Are there any good books/videos/dvd's on the combination of magic and comedy? Not just books with one-liners and other jokes, but the theoretical interraction of comedy with magic. I don't want to become a stand-up comic with a magic act, or a magician with a stand-up routine...I want the persona to be integrated and whole.

Am I asking too much?

The first question is not how you can incorporate comedy to your magic, but why do you want to?
Can you actually perform magic, or are you a beginner without an act.
I know this isn't helpful but please keep reading

If you are going to add comedy you need a script, and probably some form of acting lessons. The tricks need to be planned too.
Will you be funny or will the magic act be.
You don't need to tell jokes to make people laugh !

You don't want a book on adding humour but on entertaining the audience.

Some practical advise. - Jay Sankey has worked as a magician as well as a comedian. Have a look at his books. His video's show part of his approach.

We had some T.V. shows in England. Greatest magic in the universe. One of those covered comedy.

Gazzo's live tapes show a street act which makes money. Try to get hold of one. Watch any street performer, not for what he does but for how he does it.

Please though, learn your magic first!
Allow the humour to come through. Get a friend to take notes. Don't try and be funny. Its how you do it, not what you do!
There is nothing worse than a bad funnyman, and there are too many of those.

Why do you want to be funny anyway?

Eddie

I don't know of any resource that has what you want. The "Magic Comedy" resources are usually based on tricks and the comedy resources are usually joke-based. It's a shame, really, as most magicians, when they think of comedy, think of one-liners. It's become a cliche.

It's up to you what you do re comedy and magic. What may appear funny to you may be hysterical to the man next to you on the bus stop. But the driver may be offended.

Are you a naturally funny person? If not, then why try to become one? Work on the bits that are you, don't imitate someone else.

And if you are quite a comical cherub anyway, then forget the books. One-liners are usually crap, and dated. Most of the authors have simply taken other one-liners and then changed them to fit a magic topic, usually resulting in them being hysterically unfunny. Plus do one-liners fit in with your comical personality?

And if you are going to tell actual jokes, then forget the magic. After all, if we pay to see a musician we expect him to play music. Not stop and juggle three knives and a wheel barrow.

For the serious comedic performer (?) enlist a well known professional script writer with a good background. If you want.

And don't worry about having a script written for every trick you do, or every turn you do. If we listened to every performer who talks about scripting a magic effect, then we'd never get round to performing! They tell us to focus on the lighting, music, our actions, voice projection (get this, I've even read that we should combat our own natural body action to not hint at a 'move' - it's natural for the love of our Lord! Try to go against it, and then you look like your doing a 'move'. And whilst thinking about having an internal fight with our own body, we forget to actually perform!)

As for lighting, sound etc. Simple: hire a technician. That's his job! We are there to entertain with our magic. You don't get a pantomime asking the main character to set up the stage and lights. Most of what you read is rubbish. And check the date in the book especially re comedy. If it is written before 2000, knock it on the head. Times change fast.

Get an idea of roughly what plot you want to achieve and then learn it and practice in front of a crowd. This experience will teach you way, way more than any book. Or any script you write without trying it out first.

In short, forget the script, forget the jokes, forget the one-liners. Know yourself, know your magic and if you are funny naturally then it'll just happen.

Confession is closed. Father Fortune must go and raid the collection bowl. A new church spire indeed...

...they fall for it every Sunday.

Couldn't agree more.


Don't tell that to Tom Mullica.


I'm not sure what a "turn" is, but this is generally bad advice. It almost sounds like you put too much detail into your scripts perhaps?


Right, who needs that theatrical junk? We're magicians, by God! Just go buy some tricks and have at it.


A good idea if you can afford it.


Some of the best books on writing comedy are pre-2000. If you're talking about books full of "contemporary" jokes, then I agree with you, but if you're talking about learning to write your own comedy (oh, there's that "script" thing again), then some of the best guides aren't from the past couple of years.


Actually, you write the script, perform, edit the script, perform, edit the script, etc.

Hmmmm....

Yeah, you could write the script, edit it, rewrite the script and so on and so on...

Or you could just focus on the strong points of your personality and the bits that are YOU, that's the unique bit no-one else can possibly do as well as YOU, and forget the script.

Where does a script actually fall in performance?

You do magic. As a magician that should be apparently spontaneous. Does a plumber write a script when fixing a pipe? I doubt it...

No. He reads the instruction manual before he does it the first time.

Of course, this is comparing apples and oranges.

That focus on the strong points of the performer's personality is the place from which the script should be drawn. That and from an understanding of what strong points are buried in the personality of the trick itself.

I do not believe that there are many performers who work well without a script. Even in improv acting, there are mini-scripts that help structure the action--sort of like "cheat books" for the piano player.

I am sure there are some few perfomers who are able to invent everything from scratch every performance. I just haven't run across them. Even Jonathon Winters had practiced characters, voices, and structured lines in his vast repertoire to draw from as he "winged it."

Good comedians work with scripts, and tightly edited lines--not off the cuff spontaneity. It is not spontaneity, but the appearance of spontaneity that is important--acting the script well.

As Jay wrote, "apparently spontaneous." This is about how well the actor can make the lines seem like they are arriving from nowhere in the moment, and not written and polished long before.

