| Magicians, especially beginners, are always on the hunt for the perfect trick; the one that will bring them fame, envy, and recognition, the one that will prove to all that he is an exceptional and competent wizard worthy of the name. He searches through magic catalogs and gazes in wonder at the vast amount of tangible miracles before him and figures, �Well this one sounds great! It will surly fool and amaze everybody if I had this, it�s perfect!� So he saves his money and finally gets the perfect trick only to discover one of several things; 1) The trick is well beyond his current level of skill and knowledge and will take months of research and practice to master, or� 2) When the trick is performed, it doesn�t even remotely resemble the incredible description that he had read several weeks earlier, or� 3) Upon learning the secret (which is often disappointing), the would be magician figures that it won�t fool a monkey, never mind a layman, and he loses interest in it, or� 4) The trick performed does not bring the applause and bewilderment that he expected it to. In any event, the end result is usually the same; it�s back to the catalog in search of the perfect trick and the cycle continues on and on, often and sadly, endlessly. What is the perfect trick? Does such a thing even exist? The answer in my opinion is both yes and no. The perfect trick probably exists right under your nose; it could be on your bookshelf, in your junk draw or maybe even already in your repertoire. It is often difficult for magicians, who after learning the secret to a trick, to discern the magical or entertainment value of it. It takes on a whole new light when they see it performed by someone else, even when the method is known to them. How many times have you been fooled and wowed by a trick performed by someone else only to discover it�s in a book sitting on your bookshelf? You may have even read through the effect before and found it uninteresting and not worthy of learning. I know this has happened to me a number of times. Magicians are a hard group to please. Most do magic that appeals to them only, often forgetting that it is the audience that allows them to exist in the first place. Of course it�s important to enjoy what you are doing, but their needs to a compromise somewhere, because effect without vision is sheer drudgery. The real professional is not a magician�s magician (unless of course you are Daryl). He combines personality and skill and uses time tested tricks that he knows will both fool and entertain his audience. Have the pros we admire found the perfect trick? Take sponge balls for example. I�m not particularly fond of them, but you know what? If performed well, audiences love them, and I will debate with anyone who thinks otherwise. A sponge ball appearing in a spectator�s hand is going to brink more shrieks and laughter than an Ace assembly ever will, I guarantee it. Are sponge balls the perfect trick? Sometimes it�s necessary for the magician to step outside of the box and really think about the effects and how the audience perceives them. Why are so many magicians bent on showing of sleights and moves to other magicians? Why are they so obsessed with trying to fool each other? What about the audience? Fooling an audience is not difficult at all, either. you can fool them with a simple key card, never mind triple lifts, gambler�s cops and Tenkai palms. I think one of the best card tricks in existence is YOU DO AS I DO. It has everything; an interesting theme, audience participation, suspense, a baffling climax, and not a single sleight. But how many of you perform it? Too easy, you say? Not flashy enough? Is this the perfect trick? The perfect trick is not the cups and balls, or the Zig-Zag illusion, or the professor�s nightmare. It�s not a card trick, a coin trick, or a mental effect. It�s not something you find on a magic TV special or on a stage or at a magic convention. You won�t find it there. It doesn�t exist in these places. Yet the beginner will wander aimlessly in these places wondering where or what the perfect trick really is. The real truth is that the perfect trick is simply a metaphor for what you already know. The perfect trick is YOU. It�s not the tricks you perform or the type of magic you do. This is one of the hardest single lessons a new magician has to learn, and it�s something I still grapple with after doing magic for almost 15 years. All the expensive and finely crafted gaffs and gimmicks in the world don�t mean a damn thing if you can�t use them in a magical and entertaining way. All the moves and sleights you learn from books and videos are useless unless you can put them together in a rational, coherent way that the spectator can benefit from. Look at music; eight basic notes, but you can compose symphonies and operas with them. Look at our alphabet, only twenty-six letters, but you can not only form words to communicate, educate and entertain with, but can also be used to move nations and conform religions. Your magic should be no different, but it is because magic needs two things to be successful; skill and personality. You audiences should be remembering YOU, not your tricks. Any serious magician should be practicing your relationships with people as well as your sleights and moves. Learn about people and how to relate to them. Understand them and think of how they perceive the magical experience. Everybody is indeed different; what is magic in one man�s hands is a buffoonery in another�s, but it doesn�t matter because your personality should be winning them over, not your tricks. Win the audience, and everything else falls into place. Think carefully about the tricks you perform and don�t think about what a fellow magician or what a �guy in the know� is going to think. Think of only the audience and how they see you. That�s where the real magic is and has always been in the first place. In the famous but often ignored words of Dai Vernon- Be Yourself. Once you realize these things and apply them, then your quest for the elusive perfect trick might just actually come to an end. I hope so. Good luck. BACK |
| The Quest for the Ellusive Perfect Trick |