As we discovered, at FISM a competition act is judged in the following categories:

·         Technical Skill/Handling.

·         Showmanship/Presentation

·         Entertainment value

·         Artistic Impression/Routining

·         Originality

·         Magic Atmosphere

But the question is, which one of these categories is most important?

When I first competed in FISM back in 1991 in Lausanne, Switzerland, I created what I thought would be a contest winning act. It had two parts to it; the first part was comprised of an interesting coin routine with lots of technically challenging sleights, the second part was a crazy card trick where I interacted with a small video version of myself on a tiny black and white television.

When I presented the act at my local magic club here in Melbourne everyone liked it, except my mentor Lyndsay Rietschel. Lyndsay thought the second part was okay but as to the first section of coin moves he said "Chuck it." Naturally, I objected. After all, the first section proved to my peers that I had skill. Most of the other guys in the club were talking about the clever coin moves I had. The act remained as it was.

Meanwhile, I had just created the Six Card Rap as a bit of a joke and Peter Reveen happened to be in town the night of it's debut. He insisted I enter the Rap in the competition. I was shocked... after all, it's a self-working trick! However, I took his advice and entered it in General Magic.

In the end my coin & card routine in the close up competition went well, but I overheard several people saying that they loved the originality and entertainment value of the card/video sequence, but the coin stuff let the act down. The Rap, on the other hand, was received so well that even though I technically disqualified myself (because the rules stated you need to do more than one trick, and a minimum of three minutes) they actually created a 'Special Prize of the Jury' to acknowledge my performance.

Now I think you can see where I'm going with this. Just like in the "real world", you are more likely to be noticed and rewarded for originality and entertainment value than technical skill. After all, most magicians are really just audience members with a little more magical knowledge than your standard layperson. They can appreciate a stunning display of skill, but they will remember and be entertained more by an original and entertaining idea.

In my opinion, you could create the best 'Magic Atmosphere' and still lose. You could  get full marks for 'Technical Skill/Handling' and fail to place. The only two categories where you get full marks and really stand out are 'Originality' and 'Entertainment Value'.

Of course, the best acts score well in all categories, but my advice is to FIRST focus on these two areas when creating your contest winning act. If your act require great skill, you will be judged accordingly. (If the judges looked at my Six Card Rap and had to mark the 'Technical Skill/Handling' category, they'd have to score me according to what skill the trick required. For what I did, I displayed top skill - not that it was all that difficult. However, with my coin act, even though the degree of difficulty was high, and I may have got extra points for that, who knows, I didn't execute the moves perfectly so I should have lost a few points there. Look at Henry Evans. He won the Card Magic category and everyone assumed he had great skill, but now we know a lot of it was self-working... the skill came in creating the methods, and presenting them well enough to fool us!

So when you start creating your act, concentrate on 'Originality' first. Look at what everyone else is doing, and DON'T do any of that. Think of your wildest dreams, those magic fantasies you had when you first got into magic and didn't understand the work involved in learning how to do it. Don't worry about methods or practicality, just imagine what type of magic would blow YOU away if you saw it. THAT is what you are about to create.

For some ideas and practical suggestions about how to unclog your 'Creativity Valve', try MagicSports. Play a few of these games with your friends, at a magic club, or try a few training games at home alone. You can even see some of the games in action at FISM on our DVD 'Ellis In Wonderland'.

That's your homework for today - dream up your new act. I can't give you any clearer guidelines as to how you can do this, but I can tell you what NOT to do:

• DON'T - look at a successful act and copy it with slight changes.
• DON'T - look at a successful act and copy it at all!
• DON'T - do routines you've bought at a magic shop or a lecture.
• DON'T - create a 'theme' act where it's all based around (for example) Barbie Dolls, whee they multiply, change colour, and then grow to life size as a climax.
• DON'T - do an act that is purely a demonstration of skill.
• DON'T - do any type of act which ends up with you looking great at the expense of any volunteers or assistants.
• DON'T - do any act where any animals are being hurt or even look as though they're being hurt.
• DON'T - use any foul language. Even when used in context this can offend sensitive judges and lose you points.

Many people have different ways to bring their dream act to life. In the current issue of 'MAGIC' magazine John Carney said the first step he took to bringing his show to life was to design a poster. Then he looked at the poster and asked himself what 'Carney's Wonder Cabaret' meant to him.

In the last Part of this series we looked at how to create your dream act by imagining what sort of magic would "blow you away". It's good to steer clear of marketed effects, routines or pieces created or associated with other magicians etc, but instead to let your imagination run free.

Assuming you now have an act in your mind, how do you bring that into reality?

First, you need to set out what the restraints are:

• Time Limit - do you have to perform your whole act within a certain time frame?
• Staging - is there a maximum stage size you need to work within?
• Surface - for close up, can you bring your own table or do you have to use theirs?
• Set up - do you have limited time to set up?
• Fire - does the venue allow fire, smoke or fog effects... or not?
• Language - if you need to speak, what language/s should you use to be understood by the majority?
• Topics - is the subject matter of your act taboo or even controversial to your audience?
• Culture - are there any cultural gestures or phrases you need to take into account?
• Video - if you are being filmed live to screen, do you need to work to the camera or the audience?
• Angles - will the camera, or poorly positioned audience members, reveal any effects?
• Lighting - is your act going to be affected by bad lighting or missed lighting cues?

