Weird Words

“Mechanicals?” I thought. “What the heck is ‘mechanicals?’”

I stared at the email in confusion…until it dawned on me.

“Ohhhh,” I thought. “Electrical stuff. And plumbing.”

My wife and I are moving her hair salon to our house. To give her the space she needs, we need to extend the back room onto our deck.

So we hired a contractor.

And like most professionals, he has a verbal shorthand.

I had previously asked him when they would visit our house to help us plan where the new salon furniture was going to go.

His response? They would see to it at the same time they did our “mechanicals.”

Plumbing and electrical.

I’d never heard of “mechanicals” before. Since I’m not a contractor, this isn’t exactly a surprise.

In my opinion, the guy needs to lay off the shop talk. Because everyone at the company keeps hitting us with that kind of stuff.

Words and phrases which only make sense if you’re in the industry.

But stuff that sounds like a foreign language if you’re a layperson.

I notice this in magic, too.

When many magicians describe their act, either in print or verbally, they use a lot of industry terms.

They use words like “produce” or “silk.”

And they sound like space aliens.

When describing your act, don’t tell people you produce a live dove from a silk.

The word “produce” doesn’t have the same emotional resonance with laypeople. It sounds kinda boring.

lnstead, tell people you cause a live bird to magically appear from thin air.

It sounds more…well, magical.

Same with the word “silk.” Normal people don’t use the word silk to talk about a piece of cloth.

Instead, say “hanky,” “scarf,” or “napkin.” It sounds a lot more normal. And people can relate to you more.

And for heaven’s sake, don’t tell people the name of the trick. That makes you sound really weird.

I remember meeting a magician years ago. He was just starting out. I think I had a few years on him, but not many.

Like many of us in the neighborhood, he had become enamored with Jeff McBride’s “Magic on Stage” DVDs. It was a three-volume set that taught a lot of great stage magic.

Along the way, McBride also taught invaluable stage techniques.

One of the routines Jeff taught was the old hat coil.

If you’ve never seen it, it’s basically a rolled-up paper streamer. You would hide it behind a piece of newspaper. After folding the paper around the hat coil, you would punch the center out and let the coil unravel.

It looked really neat and was a beautiful, unusual production.

So this guy I knew did the hat coil production and spread his arms wide waiting for the applause.

Then he proudly announced, “The hat coil, ladies and gentlemen.”

Um…what?

No one had any idea what he was talking about.

Again, the phrase “hat coil” means nothing to laypeople. They only feel confused.

So when you’re writing a copy for your website, or you’re writing your scripts, pore over what you’ve written carefully.

Look for any instances of words or phrases you used that may be industry talk. Get rid of them., Find better, more descriptive phrases.

This may sound like nitpicking. It’s not.

These days, people have such short attention spans that they will use any excuse to hit that ‘back’ button and leave a website.

That’s why I led this issue with a picture of a fishy. Because many experts claim our attention span online has shrunk to the same attention span as a goldfish.

In digital marketing, one word some professionals use is “friction.” It basically means anything that could cause someone to hesitate or become confused.

One bit of friction is all you need to cause someone to leave your site and search elsewhere for their entertainment needs.

But there’s another kind of friction. It’s when you offer too little information.

25 or so years ago, when I was first trying to go pro in Pittsburgh, I called around to other magicians, posing as a birthday dad.

I wanted to find out what they were offering and for how much.

One guy said, “Oh, I do all the usual tricks.”

And that was it. That was his best pitch.

I was astounded.

When describing your act, be sure to do so in a way that paints a picture in the minds of your viewers.

Go through your site today. Find out if you have any friction. If you do, fix it right away.

--Cris

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