A Question of Character

One of the most important (and most often over looked) aspect of a performance is the character.  The audience notices when you change mood too quickly or without reason.  That’s not to say you have be rigidly fixed to a single style, but any shifts have to be logical.

One way of expressing this is, “What powers do you have?”  With the show I’m thinking about now, that could potentially include predicting the future, reading minds, controlling thoughts, and so forth.

I really want this to be a pseudo-scientific “demonstration”, so the effects need to lean in that direction.  Many very good bits of magic can be tinted toward one or another style, and the ones that can’t be tinted in my direction won’t make the final cut.

That automatically eliminates almost all “bizarre” type magic (bringing stuff back to life or talking with the dead), as well as anything that “looks” like a magic trick (no bending keys or spoons).

I also want to “teach” my audience to “open” their own minds.  In others words, using appropriate psychological mumbo-jumbo, I will have them performing many of the miracles, like the Berglas effect (a spectator names a card, a different spectator names a number, and the named card appears at the named position), or my version of what I call “Four Suits and a Sharpie” (a spectator correctly identifies each of four different cards).

Years ago, I purchased a “routine” that was designed to be “a scientific discussion of ESP”.  Don’t know what happened to that manuscript, but much of it is still in memory.  Involves early work by J.B. Rhine of Duke University, and could lend “authenticity” to the show.

I also saw a “spoof” article a while back that I need to dig out again; I’m pretty sure it was something by Martin Gardner.  It involved the construction of a “psychic engine” powered by thought.  I understand why it would move, and while it would probably entertain a few of the audience members, it’s getting pretty close to “magic”.  I’ll probably build one and see if I think it will fit.

Finally, I’m thinking about some form of hypnosis: not the jumping around like monkeys bit, but something potentially serious, like a dual Psychic Touch.

So going back to the original question, the character is going to be a “researcher” in the field of the mind.  He’s discovered a few interesting principles, which he’s willing to share, but he’s always left with the idea that we’ve barely scratched the surface of what the mind can potentially accomplish.