The original unoriginals...

 Tonight I watched a performer do a fairly verbatim presentation of a David Copperfield routine. This is nothing new. It was obviously more prevalent at the height of his popularity, but it persists in our field nonetheless. 

The regular audience didn't know this of course. Non-magicians don't know when they are watching a cover band and when they are seeing original creations. The main reason for this is the fact most people are not exposed to magic on the regular, especially live. Unless they see the same props that are distinctive, (eg: linking rings), they won't know they are seeing something that is not unique to that performer. 

 After watching this, I wondered how doing someone else's act and taking their praise as your own can be fulfilling? Then I realized this kind of performance is the original artificial intelligence. You think you are doing a good job by taking the work of other people and claiming it as your own. You think the applause is for you when you put in almost no creative effort. It's a mediocre product made by a mediocre person. 

The people who make "art" that is a poor copy of someone else don't care because in their mind the applause is for them when all they did was sing a cover song to an audience who hadn't heard the original and has no idea it's not theirs. All they hear is the applause and think they are doing a good job. Their bad behavior has been rewarded and justified when in reality they just watched a video and copied it poorly.

Yes there are many rooms in the house of magic, but maybe there should be a separate house for the imitators. If the domicile we put them in looks the same as the original house, they won't even know they are sequestered away and they can all just steal from each other in one big magic circle jerk.

A boy can dream... 

Independent thought....

Vegas is a small community and we all mostly know each other. If someone needs to know something we can get hold of each other pretty easy. Obviously in the rest of the world not stuck in the middle of a desert, it's different. One thing we talk a lot about when we gather is on the subject of creating and crediting. Obviously independent thought happens all the time. Collective conscious and all that jazz. 

However, I just would like to say to everyone who thinks that creating something in a vacuum without seeing someone else's idea gives you the right to publish or sell it... 

IT F$%#ING DOESN'T!!

I don't care if a biblically accurate angel came to you on a DMT bender one night and graced your mind with this golden idea, if you didn't create it first, IT'S NOT YOURS!

"What about things like UBER and Lyft?" That's a service, not an art.

"Well Coke and RC cola..." That's a product, not an art.

"What about..." I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR BULLSHIT WHATABOUT-ISMS THAT YOU TELL YOURSELF THAT CONVINCE YOU IT'S OK!

If you don't get permission from the originator, you are stealing. Plain and simple. All you have to do is reach out and ask for their blessing. Usually they will just ask for credit. Sometimes they will say no and if they say NO, stay... the fugg... away from it. Sometimes you can partner up with them to improve and collaborate on it. Hey great! 

To all of you armchair dickbags on internet forums, the moment I hear any of you say "Well no one owns ideas and blah blah blah" all I ever think is "Spoken like someone who has never created anything good in their life". Take your cover band ass to the back of the line. 

If someone says to you, "Oh that's like so-and so's thing..." and you don't reach out to the originator, then you KNOW you are in the wrong and just don't wanna be told so. That's your inner Jimminy Cricket telling you you're a POS you're ignoring. Just listen to it and...

 

In tents...

I have talked a lot about creativity. Not only on this journal but in my lectures and to anyone who would ask (and some who didn't really). However I haven't really gone into a lot of detail about a process on it.

I'm getting there calm down you creepy %$#&.

One of the biggest things you can do to be creative is to place restrictions upon yourself. This means doing, or not doing, certain things. More accurately, it's creating within certain parameters. When you have a framework to operate in it's MUCH easier than having an open field of possibility at your disposal.

Having TOO MUCH freedom can lead to Overchoice or choice overload. Whenever someone hires me as a consultant for a TV show or to create something for them I always ask for the details. It can be something as simple as "I want to do X with B". Mind you that's if I create for others. What about creating for yourself? I find it best to start with asking questions. What is the main goal? Why am I doing this? What are the props? What am I trying to say/do? What is the ending? Asking questions is very important to the creative process. This allows us to erect Tent Poles.

Much like a real tent, these ideas give everything else structure. There is a reason you hear certain films from a studio referred to "tentpole movies". It's what gives that studio a structure. It's a different type of structure than trying to create magic, but the concept is still similar.

You need the main ideas that will support everything else that you will be doing. Take this routine for example:


When I decided I wanted to do tricks with duct tape I made a list of the things I could DO with that tape. Once I knew how it started and how it ended it made everything else find it's "natural progression". I also knew I wanted certain visuals. Smiling through the roll and then the tape appearing over my mouth was one of those moments. I almost always think of the effects first and worry about method later.

Sometimes you add more poles as a routine progresses. I didn't plan to split the rolls initially but I felt the act needed "something". When I decided on that happening, up went another structure to support the other parts of the story to make that happen. Having those moments and a story, either obvious or subtle, really helps. You don't HAVE to have a thread pulling you through the act, but people respond better to some sort of structure or theme because we like what we know. Humans are easy that way.

