So I'm currently sitting watching Gremlins at nearly midnight, My children are sound asleep in bed and my partner has just gone upstairs so this has really been the first chance I've had to write something in a while. Over Christmas, I have purposefully taken myself away from work-related matters and kept myself away from the magic community while devoting my time to myself, my family and having a nice relaxing Christmas. After all, I might as well considering I can't get out of the house due to lockdown (ah... COVID is such a wonderful thing!)
I've been incredibly blessed this Christmas, not in material things, but when it comes to my family. My younger child noted that I have a love for certain snacks and so attempted to create a giant pack of my favourite crisps, while my elder child discovered one of the books I've been reading and with a bit of help bought me a biography of Howard Thurston and Harry Houdini. As I've said before I do enjoy reading about magic history, especially as you can learn so much from performers before you - not just techniques and methods but by looking at anecdotes about their lives as well as their own memoirs you can really learn some great performance skills and how to make yourself the best performer you can be.
And one of the things that I've been reminded of recently was this one anecdote about P.T. Selbit. I would hope that anyone who reads this blog knows who P.T. Selbit is, but for those who don't put simply he is a Victorian/Edwardian magician who was around at the time of the "Golden Age of Magic". Think the era of Harry Houdini, Devant etc. The thing that Selbit is most famous for is creating the first "Sawing a lady in half" 100 years ago this year. Now, at this time there was a lot of competition for magicians. When they say this was the golden era they really meant it. There were numerous magic shows in London, as well as performers across the world doing live shows, escapes and performances. Along with this you've got theatre shows, operas, ballets etc all vying for the same audience. Which of course meant stiff competition. This meant that everyone had to focus on selling their shows. And you need to stand out.
Let's be honest, how many of you dear readers have been to London, or Broadway or Vegas. Have you seen all the glistening lights, thousands of posters and hundreds of billboards? How about walking past one of the ticket sellers. It's impossible to see a single show because of the posters covering every wall. It all blends into one. And they kind of cancel each other out. So you need to find new ways to stand out. P.T. Barnum once said "No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else" And a lot of performers like Selbit lived this. One of the most noted things about Selbit (other than the sawing in half) was the fact that the show continued even after it ended.
You're probably thinking what the hell do I mean by that? There are stories that after Selbits shows where he sawed women in half, buckets of red liquid were thrown into the streets. What a great publicity stunt. I'd love to have seen peoples reactions as they walked by the theatre and had "blood" thrown at their feet. Imagine the reaction and amusement. People love the macabre. Especially in that post-WW1 era. So to have the chance to see a magic trick "that goes wrong causing blood to be everywhere" would be a great marketing tool. The show continued out of the theatre.
And Selbit wasn't the only one.
Chung Ling Soo, another famous magician of the era was renowned for his amazing performances and bullet catch. This Chinese mystic was impressive, he never spoke English, and in interviews he had translators to communicate with him. That was until his last performance where he was shot. "Oh my God. Something's happened. Lower the curtain" were his final words. Chung Ling Soo was actually William Ellsworth Robinson. He developed this character and never broke from it. While other performers knew who he was, it was a huge trade secret and sparked a lot of interest in him. The thing was, the show didn't end the moment the curtain went down. Robinson didn't walk off stage and out of the door chatting to a stagehand in English. To attract an audience he kept the show going even after the show finished. This became such an interesting trade secret that it's even referenced in the film "The Prestige"
When I watch many performers today it feels like this is a forgotten art. People are so happy to go from their stage and pack up, rush home and forget about the show. Yet there is so much power in creating some mystique after the show and finding ways to continue the show afterwards. I'm not talking about putting on more magic as you leave, but you can do things to make your act memorable. Like this guy.
Now I know a lot of you will have seen him speak. In fact, after his shows he is known for chatting with the audience (which is so cool to do by the way!). But whenever you see him on TV, or during his show or even in generic publicity he never talks. It's part of the show, it's part of the mystique. The number of times I've discussed Teller with laypeople its a noticeable pattern that they are all convinced that he is mute because he never talks when you see him or at least you never hear his voice. There is something to be said for this. It's continuing the theatrics after the show.
I know what a lot of you are thinking right now (I must be psychic right!) A few of you will be wondering how you could actually do this. After all, you're only a part-time magician or hobbyist. But there are ways to extend the theatrics of any show. A close friend of mine is a kids magician and he once told me that he discovered a problem when he was packing up after a show. In his show he uses puppets and as per the manufacturers' instructions he placed them in protective bags after each show. After one show he was packing up when a child looked at him and asked why he put "Fred the Frog" into a binbag? Was he poorly? Mortified the magician reassured the poor kid that actually it was his sleeping bag, and promptly took him out to interact with the kid. When the kid had settled and gone back to their parents, the magician took the puppet to his van, stashed him in the same bag and after he left the gig he came up with a plan.
After scouring a few charity shops he found a Moses basket that was in good condition, lined it with a new zip-up protective bag and adjusted his show. During his show he would use Fred and at the end would put Fred back in his bed (the basket). For the rest of the show Fred would stay in the basket and he would use it as an excuse to keep kids away from his table -after all they don't want to wake Fred. If kids went up to Fred, they would see him lying in his bed not moving. He would be for all intents and purposes - asleep. When he went to pack up from then on kids would come up and say goodnight to Fred and not disturb him, not worry about him and would allow him to take the basket out without any worries of kids seeing a "dead" puppet ina bin bag.
The point I'm trying to make with that is that it doesn't have to be something huge. You don't need to throw blood on the floor, or pretend to be mute when you leave the theatre but you can do little things to extend the theatrics of your show. Try doing things like choosing the music played in the lobby before your show, or finding ways to make your set up a bit more theatrical and make everything you do part of your show to make it more enticing. Give it that little bit more showmanship and creative marketing and you'll soon discover it will help your event stand out next to others.