k that's right friends i'm nick k
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we're doing it live we're doing it live and joining
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us this week is daddy doug say what's up uh bonjour mon avis my name is damn
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it i'm messing up my french accent oh well i'll do it i think i was naming it
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before the show like very impressive level of french i used up all of that superpower
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pre-show so now it's just red drug Yes, we rehearsed this.
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That's pretty good. We're so glad when the whole troupe is here.
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And Doug, is your store live right now as well?
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Yeah, anybody can walk in now. I just sold a trick to a five-year-old 10 minutes ago. Let's go.
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Five-year-old girl going out of here happy as a clam.
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Did you program it so you have customer cam so it flips around?
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You can just push the button and it just… Yeah, man, I'm ready.
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You know what's funny? Technically, like if anyone wants to be featured on the
1:16
podcast, All they have to do is go down to trick supply between the time we run the podcast. Right.
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You could be on an award-winning podcast. We should make a spend limit.
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Like you got to spend like a hundred bucks or more and you automatically get
1:31
a share. Or this, bring me food.
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All food. Hey, be careful what you wish for, Doug. I don't have dinner plans,
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so I'm wishing for food to be clear.
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The tricks, the trick supply food bank, everyone, you can go and visit.
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So. You'd prefer hand delivered by a magician. Like, great.
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Some Rando DoorDash brings me some Jell-O or pudding. Thank you, Matthew Mosley.
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How about a magician bringing me a, like.
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Steak and cheese. Something. Absolutely. Yeah.
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Big, big thanks to all of our listeners, especially the ones here in the chat.
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Scotty P, he was mouthing off in the chat before like doors even opened.
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So good to see you here, buddy. We have our friend Adonis. Good to see you,
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buddy. He's actually been sharing some beautiful ideas in our Discord.
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We have the Mystery Box Studio. We have Dragotia. Good to see you,
2:18
buddy. Tim Askin. Them questions.
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We have Thomas Conger. We have Gia Han. Good to see you, buddy.
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Friends, it is the live chat. You can put your questions in there.
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Anything you want to touch upon now.
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The context of today's episode friends is
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as you know last week we if you haven't listened
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do give it a listen we were talking about our new year's resolutions
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and the things that we want to achieve magically in the
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year of 2026 and a lot of you folks were
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saying things to the effect of wanting to do your first paid gig wanting
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to earn this much and so forth but one thing that was sort of said repeatedly
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was i want to write a show and we thought let's help them do that so this show
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is entitled what's it called writing your first show i've made some very,
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so it's a very base level guides basically
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five different sort of rules that i use to write my shows
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i've put them in dot point i'm going to share them with you
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folks to discuss if you have questions we can discuss it
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in the chat and of course both josh and both doug
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will be chiming in their two cents on my thoughts and we'll be able to talk
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about what it takes to actually build a show so fellas is there anything we
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need to say before we begin just strap in everyone get ready to learn and we're
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gonna have a good time magic guidebook when said dragoteer but okay so friends,
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With regards to writing a show, the first thing we need to sort of identify
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is what a show actually is.
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I'm not in podcast mode. There it is.
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That should, first of all, that should become a drinking game because the amount
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of times I hear Nick get a message when he's like, nah, I always put it on silent.
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That's so true. Drink up everyone. Yeah, boy.
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He's in a band and he gets messages during the podcast. I get so drunk. Okay, let's begin.
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So what a show actually is. Now, most magicians, they'll say,
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I've got a show. But what they actually mean is I have a bunch of tricks that
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I do roughly in the same order.
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It's not a criticism, it's just where most of us start.
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But if you want to move from doing tricks to creating a show,
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you have to understand this.
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A show is not just a list of tricks.
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A show is a full experience. It has shape, it has intention,
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a beginning, middle, and end, whether you planned it or not.
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So in this episode, we're going to talk about what tricks you should do and
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how to go about doing that.
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So let's sort of just really get a definition of a show in order for us to then
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start building the meat and bones of what we're trying to do here.
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So at its core, a show is a shared journey between you and your audience.
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I think we can all agree on that. I think that sounds legit.
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Terrific. So a show is not about how clever the method is.
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It's not about how hard the slides are or how many tricks you can fit in.
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An audience doesn't experience that, right?
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They don't experience, if you don't, if you'd structure a show where it's just
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a series of tricks, they'll just experience trick one, trick two,
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trick three, trick four.
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But when they have an experience, they feel so much more.
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So, for example, when I thought about what we do with Theater and Magic,
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they feel welcomed from the moment they walk in the door.
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There's a curiosity about the room as they walk in. They're surprised by the pre-show magic.
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They're also very comfortable because they're so welcoming and they're very
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relaxed in their comfortable chairs. And then we start entertaining.
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That's when they finally get challenged. And then at the end of the show,
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we give them a really good show.
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We say, thank you very much. And they feel satisfied when they leave the theater.
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That is a proper show or some of the very basics we use for a show.
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So if you remove the magician and replace them with something else doing the
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same tricks, the show will feel identical if you were following that type of
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structure, even though the show hasn't been written yet.
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So the main difference between an act and a show is this.
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An act is a sequence of effects, typically between say five to a tight 20,
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and it's designed to stand alone.
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And that's how most folks make a career in vegas you got a tight 20 you can
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make a living right but a show is a complete experience and that's why are you
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throwing vegas under the bus what's going on we can't do 30.
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I could do a good loose 40 man for the record what i'm saying is that an act a good act is all you need.
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Right to do to live in vegas and that
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were those were words from our good friend bizarro that's his
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words from his mouth to my you know i remember rudy
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coby saying all you needed was a good six minutes you could
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travel the world so truthfully it could even be that your act yeah exactly so
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anyway between five and twenty you were good now a show is a completely is a
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complete experience now it's typically either a 45 minute show which is or if
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it's a proper theater larger scale it's double that, which would be about 90 minutes.
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And it's designed to build, not just impress.
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So I think most of the, most of the magic shows in Vegas are about 75, 80, right?
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So this is probably our ballpark for the show shows in this. Yeah, absolutely.
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So because the difference between the act and the show is that shows require
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some pacing, some contrast,
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typically an emotional investment and also
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an intention so me used
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to be playing in a band i think about it a lot like music okay a
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song on its own can be great but when
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you put it in the context of an album it tells a
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bigger story okay so magicians i
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started actually wondering like why a lot of magicians don't write shows or
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haven't had success in writing shows and it's not
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because they're lazy by any means and I found
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myself guilty of this and I bring this up because I had to do a little
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soul searching I'm about to do my first Melbourne Magic
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Festival show in eight years in eight
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years so the reasons I wasn't doing it was because I with everything that I
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do in my normal life I felt like it was just overwhelming to also add writing
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a show on top of that it felt very abstract every idea I had and I just had
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this mentality it's like I'll do it eventually I'll get around to it.
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And then what happens is like, you just start thinking about it.
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Like, I know if I did it, I'll just, I'll just do this act, but then I'll add
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one trick or I'll get rid of this and add this one in out.
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And it just ended up being just like a mixed tape of routines and stuff.
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And I shift the order and then see how the audience responds to that.
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So over time, that pattern doesn't really create design.