All of these questions and more can form a framework to give you guidelines when bringing your act into reality. You can ignore these from the start, but inevitably you will have to answer these questions and, if you've spent six months on a method that won't work because of the stage size, then that time is wasted. Also, having a framework makes it much easier to eliminate impractical ideas and methods.

So, let's imagine that your ideal act is a stage presentation that sees you causing randomly chosen volunteers to float around the stage:

First - will this single concept be engaging enough to sustain 8-10 minutes, or do you need to add other elements to it?

Is it best to simply walk out and randomly choose your volunteers or should you begin with an attention grabbing effect and then choose your volunteers?

Entrance is very important. So by beginning with an eye-catching effect is a great idea. Should you theme the act and start by floating yourself? This is where theme acts can be their own worst enemies. If you float, then it takes the surprise out of having the audience members floating later in the act. However somehow, you need to set the idea in the subconcious of the audience that the floating, though a surprise at the end, is the natural and fulfilling climax to the act.

Take my 'Runaround Sue' act for example. I do the Cups & Balls with milkshake cups. The cups are normally used for milkshakes, but I'm using them for a magic trick instead. However, when the milkshake finally appears in the cup it's a surprise because the milkshake is not expected in the context of the trick, but it is the logical conclusion to a trick using milkshake cups.

The process is similar to a well crafted murder mystery where the murderer is revealed and you are surprised as to who it was but you still say "Of course! I should have guessed it was him. It all makes sense now."

So how do we apply that to our floating of audience volunteers? One simple way would be to present the act as an 'Infomercial' on weight reduction pills. You could begin with a television set on stage and maybe a large person viewing it. There's some static and he gets up to try to fix the TV and, in the process takes it apart and reassembles it. The programme comes on and it's the infomercial. Instantly the TV collapses and out steps you, as the presenter, addressing the viewer live and in person. You could present a few small effects with the diet pills, then maybe a larger illusion where the person (perhaps utilising an instant costume change) transforms into a slim version of himself. Now you magically produce some giant lightweight diet pills which you toss into the audience to randomly choose four volunteers. They come up onto the stage and, as they clutch their giant pills and "think light" they start to float. You then take their pills from them and they continue to float until the effect wears off and they return to earth. The floating is unexpected, but makes sense.

Obviously, that presentation is not to everyone's performing style. So let's think again:

Maybe the floating is restricted to one volunteer, but is the climax of a mentalism routine. Imagine that four giant playing cards are on stage spinning. A voice asks the audience members to think of one card. The four cards stop spinning and the voice says "I knew you weren't thinking of the Ace of Spades." It falls to the stage, "Or the Three of Diamonds", it falls, "Or the Six of Clubs", it falls. "That only leaves the Jack of Hearts" It falls, revealing the mentalist. He chooses six volunteers and has them stand in a row. He opens a can of soft drink and asks, as he is blindfolded, for the can to be passed along the row and for only one person to take a drink. After his blindfold is removed he studies the volunteers and, as one starts to float, he reveals that that indeed was the person who drank the soft drink.

As you can see, there are many ways of presenting an effect and many different styles as well, some more effective than others. In order to determine the style that suits you, you need to understand exactly what style of a performer you are.

In order to bring your act into reality from a technical side, take a look at the great, but underutilised, book by Dariel Fitzkee 'The Trick Brain'. This has a wealth of advice about how to come up with a method for any trick you can imagine. In a few days, I'll try to post my 'MagicSports' version of this technique.

Creativity is like any other muscle in your body. In order for it to grow you need to exercise it daily. Make it a habit to try to dream up a new trick or idea, the more impossible the better, and write it down in a notebook.

I received this email from Ingo Brehm last week, and I'd like to try and reply to it here:

________________________________________

Hi Tim,

with interest and enjoy I read your thoughts about winning a competition. Since a few (about six) years, I came up with some ideas, I thought to be good as competition acts. Sometimes it have been just small fragments or ideas, sometimes there have been complete plots. But I never managed to put it into practice.

My idea was to create an act by writing down a plot first. Having a character and to know why he is on stage and does magic are the most important questions for me. After that I have to think about a beginning, a problem and a solution of the problem.

Now, let’s do like we would have all that. What now???? My biggest problem was always the question of where to begin. I don’t think that it can be to buy props or design (new) effects. Or perhaps it is? My problem was always that I got stuck somewhere in the theoretic thinking-process or in bringing it to practice. Is it perhaps a way to just work on one single part of the act? Perhaps a simple effect or a small scene?

I would be very happy, if you could share your ideas about that.

