- What's up guys?
Today I'm gonna give you five tips
on how to get the best reactions with your magic,
and to help me demonstrate some of these tips,
my good buddy Chris over here,
is going to, he's gonna help us under,
he's, we're gonna help Chris be a better magician!
Yes, I am Chris, that is me, sort of,
this video's not only meant to help you guys
but also a reminder for myself.
As I myself will also get caught by some of these no-nos
and today we're gonna try to rectify that
and put you on the right path.
Before we get started, I just want to say
that it's very important that we understand
what compels someone to react the way they do.
Magic should not be measured in how high they jump
or how loud they scream, but more what compelled them
to do that, there's something deep within them
that every individual experiences differently.
Magic is a new feeling, that's what magic is,
it's something new that they've never experienced before,
and that causes that astonishment, that disbelief,
that lack of words or that crazy response.
So what we're gonna try to do is amplify,
to the best of our ability, that response,
for your spectator and give them the best,
most long lasting astonishment ever.
So number one, try to make it organic, keep it organic.
And by organic magic, most magicians will believe you
to believe that organic magic uses everyday items.
But that's only the half of it,
they use everyday items in the context
of an organic situation.
For instance you're at a dinner party,
bringing out a tea bag with a deck of playing cards
and although it sounds like those might be organic items,
they're not really fit for the situation.
So instead try not to only use the items
that are around you or on their selves,
also use the situation to your advantage.
The strongest magic that I've performed
has always been conversational magic.
When the conversation directs towards
an effect that I may know,
and sometimes I myself will steer this conversation
in this direction to make it seem like,
they were the ones to suggest this trick happening.
For instance, Chris meets someone,
and someone says to him that they enjoy reading books.
Well instead of actually having a book on you
and pulling it out which is super weird,
please don't do that!
Maybe ask them what their favorite book is,
and go from there, maybe have them write down
their favorite book and then your favorite book
is actually the same as theirs.
Like, these are just examples of effects
that you can come up with, with all the methods
that you have in mind, you are able to cater
to the organic situation.
That is organic magic.
The last point I wanna touch on,
is impromptu versus impromptu, alright?
Impromptu means like off the cuff, but there are two types
of impromptu, one when they know you are a magician
and one when they do not.
When they do know you're a magician, it's kinda like,
you're a magician show me a trick
and they go okay I got a deck of cards right?
But when they don't know you're a magician
that's where you get, the maximum amount of reaction
'cause they're not expecting anything.
Which is why shows like the Carbonaro Effect you know,
really really works because people are in actual disbelief
of the magic happening.
Because, they're in a normal situation
and not confronted by a magician.
So if you can play along those lines,
if you can, I mean I would.
Number two, keep it simple, keep everything concise,
keep it relatable, keep it normal.
Don't go off on like this fantasy driven explanation,
people don't care and they don't have the attention span
to care, especially if they don't know you.
You know if you wanna say like,
oh imagine if this playing card was a vampire,
like what the f are you talking about.
Like honestly.
It's a piece of pasteboard, it's a piece of cardboard paper
that you're holding in your hand,
there's no way that it's a vampire.
Vampires don't exist, keep it simple,
keep it something they can understand
and if you are doing a card trick in this instance,
keep everything as simple as you can.
Bring it down to the lowest common denominator
because only then will they
completely comprehend the situation.
And if they do understand everything that happened
clearly and concisely then they are ready
to react obviously.
If you start confusing them with a storyline
that has no bearing on the situation,
or some time of nine packet trick,
or four, you go over here, you do this,
meanwhile you do this.
It becomes overcomplicated and convoluted for nothing
and you might lose some people in the process.
So make sure your magic is catered to everyone in the room
or everyone in front of you
and not just for a few individuals that may
or may not understand what's going on.
What I'm saying is don't bring 38 props
if you're gonna perform one magic trick.
So the next tip is keep it personal.
Make it personal, magic is always stronger
when there's a personal tie to the effect.
Instead of having them pick any card and saying go head,
pick any card it doesn't matter what card you pick.
