The Magician's Studio

Where Magicians Improve Their Craft

ShowCraft in Action: Part 10e

February 3, 2023 /

After a break (working on Mind of a Magician #12 among other projects), Here we go:

NO Poker

[Segue from 10d: OUT OF THIS WORLD] “And if we trust that this particular group is meaningful. And here for some interesting reason; that begs the question ‘What am I doing here’?”

“Any good heist needs someone to pull it off. A planner. A puppet master. Someone who can see the big picture while keeping in mind every minute detail. And not to toot my own horn here, but tonight that role will be played by me.”

“The skills someone needs to plan the perfect heist are not that distinct from the skills one needs to become an effective magician. A type A attention to detail and a type B ability to think out of the box. A careful understanding of human behaviors. And most importantly, the pointedness to control exactly what you need to happen. Down to the second.”

EVAN invites three audience members onto the stage

“In fact, I’d love to give you an example by playing a bit of a game. If you three would join me on stage at the table, I can show you how exacting a magician can be.

They come to the table, EVAN takes out a deck of cards and they play a round of poker. EVAN deals off 20 cards and begins shuffling the packet.

“Being a magician is actually quite simple. All you need to do is think of every possibility that can ever happen, and then convince the people in the same room to choose the possibility that looks most impossible. “

“Right now, if I were to deal out some hands of poker, giving myself a good hand might not be that impressive. I’ve been shuffling the cards, and maybe – I dunno – I could do something sneaky while I was dealing.”

“But these three seem much more trustworthy than me, so-

EVAN addresses someone in the first row

“- should player one, two, or three deal for us?”

Response. [offsets] EVAN hands the deck off to the named person.

“You got it! Person X will deal us all a hand of poker – 5 cards clockwise around the circle if you don’t mind. [to audience] Here’s where a magician’s skill set thrives. We present a challenging situation – like a poker game where the magician doesn’t even get to deal – and produce an impossible outcome.

EVAN asks the participants to show their cards and reveal their hands. They show various hands but nothing impressive. EVAN turns his cards around revealing a royal flush.

Thank you. But it doesn’t stop there, because there’s a problem. Magician’s take challenging circumstances and create something impossible. As strange as it sounds, that’s actually less difficult than what a thief can do. A real mastermind behind a perfect heist takes complete normal circumstances and does something unlikely. The catch 22 is that the wildly unlikely outcome is actually more difficult to predict and control than a magician’s impossibility. So let’s keep going with the deck of cards.

EVAN stands up and takes out a notebook, which he uses to make a prediction during the next segment.

“Magic has a problem. Well, it has many problems, but that’s a whole different show. The problem for the moment is that it’s too predictable. There’s no excitement or risk or possibility of defeat. Magician’s always win.”

“So I’d like to try something more challenging. I’m going to try to lose.”

EVAN writes the word “LOSE” in big letters on a pad of paper.

“We’ll play a number game, well, really it’s more of a decision game. You all [gesture to players] will make a series of decisions using your cards…

NOTE- This structure is driving me crazy, so in the spirit of moving forward with the draft, I’m going to move forward past it and fill in the details later. Here are the basic plot points:

  • EVAN gets a royal flush with someone else dealing
  • Something about setting up the idea of “winning and losing”
  • Write the word LOSE or the number 3507 [plain sight prediction]
  • All players choose one card at a time to create a multi-digit number that will all get added together
    • Is it more impressive here for me to be controlling a very specific outcome or for it to be hands off and somehow still aligns at the end?
  • At the end, the numbers are all added together, and they make 3507.
  • The plain sight prediction is turned either from word to number or vice versa.

Phew! Now I don’t have to think about this one for now.

Spectrum Structure

January 25, 2023 /

A short detour from the intricate world of ShowCraft.

Years before the official development of ShowCraft (2011 to be precise), one of my first public shows came to life. It was called “Speaking of Magic” and was a fusion of magic and storytelling through history. It touched on everything from creation myths, to Grecian legends, to fairy tales, up to the present moment in the theater.

