Inspecting Props

I looked at my receipt in confusion.

I was standing at the counter of a Burger King. My wife, mother-in-law, and I were on our way to check out some early Christmas sales.

We’d stopped at Burger King to grab some quick food. But as we left the drive-through, we noticed one of our sandwiches had not made it into the bag.

Frustrated, I entered the store to get the situation fixed.

After I explained to the young lady at the counter what happened, she quickly told the grill staff to whip up the missing sandwich for me.

That’s when I noticed it.

There was no record of the sandwich on my receipt.

It seems the mistake was the girl who took our order at the drive-through window and not the folks in the bag preparing the food.

But what I found interesting was the fact that the person I’d complained to get this fixed, a manager, never bothered to ask to see my receipt.

She took me at my word. I’d walked in with an authoritative air and held up my receipt as I explained my plight.

I kept waiting to see if she’d ask to see my receipt. I wasn’t trying to steal a sandwich – consider it a sort of social experiment.

And when she never looked at my receipt, I realized I had my topic for this week’s newsletter.

Like many of you, I visit the Magic Café. I only go occasionally and rarely post anything. I think my last post was around six years ago, but I can’t remember for sure.

Too much negativity to interact with the minority of loudmouths there regularly.

I only go there to check out info on a prop I might be interested in buying.

But one thing I’ve noticed over the years is many magicians are concerned about letting people inspect their props.

Seriously, I don’t get this.

In a close-up situation, I sort of get this. But even then, in all my years doing corporate strolling gigs, I never bothered to even ask if anyone wanted to examine my props.

Well, all except the forks I was using when performing “Psychokinetic Silverware.”

And stage? Nope, I never let anyone examine props.

Even if there is something that I could pass out to be examined, to me it just slows things down to a crawl. It’s a big speed bump in the show.

I think if people are enjoying the show, they just enjoy the show.

Sure, kids might want to inspect something. But in those cases, I try to ignore requests.

When kids ‘examine’ a prop, they bat at it with their hands. Soon you’ve got a gaggle of kids surrounding you, grabbing and pawing at your prop.

No thanks.

But back to the whole air of confidence I mentioned in my Burger King story.

I’ve noticed posts of other magicians claiming they always get requests to look at their props from their audiences. They claim it happens at every show.

To me, that’s a problem with either your attitude or your audiences. Or both.

I suspect many of these folks are performing in less-than-ideal conditions for less-than-ideal crowds.

Many perform in bars, where people’s inhibitions are lowered. And/or they perform for friends and family.

Me? I can’t stand performing for friends or family. They just see me differently. And because they’re close to me, and they know me in different contexts, they don’t have any issue with interrupting a routine.

So, setting aside friends and family, if you’re getting a lot of requests to inspect your props, there’s one area where you need to up your game.

Your acting.

And while I’m not a trained professional actor, I did take acting classes in college. Plus, after 20+ years of professional performing, I know how to have the confident air about me needed to control a crowd.

So here are, in no particular order, a few acting tips that may help reduce the while “Hey, can I see that” problem in performing magic.

1. First, project confidence.

This comes from mastery of your material. Not just the mechanics, but the script too.

If your presentation is halting, full of pauses, and the audience can tell you’re trying to think of what to say next, it’s sort of like blood in the water with sharks.

They smell blood and some people just want to knock you down.

So master your material.

2. Work on your body language.

Even if you’re a more comedic performer, stand tall. Move in space with intention. That means one thing.

Know where every prop is. No searching. No ‘wobbling,’ as Eugene Burger used to say.

Be able to move confidently from one prop to the next. Have every movement choreographed.

3. Treat your props flippantly.

I’m not suggesting that you casually toss around that $1000 prop and risk breaking it.

I am suggesting you act as though the props don’t matter.

Years ago, I realized that I look at my props like a mechanic using a toolbox of tools.

They are a means of getting the job done.

I’m not a collector of magic and don’t think I ever will be.

I’m not poo-pooing collectors, just saying it ain’t my thing.

So I’ve just gotten used to treating the props as ‘nothing special,’ that I’m the one doing the magic.

I do understand that if you have an extremely unusual prop. Something that just begs for a cool story, you might want to handle it delicately. Good Bizarre presentations often have antique-looking props.

But to me, that’s the only exception.

Change your attitude, present yourself as a master of your craft, and likely requests to examine your props will drop.

Have a great week!

--Cris

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