Putting the Context in your Effects

This is maybe one of the most important lessons I learned from Joshua Jay's book. Putting an effect in context is something that most magicians,especially beginners, miss. The bad thing about this too is that even soem seasoned magicians actually fail to do so (refer to this post).

In my opinion what makes most effects out of context is that most of the time we stick to the methods up to the patter and presentation that we forget to make an effect our own. Quoting Bruce Lee he would always say about martial arts is that one should absorb what's essential and make it your own. In other words when we learn an effect we should think on how to perform it right to suit our own style and when we should perform it.

Going back of putting an effect out of context, I remember myself when I was still beginning with magic, I would actually copy almost every word that ws written in the book. In doing this I get the most bored reactions from the audiences and that really is the worst feeling a magician could get.

Well copying an effect up to the level of word per word isn't the only way to put an effect out of context. Another way is that adding the wrong and unecessary things and performing it at the wrong type of audiences. I've seen a lot of very powerful effects being performed by seasoned magicians that ended badly and boringly, and honestly I rather watch an amateur magician perform mediocre effects with the right audiences.

I hope that with this new learning, I would see improvement not only me but also with others who have read this blog.

Until then,