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!