Which a lot of magicians do,
instead give them the deck if you can.
And say you know what look for the card
that best represents you, and I want you
to hold on to that card because it actually matters,
what card you choose and that's just a very strong thing
and a good example of how you can take the same thing
but make it a little bit more personal.
Maybe instead of having them sign their name,
you can actually have them write their favorite word
or a word that means something to them
on a card, I believe that idea is from Jay Sankey.
You can also have them write down their birthday
or the name of someone that they love
that's in their life, or maybe instead of generating
a random number or a random word.
You could generate maybe their pin code
or their start sign, these things are very very strong.
So the more personal things you can incorporate
to a magic trick, I think the better.
Because it gives them a special experience,
that no one else would have
and this is not something you could perform for anyone.
It's something that is catered specifically
to this particular audience member.
Which makes it special for them, just don't,
don't get too personal if you know what I mean.
(Chris sighs quietly)
The next thing is something probably,
this is probably the most important point
is contrast, I don't mean this type of contrast.
I mean contrast between their objective view
of reality, and what is happening.
If you bend that objective view,
that view that they have, that perception that they have
of reality, if you bend that just enough,
without breaking it, if you just bend it just enough.
For it to be believable, but just on the fringe
of it being fantastic.
There's that massive contrast between what they're living
and what they're experiencing
and the larger that contrast, the greater the reaction.
But again, don't go too far off the deep end,
if you start talking about oh if gravity didn't exist,
this would happen, I mean 'cause it does exist.
So maybe find a way to tie in gravity
to what they already know
and tie that in to your effect somehow.
Make sure that they understand, which brings me back
to point number two, is keep it simple.
Make sure that they understand everything.
But if you can create that contrast, larger, and larger,
between what's happening and their view of reality,
if you can make that clear, concise I mean the greater
that you can extend those two parts,
the greater the astonishment.
The last point I wanna touch on is something
that I struggle with all the time,
but I'm trying to get better at,
and it is let them react.
We've all seen magicians, including myself
as soon as the effect's over.
They wanna bulldoze into the next effect
because they're so excited and they wanna keep it going
or magicians often over prove after the trick's done
to try and amplify an effect and tell you how impossible
every single little component of the effect was
while you're reacting.
And put yourself in the mind of a spectator,
you're trying to process this information already.
Throwing more information at me it's just gonna take
more time for me to process and eventually I might just
lose interest and move on.
Let them react, David Blaine was actually
really good at that, is actually really good at that.
And you know, a lot of magicians poke fun at David
for just kind of keeping it very simple
and minimalistic and not saying too much
and kinda letting them bask in their own astonishment.
But that I think is very important,
I think you know their brain is processing something
that our brain has already processed.
Where it might take us an instance to react
to our own effect and be like see, see!
Their brain is still processing this information
and might take up to five, or 10 seconds
to completely fully put the picture together.
So don't interrupt them,
let them have that moment of astonishment
and I guarantee you, that will be carried with them
for a very long time.
Their own mind will try to figure out
what's going on and cancel out different methods
and eventually they'll just be bewildered
and completely, completely astonished
and in, they won't know what to say.
But their mind is going to create that for them,
you don't have to tell them how to react
let them do that, that's their job.
Alright, so those were my five tips
for getting better reactions.
I know this is not the type of video
that a lot of people wanna subscribe to.
I know this doesn't, this doesn't have to do with a lot
of things people are subscribed to on this channel.
But it's something that I hold dear to me,
which is magic performance.
I do appreciate you watching, if you did pay attention
to this video I really appreciate that.
Leave a like if this was at all helpful
or just interesting, I would really appreciate it
and let me know below in the comments
what's one thing you would do to increase
your maximum reaction with your spectator.
I'm really interested to see what you guys
have to say, so thanks Chris, I think you're well
on your way to becoming a decent magician.
Hey, he's trying.
And thank you guys for watching,
we'll see ya on the next video, peace bra.
(slow music with foreign lyrics)