Trix Are For Kids
Are tricks
just for kids? Why do people immediately associate
magic with children? Is it because of our demeanor,
our approach, our looks, our audience's perception,
our society, a combination of these, or is it
something else? Perhaps it's because that magic
appeals to the child in each of us and transports
us to a world of wonder where there is a suspension
of disbelief where for just a moment, magic
happens.
This
is what I believe that magic is...a moment isolated
in time when there is no known explanation for
what just happened. Sometimes this moment lasts
for an instant but ideally it should last much
longer. It is something that people take home
with them in their memories and tell their friends
. . . and the legend grows. Their recollection
of an instant gets blown out of proportion as
the effect grow more and more impossible as
the experience is retold.
Often it is a letdown for them
to see it ever performed again for it is never
as good as the way they remembered it or as
Paul Simon said in his hit song `Kodachrome'
". . . it would never match my sweet imagination."
It's like much of life where we only remember
the high and low points. The mediocre parts
of life, and our routines, are lost in time
and space. Without at least one high point,
our performances then become, as Michael Ammar
has said . . . "bubblegum for the eyes."
A TV sitcom wants to have at
least one good laugh in each show, one good
joke, one good enough for everyone for viewers
to retell at the office the next day. The success
of that sitcom rests on that one joke, for if
it's good enough and gets retold, then new viewers
will tune it in hoping to experience a laugh,
a good time, a chance to enjoy what everyone
else has seen and heard and perhaps to "chew
some bubblegum" for a while. In the meantime,
the underlying emphasis is on getting people
to buy more of the products advertised on these
programs.
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The title of
this article is the tag line from an advertisement
for Trix cereal. Like the cereal which
is full of sugar and sweet to eat and
directed toward children, tricks done
just for the sake of doing them is nothing
more than sugar and sweetness and only
appealing to kids. If we want to be remembered,
then we must put something in our shows
to make them remember their experience.
Again Michael Ammar has several excellent
thoughts on this but rather than recapping
them here, you would be better off hearing
it straight from him as I highly recommend
his audio cassette "Making Magic Memorable."
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We all
know enough tricks but we continue looking for
THE trick that will be the ultimate trick. One
which will make us fame and fortune beyond our
wildest dreams. I am convinced that there is
no trick that has ever been made nor one coming
that has been or will be the Holy Grail. What
we need to search for is a better performance
of what we already know. We need to get in touch
with what our experiences are and learn how
we can communicate with others through a magical
experience. "Know thyself" is the credo and
"do the stuff that's you" are words to practice
by. Your performances are unique as you inject
your personality into every effect.
The "Holy
Grail" trick may already be in our closet waiting
to be let out. One in which the luster wore
off shortly after we brought it home from the
magic shop/convention/lecture and read the directions.
Just look through your closet or drawers full
of stuff still in plastic bags and books with
their spine never cracked. Then ask yourself
why you are collecting this stuff if not to
use it.
If you're
looking for books to stick on your shelves to
take up space or arcane artifacts to gather
dust, then you're better off filling it with
junk from a flea market and it would cost you
a lot less than buying stuff from a magic dealer.
Perhaps you enjoy the "ownership" of stuff just
to say that you have it. Maybe you like the
colors of the props. Maybe you like to own a
piece of history, something that was once viewed
by thousands of people around the world. Perhaps
you are trying to keep alive your own memories
of a different time when you were fooled, that
instant in time when you experienced "magic."
Your
recollection of that moment is precious to you
as it is for your audience when they first experience
it. And their first experience with being awed
by magic usually occurred when they were children.
So any subsequent experience with magic brings
out their child like quality, putting themselves
in the mindset of that time when they were children.
Perhaps
then this is the reason that people immediately
associate magic tricks with kids (although tricks
should have nothing to do with baby goats.)
We appeal to their childlike innocence.
We can
play on that innocence by directing our approach
to that side of our audience. The old adage
goes "It's fun to be fooled" but I say "It's
more fun to be entertained." Tricks will fool
but magic entertains, or said another way, you
can fool people with tricks but you can't entertain
their soul, their whole being unless it becomes
magic. Tricks must be elevated to a level where
it becomes entertainment, transcending our audience's
childlike nature and appealing to the logical,
adult side of their character.
We want
to take our performances out of the "trick"
category and transcend them into the "magic"
class. It's true that "tricks are for kids"
but magic is for adults.
