Yo, gang,

I have thought for years about the question of what makes a great show, act, routine, etc. And, I've tried to come up with an easy and identifiable series of attributes that are THE most IMPORTANT when you are looking at your magic. Things that would be easily helpful in making your/our magic better.

Everyone has strong and weak points about themselves. Every trick or routine has strong and weak points. Every combination of tricks or routines can be stronger or weaker.

How can we look at what we do....especially IF you are looking to make some money performing your magic...and have some idea on how to make it better, more commercial, that is to say: More Sellable?

Recently there was a thread here on the Café and this was the question or the statement: "What makes a very good trick is the presentation". The author went on to argue for his thesis. I think he's right and wrong. Presentation IS important to a routine, but it's one part of the answer. Here's mine:

Been thinking this over for a couple of days...I think that what makes a very good trick is a good to great EFFECT mated to a good to great METHOD of achieving that EFFECT coupled with a well thought out PRESENTATION that is done by a strong and likable PERSONALITY.

The Effect

The Method

The Presentation

The Person

I placed the 'Person/Personality' last as I believe in all areas of entertainment it's the foundation upon which everything else builds upward. The other day a I caught a little bit of this totally killer Violin player who has mated wondrous technical skill with various modern songs. One was a Metallica song. I'm an old Blues/Classic rock/Classical guy. Heavy Metal...not so much. But, this guy pulled it off and to top it off: He SEEMED like a GREAT guy. You liked watching this dude fiddle. It was very, very cool.

So, there it is for what it's worth. The stronger each of the four is the stronger will be the 'show', the more commercial will be it's prospects, etc.

Do you see the power of this? You can look at each of these areas and improve them or not as needed. It makes working on our magic a lot easier, because it allows us to focus upon what is in fact important to what we do.

Look here's part of what's cool about this: You can use it not only to analyze your magic, but also to CONFIRM that what you have already IS good! Looking at things doesn't mean you HAVE to change, maybe what you've got is really solid. Cool.

That's it. Hope you have some fun with this. Whatever else you learn from these essays...PLEASE REMEMBER: Have fun with your magic!!!

Brad Burt