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ShowCraft In Action – part 1

November 15, 2021 / Evan Northrup

An artist’s process is a personal exploration into how they best create the things they want to bring into the world. I have lots of thoughts on magic theory and why we do the things we do, but it’s important to me that most of those ideas have come out of practical performance and show creation.

As we get into the winter of 2021 and in-person shows remain infrequent, it’s a good time to look forward to the show(s) for next year I’d like to produce.

For me, that creative process almost always begins with goals. As I plan out the show, having clearly defined goals that are (mostly) within my control is my way of making sure I’m moving in the right direction.

Goals can be personal, professional, creative, artistic, financial, or anything else that’s important to you at this point in your life. Usually I try to limit myself to 3 or 4, but it always starts with brainstorming a whole bunch. Then I can weight them against each other and against the type of show I’m making to see what fits. For now, here’s what comes to mind:

GOALS

Design a show with minimal physical overhead that still feels like the space is curated, immersive, and unique
Create a recurring show that brings in (net) $500 per week
Feature a majority of my original material throughout the show
Plan a more thoughtful promotion and documentation approach in tandem with the performance itself
Develop my regular collaborative team
Make a show that communicates who I am and what I believe WITHOUT being an autobiographical show “about me.”

I’m going to let those goals marinate for a little bit to see what continues to be important or if others arise. Generally, the sense I’m getting from a lot of these goals touch on “sustainability” of a performing arts career (regular financial income, establishing systems that can translate across projects, etc.)

DISCLAIMER: As we move through the different steps in my process, the fact that it’s written might make it seem more linear or organized than it is. I’m organizing a bit more than I would normally to make it readable while still maintaining the integrity of the process.

To not dismiss the important fluid nature of the process, I’m going to include some sort of “random ideas” section at the end of each post that mentions some of the thoughts that popped up outside of the main topic. Like this:

RANDOM IDEAS:

Working through my process in real time reminded me of shows I developed before this process was more established. I’m curious about how I might approach those shows with my current views, so maybe I’ll revisit the Themes of: Storytelling, Puzzles, Heist, or Games.
- As I was quickly revisiting past themes, the Heist concept show I did seemed like it had the audience appeal and a lot of the inherent assets that would logistically check off a few of my goals. Perhaps that will be the one to start with!
On the financial viability front, I should perhaps include a section (read: Rabbit Hole) on my budgeting template for shows over time to work through the financials of staging a theatrical endeavor.

Tactics and Strategy

November 10, 2021 / Evan Northrup

When I think about why I approach magic the way I do, I know it’s with the end goal of putting on a textured, multi-faceted performance that fosters curiosity. And that might not (in fact, it probably shouldn’t) be why you do it. I’m sure you have your own set of goals.

Whatever we hope to do with our magic, I believe – as with cooking, puzzles, or a million other creative endeavors – doing our research and planning ahead of time helps us focus on where we want to go.

While I’m no chess expert, I find some chess terminology a clear way to understand what I want to get across. So pardon me as I talk about something I’m probably unqualified to touch on:

Within a chess match, a player can implement “Tactics” to improve their current position. In the crudest terms you can think about this as thinking a couple moves ahead from your current position and making some sound – albeit reactive – choices.

Tactics are helpful tools. In performance terms, these might be equated to smaller scale performance tweaks: like how to turn over a card at the moment of revelation for different impacts. Do you carefully pivot it at fingertips to avoid suspicion? Do you raise it to your chest height to frame your face for a final tableau? Perhaps you have an audience member turn the card over to help it feel like the magic happened in their hands?

None of these is “right” or “wrong.” They are all situational and all require an understanding of your context to understand the greater result.

Strategy, on the other hand, can be thought of as the bigger picture view. It’s taking stock of the full board state, the tendencies of your opponent, and your personal strengths and weaknesses to design a game plan inside which you’ll happen upon tactical moments. Knowing your overall strategy gives you a way to choose among your tactics in a thoughtful way.

In our card example, if the trick was happening for a camera and the goal was to focus on the performer for the final beat, ending by framing the face might be the best call. For a close up show where the vibe is a deeply interactive experience, making it about the participant might be better. Even bigger picture, is this card trick the right vehicle for this moment of the show? Why or why not?

By taking a moment to recognize that our tactical decisions are fun to explore, we can understand that they can be so much more than personal preferences. They can serve a larger purpose of helping us to create experiences that set out audiences up to experience our magic in the most effective way possible.

But it starts with you and your high-level strategic thinking. Think on!

