Which Tricks Do Your Audiences Like?

WARNING: Mildly PG-language ahead.

After my show, I sent the following text to my friend Tommy James:

“Dude, just finished a Christmas show for 750 kids at a school. Of course, I did the levitation. After the show, my client approached me, raving about the show. I asked her what she liked. Her response? ‘I loved it when you had the two kids spell MERRY CHRISTMAS. That’s right, she liked YOUR $30 trick more than my $3000 levitation. Merry Christmas, you prick.”

Tommy, of course, thought my text was hysterical.

Like me, he’s using the Up Up and Away Levitation. At $3000, it’s not in every magician’s budget.

I’d been talking up the trick to Tommy for the last year or so. He finally pulled the trigger recently and has been excitedly texting me about how much he loves it.

But the ‘Merry Christmas’ trick of Tommy’s? It’s adorable.

Two kids help you. One kid mixes some seemingly random spelling cards. The other ‘stretches’ a piece of six-inch ribbon until it’s three feet long.

Everything goes into a cloth bag. Each kid holds an end of the ribbon. As the audience says the magic words, they each pull.

Out of the bag pops all the cards string on the ribbon, spelling out – you guessed it – MERRY CHRISTMAS.

It’s a fun routine. As I write this, I forget what Tommy sells it for. I think it’s around $30 but I can’t remember for sure.

But hearing that teacher tell me that was her favorite part of the show reminded me of an important lesson in magic.

In my case, my audiences love the levitation, so I keep it. But it’s not always what kids comment on the most after a show.

It doesn’t matter what effects YOU like in magic. Only what the audience likes should matter.

The reality is a little more complex. You should like the effects you perform.

If you don’t like what you perform, the dislike will seep into your performances. It’s a subconscious kind of thing. (In another issue of the newsletter I’ll discuss anchoring and its power.)

But just because you like an effect doesn’t mean the audience will.

I’ve lost count of how many thousands of dollars I’ve spent on a prop only to sell it when my audiences rejected it.

To be fair I’m not saying all the props I sold were bad props. Only that they didn’t fit me, my style, or my audiences.

So I keep trying stuff to see what ‘sticks’ with my audiences. If they like it, I keep it. If they don’t, I ditch it. It’s that simple.

Part of this depends on who you’re performing for. It boils down to my manifesto:

KNOW YOUR MARKET.

Not every prop is going to apply to every market or audience.

For instance, I just bought the Amazing Jonathan Knife Thru Arm. I love Bizarre Magic and bought it almost as soon as I saw it.

But it doesn’t fit my school or library shows.

So, first, your props have to fit the audience.

But just because you bought that Fraidy Cat or Hippity Hop Bunnies or Square Circle doesn’t mean that your kid show audiences will love it.

Yes, the props I just mentioned are traditional kid show props.

The success of these props depends on you. What’s your character? What is your presentation? What comes before a given effect? What comes after?

All of these things will help dictate how an audience reacts to a given trick.

Nothing upsets me more than watching a magician who doesn’t listen to their audience.

They go through their routine, seemingly oblivious to the indifference of the audience.

Well, sometimes it’s indifference. With kid shows, I’ve seen them react with indifference. And I’ve seen them react by shouting things out, and even openly mocking the magician.

And I know it’s not just a one-time thing, either.

I’ve had the opportunity to see some of these magicians do show after show. Each time they insist on running certain routines, even though the audiences couldn’t care less.

To me, that’s either arrogance or stubbornness on the part of the performer.

“But I spent so much money on that prop,” some have told me.

Join the club.

If you’ve got a great prop that just isn’t getting the reactions you want, try changing the entire presentation.

Years ago, I bought one of Losander’s lovely Floating Tables. After 15 or so years and thousands of performances, I’ve perfected a nice little routine that fits me and gets a great reaction from audiences.

But when I was first breaking it in, the reactions I was getting were ‘meh’ at best.

So I kept tweaking the presentation and music.

Finally, a music change and a nice five-second pause before the table started levitating did the trick.

If I had continued with my original presentation, my audience would have likely hated it.

Instead, I listened, and I adapted.

Compare that to another kid show entertainer who shall go nameless.

Years ago he put out a holiday-themed DVD of his show.

Near the end of the show, he performed a Floating Table routine. But his went on too long.

A third of the way through the routine you could hear the kids chanting “Let it go! Let it go!”

(For context, if you’ve never seen a Floating Table, the performer holds two corners of a cloth draped over the table as it floats.)

So the kids wanted to see the table float without the magician holding onto the corners of the cloth. But you can’t do that with the effect.

Instead of cutting the routine short, this magician kept going…and going…and going…

And the entire time the kids continued to chant “Let it go!”

It was painful to watch.

Because this performer was putting out a DVD, I can only assume he did the same Floating Table routine in his other holiday show performances, ones that were not taped.

I can also only assume the kids at these other shows react the same way. Kids are kids.

And I’ve heard other kids react the same way to other performers who put the Floating Table in their shows.

Please don’t assume I’m bashing Floating Tables. On the contrary, I think it’s one of the most beautiful effects of magic.

I love mine and would immediately replace it if it broke.

I’m only criticizing the magicians who don’t change or adapt their shows or routines for the audiences.

After all, if we are not performing for our audiences’ enjoyment, we are only there for self-gratification.

Something to think about.

Have a great week!

--Cris

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