Mastery: The Difference Between Good & Great

I set the big Sharpie down with an immense feeling of satisfaction.

I had just finished setting up my anti-bullying assembly and was a little rusty. It’s been a few months since I performed it. But I’m happy I remembered one of the most important parts of setting up the show.

I open my bully assembly with Kevin James’ Bowl-A-Rama. It’s a great attention-getting opener that instantly establishes me as someone worth paying attention to.

And since it’s my opener, it has to go flawlessly. It’s the first impression the kids get of my abilities. Same for the adults, although for different reasons.

Teachers are judging whether I’m worth taking kids out of class. The PTA reps are wondering if I’m worth my high fees.

Kevin’s wonderful effect checks all those boxes.

But there’s one tiny piece of preparation I do that makes everything go smoother. It involves the marker.

The way I do the effect, I stand to the left of my Lefler table. The sharpie is resting on the tabletop, right where I can reach it.

I’m holding the sketchpad under my right arm. When it’s time to do the effect, I swing the pad up into view, holding it from the bottom with my left hand, allowing me to use my right to flip open the pad and begin drawing.

So when I pick up the Sharpie, my left hand is occupied. That means I have to uncap it one-handed. And the caps of Sharpies ‘click’ into place, presumably to have a tighter seal to prevent them from drying out.

When I first began performing the effect, sometimes I struggled to get the cap off one-handed. I’d use my mouth to pull off the cap, which looked really bad.

One day, after a dozen or so performances, it occurred to me to take the cap off before the show started, with the cap still in place, but not ‘clicked.’ This made removing the cap much easier in performance.

I then had to experiment with WHEN to do this little bit of prep. Sometimes I’d do it as soon as I flipped my Lefler lid into place. But I noticed my markers drying out a lot faster.

These days, I set up my entire show first. Then about five minutes before showtime, I put my wireless headset mic on. Then I clip my Audio Ape controller to my belt. Finally, I ‘unclick’ the marker and put it on my table.

And the trick goes flawlessly.

When you perform the same effects hundreds of times a year, you’ll eventually find those little things to do. Those special little touches that take your show from ‘good’ to ‘great.’

And it’s those little things that would never excite your audience. They never realize how easily I got that cap off the marker because they weren’t supposed to notice.

Bill Abbott has a lot of those little things in his performances. He’ll have a tiny black dot on a piece of paper or even a hanky that instantly helps him orient it properly so unfolding it is smooth yet natural.

I personally love finding those little touches. Those little details that sand the rough edges off a performance. Those things that you do show just how much you’ve mastered an effect.

And the only way to get there is through hundreds or thousands of performances.

Years ago, long before I was a professional, I remember reading an article in MAGIC magazine. In it, Lance Burton said how excited he was to have made one of those adjustments to his show. If memory serves, it was moving a hidden match pull over a half inch or something like that.

At the time, I didn’t get it.

Now, I do. And I’ve got dozens of those little touches I found for myself in my shows. And there’s no real method. My touches will be different than your touches. But they’re important. Or they should be.

And here’s the larger point.

The only way to get there is by doing the same versions of the effects you’re doing.

I know many magicians will switch methods whenever something new comes along. And magic releases seem to come in waves.

I remember years ago there was a wave of different Hundy 500-type effects. Or go back even further to Fred Caps’ Flash Cash. At least I THINK it was Fred’s version I discovered first.

But it seemed like a new handling DVD was released every week by someone new. But the overall effect was the same: Five $1 were instantly changed into five $100.

Me? I performed Hundy 500 by Greg Wilson for years. I ignored all the others. I’d mastered it and didn’t want to change. I’d found my ‘touches.’

A couple of years ago, I reluctantly changed to a different handling. I only did it because I wanted the piece to play to a larger audience in a standup situation.

After having worked with this handling for the last couple of years, I’m finding my little ‘touches’ so I’m getting comfortable with it. (And sorry, the name of it escapes me. But it uses magnets and is very good.)

The point is, I didn’t buy every new version that came out. And that reminds me of the ‘smash and stab’ effects craze that swept through magic years ago.

Same thing – a million different methods came out. But to the audience, it was the same effect. There’s something sharp and pointy under one Styrofoam cup. Your job is to avoid it while smashing the cups one by one.

I’d read about magicians buying every version, which struck me as silly. Even if you have a repeat audience, why would you trot out the same basic effect?

If you want to truly become a masterful performer, pick one effective method. And perform it over and over until you’ve mastered it. Videotape yourself. Take notes. Make continued efforts to improve.

You’ll never be finished improving. But you’ll get to a point where you’ve found those touches and performing the effect will feel like reuniting with an old friend.

What are YOUR touches? I’d love to hear.

--Cris

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