Sometimes Audiences Do Turn Bad

In the world of performing magic, many experts and pseudo experts swear by the validity of the conventional wisdom that says, “There are no bad audiences, only bad magicians.”

As in most wisdom bandied about as truth, the truth of this postulation is as porous as a quicksand.  Step into it, and you end up swimming in an unswimable shifting mass of loose ends and fallacies.

Of course, there are bad audiences. Drunks are bad.  So are talking parents. Or teenagers taking group pictures during your Fraidy Cat Rabbit routine.

Most audiences do not start out bad.  In most instances, guests don’t arrive at birthday parties already drunk.  None of them intends to trip you up with heckler’s lines they have researched in advance.

But some of them do evolve into human beings impervious to your attempts to mystify them, or apathetic to your best jokes, or indifferent to even your strongest trick, say, the levitation of the entire audience. That’s a possibility that occurs more often than we’d care to tolerate.

To refuse to acknowledge the prospect of audiences evolving during a performance into species of human beings with attitude and blaming solely the performer for the bombing of a show is to oversimplify a complication.

The truth of the matter is, once distracted, people will not watch a magic show, much less exert effort to enjoy it, even for the sake of their children.

Apart from the magician’s incompetence, performance condition can trigger the malevolent genes that turn people into ogres who can make life miserable for the performer.

A bouncy castle, game booths, a swimming pool, a band playing rock music, waiters serving food, the pompous arrival of a pompous guest—any of these can transform an otherwise attentive and responsive audience into a mass of unfeeling zombies.

What I’m trying to say is that even if you have the best act in town, even if you are the most charming and witty performer in your area, don’t forget to survey the performing area for “scene stealers”, “attention grabbers”,  and other stimuli that will compete with your show.

Audiences may start out nice and responsive, but they may give you a hard time once dazzled by extraneous stimuli in the performance area.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

The Magic Left when Frank Came

Last Sunday, June 22, I sat in front of the TV to watch what’s happening to the world around me.

Outside the house, the wind howled as the the rain lashed on our roof. With the racket made by the grumpy weather, I was sullen, morose, gloomy and dejected. 

Just a few minutes ago, my mobile phone woke me up with persistent, nagging ring tones. It was a client informing me she was canceling her lunch party that day  because of typhoon Frank. I had barely ended the conversation when another call came in.  It was my booking agent telling me my 5PM show was canceled, again because of typhoon Frank.

I would have reacted a bit more glumly to the twin cancellations had not the images on television showed sufferings more pitiable than my loss of income. The luxury ship Princess of the Star turned upside down in high seas a la Poseidon Adventure, trapping hundreds of passengers inside.

In Iloilo and other neighboring provinces, typhoon Frank left a wide swath of death and destruction that would could cost government and business millions of pesos to reconstruct.

It was not a magical Sunday, but it made me feel lucky compared to the lot of the typhoon-ravaged families in Frank’s way.

Please, Frank, don’t go this way again…

Leodini

www.leodini. com

MAGFI to Celebrate 18th Anniversary

 

Our friends at Magicians Foundation, Inc. (MAGFI) will celebrate their club’s 18th anniversary on Friday, June 27, 2008.

Headed by its president, Rannie Raymundo, MAGFI prepares an evening of magic to regale friends, magic fans and enthusiasts.

Cocktails will be served before the show starts.  The program promises not only an evening of magic but also an occasion of magicians from many associations gracing the event.

Inner Magic Club supports the celebration by buying tickets in bulk, courtesy of IMC Chairman Emeritus Boy “the Wudjiman” Alviz and The Chinaman George Mamonluk.  Between them, they bought 20 tickets to be raffled off during this Wednesday’s IMC weekly meeting .

To those who have not bought their tickets yet (it’s just P250), you can drop by Pepeton’s this Wednesday and attend our meeting. Representatives from MAGFI will be there with tickets of the show.

See you guys this Friday. Let’s share this memorable event with our friends at MAGFI.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

On the Proliferation of Magic

If like me you descended from the Three Wise Men who followed the Star of Bethlehem, you must have observed that too much magic flood the market today.

The phenomenon haunts not only Philippine magic scene but the world of conjuring. I think the situation is even worse outside the country than it is inside.

Too much magic. Too many props. Too many DVDs, books, and multimedia. Too many new routines released. Too many variations of variations of a sleight. Too many underground stuff proffered even to beginners.

And unavoidably, from this heap of abundance come an overflow of crap.

Death Defying Acts: Dull and Duller

I rented the movie Death Defying Acts from our neighborhood video shop last week. After watching it, I spent the rest of the afternoon in self-flagellation. I had this sudden urge to ward off the movie’s smothering boredom.

A ho-hum movie, it offers no thrill, suspense, or even the least joy. In normal times, I would find the subject of Houdini, escapes, and death defying acts captivating.  It boggles my mind that the movie benumbs my senses despite its intriguing theme.

The Universal Allures of Magic

In the Philippines, we have our own folk logic.

You know, the kind of thinking of unknown origins but reflecting traditional social values. It usually lacks affectation and sophistication but has wide acceptance among common people.

Today, I will exercise my Pinoy folk logic to unravel a great mystery, namely, why the art of magic holds a universal appeal.

How to Annoy Magicians during Club Meetings

Magicians, especially Filipino magicians, are a happy lot.  The reason could be because Philippines is one of the happiest places in the world, and Filipinos are genetically wired for happiness.

Though slow to react to negative stimuli, Pinoy magicians are not totally immune to annoyances.

Here are some ways to rile them at the next club meeting:

How to Add Pep to your Performance

Athletes are known to use performance enhancers, some of them unnatural, prohibited and illegal.

I’m sure Filipino magicians, too, would like to have at their disposal a source of enhancers that can energize their performances. But unlike some athletes who have been caught taking prohibited drugs, magicians would rather use natural methods of psyching themselves up to high level of performance, or not use any at all.

Filipinos Are Proud of their Filipino Pride

As magicians, we aspire to be happy always of our being Filipinos.

Unfortunately, our guardian angels don’t smile at us all the time. As a result, we often bump into things that upset us. The provocation, both real and imagined, is sometimes so intense that we contemplate murder. Or suicide. Depending on the extent of our consternation.

Band-aid Magic Marketing

Over the last decade,  a number of magicians have turned into marketing and treated marketing as one big magic trick.

One of the hallmark lessons they teach is the need to create the perception of being the best. 

As I understand that lesson, a magician, to be successful in his business, need not be the best.  He just have to convince his publics that he is the best. To accomplish that, all he has to do is create the perception (a close relative of illusion) of being the best through hype-studded advertising and hustle marketing.