If Someone Else You Try To Be

Thoughts on Being Yourself Or A Character Of Originality 

Last night I was reading a book on magic (re Reading) by a famous mind reader called Bob Cassidy.

I really enjoy his writing and love his thoughts on performing and approach rather than just the effects.

There was a two line saying that really struck home to me with regard to a lot of magic I see people performing at the moment weather live,on the internet or on TV

If Someone Else You Try to Be

You're Condemned to Mediocrity

(the artful mentalism of Bob Cassidy,Page 134)

I am lucky to work with and know many leading professional magicians and one of the biggest traits of the ones that stand out is their natural and relaxed approach to performing

We are not all creative enough to invent our own effects but all the magicians I know that are workers find a way to make certain tricks their own by stamping their own personality

No greater example of this could be said by my friend Harry Robson and his Borrowed Ring on Shoelace 

The nearest I have been able to come to making something my own is probably my Gold Cup Con trick which takes a classic plot and re frames it (photo above of me performing this at a corporate event)

I am a big fan of classic effects so on many occasions I am performing magic that has been done by other magicians for many years.This is because finding plots that suit you is really important in enabling the natural relaxed performance I try to convey

This does not mean you have to copy other peoples presentation of said classic plots

I do believe that the magic clone culture is in large a result of magicians now learning most of their new material from DVD

I can only liken it to following a Sat Nav and not knowing how you got to your destination

I started this blog saying how I gain most of my knowledge and inspiration in magic and that is from books.

When reading you put your own interpretation on the writing and in a lot of cases subconsciously come up with something unique

Of course I still watch magic DVD and go to Magic Lectures and watch magic on TV etc etc

This all comes back to my previous blog on making magic memorable and why people will remember you and your magic

It is hard to be unique but there is nothing worse than a bad copy of anything whether it is a cover version of a song a piece of art or in my mind especially a magic performance

Comments or questions welcome

Carl

www.magicbycarl.co.uk

Making The Magic Memorable

Why should they remember you?

There is an old saying in magic that "people do not remember what you do they remember how you make them feel"

So how do people want to feel when they watch magic?

If I was to brainstorm this question you will get a list something like the one below (or we did!!!)

• Engaged
• Amused
• Entertained
• Astonished
• Surprised
• Comfortable
• Included (without being picked on)
• Relaxed
• Happy
• Special

This list is not in any order but if you leave any audience member feeling just half of the above they are definitely going to remember you for a long time.

My first observation of the above is that most of the list is not necessarily related to magic at all.The fact is most magic is not about the effect or the trick being performed.

Yes it is really important that any magician performs amazing magic but what makes individual magicians stand out is the way they interact with their audience.

"How they make them feel"

If people have seen me perform you will know there is a section of my close up act where I use the word awesome a lot.I get the audience to repeat the word awesome and at the end of the effect I can almost guarantee someone will say "that was awesome"

This is because by the time I get to this effect everyone feels Engaged,amused,entertained,comfortable,included and I hope special

I sort of hope they are astonished as well but I am sure you get the message

On many occasions I have met people who have seen me perform at another time and they always remember the Awesome thing!!!!! 

As I have touched on in previous blogs it is so important to listen as you perform so you can respond and make an audience feel included instead of feeling they are being performed at.

Next time you are interacting with people whether you have met them before or not consider how you made them feel and how or if they will remember you in the future

This goes for Magic and none magic interaction

Comments and questions welcome

Carl Royle

www.magicbycarl.co.uk

www.facebook.com/magicbycarl

Why A New Blog?

A New Blog?

The reason for me starting this new blog page is primarily to get down some post event ideas.
The Blogs I produce on my web sites www.magicbycarl.co.uk/blog and www.wizardry.co.uk/blog are all aimed at the general public and are really a marketing tool.

I wanted to have a forum for my magical thoughts!!!!!

On many occasions I will get back from events and something unusual has happened or  I have come up with a new line,Something has inspired a new idea.

I hope it will be beneficial to my thinking or progression and also be entertaining to anyone else that cares to read my musings

The other problem with my web site blogs is on a lot of occasions they are being written to help SEO and are a marketing tool

This Blog will be a kind of open diary that might help the odd performer or create a discussion or two

I will try to post on here a couple of times a week with comments on Magic and Events I attend throughout the year

I will also comment on new and old product effects and books that cross my path

This Blog is really aimed at focusing my own thoughts and sharing with other magicians or performers

Hope it is fun

Carl