Scripting & Adlibs

Jemma looked up at me and giggled, her cheeks puffed out.

Knowing she still had a mouthful of water, I pondered what to do.

I was performing at a library at the behest of a long-time client yesterday.

The show had been going well and to my relief, after four performances of this year’s Summer Reading Program-themed show, I was finally feeling comfortable enough to proclaim this year’s lineup a “success.”

Scripting a new magic show every year to fit the Summer Reading Program theme isn’t easy. Scripting a show – any show – is hard.

So why do it?

Many magicians rail against the idea of scripting their shows. They just want to do magic.

One of my friends from Pittsburgh, a part-time performer named Dennis, once remarked to me, “If you’ve got a new trick you want to use in a show, just stick it in your table. When show time comes, you’ll think of something to say.”

I really treasured my friendship with Dennis but thought that was the most foolish thing I’d ever heard.

I admit I got lucky – at the tender age of 17, I met Eugene Burger at the annual Innovational held in Chicago, Illinois.

Billed as a convention for Bizarre magicians, it attracted a who’s who in the industry. I got to rub shoulders with Eugene, Max Maven, Jeff McBride, and many others.

My interactions with Eugene along with his books influenced me profoundly.

Eugene was always big on scripting your magic. And framing! Never forget framing. A ‘frame’ was a hook, a reason to present the magic.

Was it the World’s Fastest Card Trick? That was one of Eugene’s frames.

Many amateur magicians feel that scripting restricts their performances. But I submit the opposite is true.

When your show is held together with a script, you’re free to leave that script and then come back to it.

Scripting is what separates professionals from amateurs.

With a script, you give your magic meaning. Drama. Comedy. Conflict.

Without scripting, none of these things are possible.

Without scripting, laypeople likely won’t care about your magic.

Ask yourself, do lay people care what happens to the Two of Diamonds? Without a proper frame, probably not.

Only magicians appreciate magic for magic’s sake.

I was never more convinced of this than when I saw a magician appearing on the same talk show as America Ferrara, the lovely actress who starred in Superstore, among other great TV shows.

The magician was doing an effect and America looked like she would rather have been anywhere else on the planet. For whatever reason, she just wasn’t buying what the magician was trying to sell.

I remember the effect itself was really impressive.

The fact that I can’t remember who the magician was or what specific routine he was doing should give you a clue as to how memorable the magician’s routine and scripting were.

But when magic is framed and scripted well, you can engage audiences easily.

I was privileged to see Eugene Burger perform his legendary Burned Card routine live at that Innovational years ago.

The effect is simple – a selected card suddenly reappears with a burnt pentagram in the middle. And Eugene performed the effect as a solo piece so there wasn’t any mystery over how that particular card wound up with the pentagram.

After all, when you perform a solo card trick, there’s no force necessary!

But with Eugene’s powerful script, it remains one of the most impressive and dramatic effects I’ve ever seen.

Penn and Teller are also two of the greatest when it comes to scripting magic. Their bullet catch. Their Old Glory routine. Teller’s Shadows routine.

I also remember David Copperfield’s séance-themed TV special. He was getting tied up with rope to do a Spirit Cabinet routine. Knowing his TV audience would get restless if he tried to go into lengthy exposition about what a medium was, his script was short and to the point.

“Tonight, I’ll be the medium, a go-between our world and the spirit world.”

That’s it.

Economical and perfect.

From there, the audience was willing to buy into the premise and the whole piece played far better and was more dramatic than if he just did a spirit cabinet routine without setting himself up to play this role.

So, script your magic.

I know how difficult it is for others to write. There’s something about staring at a blank computer screen that terrifies some people. Or a blank piece of paper.

If that’s you, don’t.

Instead, script as Jason Alexander did.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend Jason Alexander’s wonderful Penguin lecture. In it, the “Seinfeld” star breaks down his reasoning and motivations for his scripts in each effect in his Magic Castle performance.

Alexander says that he scripts standing up. He starts with an idea and talks it out, eventually editing it down to a polished performance.

“But where do I get ideas?” some of you may ask.

Simple: From your life. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

·        Favorite movies

·        Favorites books

·        Favorite genres of both

·        Life experiences

·        Messages of inspiration you want to convey to audiences

·        Other forms of theater for inspiration

·        Jokes

·        Pets

·        Funny stories from your family

Eugene used his love of horror movies as inspiration for many of his pieces.

You can also use the scripts that come with marketed effects as a launching point.

Here’s an example of how I took a marketed trick and routine and created my own script for it.

Nick Lewin’s lovely Gypsy Yarn routine is, in my opinion, the best way possible to do a Gypsy or Hindu Thread routine. His specific yarn does not tangle. His way of preparing the threads is easy and fast. And his special ‘holder,’ designed to look like a flat thread spool, makes the work even easier.

But Nick’s presentation, while perfect for him, was never going to fly with me. His presentation was of him reminiscing about a visit to a bar to hear a jazz band years ago.

I liked the idea of using Nick’s frame of reminiscing about an old memory as my starting point.

I wound up creating a routine where I reminisce about the first book read to me as a kid by my parents. It serves as the launching point for my reading-themed school assembly.

I’m rather proud of it, and it would not play nearly as well without scripting.

Oh, remember how earlier I mentioned the freedom a script gives you?

Without having to think on the fly about every single word you’re going to say, having a script gives you the ability to go on autopilot.

That way, part of your brain is freed to continually monitor the audience and look for marvelous ways to make the show fresh and alive and specific to that particular audience at that particular time.

In the show at the beginning of this newsletter, Jemma was helping me with a routine about clouds.

I explained to the audience how clouds are formed. I then turned little four-year-old Jemma into a cloud by asking her to drink water out of a water bottle.

Then, with the help of a ten-year-old boy who “pumped” the water out of her by lifting her left arm up and down, I collected Jemma’s water out of her elbow via the classic Comedy Water Funnel (or whatever it’s called.)

The sight of water coming out of a little girl’s elbow always gets a great response.

As I finished the routine, I saw Jemma, for reasons unknown to me, still had not swallowed the water she drank.

As she looked up at me with a twinkle in her eye, I immediately came up with a way to end the routine and deal with this precocious child without admonishing her to swallow the water.

I held the clear bucket I had collected the water from her elbow under her chin.

I looked at her and simply said, “Go ahead.”

Jemma immediately leaned forward and spit all the water into the bucket.

It brought the house down. Everyone laughed and clapped.

It was a beautiful moment that I will treasure forever. I only have two regrets.

One, it wasn’t my closer because while the rest of the show went great, nothing was going to top that laugh.

Second, I didn’t have a camera running, because that would have been a demo video clip for the ages.

But the key point I want to underline is I would not have had the ability to recognize the opportunity for such a great moment if my show had not been scripted.

I would have missed out on it because I would have been too busy worrying about what I was going to say for my next effect.

Have a great week!

--Cris

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