Quite often I’m asked how does a magician come up with new and fresh ideas to make their magic exciting enough to keep an audience captivated. I’m not going to say its easy all the time, however, personally I find I have times when I find it easier than other times. My analysis of this is that we all have ‘creative moments’. For example, We sometimes do not hear from our favourite singer or pop artist for months, then suddenly they have not only a new song in the charts but they have a new album with fifteen new tracks on it. This is because they have been away from the limelight being ‘creative’. The same with authors and actors, they all have their creative moments, followed by a quiet period. It’s important to recognize when a creative moment is here though.
The first thing to understand with our magic, is not to get frustrated if you can’t get into the creativity zone. I have found myself with lots of ideas floating around the vast void that is my head, and it’s sometimes hard to remember them all. This is why I always carried a small notepad and pen around with me, this has been made redundant by my ‘notes’ on my iPhone-pad. So when I get a creative moment I’m prepared at a moments notice. These moments of creativity, for me at least, seem to last a couple of days. This is why it’s vital to be ready immediately to start writing or drawing it down. Because I can guarantee within a few hours of not being able to write it down you would have forgotten what it was you were thinking about, because more important things in your day start to ‘overwrite’ your thoughts.
So how do we come up with the ideas in the first place?
For me, I have to have an outcome in my mind first, then resolve the situation by giving it a path to lead to. This way you find yourself knowing where you have to end up. So here’s my example of an effect I created called Neat & Tidy a few years back. A bunch of rubber bands were held in the palm up hand and in a flash they changed into a rubber band ball. Here’s the story, I was at a gig with another magi, and his whole close up act consisted of rubber band magic. Therefore he had what seemed like hundreds of rubber bands around his wrists. This was cool in itself as people were asking him why they were there and he showed them, what a great way to approach people. Anyhow, it got me thinking on how great it would look if they were on a big ball of bands and he just peeled them off when he needed them. Slam !!! It didn’t take a another second for me to then think it would be even better if he could grab those bands and visibly roll them into a ball. I grabbed my notepad and wrote down ‘rubber band ball under the heading Magic Tricks on my iPhone.
On the journey home I started thinking of ways this idea could be a reality. By the end of the week I had made a prototype and was trying it out on people. Two years later I was asked if I could produce this for retail for a Magic Shop, I said ……… Yes !!
These moments of creativity become more frequent the more often I perform.
Making Magic Tricks
We are also able to spring these thoughts into action by asking ourselves open questions we are able to answer. For example, how can we visibly restore a signed banknote that’s been torn on two. We are now able to piece together (no pun intended) scenarios that would make it possible for a signed banknote to be magically restored. Will it need tape or glue? How much sleight of hand would it need? Can the banknote be in full view all the time? We need to answer all these questions and then start to make prototypes.
You can do it too !
So try it yourself, put down on paper effect endings, Torn and Restored Card, Chop Cup Load, Card to Impossible Location etc, etc. Now start to think of ways round them and solutions for an ending, perhaps make up some prototypes. You may not be a full time magician and your day job stops you from making these items yourself. So you may need the help and advice from a more experienced second party.
I produced an effect called ‘Secret Soldier’, a popular item which I demonstrate in the Magic Direct Lecture Dem that I present. I needed some small toy soldiers moulded from metal. It turned out that my friends uncle owned a company that produced jet moulded plastic items. It was he that helped me understand the moulding process and the expense of the project before I invested my hard earned cash. Yes it was very expensive to produce, but at least I was in the knowledge of that before I made a commitment.
Think firstly of your final ending of your effect, What is it you want to achieve?
Now think of a method, not just one but several.
Carefully start building a prototype of the several endings.
Film yourself performing each ending to see which is best.
If this is something you wish to market, make sure it’s now already out there.
If this is a marketable product, is it cost affective to make in time and money.
So you see, You never know how big these things can get, in fact if you have an idea that you think may be worth investing in but need the advice on getting it all started. Then call us here at Magic Direct. We could make your dream of magic creation become a reality.
We are serious about magic!