It has been a really crazy past week for me, I have travelled through multiple states which means a ton of driving that I don't always enjoy. I also got an airbrush tattoo of a card on my arm while I was at the beach. Hardcore I know.
The other week I was watching another magician on stage (I was tempted to put quotation marks around magician) who was pretty decent at the "tricks" he performed, but was seriously lacking in the humor and/or getting people to like you factor. As many of my entertainer friends know, one of the first things you should do while on stage is make the audience like you. If the audience likes you, they will like what you do, as the saying goes.
So with this piece of knowledge in mind, you can understand why half the audience and I felt pretty uncomfortable when this guy's opening trick was making his middle finger appear under a scarf and flipping the bird to everyone.
Ouch.
While that may be a funny gag to do in the middle of an adult only comedy club event, it is a sure shot way of making a room of 100 hate you if you do it as an opening "trick" (see I used the quotation marks there). The second he established himself as an A-Hole, every trick he did after that was perceived as "HAHA LOOK WHAT I CAN DO AND YOU CAN'T" to half the room.
Aside from the middle finger, there is one other practice of "humor" that I believe to be the rudest, worst kind of all, and that is humor at someone else's expense. I will give you a brief example.
Magician brings audience member on stage. Magician asks "what is your last name?" .... "Oh! that last name means very attractive and beautiful. What is your first name?" .... "Oh. That means not very!" Tehe it is a funny joke. But it is funny only at the other person's expense. As a volunteer on stage, that person volunteering is probably as nervous and uncomfortable as all can be. It really takes a lot of courage to get up on a stage in front of a crowd of people, especially for a magic trick. The worst insult you can possibly do to someone assisting you is embarrassing them so that you can get jokes. Rather than creating a moment of magic on stage with another person, you are using that person so you can gain something. And that is wrong.
I would be lying if I said I hadn't done those tactics in my younger days performing. It is an easy, hack tactic that many performers use int heir first few years performing, but as I gained more experience growing older I learned treating an audience member like a "sucker" or "victim" is just plain wrong.
Today I make sure that I show my audience that I absolutely LOVE them. If someone has the courage to help me on stage, I show my respect by making them feel comfortable, and an important part of the act on stage. It means a lot that someone would sit for an hour and watch me perform, and in many cases pay money to see me do it! The least I could do is show respect for them, because they are not there to serve me, I am there to provide quality entertainment and an incredible evening. Howard Thurston, a multi-million dollar magician and one of the greatest entertainers in history, would stand behind a curtain and repeatedly say "I love my audience, I love my audience..." Seems like a pretty good practice to follow from one of the world's greatest, wouldn't you think?
In the end those other performers aren't bad people necessarily, they just have not learned how to treat an audience properly. Like a young boy on his first date making inappropriate jokes and not paying for the food, those performers just need to gain experience and grow out of it.
Those are my thoughts! Hope you have a great day!
-Hayden
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