UPWARD SPIRALING

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…