Even from then, I knew I wanted my shows to have some sort of structure, though I didn’t yet have the terminology (theatrically, magically, or creatively) to dive in fully. I found myself organizing the pieces of the show into different arrangements until I landed on a temporal framework.

I couldn’t tell you why (maybe there was some innate structure I picked up on, or perhaps it was pure chance), but it ended up “working.” It gave the show some much needed structure (so it wasn’t a “trick parade”) and it helped guide towards the ending idea of the power of stories/words in our lives. It provided a preexisting Spectrum onto which the show’s pieces could be placed. It might not have the meticulous construction of designing a plot in accordance with a character’s goals or carefully developing a message, but it was a starting point.

In conjunction with the base “spectrum,” I had two bookend effects that helped contextualize the show. The opening piece (a version of Fiber Optics by Richard Sanders) introduced story elements to the audience and let them know what the show was about. The closing piece (a table levitation by Losander) illustrated my ideas on why stories are important. Which left the middle to share a variety of stories (and associated magic tricks) that I found compelling.

There wasn’t too much to the structure outside of that. The whole thing was tightly scripted and the transitions were carefully crafted, but internally, that was about the extent of it. When a trick wasn’t really working and I needed to change it out, I had the flexibility to do so without destroying my whole structure, while still giving the audience the sense of things being in a particular place for a reason (when a new piece came in, it was relatively clear where on my temporal spectrum it belonged).

There’s more to explore here, but I wanted to get the core idea down. And some additional “spectrum” structures could include:

  • Geography/Location
  • Time
  • Color (abstract!)
  • Complexity
  • Group size (starting small and getting larger or vice versa)
  • Personal Experience

ShowCraft In Action: Part 10d

April 6, 2022 /

OUT OF THIS WORLD

“But first… I want to talk about you. Somehow, each of you ended up here tonight. And I bet, if you thought about it, you could figure out exactly how it is you came to be here. Maybe a suggestion from a friend or family member pushed you to investigate. Or a strategically placed advertisement caught your eye. Whatever your route into that seat of yours, you’re most likely aware of how you made that decision.”

“What’s more interesting to me is when we make decisions with none of that obvious information. We tend to play this off as ‘random gut instinct,’ but I’m convinced there’s much more to it than randomness.”

EVAN takes out a deck of cards and sets up two wine glasses on a table.

You might know how you got here, but I’m fascinated by why you ended up here. I have a theory that it’s less random than it might appear. So let’s put it to the test.”

“I’m going to ask you to make a decision without any information to back it up. A… random choice, if you will.

Performer mixes the cards and shows the faces mixed up. He removes some single cards, then small packets of cards in time with the next lines and questions to the audience.

“If I asked you to guess if this were a red card or a black card, what would you say?”

Response.

“Exactly. What about this one?

Response.

“Absolutely incorrect. When we focus on where there’s no information, the result is a 50/50 split. Even odds. You couldn’t possibly know what the card is. “

“But sometimes we don’t have to understand the how if we understand the why. We are constantly absorbing information – more information than we could ever process consciously. So instead of focusing on the thing you don’t know, when I ask you what color the cards are, just focus on me.”

“Would these be red or black?”

“And these?”

EVAN continues until all the cards are split between the red and black glasses. The lines he says while pulling out packets of cards might be prompts of things we can’t possibly know. Or even better, illogical questions like “If you were making dinner for an old friend on a Thursday, what star sign would that make me?” This could be done as a way of distracting the conscious brain even further. Perhaps the questions get more illogical as we go.

“And this is exactly why you are all here. If you were truly a random group of people spouting off random guesses, then the result would be understandably random. But we find ourselves in a unique situation that proves you all must be connected and aware of something even more than you realize. A situation that proves we can accomplish something incredible without understanding the intricacies of how it’s possible.”

EVAN turns around the separated cards and the red cards are all in the red glass and the black cards are all in the black glass.

[I may want to bring up how it doesn’t matter if they know what the cards are, because I know what the cards are.]

