Recently in the world of social media, one of the many trending things of the day that came across my feed was a video of a person struggling to control their umbrella.
That’s a bad description of what was really happening as this person had perfect control of their umbrella, manipulating it in ways that suggested the umbrella had a life of its own, fighting against the will of its owner. The owner is a stop motion animator named Jun Yamaguchi.
This video of him performing was shared across the magic community and upon reading the comments I noticed a trend that left me perplexed and disappointed.
Copy Cats
Magicians were asking how to do this ‘routine’ and also speculating on how Jun was accomplishing this illusion.
This type of mime performance isn’t new, anyone who has watched enough entertainment in and out of magic over the ages would have come across similar styled performances and deduce that this was done through the art of mime. If someone wanted to learn it they could do so by getting in front of a mirror and learning to manipulate the space around themselves.
But what annoyed me is that they were seeing this performance and their initial reaction was to find out how to incorporate it into their own show, rather than respecting the artist and enjoying it for what it is. Then there were others trying to work out how it was done, with guesses such as the use of a gimmicked umbrella.
The right response was to praise and enjoy the performance, but it did get me thinking about the mindset of magicians when it comes to originality and what’s on the market.
Originality vs Marketed Effects
Magicians are one of the few artforms where creativity and originality are not required in order for one to be successful.
It’s possible to buy a few tricks, learn and then perform them somewhat adequately in order to call yourself a magician. If you have the charisma and personality to pull it off, you can have people thinking you’re the next David Blaine. In the end you’re a magician performing other people’s creations, but is that okay?
I’m of two minds when it comes to this topic, on one hand everyone should be original and capable of creating their own magic when performing but on the other hand, there’s so much great magic out on the market for purchase, how could you not get those effects to add to your repertoire?
Then there’s the stance in between, where you take those effects you’ve purchased, but change it up so it fits you or has a different presentation. I’m more in line with this stance, but then there’s some great short effects out there where the script is already so good it’s hard to deviate from it!
This is a problem I have. I want to be original and super creative, but I have so much magic that I’ve purchased and continue to buy that I feel like I need to at least try those effects out to see where they fit in my repertoire. I have friends who have set themselves apart by performing their own creations and I envy them because I don’t have the creative chops they do outside of adding something to an existing routine.
But then again, is there anything wrong with being a magician who only does marketed effects, essentially a cover band magician?
Cover Magician
In the world of music, there are cover bands and original musicians.
I’m sure most of these cover bands/artists want to break out and sing their own creations, but then there’s also those out there who are content to play covers. There’s probably a lot more cover bands/artists compared to original artists.
Then you have to take into consideration the situation in which you see an artist. If you’re planning a function or wedding and are looking for a band, you want someone who will sing songs that people are familiar with, not for the band to bust out their original works. But you may be more than happy to give money to someone streaming their original songs with the hopes of making it big one day and you’ll definitely fork out the money to experience your favourite singer/band live in person.
When it comes to magic, most audiences are very unfamiliar with what a good magic show should consist of that anything you do will likely satisfy their expectations, as long as you don’t mess up. We the magician decide what is good and should be part of our act, and the one of the ways we discover that is by seeing what’s on the market, or by watching other magicians’ performances on TV or online. Which brings us back to the beginning, where we see some viral performance and think to ourselves, “If I do that, maybe I can go viral and get more attention!”.
But we also need to set ourselves apart through the material we do. In the UK, everyone does Omni deck so much that it’s looked down upon because of the saturation, but fortunately I don’t have that issue in Australia…yet.
Like any artform, only a small percentage will make it to the top and command high prices, attention and prestige while the others grind, hustle or find their place in the pecking order.
Finding Your Place
What are your goals in life and where do you see your interest taking you in the next 5 years?
Firstly, if you see a magician performing something and it’s not a marketed effect, don’t steal their performance, whether it’s the whole trick or just a line they’ve created. It’s not right and you know it, and if you didn’t, now you know.
Secondly, think about what you want to accomplish in magic. Do you want to create your own original show where people pay to see you can tell the story and perform the material you want or do you want to make a living on the corporate market, travelling from gig to gig? There are other avenues as well and everyone’s path will be different.
Personally, I’m still figuring it out. I love close up magic and doing the same set over and over for different groups, honing my material but changing bits and pieces to fit my style. I enjoy stand up magic but don’t have many opportunities to perform it and kids magic is something I’m still getting into. I don’t have a desire to create my own original show but sometimes I think it’d be so cool to have your own show that people pay to see at a venue. I also get excited when a magician releases a great effect that I want to buy it and share this piece of astonishment with people!
If you’re like me, hop in, we’re going on a long drive but if you’ve work it out for yourself, tell me what drives you and how I can get some of that stuff!
I love this post and it’s something we need to discuss in the magic community.
I like your analogy to musicians, and it reminds me of Nick Diffatte’s call to magicians to “find your Elvis.” Elvis Presley set the standard for success in popular music during the 1960s, ‘60s and ‘70s. He still is revered, as evidence by the recent hit movie about his life. Elvis didn’t write his own songs. But when you hear an Elvis song, you know it’s him. It’s unmistakable.
Even if magicians don’t create their own effects, and have bought the rights to perform the material, they still can put their own marks on it. There are lots of classics in Magic and they work as well today as a Chuck Berry song.
You are right about cover bands. There are many good ones. Some are just as enjoyable as musicians who write their own material.
Nevertheless, songwriters, singers and magic creators have a special place in the world. Their creativity drives art. Yet some artists do other’s material better than the ones who made it. Or at least it’s different enough to make it original. I would contend that Jimi Hendrix sang some of Bob Dylan’s songs better than Dylan. You can order tricks performed by David Blaine but that doesn’t make you David Blaine. Still others might perform it better but never get the chance to show it on television or gain a wider audience.
I think magicians, like cover bands, should occasionally give a shoutout to the original (“Here’s one from Joshua Jay!”).
We should encourage magicians to make the effects their own. But we should give them the space to develop. When a guitar player is learning a riff, she most likely learns it just like she heard it. Then as she develops, she learns to improvise and make that riff her own.
We should allow magicians the opportunities to find their Elvis.
Great post on a worthy topic.
I'm a musician, and my band has never played many covers. We've also never made much of a splash. (Trust me, you haven't heard of me.) Maybe we would be more well known if we played more covers. I know for a fact I would have earned more money playing covers.
But for me, I play music because I write songs.
No one else is going to play the songs I write, so I might as well.
Is there a difference between a magician and a musician when it comes to this? Are there people who have an urgent, primal desire to come up with new magical effects?
Honestly, I would have quit playing music a long time ago if all I was allowed to play were songs written by other people.