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Page Ten
-STYLE-
The knack of making a trick or stunt LOOK hard is an invaluable asset to any performer. Without it, even the best and most difficult effects will leave the audience unmoved. In general, the audience does not know the difference between a really difficult and highly dangerous stunt and a merely showy one. Lighting several torches from one held between your teeth, or lighting a spectator's cigarette in the same manner, can be really hard on the teeth because of the heat buildup in the time it takes to accomplish this. But to the audience, it's just another stunt. Something like the "human volcano," when done properly, poses very little danger to the performer or audience, other than the lingering smell of kerosene droplets on clothing. But it's almost impossible to not impress people with this one.
WARNING.... Before you take the previous remark wrong, reread it. Reread the last sentence a couple of times. "WHEN DONE PROPERLY, the 'human volcano' poses very little danger..." -This is correct only if you do not take it out of context. The Human Volcano is never SAFE. But it can be done in a much less dangerous manner than far too many people have been doing it. More will be explained about this later. But for now, do NOT misunderstand this statement.
At the end of my performances, as a part of my warning and admonition to the audience not to try it at home, I often throw in an apology for making it all look too easy.
Confused? Am I talking about making it look hard, making it look easy, or what? -Actually, it's both, and that's what show business is all about. Some things you make appear harder than they actually are; some you just do; and some you actually do make look easy. But by apologizing for making it look too easy, you are throwing them completely off. They go away thinking that everything was actually harder than it appeared, even the things you made look harder than they are.
-Welcome to show-business, where everything is true, but nothing is real...
You are probably still confused by these apparent contradictions, so allow me an example. If you have already been working out with the practice torches, and can now quite comfortably put a flaming torch in your mouth, great. You stand in front of a group of people, getting your torches dipped, and maybe lighting a candle on a table so as not to have to keep pulling out your Zippo. You now light a torch and bring it down to your open palm, gritting your teeth, inhaling deeply, and narrowing your eyes. Your audience is aware of all this, and you have just told them in body-language that this fire was hot. It took all your concentration and willpower to resist burning your hand. You have just built them up for the suspense of your next move, putting the torch to your mouth. You now light another torch and hold it up, studying it carefully. You inhale, brace your feet, and raise the torch above you, keeping your eyes glued to that fire continuously. The torch comes down toward your face, and you...pull it away. You take your cloth off the table and wipe your face (or forehead or neck). Then you assume the pose once more, and this time smoothly and deliberately put the fiery torch directly into your mouth, smothering it out. You remove the snuffed-out torch and soak in the applause and admiration of the onlookers.
What happened here? If you have been practicing, you know that touching the torch to your open palm is nothing compared to what follows. It's just an opening move. But you made it appear harder than it was. Then, when you first brought the torch to your face, there was no need at all to stop. You could easily have gone ahead and mouthed the fire on the first try. This is by-play, or a feint, and building up the suspense, to heighten the effect of what's to come.
This is acting, plain and simple. It can make for a great show, but overdone, it can also kill a show. You obviously cannot do this with every effect you do or the audience will catch on fast. It must be alternated with going right into something as if it were the simplest activity in the world. When a performance is properly presented, the audience normally is not aware of the moments when you do get burned. -Unless you want them to be, or unless something obviously goes wrong -such as your hair catching fire. About the only way to cover up a situation like that would be to laugh and say something like, "Don't be alarmed, folks. That was part of the act. This is really a wig!"
Whether you make it look hard or easy depends a lot on your particular style of presentation. Style in itself is something you cannot copy from another performer. It's something you must develop on your own. Your personal style is your trademark. It's your method; your manner; a part of your personality and a part of you. Try to copy somebody else's style and I can almost guarantee your act is doomed. A successful impersonator may mimic another's style of performing almost exactly. But the impersonator has his/her own style in doing this. This is a bit of a deep subject to devote more than a minimum of space to here. But remember, deliberately copying someone else's show or style of performing is technically termed "plagiarism," which -unless you actually are an impersonator or satirist- is frowned upon in all aspects of show business.
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