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It's just stuff, but there's no actual design and structure to what you're doing. Does that make sense?
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So far. Yeah. Great. so basically i
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went from going like what works what am
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i trying to say and that is the new thing that i'm exploring with
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the show i'm writing right now so like what am i trying to say and
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there's a lot that i want to say so we can go into that another time but a good
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way of actually testing that is doing a simple one sentence test as you know
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or you may not know is dia vernon said that like any great trick or any great
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effect was basically said should be able to be said with one single sentence.
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So if you were going to say something to the effect of either four liter packets
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into something, something, it gets very convoluted.
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But if you say something as simple as I thought of a card, I popped a balloon,
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the card was in the balloon.
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Good effect, very simple, easy to understand. So when people ask you things
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like, what is your show about?
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You could answer it in one sentence and not just go, it's a mixture of magic and comedy.
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It's interactive and it's family it's family friendly
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that's a format of the
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show not the meaning of the
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show so if you wanted to add something with meaning you would say something
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to the effect of it's about how our memories lie to us it's about luck and choice
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it's about how people influence each other it's about wonder in an ordinary
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world that has meaning now if you can't articulate that just yet.
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Don't, don't be frightened. Oh, we have a visitor. Who's visiting?
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Doug's probably gone into sales mode. But look, if he hasn't got food or he's
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not spending a hundred bucks, then you got to kick him out, Doug. Okay.
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Okay. Anyway, keep going. Okay. As we touch upon this, a show exists whether
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you write it or not. Okay. So it's the important thing.
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So when you're done with any kind of performance, just keep in mind that your
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audience will walk away with these three things. They will walk away with an impression of you.
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They will walk away with a feeling and a memory.
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So the question is that do you
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want that outcome of your show to be
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something that happened by accident or do you want it
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to be something that you genuinely manufactured and
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structured by doing your show a certain way so
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that's why it requires a little bit of thought so a lot
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of people have just been doing stuff performing material and people
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receive it in a really nice way think about it
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like this was it done with intention or accumulation it's
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a weird way to think about it so accumulation is a
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very simple trap that most of us fall into in which
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you go oh i learned a new trick and here's another
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new trick and another new trick and another new trick that
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is the notion of accumulation within a single set
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okay and you think to yourself this will
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make my show better because i learned something new and it's better and i
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learned something new and it's better and it's better sometimes the strongest
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decision you need to make when writing your show is remove a trick you love
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because it doesn't serve the whole picture okay that's tough man it's tough
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to do yeah and we've discussed this a lot both you and i not too long ago okay,
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so i think that that basically covers it all so i just wanted to mention this
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because it's just there's two things i want you to keep in the back of your
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mind as we go through this and i won't go too deep into it any further,
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but the notion was that rather than asking yourself, where should this trick go?
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Ask yourself, does this trick belong here at all?
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Makes sense yeah yeah so don't
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write a show to impress people write it to guide them what do
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you think about that write it to guide them is is
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very clever so it's like yeah you're kind
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of saying write the show first and like in an ideal
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world what bits would be here not like what's the
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newest thing i've got that i want to show off or like
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what's the strongest thing i know always works because it
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might not fit so we have a question here from stephan who
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who's asking like does a show have to have
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emotion no it doesn't have to have emotion it
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it just needs to have a different purpose so it
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could be a story it could be you just sharing an example of yourself it could
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be something you sharing something from yourself you know i do a bit just a
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bit in my show where i say what i'm sharing with you this evening is kind of
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like my greatest hits and i would want
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to share with you a routine that won me the honor of first prize at the Australian
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Society of Magicians Championship,
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but only if you want to see it.
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And they go, yes, we want to see it. And then I show them what I do.
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And it's because I try to make my shows very personal because I just want to
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show them me as much as I possibly can.
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And when I close my show, I close with a very personal piece of magic that I've
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been doing for a very long time.
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And I explained that like this very routine that I'm closing the show with was
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something that I used to do on the streets when I was busking,
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like half a block away from this theater.
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And it's a nice tie-in because I explained to people that if someone had told
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me 17 years ago that, you know, from going to the streets and,
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you know, surviving on the kindness of people out there,
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putting money in my hat, that 17 years later, I'd have my own theater.
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Like, I wouldn't have believed them, but I only had that because of you lovely
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people being here. So from me to you guys, thank you.
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And they just go, wow, we're so a part of this guy's journey at that point, you know?
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And yeah, I will say that's, I remember being there and hearing you deliver that. And I was, I was,
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i was so i was impressed because normally nick
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and i would talk like this and just you know shooting the
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essentially but you got really actually deep
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with the audience and the way you presented it like to set up the scene and
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i think the night i was there you even got an applause cue from when you said
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how you've come full circle from like busking just down the road to now having
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your own show here it was cool to see that's all carry on yeah cool.
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So okay let's start writing the show fellas let's start writing the show now
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you have this don't get me wrong i have seen some of your questions i i we will
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address them as we go on everything you're asking is in the vein of what i'm
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going to be covering today so keep your questions coming in i'll make sure that
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if anything's not covered we will talk it okay so,
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so let's let's keep let's keep rolling with it so the first thing is that most
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people when they start writing a show they start from the beginning they start
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thinking of the opening they'll ask questions to the effect of like what is
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my opener what's the first trick i should do how do i grab their attention very
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fair questions to ask but i think if you don't know how your show ends
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then you don't know what your show is.
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Josh? Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. Let's keep going.
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Yeah. So if you don't know how you want it to end, then you don't know how you
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want your audience to feel when it's over.
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And I think that the end defines the show because audiences don't remember shows
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in chronological order.
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They'll remember the ending, the strongest moment, and an emotional beat.
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And I think that that, as I mentioned in the previous example,
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that is something that works really well.
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And this isn't something you got to think about with regards to using magic.
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This is just something the way that people do it.
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All right. So if you start applying this to like the movies,
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the concerts and the comedy shows that you see, when you look at a weak ending
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of these types of things, it's because the weakness is created by everything before it.
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So when you have weak parts that in between in the middle as filler,
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et cetera, all that will just desecrate everything that's happening at the end
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of the show so when you start at the end you're deciding what your show means
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and not just what happens.
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Okay. No, that's it. So yeah, when you start planning your show, start with the end.
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Okay. So just little thoughts about the ending. Okay.
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So a common trap that you might fall into with it is like, I'm going to end
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with my biggest illusion. I want to end with my strongest mentalism piece,
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or I'm going to end with a trick that fools magicians. Okay.
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Audiences don't experience methods is the first thing I want to say.
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By all means, use what methods you have. I use very difficult methods because
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I'm just built that way, but I would never do that to the detriment of my storyline. Okay.
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I, I focus on this instead. I, I focus on like, what do I do last?
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Okay. Do I amaze them? Do I make them think, do I get an emotional investment?
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Do I get a laugh? Are they dead silent?
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Are they uplifted from the final piece? Are they,
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did I give them something to think about did i leave them changed
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from that routine so these are things that
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i ask not only at the end of like my show
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i ask myself these questions every routine i create so let me give you some
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examples of like different endings that could help you just give a little bit
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of a uh of direction okay so we
18:02
have like wonder based shows okay so that would end in that kind of way so.
