Magic is one of those entertainment forms which really does require the audience to concentrate on what is being done and said for it to be appreciated and understood. You can’t dip in and out of watching a trick and hope to still have it make much sense.
Unlike music, which can pleasantly create atmosphere but does not necessarily require the full attention of the people present, magic simply doesn’t work as a background ‘noise’. If the spectators look away at a vital moment, it can negate the entire trick’s impact.
So distractions are the magician’s enemy! Which is a pity because in some performing situations, there can be so many of them. Take working for children outside in the summer, for instance. The sun can be in the kids’ eyes so they can’t watch you properly, gusts of wind can blow your props away, a sudden burst of rain can mean you having to move the entire show indoors, and the next door neighbour may decide the 45 minutes allocated to your show is an excellent time to mow his lawn.
And this doesn’t take into account a wasp or bee flying into the audience, a vomiting/accidentally weeing child, a discarded toy which suddenly becomes way more interesting than your show, or a well meaning Mum who decides that while you are doing the magic is a brilliant time to give every child an ice cream!
Or how about….a room full of balloons….a bouncy castle in the corner….parents talking at the back….a crying little one who wants her Mum….and so on.
But commercial close up magicians don’t have it any easier. Adult spectators can find it hugely difficult to give you their undivided attention when they’re drunk, or feeling at bit ill at ease in a venue they don’t know, or when they see a waitress approaching with plates of steaming food, or if their phone pings importantly. Quite frankly it’s a battle between the performer and just about everything else.
Now some of these things you can mitigate against by anticipating any potential distractions ahead of time and dealing with them. Removing unwanted toys from the performance area, sitting the kids with their backs to the sun, making sure the balloons are all cleared up before you start, encouraging the chatting adults at the back to either stop talking or to move further away, making sure the bouncy castle is either cordoned off or deflated, and making sure all food is kept for before or after your show.
But you can’t legislate for or prevent everything, and so the modern day magician is forced to confront the disruptions and attempt to work round them. Getting the full attention of the audience from the start is so important, and then maintaining the interest by being genuinely entertaining and worth watching is vital too.
And that’s why I think we all need to put as much thought into spectator management as we do into the tricks we perform. Allowing the distractions to win the battle for the attention of your audiences can literally destroy your performance, so creating ways to keep the spectators focused and with you at all times is worth your time and consideration. You won’t always win, but if you keep them on topic most of the time, your act will benefit.