So if you are trying to make something new, or change something you have that already exists, just try to give your routines some framework with certain ideas/moments/effects/etc. It will force you to focus on what's important and cut the wheat from the chaff as it were.

PS: I hope you appreciate how difficult it was for me not to make any dick jokes while talking about tents and poles.

Bridge and tunnel magicians...

"The creation of content is not a hobby. It is a profession." - Jean-Claude Junker

I found this quote while reading an article about the creators of Spinal Tap seeking remuneration for their work in the extremely shady industry of film and music.

For those of us who take it very seriously, creating magic is indeed a profession that borders on the obsessive. There are a number of things that take away what some of us spend a lot of time on.

• FAKE! - A lot of the younger and unlearned magi apparently just assume something is camera edits when it's "too good" and they can't figure it out. When you do this you belittle the hard work many of us do to make it look that good. 
• Actual Fakes - They have good reason to yell fake tho'. There are people like Zack King who (obviously) use video editing tricks to make magical things happen. However there are also people who more subtly use After Effects to create seemingly impossible tricks and don't own up to it. Those people are jag offs who will never escape their instagram account.
• Weekend Warriors - Then there's THESE assholes. People who create magic for the sake of magic... and a paycheck. They are not making magic for the art. Oh I am sure they THINK they are but what they really are doing is looking for a way to get paid because A: they are terrible with money and 2: don't actually perform for real people and couldn't entertain a thought let alone a group of people.

It's these last ones that make me the most mad. They want money and notoriety and think releasing magic tricks will accomplish that because a few other slugs managed to do it. Every time they put out some piece of  lackluster crap tied together with elastic and magnets, they cover up the good stuff other real creators and performers have released.

Obviously the ones who dig through the mire to find the gold are the ones who will likely triumph but it's getting harder and harder every day because of these "creators" foisting their hobbies on the actual professionals. It also discourages better stuff from being produced as it's not monetarily worth the effort because a gem will soon be obscured by shit.

Fuckin' tourists...

Let's define the terms...

This shit right here makes me mad.


These companies are allowing half wits with half baked ideas to get an ego about being inventors and then they start touting themselves as such and then pump out MORE magic bile into the world.

Let me get something straight here. Just because you come up with some piddly ass magic trick it does NOT make you a "creator". It makes you someone with an idea.

Also being a "creator" doesn't make you a magician. If you can't perform your own creations you are just someone who makes stuff.

In my opinion, a creator does their due diligence. They research, they perfect, they make something the best it can be. What companies like Murphys are perpetrating is if you come up with some terrible idea they can help make it "marketable" thus making them more of the creators and the person who comes to them a kind of figurehead. "We did all the work to make this not suck but because we can't just cut this idiot out of the loop we have to put his name on it".

I don't care if you don't agree with me or think I am way off base. I am just sick of our profession being choked with mediocre magic and fevered egos who think they are somebody because a bunch of pre-pubescent humans think they are hot shit.

Obviously this doesn't go for EVERYONE. Some people are prolific creators. (Not necessarily GOOD ones) However in magic everyone wants to be on par with the people who have achieved legit "fame" for making something and magic companies keep enabling this to happen.

The urge to create is deep in our core and I understand that, but too many are creating for the wrong reason: money. If you create for yourself and your audience, the money will come but if you forgo those first steps you are going about it the wrong way.

There's enough terrible magic out there. We don't need sponsored posts on message boards encouraging more greed and terrible tricks.

Thanks Obama...

Mix ratio...

The other day someone comment that I am known for being "pretty creative". Assuming he wasn't referring to how I make myself appear attractive, I responded that I just know things.

Creativity is not just a "thing". It's a mixture of various aspects. Two of the main ingredients are imagination and knowledge. The more things you know about, the more you can draw from that information/experience the create things.

Do not confuse this for being smart. There are plenty of "smart" people who don't know how to apply it. Knowledge is a reservoir to pull information from. Just because you know what a puzzle is doesn't mean you know how it goes together.

So if you want to expand your creativity go out and learn about things in the world. When you wonder about something, look it up. If you find yourself asking "How do they do that?", ship that little pocket computer and Google that shit. Fill your empty melon with information and think of something interesting to do with it.

If that doesn't work, there is always Bizzaro By Design.

(insert Nike symbol here)

A big secret to being considered 'creative" is to just DO IT!

Make that thing, paint that trick, perform that routine. It's easier than you think to just alter something slightly enuff to make it different from the rest.


So stop being a lazy fuck and hop to!

It's ok to suck for a little while...

"It's better to be 5 years late than one day too early"

I'm not sure who said that exactly (and I am likely paraphrasing that harshly) but you get the idea. I have noticed a lot of younger performers are in a huge hurry to get somewhere before they maybe should. I'm not saying this is a new thing BUT it seems to have reach an accelerated level. I'm also not the only one who has noticed this.