“And if we trust that this particular group is meaningful. And here for some interesting reason; that begs the question ‘What am I doing here’?” [Segue to 10e: NO Poker]

ShowCraft In Action: Part 10c

April 1, 2022 /

RING, WATCH, WALLET

[Transition to fit inside the Intro section. Keep this Quick as an early piece within a narrative]

In fact, I remember the specific moment I became a magician. It was wildly anticlimactic. It’s the spring of 2011, I’m in my college graduation robes, walking across a small stage to receive a Bachelors degree in interdisciplinary Hispanic Literature and Culture.

As they’re reading through the handful of names, time slows down (take off watch). for the last 17 years of my life, I had been the same thing. A student. A student with a wide variety of interests, but a student.

And I thought back through the years about how that title had given me permission to learn things just for the hell of it. I love being a student and I love learning. But now I didn’t know how I would be spending my time.

My friends had received these incredible job offers from places all over the world. They knew where they’d be spending their time, and what they’d be doing to earn money, and all I had was a big question mark out in front of me. I was looking for some sort of guide from a job about who I was going to be moving into the future.

Throughout this, the performer takes out his watch, money, and license, puts them into an envelope.

As I took the diploma, my student career ended. Seventeen years of learning came to an abrupt halt and suddenly I was… I guess… a full time magician? It’s not quite as exciting receiving a job offer when your boss is you.

I finished crossing the stage and nothing felt any different. But the weight of the future became immediately apparent. There was no money coming my way. There were no guidelines or instructions for how to spend my time. And no sense of identity – however misplaced – coming from what I was doing with my life.

He drops the items into an envelope. Pause, and then rips it open, showing that they’ve all vanished.

And thus begins a lifetime of reprioritization. While it’s true I sort of fell backward into the decision, so I can’t take all the credit, I realized that rather than letting time and money define who I was, I would start with me.

I would spend my time figuring out who I already was, and then cross my fingers that some semblance of money would come my way if I was thoughtful about spending whatever time I already had.

He reveals that the license and money are back in his wallet. And on the final line, he reveals the watch back on his wrist (or in his pocket if using pocket watch).

ShowCraft In Action: Part 10b

March 25, 2022 /

INTRO

Performer puts the QH on display and addresses the audience. As he talk to them, the lights come up and he takes back the flashlights he handed out earlier.

“Thank you all for being here. My name is Evan and I’m a magician. Which is an incredibly strange way to introduce yourself to other people. But I’m not talking about the ‘magician’ part of that sentence. I came to terms with that a long time ago and now I like watching peoples’ brains hiccup while they try to comprehend what it means.”

“No, what I’m talking about is that we introduce ourselves with our jobs. We ask for a name – which we promptly forget – and follow up with this nameless person by saying: ‘And what do you do?'”

“I think the job someone happens to be doing at a given point is a wildly unreliable indicator of who they are and what they’re like. Don’t get me wrong, some people are a perfect match for their job. Case in point [gesture to self].”

“But people end up in jobs for all sorts of reasons. So I think a more interesting question to get to know someone is what they would do if they could do anything except the thing they’re doing now.”

[RING WATCH WALLET (next script: 10c) feels like it actually belongs here. Continue the discussion about how we equate how people spend their time, what they do for money, with their identity; as though it indicates anything about WHO they are. Maybe perform with money, watch, and either an ID/license or the ring could work as a representative stand-in]

“I believe in leading by example, so I’ll go first. I’ve only ever imagined having three jobs. For most of my childhood, I was sure I would be a librarian. I lived in the library down the street from my house and the idea of hanging out in a building filled with nothing but ideas and stories was – and is – very appealing.”

“And obviously, one of the other jobs that called to me is being a magician. I get to tell stories, and show people things they would never see otherwise.”

“But for a brief period of time, or more accurately, for intermittent splashes of time, I’ve considered a third job. It was most pronounced in the spring of 2010. I was studying in Spain, and a group of us had been stranded in Amsterdam by an erupting Icelandic volcano. We were slowly making our way back to Madrid but we got held up in Paris for a few days. So, naturally, we check out the Louvre.”

