<-|Top|Showmanship For Magicians|Trick Brain|Magic By Misdirection|Mail|->
<-|!*!|C|I|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|->
SHOWMANSHIP
For
MAGICIANS
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Proper costuming and careful grooming should be accepted as essential without question. When you are appearing before an audience you should look your best, just as you should look your best in the presence of anyone with whom you want to make an impression.
You wouldn't even consider appearing at your office or at a party in clothes that are soiled. You wouldn't think of appearing in attire that is out of date. Few people need be told clothing must be clean and well pressed.
Yet an astonishing number of magic performances are given where the performer's costume is not pressed and where the dress or dinner suit he is wearing is out of date, or frayed at the edges.
A performer, unless he is a character impersonator or a comedian, should never appear in any costume other than the very latest in cut and style, with the best of tailoring. Most performers insist that the cut and styling be a bit extreme. This is because a performer appearing as an entertainer has some distance and perspective to contend with, and decorative details must be accentuated a bit in order to be seen.
If there is any doubt as to your costume, whether it is in style, whether it needs pressing or cleaning, there is no doubt. Discard the suit and get a new one, if style is the question. Have the suit cleaned or pressed or both, if that is doubtful. It is a very good rule always to act when the doubt appears.
Performers doing occasional shows or infrequent appearances should always have fresh linens and freshly cleaned and pressed clothing, Always. For performers appearing in several shows daily, FREQUENT pressings and frequent changes of linen is the rule.
Every time you appear you should be carefully made-up. Your hair should be well groomed. Your hands should be clean, and your fingernails should be well manicured. Shoes should be spotless.
What has been said here, of course, does not apply to a performer playing a character. Many times such discrepancies help to maintain the character. As a matter of fact, if your clothes are not impeccable and if you are not meticulously groomed, you yourself are established as a character in the eyes of all of those strangers watching you. Why shouldn't they think you are a character? They don't know you. They don't know that even if your collar is soiled now, you sometimes wear clean ones. They can't know that the suit was pressed once, if it isn't now. How can they possibly know these things? This may be the only time they will ever see you. It's almost certain to be if you aren't well groomed.
Your routine should be as well groomed as the clothes you wear. You should know every instant of every program you do where everything is, exactly, not approximately. You should know what comes next, where it is, exactly how it works, what you are going to do with it. AND WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO WITH IT AFTER YOU HAVE FINISHED.
You should know exactly everything you are going to say. You should know WHEN you are going to say it. You should know HOW you are going to say it, as to voice, accent, speed, pointing and timing. AND YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE DOING, AND BE ABLE TO DO IT, while you are saying it.
You should know where your hands are going to be and how they are going to be held. There should be no doubt as to where your feet are going to be, how you are going to stand and the position of your body.
Be at ease physically and mentally. If you aren't, you are in no condition to appear before an audience.
The material you are to use, how it works, every movement of the execution of NECESSARY sleights, every movement necessary to operate any trick you are to do, should be thoroughly and repeatedly rehearsed UNTIL YOU CAN DO IT SUBCONSCIOUSLY, both the lines you are to say and the trick itself. This material should be so well absorbed that it presents no problem whatever during your entertainment.
Your entire mind should be free for selling yourself to the audience, Completely.
Every step of the routine should be paced off and kept unchanged, once settled. It should always be done that way, every performance. In this way you avoid awkward positions, stumbling and ineffective footwork.
If you are to stand still at some time during the routine, STAND STILL. Stand with both feet on the ground, with your weight on your heels. Stand with your weight properly balanced, breathing easily. Don't walk on your toes. Don't bounce and jounce and jiggle and mince. Walk. Or stand. Remember that these, too, are character establishing eccentricities. Of course, if you are playing a character, walk like a character, stand like a character. But if you aren't playing a character, if you don't want to be considered one, DON'T ACT LIKE ONE, EVER.
Make-up is a difficult problem. Few performers can really see how they appear in make-up, particularly where they are to be seen under artificial illumination. Footlights, floodlights and spotlights change the colors of the make-up. Distance blots out details, and to be seen these details should be strengthened.
Formerly grease make-up was most generally used, either on top of a light cold cream foundation or without. Many performers use liquid make-up. For the most part, however, I believe that the Factor Pancake is most generally used now.
But regardless of the type of make-up used, you positively cannot use the street make-up colors. Entertainers MUST use the theatrical type of make-up in theater colors.
Expert advice on make-up is far best. If you are in Hollywood you can arrange with Factor's to go to their studios and have experts analyze you and select a proper palette for your use. They actually make you up, and after all has been worked out, they give you a written list of the proper materials in the proper colors and show you how to put it on.
The next best substitute is to consult with friends who can advise you. Get your advice from someone with good taste and preferably from one who has had some experience. Experiment with various styles and colors of make-up until a combination is found that is most satisfactory for you. Then make a note of it and always do it that way.
As in the case of make-up, advice on clothes is always best from experts. Go to the best stores in your vicinity and find out what type of clothing will look best on you. Find out how the clothes should be cut, styled and tailored. Investigate, too, the matter of shoes, shirts, vests, ties, collars and the like.