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If you wanted to end quietly most comedy shows
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would end in that way i found if you
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wanted to end with the release you know there could be something
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that builds up considerably confabulations are good
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for that okay so mentalism you want to focus on like the laughter applause and
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the shared joy that's why like when i say shared joy like i'm running a confab
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at the moment and it's about getting people invested and when i say invested
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it's like i involve them not because i need their input because I need their investment.
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So when they start investing into the show, that's where it all becomes a part of it.
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And then by the end of that routine, we're solidified. So that's one of the
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things I try to think about.
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Now, when you finish with something like in a theater setting that has a very
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lingering applause after the show, that's nice.
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But if you're going to do something with a lot of narrative,
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then you want to make sure that your show ends completely.
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So these are very advanced sort of methods that i wanted to touch upon just
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because they i wasn't going to actually say that but given the question you
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guys are already asking i just thought that would.
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As in Thomas Conger really asked, like the bookend of a magic show.
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So yeah, so those types of things. Now, callbacks and all sorts of stuff are
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good, but we'll talk about that in the later part of the show, okay?
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So what I'm trying to focus on now is writing the show backwards, okay?
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Because the ending will help you dictate a lot of things, like what information
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does the audience need before this?
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What emotional steps need to prepare them for the final moment?
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What should happen right before the ending? So when you start asking yourself
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these questions or writing the show backwards,
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it'll give you clarity, efficiency, and also confidence, knowing that whatever
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you're creating will lead you in the right direction.
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You will hit roadblocks, you will feel stuck, but
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that's what you need to focus on to get through those
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roadblocks okay so that's where
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we start from there before we go on any questions before
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we go into the spine of the show well for me
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no i think i think we're really drilling this idea that yeah you got to think
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about the end because often i mean i'm guilty of it when i was first starting
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out and i still don't think i know how to write a good show but at least in
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the beginning i was like oh yeah these are like a few of the tricks i'm going
20:30
to really enjoy doing and then
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oh yeah how do i want to which what how do i want to end the show oh i should
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probably do this because it's different to what i just done before it and yeah
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that'll finish the show you know,
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so thinking about the ending is i think yeah it's going to really help a lot of fellow wizards so.
20:46
Yeah now how do we do the rest yeah and so then you can write the spine of the
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show the middle if you will and that'll just give you all the pieces that you
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need to sort of support it contrast is always nice i think that gives nice structure
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to the show and all the things that and prepare you for it.
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So if a trick doesn't move the audience closer to the final feeling that you want to portray...
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Make an adjustment okay so you
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need to understand whether or not it's going to push them in that direction or if
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it's going to pull them away from it and that's when you just got to start
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that'll help you identify whether something does belong does or
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doesn't belong in the show okay doesn't mean
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it's a bad trick it's just whether or not it belongs in
21:28
the show okay so the common
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ending mistakes that we make is that most people will end the show
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because they've just run out of material right an audience
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can feel that okay guys i'm out of that's my time
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thank you very much i'm done oh that was that was good right
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and it's good but it's not the way a
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show should end okay the ending on a technical high not an emotional ones an
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audience will appreciate the technicality of what you're doing but it won't
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stick with them emotionally if you choose to go down that path what from what
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i've had an experience i've i've experienced like i've written shows, which I won't get into.
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I don't want to derail the show, make it entirely about myself.
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So ending the show with a throwaway line can make the audience feel like it's
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not an ending, it's an exit.
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So you can just go finish the show and then go, thank you very much and good
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night. And then you can just leave.
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And so that doesn't, that doesn't really give people a nice feeling of an ending
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when you're writing an actual show.
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So think of the ending as a promise. Okay.
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Think of your ending as a promise that you're making at the very start of the show, okay?
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And it's going to give you the direction and answer the questions like, why am I here?
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Your ending will answer this. It'll answer like, what is the hour or the 45
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minutes or the 90 minutes for?
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Why do these moments matter? And why should you take the moments with you?
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Input josh great okay so a
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little exercise if you guys wanted to try this yourselves if you're going
23:02
to listen back to this you can get a pen and pad out right now and ask
23:05
yourself these three little questions that will help you get some direction
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for the show you're writing and the first example is write down one sentence
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describing how you want your audience to feel at the end of your show the second
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thing is write one sentence describing what your show is about and if those
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two sentences don't align,
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you might want to keep working on it.
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You're nailing it, bro. I don't know what else I can add. But I should say,
23:29
as a little side note, we should bring up Chris's comment.
23:33
Yeah, please do. I saw that. He is a master in writing shows and marketing shows is his superpower.
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And it makes a good point because we did title this Writing Your First Magic Show.
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And Chris says, for me, and I could be wrong, I'd encourage magicians with their
23:48
first show to make it good and safe versus huge and risky.
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Your best material that you know inside and out That you can perform your best
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And the more fun and relaxed you are in it The audience will feel the same So,
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so vital and true Because there's not And again,
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I'm guilty of this Trying, when I'm doing my first show I'm like,
24:11
this is the time I'm going to try that really complex Like out of this world
24:15
method Because it's a show So I've got to learn something new.
24:19
And it takes you out of the moment And it makes you nervous.
24:22
And now it's going to screw up the rest of your scripting and presentation because
24:27
you're focused on this bit.
24:28
It's probably going to be boring to the audience because you're thinking about it too much.
24:31
And so all of the things that we're talking about, Nick's talking about,
24:37
for your first show, definitely, you know, use this context in the stuff you
24:43
already are comfortable with doing.
24:44
It's super worth saying like for your
24:47
first show what's key is that you are comfortable in the stuff you're doing
24:51
because you're already going to be nervous about the other stuff about it being
24:54
your first time and you know your parents being there watching you do the first
24:57
show ever and you know wanting to do a good job and you probably hired someone
25:01
to film it and so the last thing you want to worry about is this new material so,
25:06
yeah make sure you're like you're comfortable with it but at the same time.
25:11
Like if one of the things is really out of place in what you're trying to convey
25:17
in this show, then maybe that one thing doesn't need to be there in this show.
25:22
Yeah. Now, a lot of you guys in the chat are asking for the notes. That's not a problem.
25:27
Again, these are all what I've written is pretty rough, but I will put it in
25:31
a PDF and then I will drop it into the discord for all you guys to scope out as a little guide.
25:36
Again, I also want to be very clear. Nothing I'm saying is gospel.
25:40
Okay. These are just some thoughts of mine, and other people will have other
25:45
thoughts on how to write a show. This is...
25:50
Very narrow type of thought process for what I've written.
25:53
And it'll just give you a guide as to where to go from there.
25:59
None of these are rules. Everything can be bent.
26:03
So I wanted to share that as well. So don't follow the book of Nick is what
26:08
I'm trying to say. These are just a guide.
26:10
Go through it and write your own thing. Because I think everything we're talking
26:14
about right now is now falling perfectly into the third part of what I wanted to talk about,
26:18
which is choosing the right material so once you know what your show is and
26:24
you kind of know how you want it to end the next question and one of the hardest
26:27
magicians will face is what actually belongs in the show because at this point
26:32
most magicians don't suffer from a lack of material,
26:35
like we're never really short of that if anything we suffer from having too
26:38
much material so that's one of the things that we wanted to think about so i
26:44
think this is where what chris said was kind of perfect because I think it's
26:47
important to focus on the good tricks versus,
26:49
well, let me say that again, like there's, there's good tricks versus the right tricks.
