Much has been written about Daryl Fitzkee’s pivotal work
known as “The Fitzkee Trilogy”; And for good reason. The trilogy consists of
“The Trick Brain”, “Magic by Misdirection” and “Showmanship for Magicians”. Any
magician of value is well acquainted with this masterpiece of magical
wisdom.
I recently read “Showmanship for Magicians” for the third
time. I took many notes and spent a great deal of time in honest reflection of
my own discipline in the art. Parenthetically, I got into this habit after
reading Eugene Burger’s “Experience of Magic”. In it, Burger challenges the
reader to deeply understand the various concepts and not simply decode the text
and keep moving.
For example, more than once I have read Fizkee’s thoughts on
such things as build, pointing, characterization, harmony, unity and so on. In
the past I have read these words, nodded in agreement and kept moving toward
the end of the book. But since absorbing Burger’s attitude toward such things,
On this third reading of Fitzkee’s work I made sure I was paying attention,
understanding everything Fitzkee was telling me, asking myself whether or not I
was using any of these techniques and
imagining how these concepts might be incorporated into my own structuring and
scripting.
By the time I was finished with the book I had a pile of
notes and a ton of inspiration. I targeted a void in my repertoire for fitzkeeification. I almost always have a piece of gift magic at
the ready in the event that someone asks about, shows interest in, or just
plain needs some magic. But what would I do if someone put a deck of cards into
my hands and said…”Dance monkey boy!” Yes, I know more than a few card tricks.
But I don't want to just perform a hand full of disassiciated card tricks. I want something more. Something polished, smooth and unified. There are several criteria that will whittle down the number of available effects from my repertoire. First; no set up, gaffs or gimmicks. No big deal there. Still
a comfortable number of effects to choose from. But of those effects, how many do I have scripted? Now the
question becomes…Of all the scripted effects in my repertoire that fit the
above constraints are there three that I can put together in a building and
unifying way? A complete set as it were; with a clear beginning, middle and
end.
So I got to work. What would be the unifying theme? How
would I frame each piece to compliment and support the structure of that theme? How would I
create “build”? Which audience “appeals” would I target? How would I
incorporate “pointing” and so on. Eventually, a scripted, impromptu three-piece
card set with borrowed cards began to emerge. A card set using a unifying theme
and appealing to the audience’s most powerful interests…themselves.
Last week (after much practice and rehearsal) I gave that set a test flight for 5 different
audiences. The result was more than I expected. The audience members were in
rapt and happy attention. The structure and scripting were tight enough to keep things moving but loose enough to allow that back and forth play between audience and performer. The theme, frames and scripts were all mine so that gave it personal performance viscosity. That is, it had a smooth, easy and natural flow. In the end, it
was enthusiastically received and a joy to perform.
I highly recommend this exercise to anyone like myself who intends to make magic a primary source of income in the foreseeable future. I have learned a great deal from Daryl Fitzkee and the application of
his elements of showmanship. I have taken his words of wisdom from 1943 and put
them into action in a real and practical way. I have learned so much from this
self-assigned project. It gives me another small pop above that long plateau
trek. But to my way of thinking, that small rise is a major achievement. It brings me even closer to my ultimate goal.
Besides, I love creating small things and building upward…
%5B1%5D.jpg)
