Reactions With Magic

I believe that there are two different reactions that you can get with magic. One reaction is one where the person is freaked out and utterly amazed. There are many magicians for example, after they present their material the spectator is jaw dropped and is speechless. But there is nothing that the spectator can personally identify with!
Then there is a reaction of a different type. Here is a story from my experience to show you what I mean. It isn’t quite magic, but the overall effect is the same. For Christmas I got a juggling set. When I started to learn how to juggle, I would practice day in and day out. It was very addicting.
For the holidays our family was traveling to our Aunts. While on the way we decided to take a break and have lunch at a McDonalds (It was the only restaurant around). Inside there weren’t many people, just a few reading some magazines. I finished eating before my family so I decided that it would be an opportune time to practice juggling. I got three ketchup packets and began to juggle by our table.
After awhile a older gentleman came over to me and said that I reminded me of his father. He told me that his father used to juggle all the time and with anything that he could find. He said that he would go into the yard and while talking with someone he would pick up rocks and begin juggling. He also told me about a time when he and his father went hunting. He said his father saw a squirrel, picked up a rock, through it at it, and killed it with one hit (he was a pitcher). The way that the gentleman talked showed me that I had reminded him of an important experience in his life and that he enjoyed thinking about it. I believe magic should evoke this feeling and affect the spectator emotionally.
Now how do we make our magic evoke emotion and give it meaning for the spectators? To find out we must ask this question, what will be relevant to the spectator? When the gentleman saw me juggling he connected my juggling with his father juggling and thus it gave my juggling a purpose and evoked emotion in him. So in order to do this we must find something that the spectator can relate to or will find interest in.
Lets take this trick as an example. Four cards are shown; one card is thrown away to the side. The magician asks how many cards are left? Three the spectators say. They are told that they are wrong, and that actually four cards are left. This is a fine trick and is very magical, but it is missing something. There is no relevance in the trick.
Now take that trick and add a meaningful patter that is relevant in your life. (Doing this lets the spectators get to know you a little better) Also make sure that they will find the patter interesting and that they will be able to relate to it. Read this example of a patter that will fit with this trick. See if you can tell a difference on how the trick will affect the spectators.
"I don’t know if you remember the first time you saw magic or if you have ever seen magic, but I would like to share with you the first trick that I ever saw. This is very important to me because it is what got me interested in magic. My Uncle, who is a magician, lives in California. He came to visit my family seven years ago. When he arrived, he sat down on our couch and told me to come over to him because he had something very special to show me. He opened his suitcase and took out a deck of cards. He then dealt out four cards onto my hand.” I continue on with this story and end it with a neat revelation from Michael Close’s Lecture notes.
As you can see, the way you present your material makes a big difference. I believe that everyone likes a good story, especially one that means a lot to the person telling the story. This particular patter also makes the spectators think about their first magical experience. If they have never had one, then they get to witness the first trick that the magician performing saw.
This is just one example of how it is possible to take a trick that has very little patter and no relevance, and turn it into a worthy piece of strong, meaningful magic.