26:54
Okay. So at its core, focus on this election. Okay.
26:59
So you've got, but just to choose material based on how strong the reaction
27:03
is, how clever the method is, how hard it was to learn and how much they like it personally.
27:10
An audience doesn't see any of that.
27:14
An audience doesn't see how strong, like how clever it was, how difficult it
27:19
was. They don't see any of that.
27:20
What an audience will see, right, is like their experience.
27:26
And what they experience is tone, pace, clarity, and connection that you have with them. Okay.
27:35
So that's a good moment. Let's just take a, what is Alex saying here?
27:40
I'd also suggest taking some creative writing classes.
27:43
You learn so much about books and beats and structure absolutely
27:46
yeah i'll touch upon that towards the end of
27:49
this in in part five of what i've written here
27:52
okay so definitely a very very good point so i wrote a few filters and how to
27:57
start thinking about what what we have here because it's not going to be like
28:01
is it a good trick does it serve the show i'm writing so i've written a couple
28:05
of things i call them filters so the first filter i want you to think about is does it fit you.
28:11
So when you start putting a routine together, you start asking yourself questions
28:17
like, does this sound like me?
28:19
Does it match how I naturally speak and address my audience?
28:24
Would I believe what I'm saying if someone else said it?
28:27
Or does it only work for me? These are the things I ask myself when doing stuff.
28:31
And I say this because I've seen so many people get up on stage,
28:35
perform Danny D'Ortiz's stuff, and literally speak in his broken English.
28:41
And, and there's a, there's a bit of a disconnect in that moment.
28:45
I've seen people get up on stage and perform Joshua Jay's Hitchcock routines and so forth.
28:51
And they've just gone like, this isn't, this doesn't make any sense.
28:55
Or, you know, like there's nothing, there's no truth in watching a 17 year old
28:59
be like, oh, I've been around and I'm an expert in reading body language.
29:02
I'm like, buddy, you don't even like floss.
29:05
You know, I can smell your breath from here. Like, you're going to tell me that
29:07
you know how to function and that you're so good at reading people.
29:10
Like there's certain things that just don't make sense or don't fit you because,
29:15
I mean, and you can make it fit you by all means, but that's one of the things that happens as well.
29:19
And that's also one thing you got to think about when people give you advice.
29:22
And I've said this many a times in the past in the podcast is people will give
29:27
you advice on your routines, but they won't say you should do it like this.
29:31
When they give you advice, they're kind of telling you, do it the way I would
29:35
do it because I think it's better doing it my way.
29:38
So those are the two things you want to keep in mind when people are giving
29:41
you the advice with regards to the filter does it fit you any questions or anything
29:45
you want to touch upon before we go to the next part.
29:49
Yeah, you should be careful what you pick when you think about what fits you,
29:52
because whatever you do in your first show, there's a really good chance you'll
29:56
keep doing it for the rest of your goddamn life.
29:59
Because in the first show I ever, ever did at like a church hall,
30:05
like a family gathering thing, I did bloody splash bottle appearance.
30:12
And today I still do that same splash bottle appearance. Now,
30:17
my presentation is much better since then, but the effect, like I'm still doing
30:20
the thing that I just picked randomly back then, you know.
30:24
So, yeah, there's a good chance what you pick now you're going to like hone
30:27
in on and because you'll get good feedback, you keep doing it.
30:31
So really think about it now. It's going to stick with you.
30:35
There's a question you're asking. Is it bad? Is it bad to act as a different
30:42
personality for a special show if it works better?
30:45
No. No, that's fine because that's, that's character.
30:49
And if you're, yeah, you got to try it. If that's what you feel like inclined
30:53
to do, like it's a stage, you know, we're playing, we're playing.
30:56
One of the best, one of the best interviews I recently heard was on the Studio
31:01
52, Ben Earls, the family.
31:03
And it was Ben Hart giving an interview on, on his persona on stage and,
31:09
and how he wants people in certain parts to not like him and then like it,
31:15
like question, Ooh, is this a good guy or a bad guy?
31:19
You know, and like he really plays with it and he picks as a material dependent
31:25
on how he wants them to feel about him as well as part of it.
31:29
So that's just something I want to throw out there. The Ben Hart interview,
31:33
talking about this kind of thing with shows, so good.
31:36
Sorry, I think that has nothing to do with what was just brought up,
31:39
but it just made me, I just watched it yesterday for the second time.
31:43
So bloody good. Yeah. So when I say if it's you,
31:46
I think I should probably extend on that and say you i'll actually make the note now you
31:49
and your character so if
31:54
your character oh that's right yeah that's
31:56
right sorry now i understand because he once had a review come in and they talked
32:01
about ben's character as being wolfish and he really loves that and and held
32:06
on to it meaning like a wolf is like majestic and you like to look at it but
32:10
if you get too close you might get snapped So now he plays with that wolf-like character,
32:16
which is not necessarily him outside of the stage.
32:19
So it's not good or bad. It's just, is that right for you?
32:24
Yeah. And I think there's truth in that, especially like when you do your first
32:27
show, for example, we do evolve over time.
32:29
But one thing that I was identified with when finding your character,
32:33
and we'll cover this briefly afterwards.
32:35
And I think that we actually spoke about this last time when we were talking
32:38
about, you just ask someone to explain who you are or what they see and using that as a guide.
32:46
You know what I mean? my my good friend nicholas j johnson said
32:49
you're a big kid you're a big kid and you
32:51
like to play and you hate bullies because they ruin the
32:54
play so when someone's mean in the audience it just it's just someone being
32:58
a jerk on the slide and a jerk on the seesaw and that makes it a bad time for
33:03
the rest of us trying to play that's why i don't like bullies or people being
33:06
mean in my show so i think that's um there's something in that so as well as
33:11
finding stuff that fits yourself being your character,
33:14
there's also a second part to this.
33:17
And the second filter is, does it fit your audience?
33:21
So depending on the type of show you have, you will attract a certain type of audience.
33:25
And you have a target audience, I assume, when you do write a show.
33:30
And you want to think about like, is what you're writing going to fit everyone? It might not.
33:35
So one of the ways to sort of identify what audience you're going to attract
33:39
is you'll ask like, who is this for?
33:41
And then you start asking yourself okay what does
33:44
this particular type of audience value how much
33:47
attention will that type of audience have if they're
33:50
children their attention is to be rather short so you can't be doing long-scale
33:55
monologues um that are very theater based and very heavily scripted you want
33:58
to have call and responses you can still have the same message but you need
34:02
to have the interaction back and forth and it's just that's and what i wrote
34:07
down after that was just to ask yourself this,
34:10
how much explanation can they tolerate.
34:13
So if you were to just like talk about a routine for 10 minutes for a confabulation
34:17
payoff and there's no joke in that 10 minutes, there's no interaction in that
34:23
10 minutes or there's no, that's where you start thinking about things of this nature, right?
34:27
Like that, that call back to the previous things we made mentioned.
34:30
So again, think of your audience. Now, a trick that kills at the magic club
34:35
might struggle in theaters, in a family audience or in a corporate environment.