Best wishes from Germany also to Sue-Anne,

Ingo

________________________________________

 

The idea of creating a magic act starting with a character is excellent. It's a device used by many authors, film makers and playwrights. Many television shows and movies you see each day are plot-driven, but it's those with memorable or interesting characters that really succeed. Look at CSI and compare it with CSI:NY. Both shows have essentially the same plot, but the character of Grissom is far more interesting and well-developed than that of his New York counterpart.

Apply this to magic acts. Watch the audience reaction that a piece of brilliant magic will received when executed by a superb technician, when compared to a piece of average magic performed by an engaging character. Blaine's magic is certainly not mind-blowing, but when performed by his character, the audience really buys it.

As far as purpose goes, we do a lot a trade shows where companies want us to incorporate their message or their product into our magic. These shows are often far more effective than a simple after-dinner presentation.

So often when we are introduced to perform after the main course plates have been cleared away, you can sense the audience thinking "Magicians? Why are we going to watch a magic show? Isn't that for kids?" It can take quite a few minutes to get over that initial hurdle of "Why?" and have the audience actually participating in and enjoying the show.

On the other hand, when we walk out at a trade launch and start our presentation the audience is thinking "Aha, these are the people who are going to tell us all about this product." They are open and receptive to us, and genuinely surprised and delighted when the magic happens as we are demonstrating the features of the product.

If you have the luxury of a theatre and an audience who has come specifically to see you perform magic, then you will overcome a lot of the initial "Why?" associated with the standard after dinner show.

That leaves us with the "Why?" within the act. Why do any tricks at all? You could be solving problems with magic, showing off, causing problems, or any number of things. If you have a defined character, your character will often answer the "Why?" for you as you explore various ideas. If you simply play "the magician" and you get up on stage and produce a dove, tear up a newspaper and restore it, float a silver ball... don't expect the audience to be interested in you. All you are doing is demonstrating a series of tricks. You aren't telling them anything about yourself, or even your motivation for being on stage let alone why you're doing the tricks.

A movie analogy would be an abstract film. A collection of unrelated scenes that run for an hour and then suddenly stop, leaving the viewer to try to figure out what it all meant.

However, an abstract movie is intentionally abstract, most magic acts are simply displays of skill.

As Ingo said though, where to begin. You have a character, and you have a rough story (as he describes it "a beginning, a problem and a solution of the problem."

The best thing I have found is to tackle the act one effect at a time. Look at the smallest and easiest effect. Come up with your method and note it, and all of it's restrictions, down in a book. You may need to wear sleeves and have a large table on stage. You now have a starting point. As you solve each effect one by one they will impact on the solution you came up for the smallest effect. (A little like solving a rubik cube). You may find that one effect in the middle of your act requires you to hide something in your sleeve, but an earlier effect in the routine means you need your sleeves empty. Now you need to find a way to load your sleeves during the act, or change the method for the middle effect.

Ingo asks if the place to begin is not "to buy props or design (new) effects. Or perhaps it is?" If a certain prop is crucial to the story and the character, then you definitely need to buy it and work around it. The main reason people get stuck, is they can't begin because they have too many options and no boundaries. Set yourself limitations by developing on small part of the scene or even just one move. I'm currently working on a card act and I have mastered 5 seconds of it. That's all there is so far. And that 5 second piece requires a certain table surface and special cards. This immediately creates limitations which can guide me in the development of the next 9 minutes and 55 seconds of the act.

Another thought that might be helpful is that this one move, after it had been created, looked so good we couldn't decide if it should be at the beginning or the end of the act. But as we played with it, it suggested an otherwordly quality that lead to the idea of how to present it. The presentation would be couched in a 4 minute song. This meant I have to come up with other effects that are relevant to the words in the song then, for the other 6 minutes of the act, I need to create magic that will naturally lead up to the song.

In essence I think that the path Ingo is choosing, creating a character and a plot first, is an excellent ne. If more magicians chose that path magic would be a much more varied and interesting art form. But yes, if you decide that your character is a frog who has to try to cross a busy street, then tackle the creation of this act one effect at a time.

You can even put your effects into your standard act, be it on stage or close up, and "road test" them on audiences out of character. If they get a good reaction, and you can iron out any technical bugs along the way, then by the time you put them into context in your main act you'll be way ahead of the game.

Two quick final thoughts:

Teller suggests that when budgeting for an illusion (and the same would apply for any act) multiply your realistic budget by 4. The first thing you make won't work properly, the second you make will be good but you'll want to make a sleeker and better version. The third will be perfect. The fourth will be your spare.

With story acts, try to incorporate applause points within the act. With Sue-Anne's original 'Haunted Mansion' act we left no breaks at the end of effects, so the audience watched it as they would a play. But because it was magic, and they didn't hear their fellow audience members applauding, they felt it mustn't have been fooling the others. As soon as we were able to add applause points, the act as a whole got a better reaction and the audience actually recognised more tricks. It's the same as if a comedian tells jokes so fast that people don't laugh because they don't want to miss his next line. You'll see it in comedy plays and on sitcoms, the actors will pause and react, giving the audience a chance to laugh without breaking character and acknowledging the existence of the audience.

I've enjoyed exploring your question and I hope this has helped you in some way Ingo.