As a child, magic was something I understood a lot better than comedy, outside of slapstick, toilet humour or physical gags. Magician makes something vanish, and reappear somewhere else, I can follow that. But a comedian setting up a joke and delivering a punchline took a bit more nuance to understand, but shows like Seinfeld helped me understand comedy better.
As I got older, I enjoyed comedy more and started to really enjoy and appreciate a well crafted set, whether it was 5 minutes, 10 minutes or an hour. My favourites are Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Burr, John Mulaney, Ronny Chieng, Nate Bargatze and for the Aussies Shaun Micallef, to name a few. Plus, I had the bonus of having a comedian friend in Oliver Phommavanh, and seeing him work in person or on TV spots was quite special indeed.
There is much to learn from comedians whether you’re a magician or a creative artist, so let’s not waste time and jump in with me as we swim in a pool of the sweat and tears from the hard work of comedians.
1. It Starts With Words
Jerry Seinfield has notebooks full of jokes written over 45 years, and also developed a habit of writing everyday, marking a cross off his calendar for each day he wrote with the intention of never breaking the streak.
The act of putting pen to paper, or digits to keyboard forces us to come up with a script, presentation, premise or ideas for whatever we are working on. In the case of magic and depending on where you’re at, a beginner would likely have an existing effect that they’ve learnt but may not like the presentation given in the instructions, so you have to write a new presentation and inject yourself1 to make it fit you.
You may be writing a show, so you start with the premise, story and themes you want to convey, before exploring the effects that would fit that. As great as meditating or standing in the shower and thinking about it helps, the act of writing it down opens up your mind better in my opinion. Even if your act is a silent act, you still need to write down what actions you’re doing and what you want to convey with those actions.
Some magicians don’t believe in a script, opting to wing it or develop their script as they perform, but I think this is doing a disservice to you and your audience. A comedian has their set jokes written down, and they then perform it on stage to work out how funny it is or not, which nicely segueways into the next point…
2. Repetition Is Key to Getting Better
A comedian is always working, going to comedy clubs and booking spots so they can try out their jokes and routines and then refine them to be better for the next night they perform.
While comedians have their clubs, magicians have different options when it comes to performing, but we need to make sure we are performing in order to get better! When I’m on stage, I record my performances and then review, taking note of any moments that did well, lines that fell flat or need tweaking in order to improve.
Close up, I have a faster feedback loop, as I can perform at one table or group, do my set and depending on how it goes instantly make changes for the next table or group I perform for.
Repetition helps you understand your set a lot faster, you may discover
Where moments of misdirection are
How much you can get away during misdirection
Jokes that work well
What effects give good reactions
Whether to cut a trick or not
The best angles for your effects
I’ve mentioned it before but performing at a residency helped me improve immensely, now I just need a way to replicate it with stage material!
3. Your Final Reveal Is Your Punchline
A good joke generally consists of three parts - the setup, build and then the punchline.
In the same way, magic consists of the pledge, turn and finally the prestige, as noted from Christopher Nolan’s movie The Prestige, although funnily enough magicians I know and read have never used those terms. But the idea of three parts is all the same.
Without all three, you don’t get the full effect of what is happening, but the difference is the final reveal can still be impactful.
A card is selected, lost in the pack and then found in a hopefully magical way. You could be joining the group late and don’t know what the card was, but when you see a card floating out of the pack and everyone else is reacting appropriately you know that was the card and at the very least can be astonished by the floating effect.
A good joke relies on the setup and builds suspense at what the punchline is, a comedian who does this well is Anthony Jeselnik, whose dark humour makes it hard to see the punchline coming. This short is a prime example where he comes up with a joke on the spot (warning: mature/adult themes) which sets things up for a strong punchline.
Make your magic surprising and as strong as possible, lead them down the garden path and then drop them into a pool of delicious jelly.
4. Be Willing to Crowd Work
A popular trend among social media and comedians these days is to post their bits or interactions with the crowd.
We’ve often seen the cliched question from a comedian where they ask “Where are you from” or “What do you do?” and then come up with jokes from there, whether impromptu or from an existing memory bank from hearing repeated answers. Social media gives us a look at more of these types of moments, which we can learn from as it allows us to flex our improv muscles.
Don’t be like those magicians who asks a person a question, and then completely disregards it in order to move on with their routine. I’ve done it before and it’s a horrible feeling both during and afterwards when I realise what I’ve done. In my case a group was talking about whether I could make someone’s hair reappear and I launched into my performance like a fool. Now I’ve got a couple jokes I can add to that type of joke. I’ve performed for groups who ask how I got into magic or are excited to tell me about the soccer club they play for, which only gives me fodder fo
r jokes if the opportunity comes up later.
Unless you’re confined to a certain time, don’t be afraid to pause your routine, engage with your audience meaningfully before continuing, and yes, even have lines for the common remarks like “Can you make my wife disappear?” or “Are you allowed in casinos?”.
Next Time
This will have to be broken up into two parts as I realised I was writing a lot more points than I had originally intended for, so strap yourselves in for more comedy lessons which you can now read here.
In the meantime, let me know which comedians you enjoy and if you don’t have one, check out Nate Bargatze, who is one of my favourite clean comedians and also the son of a magician, Stephen Bargatze!