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SHOWMANSHIP
For
MAGICIANS

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CHAPTER TWO

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Let's look at this activity we call magic performance. Let's try to see it as it appears to the public. I'm afraid it isn't a pretty sight according to modern standards.

It must be borne in mind throughout this text that the writer is compelled to select the usual or average example in these discussions. There are smart performers. There are some, comparatively few it must be admitted with regret, who have adapted their offerings to modern standards. With these, of course, the writer has no quarrel. So where an occasional magician seems not to conform to the conventional picture that does not still alter the general over-all aspect.

This average magician that forms the subject matter of these discussions is a cross section of all who present magic. He is made up from the infrequent performer, the one who does just a few tricks to add variety to a social evening, semi-professional magicians, professionals and all others who elect to give exhibitions of their prowess. Because he is so many, made up from the ranks of the beginners, dilettantes, hobbyists, unskilled professionals and semi-professionals, and because, in contrast with these thousands, the really capable performers are so few, this cross-section by sheer weight of numbers establishes the standard. It is a standard that definitely reacts disadvantageously to the few who deserve better but who are automatically damned by the far more numerous general group.

To get back to the average magical performance:

One of the most unsightly and most dated pieces of furniture used by the average magician is his table. "Modern Magic" was published some seventy years ago. "The Modern Conjuror" was published in 1903. I have in my collection catalogues of Martinka & Co., Mysto and A. Roterberg, all published from 1910 to 1913. These center pedestal tables appear in all of these publications.

Particularly in the dealers' catalogues appear the typical magicians' tables of today, the tripod or Kellar base, the center standard, black art tops, flat-fringed drapes. Count the years back. It's a good portion of a century. Automobiles were made in 1910. How would one of those cars appear in modern traffic? How would your own personal attire date you if you were to don the garb of the gay nineties or the first decade of the twentieth century? What would a home look like if it were decked out in the bric-a-brac and furnishings of that overstuffed era?

Corn? If done seriously, yes.

If you habitually drove a 1910 automobile, if you wore clothes fashionable in the early part of the century, if your home were decorated and fitted out in that mode, then you would instantly become a character.

Characters of that type, thoughts of that era, decoration of that day become excruciating comedy today.

Then, why aren't the magic tables of that era out of date?

They are. But because magicians have been content to accept that era as the standard their tables date them and their craft in a damaging manner that labels magic itself as corn. Don't blame the dealers and manufacturers. They don't handle the goods you won't buy, if they're successful. The first fundamental of modern business is to handle the kind of wares the customers buy. Demand creates the supply in all cases. If magicians generally insisted on modern, smart tables the dealers would see that they were available.

But let's look at other tables that are in use today in the smart places. All of them are modern in design or adapted from certain classic designs, none of which even remotely resemble the atrocities we call magic tables. There are no gas-pipe center standards. What few center pedestal tables one sees are beautifully turned and finished designs based on genuinely beautiful and enduring patterns. Most of the tables are four-legged. The legs may be chrome-plated in keeping with certain types of modern design. Or they may be wood in a variety of natural finishes. Incidentally, few pieces of furniture are painted and these are usually for breakfast nooks, gardens, kitchens and the more informal uses.

Notice also that none of them is painted gaudy red with violent contrasts in gold. That sort of a color scheme is circus art. Even the better circuses are getting away from that. Ringlings now employs Norman bel Geddes to design that show completely.

None of the furniture is draped with dark plush flat drapes. No modern drapery is decorated with gold stars or dragons. Occasionally, you see gold fringe. But not used as it is on magic tables.

Now let's look at the apparatus. Most of it looks like nothing else this side of heaven or hell. Huge black dice, tin bottles painted black, red and green and blue boxes gaudily daubed with wild and blatant designs in equally violent color contrasts, nickel-plated cylinders, guns with funnels on the muzzles! Funny looking stands and pedestals, foulards that bulge, in designs that bring chills, tie-and-dye silks and variegated scarves went out many decades ago. Flowers, among the most beautiful things on earth, positively do not look like those gaudily dyed feather dusters.