“Keep in mind, we were not the only ones who were stranded. Everyone who was travelling through Europe had their flights grounded; so the tourists who were in Paris had already done the things they were going to do. Which meant when the group of us walked into the museum to check it out, it was empty. I walked for rooms at a time only seeing one or two people – if anyone.”

“I was able to walk straight up to the Mona Lisa, look at the Venus de Milo completely alone, and absorb everything the Louvre had to offer. And throughout most of that leisurely stroll through the world’s most treasured antiquities, this little voice in my head kept chiming in, saying: ‘You could totally steal that right now.’ ” [Note: probably need to rephrase this line. There’s a delicate balance between crafting a funny line and respect for the subject matter. Maybe phrase it more in terms of curiosity: “I wonder if…”].

“The only other full time job I’ve ever considered: international art thief. If you think about it, I’m professionally qualified for very few things in this world of ours. But the set of skills I’ve developed over the years is shockingly, unsettlingly close to that of a thief.”

“So every now and then, when I’m strolling through a museum, I’ll play a fun little game of ‘How-Would-I-Steal-That.’ I consider it professional development. And when I hear about museum heists, I’m fascinated by why the thieves make the choices they do, and how they end up getting caught.”

[There’s definitely a joke about asking if there are any law enforcement in the room somewhere in all this!]

“And when I hear about a theft gone wrong, that same, cocky voice pops back in and says ‘You could do it better.’ “

“I figure that the average person has something like five or six career changes in their life, so maybe I should explore this one now in case the magic thing ever dries up. I’m convinced that a magician could pull of the perfect heist, and I thought I’d show you what that would look like here tonight.”

“But first…” [segue into Out Of This World: Script 10d]

ShowCraft In Action: Part 10a

March 24, 2022 /

Welcome to the first step in a marathon slog through fraught terrain. It’s the entertainer’s version of the Barkley Marathons (look it up if you’re unfamiliar… it’s zany and outrageous and wonderful).

SCRIPTING

I waffled a bit about how to include the scripting process (and what to include). But I landed on including as much as possible. If it’s not of interest, you can obviously skip right by it. But if seeing how Themes/Frames/Goals/Material/Setlist/Etc all come together into a terribly rough draft of a show interests you, here’s that transition. “Part 10” will be one entry for each routine (followed by a letter).

I’ll include my full first draft of the routine. No editing in a different word processor and dropping it here. Just unfiltered, unorganized ideas that I’m trying to assemble into a rough script. It will probably feel choppy because it’s inherently so, but it will feel choppier because I’m going to separate it out into different entries like this. I’ll be keeping my previous concept work for the show in mind (and occasionally up on the screen as a guide), but that’s it. At the end, we’ll have a script. A bad one… but a script nonetheless.

Please excuse the lack of formatting (I’ve got all my presets in Word) and WordPress doesn’t have the same sort of easy dialogue vs stage direction vs heading format choices, so I may find some ways to differentiate as I go or it may look like a lot of blocks of text.

Let’s begin where every script begins:

HOTEL 52

Int. – A semi-lit warehouse space.

Fade house lights to blackout. Silence for a few beats. Maybe some sound effects of gentle ambient music fill the space. Eventually, a door opens and the light of a flashlight explores the space and the audience. The person holding it flicks on a few small lights – just enough to illuminate a table with a single deck of cards out of the box and the performer himself.

“I want you to imagine you’re in a museum at night. It’s the strangest museum you’ve ever seen; there are only 52 pieces of art, and they’re all pictures you recognize. Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds; they show all 52 playing cards. And you’re there… to steal them.”

“You’ve managed to get inside, but you can immediately tell something is wrong. You sniff the air… smoke… fire! You have to act quickly if you’re going to get any of the paintings before it’s too late.”