34:40
So it's important that you choose the material for the context of the audience
34:45
and not to feed your ego, which is why writing a show is so different from doing a corporate set.
34:52
A corporate set, it's fine to do an act, as we mentioned earlier,
34:56
but to do a show show, not to say it can't be done. It's just different.
35:02
It's just, it's just that they're very different because they're very different
35:05
audiences and different purposes.
35:06
I was talking to Adam Mata once and he was telling
35:09
me how in the beginning when he would do both
35:13
corporate shows and for those who don't know because we
35:15
haven't had him on adamata is like one of the notable magicians in australia
35:20
he does a lot of creating now like for the harry potter theater shows and things
35:25
like that like great great brain but he would he would run the corporate circuit
35:30
in sydney for magic a lot of the times and but he would also do festivals and he said once.
35:36
He had such a great run doing a festival
35:38
show. He decided to create like a surrealism act for his corporate.
35:43
And then when he did it, he just realized this falls so flat because this audience
35:48
is not here to like question their existence and, you know, go deep and all this stuff that is not,
35:56
you know, poppy and fun and punchy and quick and ending.
35:59
So big, big difference. Yeah.
36:02
And I think Adam, he's a perfect example of the
36:05
second filter i mentioned because he attracted an
36:08
audience to the magic festival that i'd never seen before where you
36:11
have people who care about their words a lot
36:14
to the point of poetry slam poetry you know
36:17
it was pretty crazy instead of people clapping they were
36:19
doing the thing they were clicking their fingers like a jazz club you know what i
36:22
mean like it was like yeah i'd never seen that at
36:25
a magic show before until adam had actually
36:28
performed and it is it is a beautiful thing so
36:30
it's the perfect here's the perfect example of
36:33
the second filter where you target to your audience
36:37
yeah um should we
36:40
give like a little two minute detour on
36:43
if you're doing a corporate act i think it's a much simpler
36:46
thing to do yeah well you know that well so go
36:48
ahead take point yeah i mean it's super easy
36:51
the framework is a corporate audience is
36:54
either going to have like a 20-minute slot for you or a
36:57
30-minute slot just depending on how much awards and
37:00
other stuff they got to cram into their night so it's important to have like
37:04
a segmented show where you can take out like this thing and it still has the
37:09
same usually the same ending and same beginning there's just either one middle
37:14
bit or two middle bits if you have a 20 or 30 minute act and then each.
37:20
Performance each segment in the act should be very
37:23
different in contrast to each other like it
37:25
shouldn't like i'll do a like a
37:29
coin trick essentially there's lots of humor and blah
37:32
blah throughout it but it's essentially a coin trick then something with borrowing
37:37
money and there's a ball of yarn so it's a very colorful different dynamic then
37:41
you got yeah thing with a mystery bag and then you've got a thing with people
37:45
on stage and i'm dancing with three finding three cards so So it's just all like very different.
37:50
So it's easy to watch if they're not magic lovers already.
37:54
So make every bit different. And the more you can involve the audience for a
37:58
corporate act, the better because they're seeing their own people up on stage.
38:01
And the real gold nugget I've discovered in the last year is talking to ChatGPT
38:07
about my act and also talking about the industry that I'm about to go and perform for,
38:13
for that corporate show and finding segues and jokes and lines and callbacks
38:20
about that industry that can fit into your show.
38:22
It levels up your show at least by an
38:25
extra 30 percent in reactions when they hear you talk
38:28
about actual things that they deal with in
38:31
their everyday life like for example for a
38:34
wealth management company i borrowed someone's
38:38
50 note and it disappeared and didn't return
38:41
and i just looked at him and said well you can
38:44
just write it off as a capital loss you know and then that
38:47
got a big pop because that's an actual term they use but if i said that to a
38:51
dentist firm they'd be like what the hell do you mean so corporate act write
38:55
it and then use chat gpt or your own brain or both and just tailor it to like
39:01
that audience and essentially they're just there to have fun so,
39:05
in a nutshell that's basically it that's spot on another golden nugget ka-ching.
39:15
So the third filter that i want to talk about is again
39:18
just something to reflect upon these three filters as you're going through and
39:23
it is mentioned beforehand but still equally important and it is does it move
39:28
the show forward does it build momentum does it deepen connection does it increase
39:33
the stakes does it clarify the theme of what you're trying to do so.
39:37
It's if it's none of these everything you're doing is sort
39:40
of decorative and decoration is bad and it blurs the focus of what you're trying
39:45
to achieve so a strong show feels like it's going somewhere okay so one of the
39:52
things that josh made mentioned a moment ago is texture and contrast also very
39:55
important with what he does so um,
39:58
In terms of texture, you want to think about like your visual versus verbal for what you're doing.
40:05
Sometimes the mentalism piece isn't going to land because you need something
40:09
that's going to hook people or attract people or, you know, like for a corporate,
40:13
for example, we mentioned a moment ago, a visual will have a stronger effect
40:16
with a beautiful piece of yarn that's 100 foot long. That's really fun.
40:20
A fast effect versus a very slow effect. A lighthearted
40:24
one versus a very heavy emotional one something
40:27
that's very participatory meaning people being a
40:30
part of it versus something that's more observational meaning that
40:33
you can just perform a piece and everyone just watch so if you had something
40:38
that you wanted everyone just to watch you'd certainly want to have something
40:41
beforehand that visually grabs everyone's attention thus making the more observational
40:48
piece of magic easier for them to actually absorb does that make sense.
40:54
Did you mute yourself? Yes, I did. Thank you. I just gave myself that advice, really.
41:00
But no, I think that's right. And you're probably going to try these things
41:03
and see what your character fits better with, like a longer,
41:06
thoughtful piece versus something that the audience just watches.
41:10
And, you know, because you'll also play around with that, too.
41:13
Like, does your particular audience like getting involved straight away?
41:17
Or do they like first watching you for, like John Armstrong said,
41:22
like, some magicians get people up on
41:24
stage far sooner than they need to before the audience
41:27
has actually learned about them as a character so you know
41:30
how long do you perform on stage doing things they can watch before you bring
41:36
someone up that's something else to consider as well yeah i mean adonis here
41:40
says that he he i bring out a chest at the beginning and do a call back to the
41:45
chest at the end with TNR to impossible location.
41:49
So that's good throughput. We'll talk about that in part five.
41:53
We're almost at part four and we're getting away from it.
41:55
So there's certain things like stakes, like a trick without stakes can be a bit of a puzzle.
42:01
Like if you just do a trick, it's like, oh, I don't know how he did that.
42:03
But if you add some certain gravity to it, it could be like taking the money
42:06
and you can lose the money or you can win the money.
42:09
So there's certain things that you can do to raise the stakes on an actual effect.
42:12
So it doesn't always have to be something that's monetary.
42:15
It could be an emotional stake. It could be something personal, social, or a narrative.
42:19
Okay. So, you know, it's something like, what happens if it goes wrong?
42:24
That there is there, there's stakes there. Okay.
42:27
If the answer is nothing, what happens if it goes wrong? Nothing.
42:30
Well, it's like, well, then no one's going to lean into it.
42:33
You know, no one's going to be like, oh, okay.