But this list is a long one. Page after page could be taken up in citing equally horrible examples. Look over your apparatus yourself. Examine it critically. Not as magical apparatus, but according to modern day standards. Just because it is magical apparatus is no reason it can violate the rules of present-day taste.

Why, this is stuff you work with. It is equipment that is plainly seen when you are supposed to be putting your best foot forward.

You violate the rules of fundamental good taste when you perform with apparatus that is flagrantly incongruous.

Again I insist, don't blame the dealers. Their business is to sell the kind of stuff you buy.

Perhaps much of this "dated" aspect is not entirely the fault of the magicians. Much of it could be psychological. Many of us received our first inspirations from "Modern Magic" and books of that vintage. Many of us received our first urges from watching professional magicians under the influence of that gay nineties era.

Thus, perhaps, were subtly formed standards which are now entirely out of harmony with these times. It must be admitted that much of this comes from childhood, and now that we are older we still stick to these standards in our second childhood.

That second childhood crack is not entirely wild, either. Many magical hobbyists spend considerable money for new toys under the guise of magic. Many hobbyists "play" by the hour with these red wagons in a different form. This may account for the peculiarly childish tastes in apparatus, tables, silks and other accouterments evidenced by so many magicians.

Now as to the dress: I have in mind at this particular moment a decidedly ludicrous picture. It is the photograph of a young man of perhaps twenty-eight. On his chin is a beard that resembles the adornment of an ambassador. It is black and luxuriant and curled in peculiar ways. This beard is entirely out of keeping with the character of the young man's face.

About this chap's head is wrapped a slightly soiled but obviously once white turban. The turban is adorned with a gilt star in front and some kind of a white plume. This young man is wearing a tuxedo of doubtful vintage. It looks a little tight in the legs. And it is certainly in a bad state of press. A long gold chain dangles in a loop from his trousers pocket.

The magician is standing in a painfully awkward attitude. His legs are spread apart with his somewhat bent knees quite prominent from the side view. He is resolutely, and not without some difficulty, trying to hold four billiard balls in his badly cramped left hand. The right hand clutches a wand with all of its remaining strength.

His thin hungry stomach is pushed out towards the nearby magicians' table. The table is conventional except that the drape is an American flag instead of the usual plush with stars and fringe. Upon the table is the obvious apparatus.

Now this chap has been trying to eke out an existence as a professional magician. He has succeeded in getting some bookings. Can you imagine the classification magic is getting from the spectators who witness his performance?

It matters little what skill he may possess. Long before he ever gets started on his routine, if he has a routine, his spectators peg him as a character. He conforms to every requirement of excruciating comedy, except one. The thing that prevents him from being terrifically funny to his audiences is his evident seriousness, his utter innocence of the fact that he is ludicrous. Generally audiences are collectively inherently kindly. The reason they do not rock with laughter is that there is a certain amount of pity developed.

But this type of character is not strange to magic.

Many magicians are characters to the spectators. Through peculiar haircuts, eccentric behavior, unconventional dress, lack of proper grooming, very bad conversation and talking habits, and multitudinous crudities and peculiarities that so quickly illuminate an individual.

Many of them brag too much, lie too much, talk too loud. A great many of them are disagreeable in their attitude towards others. Many are absolutely without any care in personal grooming.

Fortunately, this type of character is in the minority. Yet it cannot be denied that these characters influence the average spectator's opinion as to magicians in general. Peculiarly, the disadvantageous characteristics such as these enumerated here weigh far more heavily in influencing the public than the circumspect behavior of the far greater majority. It is because they are so damnably conspicuous.

The type of dress the average magician wears during his performance is widely varied. The writer has seen performances in business suits, pressed and unpressed, in tuxedos that are smart and modern and in others that are woefully out of date. In dress suits that were new, pressed and up-to-date and in dress suits that were shiny with age and almost creaseless. In exotic costumes, national garb, in uniforms and in practically any state of dress. Some of these performers have had Paderewski haircuts, many of them were conventional. Some wore silk toppers and others turbans.

Probably the average performance in a business suit is done in a suit that needs pressing somewhat. Probably the average tuxedo or dress suit is somewhat out of date and ill fitting. Probably the average performer is totally without make-up and most likely his hands are not even carefully groomed.