“The museum is divided into two wings. One houses all the red card, and the other, all the black cards (paintings?). You notice smoke start to pour out of the vents (to audience member), in your imagination, do you see the smoke in the red wing or the black wing?” [Response]

“Yes, that’s exactly right. As you get closer, you see the smoke pouring out of the vents in the red wing, starting to wisp towards the collection of red works. The fire is growing and now you’re seeing sparks. They burst and scatter off the walls. Do the sparks start to hit the hearts or the diamonds?” [Response]

“Yes, precisely. As the room fills with smoke, the sparks hit the diamonds. The old dry canvases catch fire and start to spread towards the hearts. The hearts are all displayed with the numbers, A, 2, 3, on one wall and the face cards, J, Q, K, on the other wall. Do the flames move towards the number cards or the picture cards?” [Response]

“Exactly right! The flames spread towards the face cards so you rush to stand in front of them: the Jack, Queen, and King. Which one do you stand in front of?” [Response]

“Yes, so you start with the Jack, pull it off the wall, then the Queen, then the King. You’re trying to manage all three of these paintings as you make your way up to the roof to escape. As you go, the three paintings are getting shuffled around as your try to hold them. You approach the top floor and the flames are right behind you. A charred wooden beam starts to fall from the ceiling. You look down and which painting is on top of the pile?” [Response]

“Exactly. The beam falls directly in front of you and smashes the Jack to pieces; leaving it smoldering and charred on the ground. You make your way to the roof where yours truly is waiting! Your partner in crime. Thick as thieves! I’m standing next to our getaway helicopter. You run over and pass off one of the paintings to me do you give me the Queen or the King?” [Response. Beat.]

“Yes. You hand me the Queen of Hearts. But the story doesn’t end there. Any good heist story always has a twist. You go to run to the helicopter, and you find yourself handcuffed to the railing. During the handoff, someone [shrug/wink] cuffed you to a metal railing, leaving you stranded for the police to find any minute”

“And with that, standing on top of the museum, yours truly takes the Queen of Hearts painting and climbs into the helicopter.” [Carefully turn over the top card of the deck, revealing the Queen of Hearts. Reaction.]

“Tragically, all the other priceless works of art in that imaginary art heist were lost to the imaginary fire. I’m so glad we ended up with the Queen of Hearts, and I’m even gladder all of this was just in our minds”

Performer goes to the rest of the deck on the table, deliberately picks it up, and crumbles it into a tiny ball – the cards transforming into nothing but a scrap of paper except for the QH. Applause Cue.

Tenets/Pillars

March 23, 2022 /

A quick reprieve from “ShowCraft” before diving into a long series of bad first-draft scripts (buckle up).

I’ve been submitting a lot of grant proposals of late, and in tandem with that, taking a class and doing some reflecting on the business side of my work. What all of that has led to is a lot of time thinking about my Purpose/Vision/Mission/’Why’/any other term encapsulating my reason for existing. While I’m having some trouble identifying that particular portion, I’ve clarified (en route), some ideas about what defines my work.

I’ve come to think of these as Tenets or Pillars of my practice (I can’t decide which term is best quite yet). These are the characteristics that – in my ridiculously wide portfolio of projects and forms of work – are constants. They reflect (part of) what I believe about the world, life, people, and performing; so they don’t change as regularly as the topical themes of a project. These Pillars govern the type of work I create and how I go about creating it.

So, I present for your consumption, my Tenets:

  • Intention: How I design. I curate cohesive experiences that are fully thought-out and that show immense care for the participant. Intention gives art structure.
  • Storytelling: How I connect. I use storytelling techniques to communicate the theme and ideas of the project effectively. Storytelling communicates meaning.
  • Curiosity: How I entertain. I use Wonderland-eque levity to intrigue the audience, introduce the unexpected, and make sure the experience is fun. Curiosity makes art intriguing.

My projects might have varying degrees of each of these guiding principles, but they’re so deeply engrained in who I am at this stage of my career, that they all pop up in each endeavor I undertake.

What are the characteristics that define your work?