Watch this video below and see if some of this sounds familiar and then say to yourself "It's gonna be ok..."
The Long Game Part 1: Why Leonardo DaVinci was no genius from Delve on Vimeo.

And just so you don't skip part two, Here it is for you lazy bastards out there.
The Long Game Part 2: the missing chapter from Delve on Vimeo.

Let the right ones in...

Let me tell you a little something about myself: I am very critical of my own performances. I am always looking for ways to improve my material. Even if it's something as simple as a cosmetic change on a prop or a look or gesture.

As I have mentioned in the past, the secret to being a better performer is to give a damn. If you care you'll work on something until you are content with it. An act or performance can never be done. There is always something to improve.

The question is how do you find those improvements? Simple. Go out and effin' perform!! The more you sail the boat, the more leaks you will find. The more arrows you fire the better your aim will be. The more cats you shave the umm... furrier your.. uh.. pants will get.... (They can't all be gold).

My point is every performance is a learning experience IF YOU LET IT. Some people just perform, collect their check, and go home. Every time you perform something is different. Something is better or worse. Something can be fixed. You have to pay attention to it tho' You must be like skynet and become self-aware! Don't be too lazy either. Be proactive! (I don't mean the acne medication either) If you can't get to it right away, make a note of it. Every cell phone has a way to make notes. Take advantage of that!

The more you perform, the more chances you have to fix things. The more you fix, the better your act will get. The better your act is the happier you (and everyone who watches you) will be. So the next time you see me perform just know that afterward backstage I will be taking stock of everything that just occurred...

and possibly crying.

Words of wisdom...

My friend Dwayne Andrew just posted this on his facebook:

"If I could actually pass a solid ring through another by suspending the laws of physics, I wouldn't start by showing that it can't be done. Just clanging them together does not prove they are solid. It just shows that you lack imagination and skill."

This falls under the same heading as "beating Houdini's record" with a strait jacket or any other stock presentation of an effect really. 

We have a bad habit of monkey see, monkey do in magic. If it works for them, it should work for us right? That's how they do it so that's how it must be done. WRONG!

Want to be more creative? Then NEVER do the same presentation as ANYONE else... no matter how good it is. Just keep going until you find your groove. It's easier than you think and more gratifying than being a clone of the rest of the magic world.

Be your own man... or woman.

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake...

I know a handful of magicians who feel they are not creative enough or don't think they can create their own material. It's not as hard as you think. Sure, there is no formula for it or everyone would be doing it but creativity is subjective and there are different ways to accomplish it.

With that in mind I have some videos for you to watch.

Don't do the math...

If I ever added up the amount of money I have spent on buying materials to make props and try out ideas I would likely go mad. Then to factor in how much of that was wasted on stuff that didn't work would just cause me to go on a three state killing spree wearing someone head as a hat. (yes that was a Con Air reference. Get over it.)

If I was to stop and think about it all it might actually deter me from creating and experimenting. That, boys and girls, is one of the secrets to my creativity. Never give up and try everything.

The only way to learn is to fail. That is find the ways that DON'T work. Don't let the cost deter you (tho' do be smart and get the best deal. Don't just jump on the first thing you see. There might be a cheaper alternative. (Sometimes you just need a little patience.) Obviously don't spend money you don't have just for the sake of a magic trick, but set aside a little bit here and there if it's super important.

Just don't do the math...

Magical Vs. Impossible

Dai Vernon is credited with saying something to the effect of "confusion is not magic". I want to add my own thoughts along this line to the magic world by saying impossible does not equal magical.

I think doing something impossible and doing something magical are two different realms. Much like we seem to lump all performing traits under the term "character" we seem to just fist every thing that is supposed to be magical into the category of "magic".

Much like my popular stance that coincidence is not magic so too shall this gem rest right next to it.

What got me thinking of this was watching the demo for an animated torn and restored card. I like to think that magic has a very defined clear cut effect to it. Tricks that I feel sit under the impossible umbrella are things that either don't make sense or are not magic in and of themselves. It's a very thin line I admit.

Usually magic is best when it serves a purpose or fills a need. Let me explain it to you using hand puppets and this little one act play I just made up.

Magic
Random Person: "Man I am hungry"
Magician: hand me that napkin (magician makes sandwich appear from empty napkin)
Person: "Wow that was amazing! Thanks!"

Impossible
Magician: "Watch me take this sandwich and make it penetrate halfway thru this pane of glass"
Confused Person: "Um...ok."
(Magician fuses sandwich and glass as one)
Person: "Wow that was.. weird. Why did you do that?"
Magician: "Because I can..."

That might be a tad extreme but doing something random like the second example serves no purpose other than eye candy. Magic is impossible. Impossible is not always magic.

