Taking a Good Hard Look at Your Magic

Magicians are the only performers I know of who are arrogant enough to think that they can be Director, Producer and Performer all rolled into one.

The problem is this merely promotes one continuous problem -- the blind spot. I know how clever I am. I know how good I am. I know that I'm the best magician around. (Please note the tongue planted firmly in my cheek.)

I also know that if I believe my own hype then I'm likely to fall into the trap that I see so many others fall into. Fortunately for me I have a number of different people, all with different perspectives, that I can turn to, try something out on and generally expect to get good and useful feedback from.

And the beauty part is that with only a couple of exceptions, they are almost all *NOT* magicians.

Why is that the best part? Because they are not concerned with *HOW* something is done. They generally don't care. Over they years they've developed a sense of how I manage some of the things that I do, but that isn't relevant to them. What is relevant is whether or not the performance itself is actually any good.

A good portion of these people are not only *NOT* magicians, but they *ARE* actors! Even better because what they do is all about communicating the performance to the audience. This is something to damn many magicians neglect because they are so busy being their own directors and producers that they forget that they aren't perfect.

The best thing a magician can have going for them is to be able to turn to other performers and get them to take a good hard look at your magic. And even better still is when they won't pull their punches. They have to be able to tell you that something sucks.

I've been trying to get one particular routine to work in my magic career because I like it, and every time I pull it out one of these wonderful people tells me "IT SUCKS!"

Not the actual routine, but the way I perform it. Well, it's starting to suck less and less these days. I only pull it out once in a great while and work on it, but I know someday I'm going to get it to a point where it not only doesn't suck, but will actually be good.

And that will be a happy day.

Santiago
Enter a World of Elegant Magic
Santiago's Magic