Many magicians become annoyed that the general public are impressed with TV magicians.
Popular comments about TV Magicians:
“I saw that magician Troy on TV last night.”
“Wow you're like Dynamo!” “
Penn and Teller were so amazing”.
When watching magic, the general public often mention other magicians. How you react to it is very important. It’s tempting to feel that you are being compared or judged by spectators when this happens.. Resist the temptation to slag off other magicians. If one of your spectators mentions another magician it's usually because they really liked him or her. It isn’t some kind of direct comparison, and you don’t need to feel threatened or try and put the other magician down.
Some questions to ask yourself:
What are you trying to do?
How do you want your audience to feel?
Will putting down the abilities of the TV magician help you in any way?
Is your goal to destroy their appreciation of the TV magician and love you more instead?
Many magicians get annoyed by the fact that the performers they are apparently being compared against work on TV. They feel that they need to justify that magic on television is different from that of a real life magic show. The huge budgets, audience management, and staged situations annoy many magicians. They sometimes feel that TV magicians simply don’t have the talent that is being portrayed in their television shows. So what! The quality of magic from a performance point of view is not important. The magicians technical ability is besides the point. If the show has impressed your spectators, it has achieved exactly what it intended to do. Anything negative you have to say about it just reflects badly on YOU rather than the magic show.
Your spectators watched a magic show, and it made them feel good. It made them appreciate magic, and spurred them to want to watch more in a live situation. That’s done a huge service for you. Your own personal feelings about the quality of the magic they’ve seen, and your annoyance about the impossible situations created for the magic within the show is of no concern to the spectators. Your spectators enjoyed it. Anything negative you say about that takes away their enjoyment, and that’s not what you’re there to do.
If you really want to be negative about TV magicians, save your comments for conversations with fellow magicians not the general public. It's fine for you to have issues with the magic you see presented. You have every right as a fellow magician to complain that much of magic that is presented on TV is unrealistic, or unrespresentative of live magic. It's fine to feel that many TV magicians are simply 'product' created by TV production companies. However, complaining about another magician is not something you should do to a spectator, especially if they admire the TV magician. It serves you no constructive purpose.
Your reaction to TV magicians.
So how should you react to spectators being impressed by magic tricks which you know, or feel are impossible TV creations and hype? Be generous, gracious, and complimentary about the TV magician. Say something really positive about them. Tell your spectators an anecdote about a time that you met the TV magician. Let them know what a great person he or she is in real life, how much passion they have for magic, how difficult it must be to create a large number of elaborate illusions to be shown on television.
“Yeah, Dynamo’s a really great guy, who genuinely loves magic. It’s so good for magic that he is introducing it to the public at large”
“I like Dynamo too, you know you can often find him mixing with magicians at magic conventions, he really has a passion for magic.”
“Troy's a lovely guy if you meet him in person. I’m really pleased that he’s being able to take magic and give it a higher profile on TV.”
“Yeah, it’s fantastic to see so much new magic on TV now.”
“ I was at a huge magic convention a while ago and saw Dynamo taking the time to help some of the beginners, he’s inspiring a lot of new magicians to start magic.”
The key attitude as a professional is not to feel you are being compared. You are being put in the same category as a famous magician that your spectators know about. You have something in common with them. Take that as the compliment it is intended to be.
What do you say when spectators mention a famous TV magician? How do you think it reflects on you and your performance? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
