What Would Make You Believe In Magic? - Why Most Magic Tricks are Like Broken Pencils

Imagine for a moment that you really could perform magic... What would you do with that power? Would you use your magical powers for good or evil? Would there be any lasting purpose to the magic you would perform?

Why are most magic tricks like a broken pencil? Because they are pointless!

Why do magicians spend their time losing and finding playing cards, making trivial predictions, or making things vanish and appear all over the place? Most tricks are void of any purpose other than to entertain and fool people. What's the point of making a coin warp in an audience members hand or making a ball vanish from under one cup and appear under another? Fantastic magic, but pretty much pointless. We can increase the power of our performances by giving a purpose to magic.

If you can find them, search out some of the old TV shows from British magician Dynamo. Creating purpose for the magic magic magicians perform has been one of the ‘themes’ of the second series of the TV series Dynamo Magician Impossible. Let’s look at a few examples:

Dynamo is talking to the DJ in a nightclub. However, the bar is full and he can’t get out past the crowds. What would he do if he really could perform magic? He would simply fly over the crowd to the exit. That’s exactly what he did.

Dynamo visits a music store to meet his fans. It all gets too much and he needs to escape. What would a magic user do? Simply disappear. That’s exactly what happened.

Dynamo watched a street performer and wants to help him. He noticed the performer has images of money printed on his clothes, so he turns one of the pictures real so he can give the performer a tip.

The magic was used to solve real problems. That’s the purpose of magic shown on the show. How can you design your magic tricks to be useful in this way?

Purpose to Magic

The billion dollar question facing every close-up magician is that going from table to table entertaining people would be quite a low priority for most true magic users. So why WOULD a real magician be an entertainer?

Perhaps, to make people believe again....

Almost everyone believed in magic when they were kids, but then life got in the way and they came to believe what the world told them; magic is just pretend. Could making people question this belief, be the real purpose of a magician?

“What would I have to do right now to make you believe in magic?”

Try asking that question whenever you next perform close up magic. You will find that you get the same sets of answers time and again:

Make a bottle of wine appear
Turn this £10 note into a £50 note
Fly
Make xxx disappear
Bend a wine glass
Read my mind

Pretty quickly, you will have a list of the same most popular anwers, and have tricks ready to perform.
If you don’t get a ‘hit’ you can turn it into a joke or quip, as you move into your normal routine set. Don’t tell them you intend to perform their suggestions until after they give them, so you have a perfect ‘out’ by changing the subject if a hit doesn’t happen.

There's going to be some questions that you simply can't convert into tricks... For example: “Make a tiger appear” or “Make my wife disappear” but it would be simple to make a set of funny answers ready for when they pop up. You could build an act which allows you to perform most of those requests. You then just pick a suggestion from the audience that ‘hits’ and actually DO it for them. What a show!

I hope this help you and your magic
Best wishes
Dominic Reyes
@domincreyes

About Me and The Merchant of Magic

I'm Dominic Reyes BSc Psych (Hons) M.M.C, a full time professional magician and member of The Magic Circle, based in the UK. I teach, write, and lecture on psychology, sleight of hand, misdirection and practice techniques to magicians, as well as owning The Merchant of Magic which is the UK's largest magic shop.

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