This advice has been given from the man viewpoint. Most women know these things instinctively. Good grooming and appearance are an essential stock-in-trade of all women at all times.
What to do with the hands? This problem has betrayed more beginners than probably any other single thing. Use the hands when necessary, with certainty and smoothness. Make every move count. Some coaches in the theater field advise that the movements be made as if the hands and arms are in water. This eliminates jerkiness and contributes smooth, graceful movements.
If there are times when you are standing before an audience empty-handed, drop the hands to the sides. They should hang there loosely, easily, without stiffness. Then forget them. Consciousness of the hands almost always betrays itself.
Facial expression should be natural and not strained. Avoid mugging. Avoid exaggerated expressions of all kinds. When you smile, smile easily, using both the eyes and the mouth. Look at your spectators. Don't set your teeth. Don't look grim. Don't purse your lips and indulge in eccentric mannerisms such as whistling silently to yourself. Don't close your eyes when you do a sleight. Don't shy from a pull. Don't frown or scowl. Never betray anger or impatience or short temper.
Every expression should convey the pleasant things. Smile frequently. Smile easily, not stiffly. Smile as you would smile at a friend, that is, if you have any friends and like anybody. Smile at some specific person in the audience. It helps.
Of course, I must say again, if you are playing a character or if your material is such that other expressions are necessary, don't adhere to these general rules.
But again, I must remind you, facial expressions also establish character. If you don't want to appear to be a character, keep your facial expression natural and unexaggerated.
The voice certainly conveys character. Angry people shout and scream. Nervous people talk excitedly in strained, high-pitched voices. Calm people talk with ease, with leisurely pauses, in low, well modulated voices. Fools and imbeciles mumble unintelligibly. Hearty men bellow and rumble and roar. Timid people whisper shyly. Thinking people are deliberate.
If you aren't playing characters such as these, you shouldn't talk in pitch or tempo like these. The normal, ordinary person is not ill at ease. He is not frightened or nervous. He is not timid. And he is not an imbecile.
Then, don't mumble to yourself. Don't shout. Don't talk in a high-pitched strained voice. Don't whisper.
Pitch your voice low. It carries better. Its tone quality is much more pleasing. Articulate carefully, sounding every syllable. Then you'll be understood. Pause a bit between phrases, so that your thought may be followed. Remember. You might know your lines so well that you can say every syllable rapidly and clearly. But the spectator doesn't know these lines and he must hear them clearly and grasp your meaning to under-stand you.
Don't strain your voice. It isn't necessary if your articulation and tempo are correct. Rehearse your lines in a large theater or hall for friends. Let them correct you when you are not heard or understood.
Know where you are going to put your accents. A good trick is to underline the words to be accented, on the original script. Always read them that way. Rehearse them that way. Ultimately accent and the word will be simultaneous.
The best solution for the problem of being at ease is to be at ease. Have thorough knowledge of your lines and a clear understanding of what you are to do and when you are to do it. Complete confidence in your ability to do the tricks you have selected. All of these contribute to ease.
If you don't know your lines well or if there is any ambiguity in exactly what you are to do, then you aren't ready to perform yet. Obviously, if you aren't absolutely certain that you can do any trick well, that trick should not be used in public.
Stage fright is not a species of fright. There is nothing frightening about a thorough knowledge and familiarity with your material. Stage fright is more of an anticipatory nervous stimulation that evidences itself in the form of increased pulse, more rapid breathing, and exhilaration.
Stage fright can do no harm. It is the same type of lift an athlete gets just before the whistle blows to start a game or race. It is simply excitement. Some people overcome this in time. Repeated appearances help. Yet there are others who never can get over that first stimulation, as they are about to appear.
Don't let it worry you. IF YOU ARE COMPLETELY CONFIDENT THAT YOU CAN DO YOUR ACT.
A dozen slow, deep breaths just before you go on will help to calm you down. A number of slow stretching exercises, rising up on your toes, are also helpful. But never condition yourself to the stimulation of liquor, this is dynamite. Soon you find yourself unable to go on at all without the alcohol.
If you must have a drink, don't do your drinking so its effects are part of your act. Many a performer has regretted conditioning himself to a point where he has to have the liquor or he can't perform.
Don't use ANY type of artificial stimulation or narcotic in an attempt to overcome nervousness or that "gone" feeling just before going on for your turn. Thus conditioned, you can never overcome a belief in a need for it. Soon these "treatments" must be stronger and stronger. You can't work without them. Finally you are all shot to pieces. Then you are finished-for good. I've known a lot of performers who have gone through the experience to their everlasting regret.
Actually, there is really nothing to overcome. If you suffer from simple stage fright, it is just a sign that your nervous system is functioning normally. Forget it. As soon as you start your routine it will go away.
But if you are nervous because you aren’t certain of yourself and your routine, you are not sufficiently rehearsed.
Perfect smoothness is necessary in any routine. In no other way will your act seem finished to your spectators. Smoothness, which is a word meaning that you have planned thoroughly and well, gives confidence both to the performer and to his audience.
In smoothness rests the reason for rehearsal.
<-|!*!|C|I|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|->
<-|Top|Showmanship For Magicians|Trick Brain|Magic By Misdirection|Mail|->