I thought for post 600 I would leave something meaningful on the table and something I find really helpful to enhancing my spectator’s view of magic. This is all based on personal experience by the way so if it doesn’t apply, that very well could be the reason.
Now when I first enter a group I’ve noticed a barrier. At first spectators want to catch you, it’s just something they want to do. Most of them enjoy magic that is well performed but you can always hear “how did you do that?” or “I didn’t see how he did it!” This says to me that even if they do it our analytical brains are always working it out and trying to make a logical conclusion of what happened. I mean our brains KNOW there is no way we can levitate and we are obviously going to be skeptical about it. But how do you get past that? That’s something I would like to ask everyone. How do you take the skepticism out of your spectator? Is there a way to take it out… right away from the start?
I’ve noticed from reading a lot of posts people use Here then There, a quick card transpo, to get that initial BANG and get thing thinking “maybe this is real.” From the beginning of that effect however they are still looking for DL’s, odd movements etc. Also if you are doing this in a walk around setting with strangers it’s even more because we are raised to distrust people we do not know.
For myself I have found a simple way to get past this and start the magic. Start with a joke. It’s as simple as that. Laughter, in my time performing, has disarmed almost everyone I go up too. Now, however you bring the humor in is up to you and can really be anything. It can be a joke magic trick (I believe there was an example on CC2 by creating suspension and breaking it), an observation or something similar. Personally I use a joke magic trick and you know what… the ones from when we were kids are ok to perform here! My favorite joke trick to do… The “OMG I pulled my thumb off” effect... Simple and fun, people know it and both kids and parents actually find it pretty funny. All you have to do is build it up as nothing less than amazing.
Once laughter happens people do something different; they will relax, accept you easier, AND will accept your magic easier. Instead of burning your hands, they are now: talking to you, enjoying the moment and not thinking the hows and whys. This is because when we laugh our brain actually releases endorphins that reward you with a relaxing feeling. Also it can lower blood pressure, send stress reducing hormones out, oxygenate the body, and produce a general sense of well-being. So essentially we are letting our guard down because a stranger gave us a good feeling.
So if you don’t currently do this, put away the real magic until the guard is down. Just give it a try and see what happens. For myself when I experimented with this a while ago I got better reactions, more compliments on my magic and word spread easier.
How do you pass that barrier?