You are Probably Boring

Many Filipino magicians are probably boring and don’t know it.

It’s sad to be boring, but it’s sadder to be unaware of it.

For all their powers, cunning, quick eye to spot trickery, ability to conjure the impossible, some magicians lack the sensitivity to feel for their audience’s needs. Many are unable to tell if they are entertaining the audience or boring them to death.

Boring magicians are a universal phenomenon. You will find them in the Philippines as often as you will find them in the USA or in some anaconda-infested jungle in South America.

Bores cut across nationalities. Lack of performance skills and showmanship is, therefore, not only a Filipino affliction but a world-wide artistic deficiency of epidemic proportion.

Insensitivity to audience’s feeling seems to be the complication such affliction brings about. The more boring the magician, the more clueless he is about his status as a bore.

Unbelievably, even the clearest signs of audience boredom will go over their heads. For example, after dropping a thumb tip in the middle of a performance, some magicians think they have cracked up the audience with their humor when they hear titters and snickers. When their elegant card manipulation fails to elicit applause, some magicians explain away the lack of reaction as stunned silence.

So how do you solve a problem if the person concerned does not know he has a problem?

Well, send him to a cave and intravenously feed him with the performance tips you read on this blog. That should help him get over his denseness.

The signs of audience boredom are plenty, clear and eloquent. One just has to develop the eye to spot them.

Feel the aura of a room when performing. Is your audience suffused with energy by your performance ? Have you established rapport with them? Are they warm to you or indifferent?

If none of the above, stop! Do some maneuvers to get their interest back.

I have a few tricks up my sleeves to share with the readers in tomorrow’s post on how exactly to do that.

Meantime, I have to close this post. I’m already bored writing about being a bore.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com