Does this mean all your magic needs to serve a function? Hell no! However the moments of magic should make sense to the task at hand. Ambitious card is magic. It is structured as such. Turning an apple into an iphone? Not so much. Doing something impossible "just because" may seem like magic to some but in the end...

it might just be damned silly.

It's just that easy...

As an exercise in creativity, watch this:


See what he did there? He took a trite effect that makes no sense (spirit hand) and put a story around it. (Yes then he beefed it up a bit but that's not the point)

It's not that hard to look at a magic trick or item an figure out for a way to have it make sense.

Be the ball...

Some settling may occur...

The straightest path between two points is a straight line... but damn that straight line can be boring. Sometimes you want to take the scenic route.

I have been working on a good way to switch a folded card for a while now. The methods ranged from so very simple to the overly complicated. Each had their problems as I had a list of parameters I needed to meet. (There is a big difference between clever and practical)

This is one of the keys to creativity: Getting what you want.

When you are working on a routine or creating something new there will be people who say "Why not just do it this way or that". These suggestions might make sense but do not fulfill the requirements you have in mind. It's your magic, therefore it needs to make you happy (as well as the people watching too). There is always an answer, however you sometimes have to just go with what works so you can get the routine out there and eventually the answer will present itself.

So my advice to you is the next time you are trying to create something make a list (mental or physical) of the things you want to get out of it and that has to happen (end clean, certain card in this position, certain prop being in this pocket for later, etc) and make it so...

make it just so.

Ever seen the movie Sneakers?

There is a great moment in that movie that I have never really seen in another film. The main character is thrown in a car trunk and can only hear the road on his way to the baddies place. Later he is dumped off somewhere and heads back to base. It's there that his blind friend asks him "What did it sound like?". They narrow it down using the sounds he hears and hijinks ensue.

The reason I bring that up is because I want you to engage in a little exercise. Go grab a couple of magic props you have that serve no real purpose other than to be magic props. Sit them on a table in front of you. Stare at them hard and think to yourself, "What do they LOOK like?"

Find a way to make these innocuous props make sense to you. When they serve a purpose or resemble something people recognize, it's then you are free to create something new with them and perhaps find your own way to somewhere unknown.

This kind of exercise will help you down the road when choosing new props or tricks to perform. If you can't justify it's existence then maybe you should leave it be.

You might just change your world.

Leaking from the ears...

Today was a strange day on Facebook. Various friends posted three different articles on "creativity". While I disagree with a few of the things they suggest, I found one that amused me and thought relevant to this journal in particular.

And I quote:
"Cohen once showed a card trick to TV magician David Blaine. Blaine loved the trick but hated the presentation, saying it seemed too rehearsed. "People should feel like you're talking to them for the first time," Blaine told Cohen.

Polish your pitches until they're perfect, then add sprezzatura--the Italian concept of studied carelessness. Find ways to come across as organic and accessible, not canned and mechanical.

The poet James Dickey said he prepared 150 drafts of each poem--the first 100 to get it perfect and the last 50 to make it sound spontaneous."

A lot of performers suffer from too practiced. They do something so much it becomes as annoying as whatever phrase restaurants make people who answer the phone say. "Hello my name is so and so, thank you for calling Bob's House of Pork home of the Big Red Monkey Beat Down. How may I begrudgingly help you?"

Don't you hate that? How do you think your audience feels? If you are just going through the motions, stop using those motions... or that script... or that trick. If you are bored with it, they are too.

60,221,211 Italians can't be wrong.

Resist!!

In my lecture this weekend I tried to hammer home the ability to be creative is to put restrictions on yourself. If you have read my Creativity Notes then you know what I mean.

As an example, have a look at This. The makers of the short films were allowed to ONLY use the same 6 lines. This makes them focus on how to tell a story without saying too much.

As magicians we tend to be wordy bitches and rely and over-explaining things. Why not limit yourself to as little dialogue as you can and see if you can tell the same story. You never know...

It just might change your life.

Are you threatening me?

Some of the best creative innovations start out with "What if?"

Why do we do what we do?

I posed a question to a young magician the other day that I had never really asked anyone before, but afterward felt compelled to share it with the world.

This young man has a competition act and rarely performs for real audiences (non-magicians). I asked him if the act he performs is what he wants to do or what he thinks he HAS to do.

This is an important question to ask yourself. Are you doing the magic you truly want to do or are you merely performing effects you think you have to because of your title? Have you spent countless hours learning complicated sleights because deep down you marvel at the technical skill of it all or because it wins you points at magic competitions?

Take a good long look inside yourself and see what you truly love and find out if you are following that or if you are merely just being a magical cover band. Following your heart may not win you a shelf full of trophies but at least you'll be doing what you want with your magic. Life is full of choices and questions. Let me help point you in the right direction.

Are you creating the art that is you?

Bizzaro.