I was thinking (I do that sometimes, but try to contain your surprise), making a trick's presentation silly can actually (believe it or not) make said trick cooler. The more outrageous the trick, the sillier it should be.
The idea I had uses that Criss Angel levitation (which I personally find impractical). Basically, I tie a cape around my neck and announce that I need to interrupt the performance to go save the world. I turn around go over to a ledge, do the intentionally vague "stuff," and begin to fly upwards, stop, go back down and announce that my spidey sense had informed me that the UN is on it.
Yes, it is quite silly, isn't it. But silliness can really be good misdirection.
Using a principle similar to that levitation, one could hand his or her audience a deck of cards, treating it like a gun, talking about gun safety, etc. The magician would have audince members throw cards at the magician who would use that similar principle to do a slo-mo matrix dodge, bending back and flailing his arms, seeming to defy gravity.
The idea is that if I pull the audince into my silliness, they will be more receptive. They'll go along for the ride.
Magicians use humor a lot, to warm spectators up, but sometimes will shy away from it since it can crowd the effect. I think this is absolutely the right thing to do for certain effects, but when you start to delve into the laws of the universe, It may be safer to not be too serious.
Take some Paul Harris effects, for example. He has one in which the magician reaches his hand behind over his shoulder and stretches down between his legs. The patter for this is very light hearted. Take "Looy's False Count." Nobody will possibly believe that illusion if it is treated entirely seriously. I have performed that a few times and show it as more of a novelty. The suggested patter for the Aerodynamic Dollar is "damn thing ran out of gas."
These stunts are to entertain your audience. If one is too serious, that will detract from a performance. So be serious for Stigmata. Joke around for Saw (you can actually do some gruesomely hilarious presentations of that one. Just start talking like you've had a tracheotomy, pulling the string back and forth, and try to smile...)
The idea I had uses that Criss Angel levitation (which I personally find impractical). Basically, I tie a cape around my neck and announce that I need to interrupt the performance to go save the world. I turn around go over to a ledge, do the intentionally vague "stuff," and begin to fly upwards, stop, go back down and announce that my spidey sense had informed me that the UN is on it.
Yes, it is quite silly, isn't it. But silliness can really be good misdirection.
Using a principle similar to that levitation, one could hand his or her audience a deck of cards, treating it like a gun, talking about gun safety, etc. The magician would have audince members throw cards at the magician who would use that similar principle to do a slo-mo matrix dodge, bending back and flailing his arms, seeming to defy gravity.
The idea is that if I pull the audince into my silliness, they will be more receptive. They'll go along for the ride.
Magicians use humor a lot, to warm spectators up, but sometimes will shy away from it since it can crowd the effect. I think this is absolutely the right thing to do for certain effects, but when you start to delve into the laws of the universe, It may be safer to not be too serious.
Take some Paul Harris effects, for example. He has one in which the magician reaches his hand behind over his shoulder and stretches down between his legs. The patter for this is very light hearted. Take "Looy's False Count." Nobody will possibly believe that illusion if it is treated entirely seriously. I have performed that a few times and show it as more of a novelty. The suggested patter for the Aerodynamic Dollar is "damn thing ran out of gas."
These stunts are to entertain your audience. If one is too serious, that will detract from a performance. So be serious for Stigmata. Joke around for Saw (you can actually do some gruesomely hilarious presentations of that one. Just start talking like you've had a tracheotomy, pulling the string back and forth, and try to smile...)
