Are you a magical risk taker? By this I mean, when you perform do you always opt for the low risk approach in terms of method, or are you prepared to put your skills on the line and stretch your capabilities in front of an audience?
When you think about it, any presentation of magic brings with it some measure of risk. Standing up in front of a group of people in order to fool and entertain them naturally opens all performers up to scrutiny and evaluation. Whether we like it or not, spectators will always, to a greater or lesser extent, be judging us and their viewpoint is entirely coloured by how well we perform.
So there’s a huge amount of pressure on magicians to deliver a presentation that not only engages the audience but which hopefully also fools them. Magic is virtually unique in its use of covert methods, and it’s natural for performers to worry that their modus operandi will be rumbled and that they will therefore be exposed.
If you think about all this logically, therefore, you would imagine that selecting low risk methods would be the default approach for any magician. Yet you see many performers attempting high risk methods, and you are left to wonder whether they are a bit mad or simply haven’t thought through the potential calamities that could befall them.
The actual answer is probably far more nuanced. Levels of risk can not be set out in a consistent graduated scale, because the skill sets of individual magicians vary so widely. A card magician who can perform a perfect top change every time would not consider performing a routine that required one as a risk, whereas someone who struggles to master the move might get very tense when trying to present an effect that required one.
Performance nerves can present an extra level of difficulty to any show, and so a sleight that in practice you are perfectly able to achieve can become much more hit and miss under the pressure of a performance in front of an audience. So, when assessing a trick’s level of risk for you personally, you really need to understand how your capabilities may be compromised in a live presentation.
Judging your own risk levels can be quite tricky, because your assessment can be very different before a show compared to how you feel during it. One way to test this is to note how you feel when you are about to perform a routine in front of an audience. If you chicken out and revert instead to something you feel more relaxed about, it means there must be something about the first effect which feels more risky.
I think risk can also be defined by the performing circumstances. A trick that has some sleights in it might feel fine to use at the local magic club where the pressure is off and if you mess up a bit, it won’t really matter. But if you are taking part in a magic competition, or you are presenting your act at a prestigious event for which you are being well paid, you will probably be more risk averse because the stakes are perceived as being much higher.
Assessing magical risks is a very personal process and the outcomes will vary hugely from one performer to the next, so where does your level lie?