ShowCraft in Action: Part 9b

March 21, 2022 /

SETLIST CONTINUED…CONTINUED (Act II and Act III)

Torn2Pieces: [Mistake #1 is destroying the final take] Shift in the focus of the show from Act I’s theoretical groundwork (“look at these skills magicians have… they’re so good at subtly manipulation situations”) into Act II’s practical applications (“Here’s what we’d actually need to pull off an art heist, AND why magicians could do it better). T2P is the simplest, most visual in-road to this idea. Many thieves (especially in a case like the Gardner Heist), simply slash the painting from its canvas and run away with it. It’s inelegant, and that’s the difference a magician can make: bringing subtlety and the elegant choreography of a magic trick to high crimes and misdemeanors. Could use a picture from the Gardner Heist, or something that spurs on a story that could be used in/as the transition from Act I to Act II. Let the final reveal of the mis-made piece be a mini version of the “twist” finale. The presentational flow is “here’s what’s wrong with heists” (the work gets cut, torn, rolled, destroyed, etc.), “Here’s what a magician would bring to the situation (elegance that respects the art), AND the closer you look at what happened, the harder it is to understand exactly what when down (twist reveal of mis-made). The transition into the next effect needs to be about how this isn’t based on insider knowledge or fancy tech, but on people. “Everything you’re about to see works because I pay attention to how people behave… and here’s your chance to do the same.” This idea as an “answer” to the routine should get set up at the outset of this section to help move the conversation element forward smoothly.

AKA: [Mistake #2 is getting the team wrong] Name-Game Psychometry type effect. Magician’s solution #1: You want a team full of a grifters. Con men never steal a single thing – they convince their marks to hand over what they want of their own accord. And they do that by watching, listening, and giving them what they want. People will always tell you what they’re thinking if you pay attention to what they’re saying AND what they’re not saying. And once you know what they’re actually thinking, you know what they want. Do the first 4 matching names to people. For the final name (after joke in script), When you learn to read people’s behavior like a language, it can look an awful lot like mind-reading… even when it’s not.

Cards Across (Or Verone Impossible Location): [Mistake #3 is not planning the escape / how to move the piece]. We know how to get to the thing, we know how to get the thing, now we have to get away with the thing. This should be the key skill – and where magicians shine – pulling off ridiculously obvious things in plain sight with no one realizing. The reason being we can push the focus gently around the one thing we don’t want people to see (almost like the Invisible Gorilla). Someone thinks of a card (or two cards if Cards Across) that they see, they say what it is out loud, and here we need FAUXCESS! Whatever the “magic move” is here has to be credible, visually interesting, and related to the show as a whole. This (or a variation with a twist) will be used in the finale and needs to carry a lot of subtext: the audience will become aware their attention is being controlled, and probably look for what they shouldn’t be seeing. As an example, the magic move could be some sort of gesture that I talk through that uses lots of fire/smoke wording or imagery (even as a joke that the sheer mental and physiological effort of it all leaves a gentle wisp of smoke curling in the air)

Final Color Transposition: Act III The Perfect Heist. (Probably needs smoke, hehehe… but actually… maybe the cube built into a deck box?). This is what it would look like. Set the stage – lighting, haze, laser lights bouncing off mirrored surfaces. Two decks of cards (one real, one forgeries that you can only tell from the back). Recap the skills we have that will allow us to pull it off, then do it. Undersell this moment. Have three people just think of cards (you have to know what someone is thinking), get to those cards cleanly (without destroying them), and get everything out (without a trace). At the moment of the “magic move,” a gentle wisp of smoke hangs in the air and the performer pauses, smiles, and moves to the reveal.

Outro: Need to tie it up somehow. Perhaps following on the idea of “the closer you look at the end, the more questions pop up about exactly what happened.” Perhaps the imagery of a single light bulb plugged into an outlet that gets turned off, unplugged, and then the outlet itself gets peeled off the wall. Need to find a thread that makes the single bulb important throughout. At the end, perhaps the space around them is changed outside of the show; AND there are talk triggers (laser cut diamonds?) that continue to appear into the future.

Act II / III Notes

  • Whereas Act I feels like a collaborative conversation, the back-and-forth of Act II in particular is more driven by the performer. The “questions” are address at the beginning of a routine by the performer and the magic that follows is the explanation of sorts. Act III should feel like a natural continuation BUT it’s important to leave them with a final, specific, unanswered question (perhaps/probably “HOW did he do it?”).
  • This show really has the potential to spur on conversations after the show, so thinking about the audience’s role both as co-conspirators and then (later) critics and analysts gives them multiple roles to play (and multiple options for how to engage with the show). As the show is being written, pay extra close attention to the roles different types of people might assume at any give moment, and be scripting for those different modes of engagement.