Criticism (Boo!) and Critique (Yay!)

November 3, 2021 / Evan Northrup

Plenty of art forms have their own definitions of Criticism and Critique. In any journey of artistic self-improvement, these are important ideas to recognize because they can be used to help us edit our work. Here’s how I understand them:

CRITICISM is unhelpful. It focuses on the person and what they’re doing incorrectly. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t take those personally and would channel the thought behind the point given into useful change. But we’re humans so we don’t do that.

Criticism comes across feeling like a personal attach because it suggests that the decisions the artist made were wrong in some way.

CRITIQUE – on the other hand – is about the work. It looks at the work as objectively as possible and examines how well it achieved its goals. It takes the intention of the creator into account but focuses on the piece rather than the person.

Critique is what we all need to hear (yes, all of us) without taking personally because it’s generally coming from someone who wants to see us improve. And often, those outside perspectives are much more objective than our own since we’re so close to the piece.

One final note on critique: getting input from experts is great. Listen to what they have to say and the rationale behind it. But critique from laymen and random people is still valuable. An idea I like to keep in mind (and I forget where I first heard it) is that when it comes to critique, people are almost always right; and when it comes to their reasons behind that critique, they are almost always wrong. So listen to what they have to say because it’s based on their (valid) perception!

Tropes: A Cautionary Tale

October 30, 2021 / Evan Northrup

Full disclosure: I’ve used most of these at one point or another in my career and I can’t apologize enough…

Here an incomplete list of the tropes we can let retire:

“My favorite trick” Presentation: I once saw a show where a magician introduced FOUR different tricks this way. Even if you say it once, let it be true and don’t let it be an excuse for a lazy narrative presentation to follow.
“This was my very first trick” Presentation: See above.
Magician in Trouble: You had better be a darned good actor to pull this off at all. But now that I think about it, you can probably just let it go altogether.
“And that was my first time seeing snow”: No, it wasn’t.
Business cards that list every type of service under the sun.
Envelopes with Question Marks on them: WE GET IT! There’s a super mysterious prediction inside. Is that really the best vehicle for your prediction or is it just that you saw someone else do it once and figured it was good enough?

I can feel my teeth clenching, so I’ll pause for now!

Process

October 29, 2021 / Evan Northrup

Magicians don’t often talk about their “Process” – probably for good reason. My guess is that most of us don’t take as hard a look at WHY and HOW we’re creating things as other types of performers.

I think it stems from hiding our technique. When you see a painting, the technique is on vivid display. There’s certainly a distinction between the technique and the resulting piece, but there’s not the stark separation we experience with magic. The final product (the Effect) is all the audience is allowed to see and the technique (the Method) stays hidden.

I have a whole other rant on that for another day, but I want to follow this thread of accountability. When our technique isn’t on view, we take away non-magicians’ ability to critique it. And without the (fear of? ) critique from the general public on our technical abilities, we don’t feel the pressure of creating in an intentional, thoughtful way.

The number of shows I’ve seen from magicians that are nothing more than trick parades tied together by the thinnest of threads (usually “I think it’s a cool trick”) is immense. We can do better.

Our shows can go somewhere. They can communicate our beliefs. They can share about ourselves and bring our audience into our lives. But only if we craft them to do that.

And to craft something well, we need to understand the process of its creation. Everyone’s particular process will be unique, because its defining characteristic is what works for you.

My main point: a PROCESS is not a FORMULA. A formula is cold and rigid. It follows the exact same steps to produce consistent results. It’s necessary and has its place, but does not make for honest, unique artistic expression. A formulaic show would be simply plugging in a flashy piece in your first slot for the mere fact that it’s visual (with the implicit assumption that audiences have to have magic right away). A formulaic show would put the multi-phase mind reading effect at the end because the layered reveal gets a big reaction (remind me to talk about agency some other time). A formulaic show assumes there’s a “right” or “commercial” way to do things and – in the process – removes the soul and the rich uniqueness of YOU from what you’re sharing with the world.

A process involves and understanding of where we’re trying to get. It looks at the current goals, the resources we have at hand, the audience’s perspective and pulls on a toolbox of resources to create the show that serves the situation. A process means being aware and making intentional decisions each and every time. A process is exhausting and deep and is what allows us to present shows that are more than the sum of its parts because the tricks serve the purpose of a greater whole.