To make too many changes from the script in a single show is not very helpful in the long run. Changes and deviations should be tried out a little at a time.

Otherwise, the results from show to show will vary too much, and it is difficult to learn from the audience reactions when there is too much that is new in a show.

It is the same for magicians. We can grow faster by working from a fairly detailed script, and varying from it in experimental degrees as we progress.

No, but an actor playing a plumber uses a script. Are we magicians, or actors playing the role of magicians? How does your answer affect your performance?

As pointed out above, it is the APPEARANCE of spontenaity that counts. Who said that great line . . . . "It's all about sincerity. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

On the loose with Bill Malone.

Fantastic stuff!

If your looking for some inspirational one liners, Snappy comebacks to stupid questions from MAD.

I don't know if they are still in print but they are funny.

Often and, I hope, purely as a result of not thinking enough about it, performers are actors playing the role of an inconsequential, unmoving, uninteresting magician. These people may as well be playing the role of a rock.



"The secret of acting is sincerity. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
-- George Burns

Amen.

John LeBlanc

I've never really gone for that 'a magician is an actor playing the part of a magician'. I think this applies very well to Ian McKellen as he is an actor and plays the part of a fantastic magician (for those interested, he plays Gandalf in 'The Lord of the Rings'and *** good he is too. Very believable. And the script...very well suited and said with such sincerity it brings a tear to the eye.)

I'm just me. Not an actor. Never had a drama lesson in my life. Don't play any part. Am just me. And I choose to do tricks. I don't script my day from beginning to end. When I greet someone in the morning I don't use a rehearsed script. When I buy a paper from the local shop I don't use a rehearsed script. When I'm having a private moment of passion with my girlfriend, I don't use a rehearsed script. So why would I when I do a trick?

If you're playing the part of a magician then use a script (I refer back to our dear friend Gandalf again.) But if you are just you and you choose to do a trick, then just be you. And if you're naturally funny it'll just come. Have a rough idea of what it is you want to communicate and learn as you do it.

In short, each to his own. Find your own strengths and go from there. If a script works use it! Whether it'll make your performances any funnier though...

That's it guys! I'm spent on this one! Keep the thoughts coming though.

Well, some magicians literally only do a bunch of tricks. So, for them, it's not necessary to act the part of a magician; they aren't a magician. They are a demonstrator of puzzles, some of which may be very clever, but puzzles nonetheless.

But I would suggest that behavior would rob audiences of what makes magic special: rare, unique mystery.

We can cuss and discuss what "magic" means until the cows come home, but I find it difficult to accept any definition for the word "magic" that excludes the aspect of the mysterious.

So, to create mystery, to do the exceptional, we have to either be exceptionally gifted (to actually make objects move or transpose positons, to read minds, etc.) -- or -- we have to pretend or act the part of someone with those inherent capabilities.

For me and my house of cards, I have to act the part.

Just another point of view.

John LeBlanc

And I wouldn't pay to see you do any of those things. Well, maybe the penultumate one . . .

anyway, as Michael Shurtleff wrote in Audition, reality is boring.

Honus!

Man, I said no more from me, but as you've enquired about the lovemaking and pay-per-view (!) I have to say something!

I'll do you a quick video. Send me a tenner...

PS. None of it is scripted. Does this matter?

Well Aurelius after all of that I will give it to you straight. Yes there are good books on comedy magic they are just hard to find. Here is a list to look for: THE COMEDY MAGIC TEXTBOOK by DAVID ROPER
COMEDY MAGIC by GEORGE BLAKE,
DORNY ON TRIX by WERNER C. DORNFIELD,
TOPPER'S MAD,MAD MAGIC by GENE ANDERSON,
Also anything you can find by RICH MAROTTA,KARRELL FOX,JEFF HOBSON and JAY SANKEY. Look around there are lots of videos, lecture notes and books by these magicians. Hope this helps!

Also Jay Fortune to enlighten you yes a plumber does use a script. Its's called a blueprint and without it they would be totally lost. I should know because not only am I a magician, I am also a union pipefitter/plumber. You shouldn't make comments about things you know nothing about

Dan

The check (or should I say cheque) is in the mail (post?), Jay!

Oh, wait, your sig says you're lonely and seeking a female companion. If this is going to be a vid of you ALONE, never mind!

"to enlighten you yes a plumber does use a script. "
I agree with that statement, How else would one get a Royal Flush?

Hi folks.

I was browsing the Magic Café (great place, isn't it?) and stumbled upon this topic. I had toyed with the idea of producing the ultimate?
(don't ya just hate that word now?) comedy course for speakers and entertainers. It would probably be in DVD form or a sent via an e-mail subscription, PDF documents that are inbedded with video and audio. The DVD might take some time but doing it in the PDF file would be produced much quicker with the same content.
If I get enough response, I think I might do it.
Let me know what ya think?

I have always felt that a good script frees you up to really run with the magic. If you know the script you do your lines on autopilot. You're free to focus on the actions, or in this case being funny. I am not a "wacky" funny kind of guy, but more of a low key, observational funny. I don't think that trying to be a type of funny that isn't natural to you is a good idea. I couldn't do Bill Malone's Sam the Bellhop, but I do the trick my own way and it's still funny.