ShowCraft In Action: Part 9a

March 17, 2022 /

EDIT: This section became wildly long, so I split it into two parts. This (part a) is “Act I” and part b will cover Act II and III.

SETLIST CONTINUED: A Conversation With The Audience

Here’s a bit of an experiment. Normally at this point (with so much concept work laid out), I’d usually start in on the script. I’m comfortable with longform writing so it feels natural for me to start filling in the blank spaces with the full “story” of the show.

But in an effort to dig into what my ShowCraft process truly entails, I thought I’d try something that’s been kicking around in my mind: thinking through the Setlist as though it were a conversation with the audience. Almost like an interview where the individual pieces respond to the natural next questions of the audience.

Our art is inherently audience-focused. We need people and their brains for magic to exist, so it behooves us to think through what they’re (probably) thinking throughout our show. If ShowCraft is intentionally choosing what to perform when, part of what can inform that decision is what questions and thoughts are in our audience’s minds. Using the Setlist from the last ShowCraft post, I’m going to flesh out the message of each trick, possibly do some re-organizing, and hopefully find the conversational thread that begins to unite disparate parts of the show.’

SHOW WALKTHROUGH

Welcome/Intro: Audience members enter a museum/gallery/warehouse feeling space. If it leans more ‘gallery,’ they can roam around, look at art on the walls featuring card imagery. If it’s more ‘warehouse,’ it feels minimalist – even empty – perhaps the space is filled with soundscape/music to set the mood? The mood is curious and excited, with the predominant question being “What’s about to happen?” At showtime, the lights go down to a full blackout, and after a few moments augmented by sound effects, flashlights begin to turn on, spotlighting a deck of cards and the magician.

Hotel 52: Adapted to an art heist, sets up the 52 cards as unique, priceless art works. Lean on dramatized story to get in medias res opening feeling. One card is selected, revealed at the top of the deck. Rest of the deck crumpled up. Box revealed to be destroyable/made of paint/etc. Effect sets up obviously that the show is about heists/theft, and the first questions are probably a response to me; Who am I? Why am I doing this show? What interests me about the topic?

Ring, Watch, Wallet: Possible elements to include: 1) Story about being stuck in Paris at the almost empty Louvre, thinking “I could steal that;” 2) Only ever considered (and my skills only qualify me for) a handful of jobs: Librarian, Magician, International Art Thief; 3) We so often define ourselves by our jobs to the point where it becomes the first thing we ask a person about (set up for a moment of transformation later on where the focus should really be not on what we do when someone is giving us money, but what we’d be doing when no one pays us for it at all); 4) Being a good magician requires skills inversely proportional to being a good person. This section needs to not only introduce me, but immediately establish trust because the nature of the material is such that twists/mistrust is rampant, and especially if I want to play with that towards the end for a “twist” of some kind, I need the audience on my side right away. This effect should be funny, somewhat self-deprecating, and relatable (use storytelling technique to find the relatable moments). Possible objects to include as part of the effect: Money (Material Value, Wealth), License (Identity), Watch (Time), Business Card (Identity – Becomes Calling Card Later?). Sort of a Thief vs. Magician presentation? Both… “creative problem solvers.” ***Set up the premise of the show at this point: That I think a smart magician could pull of the Perfect Heist*** This leads to a bunch of questions that need to be tackled in a targeted way: Why Magicians? What skills do they have? What would you steal? How would you do it? What would it look like? Generally, I want to save the “Demonstration” for Act III as a finale. Promise to show them exactly what it looks like (though they won’t be able to see it if everything works correctly).