Process > Formula

Where To Start 2 (AKA Where 2 Start)

September 22, 2021 / Evan Northrup

The inertia of beginning creating a full show can be overpowering. There are so many decisions that need to get made that it can be confusing to figure out where to start. The good (and bad) news is that there is no wrong (and therefore right) place to begin.

Nonetheless, we need to find a starting point. A guiding star that can help focus future decisions. I’ll go much deeper into process and prompts as the series goes on, but – at its core – the driving force of your show has to come from you.

What is it that you need to share with others? What is it that you know to be true? What is your take on this crazy world of ours that your audience may not have thought of?

And, perhaps most importantly, why? Why does this show need to exist? And why now?

There are easy answers (I want to share my magic with blah blah blah…), and there are more difficult answers that speak to who you are as a person and what you believe. If you take the time to work towards one of those, it will make the rest of the process flow more smoothly.

So now I’m off to figure out what my recurring parlor show is. Why it’s important to me and what I can bring to that experience that’s not already out there.

Where To Start

September 20, 2021 / Evan Northrup

Over the last 10 years, I’ve created a TON of full shows. That’s my thing. I’d much rather dive into a full evening where a world is built and explored rather than see a smattering of tricks-of-the-day.

I’ve learned so much about my personal process for show creation (lovingly but tentatively titled “Show Craft” in an upcoming book), but it has mostly been through trial and error. While other art forms have more codified lessons/rules/instruction about intentional design, that hasn’t been fully incorporated into a magician’s study (yet!).

I’m excited to take what I’ve learned and share it with the magic community to see if it resonates, but before the ideas can be put out there in good faith, they need to be looked at critically. The past 2 years in particular have been all about rapid prototyping shows and material; so now with working theories and plenty of ideas/examples under my belt, I want to give it all a little breathing room, step back, and think about it calmly.

Part of this self-examination will inevitably entail comparison to what’s currently out there (see the Book List in a previous post for a starting point of what I’m talking about). One of the best starting points I’ve come across, which is our point of reflection for the day, comes from Derren Brown.

This master showman talks about his stage shows in particular as “being trapped in a room with X thousand people” for a couple hours” and he asks himself what he can do with them that would be interesting. Perhaps not the most guided or directed “how-to” prompt, but valuable in its selflessness. Derren is thinking about the audience experience from the very beginning, and – more to my sensibilities – thinking about the experience as a whole from the outset.

What experience are you trying to create that’s different from just another magic show?

References / Book List

September 16, 2021 / Evan Northrup

I know not all my ideas will be new, but I desperately hope to bring something unique to the magic community. Most of my thoughts have been influenced by past artists and magicians. In the coming months, I plan to revisit those inspirations to clarify what ideas have provenance from others and what may be more original to me.

Here’s a list of books (some invaluable go-tos and some well-known references in magic that I don’t particularly care for but that I feel obligated to include:

The Books of Wonder by Tommy Wonder
Scripting Magic by Pete McCabe
Beyond Deception by Tobias Beckwith
The Five Points in Magic by Juan Tamariz
The Magic of Ascanio by Arturo de Ascanio
Foundations by Eberhardt Riese
The Fitzkee Trilogy
Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms
Maximum Entertainment by Ken Weber
Absolute Magic by Derren Brown

Thoughts…

September 15, 2021 / Evan Northrup

I have a heck of a lot of thoughts on the art of magic. From the design of shows to the construction of methods and everything in between. While some of those thoughts have been laid out in books or products I’ve released, I think having a repository to get them down quickly and piecemeal (as they tend to occur) will be helpful.

I make no guarantees about the frequency or style of what this will be; mostly because when I’ve attempted that in the past, I’ve been wrong or unable to keep up in a meaningful way. So my hope is that a blank canvas will encourage lots of helpful ideas without forcing a particular schedule.

As of now, the plan for The Magician’s Studio is to be a home for folks who want to improve their magic shows. I’ll have plenty more about what that means in the future, but for now, it will be focused on three main areas:

Show Craft: A look at how we can intentionally design our experiences from the outset… essentially an examination of process
Critique: Looking at performances from myself and others to identify what worked, where there’s room for growth, and – most importantly – what artistic decisions we might make differently and why!
Miscellany: My inability to choose anything led to this category. I’m sure there’s a third targeted, specific category that would align with what I’m trying to do… but I don’t know what it is yet. It could be inspirations from other arts or crafts, thoughts on performance itself (or magic theory), or whatever else comes out of the grab bag of my brain.

So, with all that out of the way, enjoy the ramblings of a magician – may it help you in your journey to improve!

-Evan

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