42:36
There's something here that's got some gravity to it.
42:39
So, you know, That's a little something that I took away from reading Strong
42:43
Magic once a year, every year.
42:45
So it's a good way to add weight to a routine if you feel it's a little lacking. So...
42:51
The middle of the show is where most shows will fail. Totally true.
42:56
Okay. For myself anyway.
42:57
So it's very easy to have a strong opening and a very strong ending and tend
43:02
to have a bit of a sag in the middle.
43:06
Usually it's because it's where we dump the leftover tricks or we want to use
43:11
it as an opportunity to kind of showcase our techniques and just sort of impress.
43:16
And it's also the space where magicians tend to be a little indulgent.
43:22
Where it's like well this is good this is good but i really want
43:25
to do this bit so i'm just going to put it in the middle so
43:28
yeah it's a it's a
43:31
it's a tough place yeah it's also the place where we will
43:34
try new stuff like we're talking
43:37
about writing your first show but now if today if nick or i are going to try
43:41
something new usually in the middle somewhere yeah my advice and what i'm doing
43:47
with my new show is I think that the middle of the show should be the most human part of the show.
43:56
And it should be where your stories live, all stories. And it should be where the audience.
44:05
Is truly included. So I think the middle is a good opportunity for you to choose
44:11
material where you can slow things down, that you can deepen connections,
44:15
and where you can make that ending feel very earned.
44:21
Great great and this is also where editing
44:24
is a very real skill so writing a
44:27
show is less about adding material and more about removing it anyone who does
44:32
street shows that's probably my best advice like if it's something's not working
44:36
take stuff out before you put stuff in like take stuff out and then see what
44:40
works and you'll be like oh i didn't realize taking this out makes things work
44:42
so that's definitely one of my things i would promote so if you're struggling to choose,
44:47
I like what to remove, write down every piece that you do, then just remove
44:54
one and test, then remove another and test.
44:57
And then just pay attention to what the show needs, not what you're attached to.
45:03
So important. Some people can get really attached to a routine.
45:07
Just because it doesn't work in this show doesn't mean it won't work in another.
45:10
Doesn't mean it might work anywhere else.
45:12
I've got so much stuff I've created that had no business being in
45:16
certain shows so it's just shelved it's up
45:18
there it exists and half the
45:21
stuff i've created just well audiences will never see but
45:24
it exists so a nice practical test for this is if you remove a trick is remove
45:31
the trick and then ask yourself does the show still make sense does the ending
45:36
still land and does the theme still hold so if the answer is yes to all those
45:41
then you may have you've made a good decision.
45:44
And the option of removing that was probably a good option.
45:47
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I know that for a long time, I would do a mind reading
45:51
effect in my show and in my corporate act.
45:53
This has both happened now in my corporate act and Theater of Magic show where
45:58
I've removed it because I know if I do like Nathan Cranzo's true test,
46:04
which I love with a magazine,
46:06
for anyone who doesn't know, it looks like just a time magazine you buy from
46:10
the airport and you can give it away afterwards and they just pick a page,
46:14
you tear it out. It's like very organic and whatever.
46:17
Strong effect. But it would take away from my character is this like.
46:24
Technician, magician based guy, you know, this sort of agent 47 type technician,
46:31
which is someone, something that got put in my YouTube comments recently.
46:34
So that's why I'm saying that.
46:36
Yeah. For this guy, that's real technical and observant to all of a sudden do
46:39
this thing where like, oh yes, think of the first letter and blah, blah, blah.
46:43
It just didn't fit, even though I knew I'd get a good reaction.
46:46
And then, but it's such a strong piece and I would do that and I would do PK
46:50
touch before it. And yeah, it was like a whole thing.
46:52
The moment I took that module out, my character became more memorable more.
46:58
I think from the feedback I'm getting from taking it out and now,
47:02
and somehow the show is still the same length, even though I took that out because
47:07
now the other routines I do can, can breathe a bit more and I can add more stuff into it.
47:13
So yeah, it's such a rollercoaster, isn't it?
47:15
Yeah. So one of the comments that I made was that like by removing that you've
47:20
created, you've got space now and you've got, you've now focused that middle
47:24
section of your show to do these three things, to build trust,
47:28
to guide the emotion, and to support the ending of what you choose.
47:32
So that's an important thing.
47:35
The next part is about making the show flow. So we've kind of got everything
47:39
in there. Now it's all about making it flow.
47:41
So I'm going to skip some of the notes for the sake of time as you guys will read these afterwards.
47:45
But what I sort of realized as I was writing this is like what structure actually
47:51
means to a show and to a routine,
47:54
like what actually gives something structure now structure
47:58
gives three purposes it it guides
48:01
attention it controls energy and
48:04
supports emotion that's what
48:07
good structure will actually do now without structure a trick can feel random
48:13
the pacing can feel uneven and the endings can just sort of fizzle away and
48:19
be unearned like it's not a great place to be but if you actually have if you
48:22
have good structure to a routine and to a show,
48:26
even the simple moments will land.
48:29
The audience will feel relaxed because they're sitting within the structure
48:33
and it'll build trust naturally if you have really good structure to your show
48:38
and to your routines. Very important stuff.
48:41
So when you look at your opening.
48:44
Think of the opening as the initiation, not as the impression.
48:48
Because some people want to be like, oh, I'm going to open with an effect that's
48:50
going to make a good impression.
48:52
Focus on it being like an initiation with yourself.
48:55
So many magicians will open with their hardest trick or their flashiest piece
48:59
and do something that will prove they have skill to show I'm actually really good.
49:04
It's not the opening. And this is something that I've just done recently.
49:07
I'm actually putting in my new show.
49:10
I'm putting the easiest piece of magic I've ever created. I'm putting in my
49:14
cards across that requires zero sleight of hand,
49:17
Just because it ticks all the boxes for what our opener should be.
49:21
Because the opener's job is very simple.
49:25
It's just to establish a tone, clarify who you are, make it feel safe and confident,
49:30
as Chris mentioned earlier, and have a high success rate.
49:36
That's what's really important about an opening routine.
49:40
The thing that you've done a thousand times, the thing that you can actually
49:44
be present in the audience while you're doing.
49:46
Doesn't have to be the strongest just has to be the cleverest yeah like i'll
49:51
open i'll open with that stupid sharpie thing where it's going behind my ear
49:55
and whatever it's not a mind-blowing.
49:58
World-changing piece but god damn
50:01
it it's fun and it lets people be like oh okay this
50:03
is right this is a thing we all right we're going to pay attention and
50:06
you know no one's coming up on stage so they're
50:09
just sitting there watching learning about me just a little
50:12
it's not the strongest thing yeah but it's
50:15
the thing i've done sets a tone it's a thing i've done
50:18
like forever i could do it with my eyes closed no
50:21
problem yeah so it does so for
50:24
the audience after seeing an opening effect they should understand who
50:27
you are what kind of experience this will
50:29
be and and how to watch as well you
50:32
know like it sort of sets the tone on how to watch what you're doing so
50:36
it's a good place to be so with the middle focus on
50:39
development and depth so you want
50:42
to focus on the the personality
50:46
the having the themes emerge from your show in that moment the middle is an
50:51
opportunity to get some good emotional stakes from your audience and that's
50:55
where you can vary your pacing and slow down a minute to have that emotional
51:00
piece that you want to have introduce
51:02
longer moments invite more audience participation in those middle bits.