Out Of This World: Refocus all the attention by putting the audience on display a bit. There are a lot of disparate questions happening which is good for interest but bad for controlling the show. Fauxcess of this piece is that audience can do things without always understanding how (Magician’s aren’t special/unique in doing things people don’t understand); I have information and they (apparently) don’t and I’m going to ask them to make decisions. But information is constantly being translated and communicated (SETUP FOR AKA LATER… Maybe incorporate “Pointing”), we just need to be aware of subtext. Flow of the effect should start conversational; maybe with a back and forth about jobs as a callback. As it goes along, I should react positively but subtly because I have the information they’re doing well and I should actively try to give them less information. “Don’t try to solve it, just trust that the information is already making its way to your brain.” Revelation should include the idea of this being the perfect audience (affirmation) for the show and once again tease the ending somehow. Questions will probably focus on “How did we do that?” At this point. I want to refocus that question (Because there’s not enough time to understand “How” of it all as it’s too broad) into “How did you make the ‘right’ decision?” Ask who felt unsure vs who felt sure of their choice. Bring up different representatives and have them hold onto that feeling at the moment of decision making. Afterthought: Set this routine up as being “out of my control” because all the decisions will be made by you and while most magicians wouldn’t give up that much control early on, this isn’t exactly a magic show.

NO Poker: We know why the audience is here (Need a better resolution of this idea in the previous routine); and now we need to know why I’m here. Magician’s are attuned to reading the subtext of a situation. Gleaning extra information and working in the barely-perceptible periphery (call back to the idea of information already being in the brain, just not being processed). And above all, subtly manipulating situations for their own preferred outcomes. This routine is all about manipulation (so I need to take the sting out). Phase 1: win at a hand of cards quickly. Phase 2: Set up the win/lose dichotomy so that I’m attempting to “lose” (fun wording). This routine activates the audience’s critical analysis, so play with that and then come back to a more enjoyable (while still active) mindset to appease critics. By controlling a series of decisions to a T, I can prove my own self-imposed challenge of why I’m leading the show, and I can bring a sort of resolution to “were my choices in OOTW fair/my own?” The answer(s) potentially being: 1) if they feel the same, does it matter? 2) The choices were completely fair in OOTW, but in NO, they made the exact series of decisions I wanted them to. Big takeaway is that THIS IS THE KEY: those two situations felt the same [This show probably needs to use the interactive/conversational moments to check in with participants who should be checking in with themselves]. By this point, folks should be wondering where the line is between what they can control themselves and what is being manipulated by me; I need them to trust me again, so address that and bring them back onto my team. That might happen by shifting the topic towards actual Heists (this Act I has been more general skills), OR the kicker word reveal (rather than “LOSE” could potentially be something related to the scripting transition from control/attention/etc. to heists and the kicker moment is what propels us into Act II.

Another Way To Think About ShowCraft

March 15, 2022 /

OK, I recognize there’s a lot of seemingly disparate ideas here, both theoretical and practical. As I describe my ideas of ShowCraft to other performers, I find myself needing a more concise way to describe it, so here’s an attempt:

ShowCraft is actively choosing WHY to perform certain pieces WHEN.

Several folks I’ve chatted with hear things like “show design” and immediately think that means adding sound, lights, choreography, scripting, etc. And these are all elements of a show. But they’re not what makes a show a show. At its core, a show (like in theater, movies, even books) is driven by artistic intention an purpose.

Think about your magic routines and fitting them together into a set or a show in the past. You probably put a quick flashy trick up front, and then some story-based pieces in the middle, and maybe something big and impressive at the end. But other shows aren’t written like that.

That would be the equivalent of writing a moving script entirely in standalone scenes that don’t relate to each other at all. Maybe the main character is constant between them (or a better parallel could be the actor is the same but playing different roles in those scenes), but they’re going to be inherently disjointed.

Now don’t get trapped thinking that the solution is transitions. They’re helpful and necessary, but transitions don’t make a show either! Taking 10 unrelated scenes and forcing character overlap or common story elements isn’t going to make a cinematic masterpiece.

To create a full show, the show itself needs to have an arc; a trajectory driven by intention and goals. Those are what allow us to check and see if our individual pieces, with their respective presentations, and the transitional glue holding them together, are the right choice to move our show from beginning to end!

ShowCraft is actively choosing WHY to perform certain pieces WHEN.

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