The usual term patter, used to denote the lines that go with the performance of a trick, is poorly chosen. The Funk & Wagnals College Standard Dictionary defines "patter" as "Glib and rapid talk; idle chatter or gossip."

To this writer that does not characterize the verbal accompaniment that should go with modern magical presentation. The term, "lines," as used to connote the part spoken by an actor, seems far more apt.

The average "patter" at the average magical performance is usually more or less extemporaneous explanatory matter, elaborating unnecessarily on already obvious facts, delivered without any degree of skill. Or it may mean the rapid incongruities of some youngster, still speaking in a high-pitched squeak, babbling about his palpably non-existent trip to India or Egypt or some other equally impossible place for him.

Or it may mean the chattering of gags, whether or not they are particularly funny, and whether or not they apply to the immediate circumstances. It is the delivery without any sense of the difficult arts of pointing and timing so essential to successful comedy.

It may mean the monotonous recital of some uninteresting fiction while all "lift" or "action" halts. Often it is delivered in a sort of a preoccupied monotone while the clearly bedeviled performer is concentrating his major attention on the doing of some finaglery connected with the operation of the trick.

Truly, the words uttered by the average magician during the average performance constitute the most dismal palaver ever inflicted upon an audience.

And then again, too often this colorless blabber is punctuated by an exhibition of stumbling and fumbling, while the performer worries about where to go, how to get there, how to stand, what to do with his hands, and whether the trick will work or not. In addition, this average performer never seems to know just where in hell his junk is.

There's too much stress on protecting the secret of the trick. Many performers deliberately get in front of their apparatus at a critical point in order to guard this precious secret.

No magic secret is worthy of being concealed if the effect cannot be done in normal manner out in the open so all may see. Magic is supposed to be seen.

No trick is worth performance if the secret of how it's done is more important than the impression it makes on the audience.

That must be said again and again. It must be realized subconsciously that every waking and sleeping moment of every day of every magician before magic can become genuine entertainment.

The secret hoarder is NOT a magician. He never will be a magician from the standpoint of being an interesting entertainer. These secrets aren't so damned valuable. There are few of them that can't be reasoned out by a man of fairly logical analytical ability.

It must be repeated again. The secret is NOT important. The ONLY thing that is important is its favorable impression upon the majority of the spectators.

Necessary to mention, too, are the assistants to the magicians. The costumes, the grooming, the behavior, the characters and the actions of these aides make a very definite impression. In this writer's experience the average assistant is inadequately trained, badly costumed, poorly groomed and not at all an asset.

Musical accompaniments are usually unsuitable, inexpertly scored, totally without cueing.

Thus, it may be seen that in this writer's opinion the average magical performer and his equipment are entirely out of step with modern entertainment standards. He could support this, if necessary, with more convincing proof from big time specialists in the entertainment field. I believe the majority of spectators would agree as well.

But you can satisfy yourself on this. Make it a point to attend performances of several first-class productions. Look at the product of the movies as represented in their more successful films. Look at the dress and behavior of these big time professionals, after they go through the meticulous criticisms of capable producers. Look at the devious ways, varied and unexpected, that favorable impressions are made. Listen to the music and watch how the performer responds. Study the delivery of lines and the pointing and timing. Study the material that has been selected for the performer to use. See how music and rhythm and many other appeals are brought into play to gain the favor of the audience.

Watch the reaction of the audience.

Now do you see what I mean when I criticize so severely the offerings of this average magician? Do you understand why I believe him to be an inadequate entertainer?

It was necessary to be somewhat severe in my analysis of the spectator's viewpoint of the average magician in order that a logical approach may be made to overcome these deficiencies.

Consider your own choice of entertainment. What do you honestly prefer? Do you go to magic shows because they entertain you? Or do you go because you are interested, as a magician?

I'll bet a slightly used mouth roll, like the rank and file, you too prefer lively songs, rhythmic dancing, hilarious comedy, tense drama, good looking girls, group coordination and all of the things featured by the more heavily patronized branches of the show business. <-|!*!|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|->
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