51:06
The middle should feel like the progression, not the padding.
51:10
Okay, so you build that in if the middle drags, or you feel like it's dragging,
51:14
it's because the material can repeat upon the same emotional note.
51:19
And there's no clear escalation of what's happening in there.
51:23
And typically, because the middle is just the same feeling and nothing changes in the storyline.
51:28
So the middle piece should sort of build towards something.
51:32
And then the final part being the ending should be like a normal routine in
51:36
a sense that there is like release and resolution so the ending should feel
51:41
really intentional inevitable and make it feel very complete like it's everything's
51:46
just come full circle and the audience should feel surprised.
51:51
As well that's a that makes for a good ending so a good ending will resolve
51:55
the show's central idea it'll create an emotional release and allows the audience
52:01
to to experience it very naturally as opposed to forcing them to like applaud
52:07
or do a standing ovation or whatever it might be so,
52:10
the key to that i think with regards to
52:13
avoiding avoid adding on extra tricks avoid
52:16
having to explain that moment that's why i say that it should happen naturally
52:20
and avoid undercutting it with humor as well i made the mistake just last week
52:26
and saying like i made this there's one line and i go like don't don't say that
52:29
that joke because it just it just takes like 0.5 percent
52:34
away from like what you're doing and
52:37
that was great advice that i got from from my friend liam jumpers so that's
52:41
a good thing to think about so pacing as we mentioned earlier magicians are
52:45
trained to kind of move quickly and to reset really
52:48
quickly and to keep momentum but emotion doesn't do that emotion has pauses
52:54
it has breath and it also has moments of silence so it's very difficult to give
53:01
them that pacing and promote emotion when you're just ba-ba-ba-ba-ba,
53:06
you know, like it's a dance show.
53:08
It doesn't quite land as hard. So that's one of the things I have about that.
53:12
Now, transitions matter more than the tricks, okay? You just stand right there next to art.
53:21
Yeah. So a transition... Sorry, pardon me.
53:25
Transitions are to maintain momentum, to preserve the emotional tone,
53:30
and to prevent that next trick feeling.
53:33
For my next trick and next trick and next trick, you'll avoid all that, okay?
53:38
So a good transition will be like the unspoken...
53:42
It'll answer this unspoken question. And it is, why is this happening now?
53:48
Transition. It doesn't need to be verbal, but it just needs to feel motivated.
53:52
I do a routine where I do a Rubik's cube into a book test.
53:57
And someone mentioned Adam Matter earlier, and he actually put me aside.
54:00
He goes, how you went from a Rubik's cube routine to a book test seamlessly is beyond me.
54:05
I have no idea how that happens so naturally.
54:08
And it's like, I do, I have a system.
54:11
So there it is. And speaking of segues
54:14
and transitioning, I think Doug has something to bring up or show us.
54:19
Yeah, I just, you could say hi to our local pros. I got Art Johnson in town
54:22
from Mexico and look, Bodine Belasco's here too.
54:26
Bodine was working the castle a couple of weeks ago. Yo, say hi fellas.
54:31
It's a pleasure. We're here at one of the great magic shops you're ever lucky to walk into here.
54:39
You've come to Las Vegas. You've got to come here.
54:42
Doug Kahn's magic shop. I'm telling you, we are drooling. All right.
54:47
I didn't pay you enough to ramble on that much.
54:53
Thanks for saying hi, fellas. And they're in here spending a few bucks.
54:57
We appreciate that, of course.
54:58
We do. All right, guys. i'll see you in about three or four minutes let
55:01
me wrap up this thing with the fellas okay so we
55:05
talked about the structure and the structure is about supporting the freedom
55:10
you need but there's kind of a paradox to that because the better your structure
55:14
the more freedom you have on stage when you know where you're going and why
55:19
each piece is there and what the ending requires,
55:23
you can improvise a lot more confidently without losing direction.
55:28
So structure isn't about being restrictive. It's about being supportive and
55:33
then dancing around that. Make sense?
55:36
A hundred percent. And I think while we still have Doug here for a second,
55:40
Doug, what are the books that you have there on writing a show?
55:43
I yanked some titles off the counter. I'm assuming most of our audience is familiar
55:47
We are with Maximum Entertainment 2.0.
55:50
I would suggest this is the most important book for becoming a professional magician.
55:55
And definitely if you're writing a show and you want to learn how to get all
55:59
that right, that's in there.
56:00
If you want to learn a little bit about scripting your act and just character
56:03
development, this is a great one from Pete McCabe.
56:06
This is one of a couple of volumes that he penned on the subject.
56:09
Highly recommended if that's not in your ballpark.
56:13
This is a winner from a local pro, The Show Doctor. There we go.
56:17
Learn from Jeff McBride.
56:19
It's right there on the cover. Routines, expert advice, other prescriptions.
56:24
Lessons from a modern master. We love Jeff.
56:27
And then here's a title I just happened to find last week as I was pulling books
56:32
off the shelf to restock.
56:34
This is The Enlightened Magicians.
56:36
And take a look at some of the names in this book. Blackstone,
56:40
Burton, Palmer, Billy McComb. This is advice from world-class professionals,
56:46
Siegfried and Roy, Pendragons, Wit Hayden.
56:48
This is one you probably haven't seen around a lot and recommended it here today.
56:53
I think we sell it for about 30 bucks.
56:55
So there's a couple of four titles. I could have had a hundred more,
56:59
but I'm going to cut it off there. Yeah.
57:03
Well, we've hit the one hour mark, so let's wrap up with the final part I've
57:07
written to this, which is about transitions, through lines, and making a complete
57:11
thought. So a quick recap.
57:13
Again, I'll be very quick through this, but I will put the notes on our Discord.
57:17
You guys can download these yourselves and read them all thoroughly.
57:20
All the dot points I've made mention or some of the ones I actually skipped. So for the sake of time.
57:25
So an opening at this point, it's to have a clear idea of your show,
57:29
a strong ending, good material and solid structure. Okay.
57:33
Understanding what transitions really are. Most magicians think the transitions
57:38
are jokes, lines or excuses to move on. but a transition isn't just a bridge.
57:43
It's a motivation to move across.
57:45
Okay. So motivating each routine one to another, super important.
57:50
Ask yourself questions. Why is this happening next? Okay.
57:53
We're trying to avoid the next trick syndrome. Now for my next trick,
57:58
it just signals separation that
58:02
shows disconnect and it shows reset we don't
58:05
we don't want that a strong show feels more like and now we move on to it naturally
58:10
okay so not every transition has to be verbal either they could be emotional
58:16
it could be a musical piece that leads into it it could be something thematic
58:20
an example of that could be like a changing light shift in tone.
58:25
Moving closer increasing the intimacy can change as
58:28
well sitting down is just a nice change of
58:31
pace that's a good transition and and
58:34
just even just those little things that prepare the audience
58:36
for silence a lot of magicians i know are terrified of silence um to the point
58:41
where even when people start to applaud they'll talk over them like i'll wait
58:45
for an audience to finish applauding that's the same reason why my cups and
58:48
balls act is a five minute act but can go for 13 14 because I've got to stop
58:52
and wait for people to stop clapping and laughing in order to get through the routine.
