I'm curious after seeing some performances, how important is momentum to your performances?

Do you prefer to bombard the mind, leaving little time to ponder the possibilities? Or would you rather give "astonishment" time in your routine?

I understand the importance of letting the moment sink in, but I'm not sure it's neccesary for all or even most situations. It seems that most magic is fairly obvious in it's simplicity - either the cards changed places, or the coin was here and now it's here. For that reason I have begun to question the idea of "slowing everything down". I've heard that for some time now, and I can't really say the sources are an authority, but some things just sound good enough to be the truth.

Just to clarify, I do believe in not neccessarily flying through routines, in fact a routine should be structured to keep a steady pace to my understanding. But when we are simply presenting a few effects for some friends or just people in general, what is your approach?

Or maybe is it that certain tricks, because of a possibly "obvious" nature, need to maintain a certain momentum to keep minds from wandering, and because of the "clean" nature of others we can take them as slow as we want?

I'm just curious on how others may approach this, or if it is even given much thought. It seems to be an area that isn't discussed much, but probably should be.

When do you decide to keep the momentum going, and when do you decide to slow it up? Or do you.

I give the spectators time to let the effect sink in before I do my next trick but not long enough that they start analyzing the trick and forming their own conclusion as to how it was done.

Just like comics ome magi are hyper and others not. I've seen magi who work very fast and others very slow.

To me the best pace is one that even the slowest person in the audience can follow. Pauses, even brief ones, should be there to let the wonder sink in.

Proper midirection and interesting patter eliminates any need to "fly through routines".

When I do a newly learned trick for friends I tend to get nervous and go too fast.

You are right, this topic should be discussed more often. I constantly see people saying to "slow down" and I always wonder why. I think the timing of effects and the pace set depends on the performers character and what's being performed. For instance, when I go bar hopping with friends and we are performing magic for the patrons. We tend to go at a moderate to fast pace. The reason behind this, to me is obvious. People are there to drink, pick up women or men and they just happen to get a treat of magic as well.

We almost always let the "moment" set in for a little bit, but not so long that it's uncomfortable for them. That is also our style though. I've seen magicians take 20 minutes to perform a six phase ACR. Most of the time I don't think it's necessary to do that much drawing out of effects. If you are doing a show, then that might just be called for. For doing hit and run type of magic, I think a more fast paced routine is in order.

Then many times, it depends on the setting as well. When I perform shows (which is rare). I usually go at a somewhat slow pace so that emotional hooks can set in and the richness of the effect is better appreciated. All in all, I think the tempo really is a matter of taste, setting, character and circumstance. For me, I don't think effects like Cros Twist need 20 minutes of grandstanding. Instead I let the magic speak for itself with minimal interuption in it. I give pauses between each moment so as not to let it slip by unappreciated. I by no means let that pause become something unnatural and obviously time consuming.

John