58:56
So it's good to have structure and give people space to exist.
59:00
So the through line, what is a through line?
59:05
Now a through line is the thread that connects everything.
59:08
I typically would write my routines in a single line, and then I would literally
59:12
go up and down with the emotional experience of what people are going to have
59:16
through each point on that timeline.
59:19
Line so the through line it's not
59:22
the plot it's not the story and not always what's spoken
59:25
the the through line could be the question
59:28
of what the show is the idea the theme or the character's perspective so for
59:32
example if you were to make the show about memory about choices you can make
59:37
it about luck like oh you're very lucky or every routine is about luck not every
59:41
routine has to be like that of course but that's where you want to think about
59:45
your through line about influence about perception, about control.
59:48
Sometimes it's about time, manipulating time.
59:51
These are all examples of through line, okay? If you guys have any other examples, please chime in.
59:57
No, I agree with all that. I think that's the theme, right?
1:00:01
And that goes back to also Jeff Hobson when he gave us that final word of asking
1:00:07
a stranger when they look at you, who do they think you are,
1:00:10
which can help develop that character.
1:00:12
And when you know your character, you can have a through line where everything
1:00:16
is related to that character where like,
1:00:18
you know, you're trying to figure out who you are or you're trying to,
1:00:22
yeah, be lucky or you're trying to control situations that think they're going
1:00:28
to go wrong each time or. Yeah.
1:00:30
Yeah. I mean, Scotty Link said it very simply is like, what's the takeaway?
1:00:33
That's basically your through line.
1:00:34
So without a through line, the audience enjoys the moments, but it forgets the show as a whole.
1:00:38
But with the through line the the moments
1:00:41
reinforce one another and the ending
1:00:44
feels earned and it makes the show feel complete
1:00:47
so i'm like
1:00:50
when jesus christ so there's ways you can
1:00:53
test your through line okay so there's a couple of practical tests you can
1:00:55
do if someone describes your show as saying like he did some
1:00:58
cool tricks or the show was about
1:01:01
if they can articulate what the show was about then your through line
1:01:04
is working if they can only say the effects it isn't so i like that because
1:01:11
i would rather people remember how the show made them feel rather than what
1:01:16
i did and that's one of the things i hyper focus on in my performances whether i'm doing my act and or.
1:01:24
My show. So a lot of guys have mentioned callbacks.
1:01:28
For those of you that are probably unaware of that, a callback is one of the
1:01:31
simplest ways to create cohesion. That is the purpose of a callback.
1:01:36
A callback will remind the audience of something that happened earlier.
1:01:39
It also rewards attention.
1:01:42
So that's a really important thing. And it also reinforces the unity.
1:01:46
So a callback can be presented in many different ways. It could be verbal.
1:01:50
It could be repeated objects.
1:01:52
It could be the returning of ideas or even like mirrored moments so i got a
1:01:57
friend who did a show where this lemon just keeps reappearing it's just common
1:02:02
thing like out of nowhere like he would,
1:02:04
and they'd be like did you drop the lemon and whatever else then in
1:02:06
the end cuts it open and there's a bill inside so when
1:02:10
it's well done a callback can make the show feel
1:02:13
designed and not accidental so that's a fun moment so i
1:02:17
think i'll skip through some of this stuff here we'll
1:02:20
finish on a practical exercise and then we'll just close on
1:02:24
everything we need to which is just going to be about quick rehearsing so
1:02:27
an exercise for you to focus on your pre-show
1:02:30
is to write down the order of your show and between every item write why each
1:02:36
next piece is happening and if you can justify that it means that all your transitions
1:02:41
are working and your throughput will have a lot more structure and land, okay?
1:02:50
The final part, as we're well over time, guys, is rehearsing,
1:02:54
Rehearsing and writing. There's a big difference between rehearsing and writing.
1:02:58
They are not the same thing.
1:02:59
Writing your show is about identifying the intention, the clarity, the meaning.
1:03:06
And rehearsing is about finding the timing, about learning the muscle memory.
1:03:13
It's through rehearsal that you get all your confidence.
1:03:17
And it's through your rehearsal that you'll be able to actually
1:03:20
deliver on the message you're trying to do and then
1:03:23
when it comes to performing you need
1:03:26
to be able to do all those things so it's second nature and when performing
1:03:30
it's more about listening to your audience and about adjusting and that's where
1:03:37
you actually discover where you discover what actually works in your show so
1:03:41
that's why you want to have your scripts again the scripts are for the structure.
1:03:46
Therefore, the scaffold. I actually wrote down big and bold,
1:03:50
scripts are scaffolding, not prisons.
1:03:53
Having a script means that you know what to say. It's not going to kill spontaneity.
1:03:57
It's not going to make you sound robotic.
1:03:59
It's about knowing that you've always got somewhere to go back to.
1:04:03
A script is not meant to be memorized word for word. It's just a scaffolding
1:04:07
that you can start building your rhythm,
1:04:10
that you can make your intention clear so that you know what you're saying and
1:04:14
be consistent in what you're saying to build the foundation of whatever message
1:04:18
you want to have through your show.
1:04:19
So the goal isn't to sound scripted, it's to sound intentional.
1:04:23
And that's the purpose of a script.
1:04:26
Bam. Take that. Yeah. Okay. Write that shit.
1:04:31
Now, all the other stuff here is that like after your first performances.
1:04:35
I'm going to leave the notes here for us so we don't go into overtime.
1:04:39
I'm going to give you some advice on what to focus on and what to change after
1:04:43
you've done your first few performances because I'll be very clear and very
1:04:46
short in saying that when you start doing your show, that your show is going
1:04:49
to evolve. And that's a good thing.
1:04:52
Not every great show plays the same there's no
1:04:55
way that you've seen copperfield show and gone oh
1:04:58
this is what it was like the very first time it was actually presented to anyone
1:05:01
i promise you that it has grown it has
1:05:04
evolved and as your understanding of
1:05:07
the show deepens by doing it with regards
1:05:10
to the frequency you performing it it'll help you evolve
1:05:14
it and make it better the important thing
1:05:17
to keep in mind when you're doing this is to not drift away
1:05:20
from your original intention or if your
1:05:23
intention evolves through the show then make
1:05:27
those sort of changes so some of the mistakes you might make with
1:05:29
that is chasing the applause of the audience versus
1:05:32
chasing the meaning of your show so keep that
1:05:35
in mind and then a final exercise for that guys let's close this up by saying
1:05:40
that write the sentence of your show write a sentence describing how you want
1:05:43
people to feel perform the show like three times without any major changes and
1:05:48
then adjust only what is going to give you more clarity and better pacing.
1:05:55
Okay. That'll give you some final guides on that. And I'll finish up by saying this as we wrap up.
1:06:01
A great magic show is unwritten to fool people.
1:06:04
It's written to guide them. You guide their attention, you guide their emotions,
1:06:09
and you guide their experiences.
1:06:11
The tricks are the tools and the show is the purpose,
1:06:18
thanks for listening it's time for us to disappear now disappear now but we'll
1:06:24
see you again on the next episode of the magic guys.