A Magician walks into a Bar…. brings out deck of cards, approaches strangers with a flourish, launches into an obviously well rehearsed opener about the trick he’s about to perform. Some cutting banter later, strangers have not become friends, trick ends, Magician makes fun of strangers with biting humor, demands of the strangers to tell him how great the trick was (“Wasn’t that great? Ta-Da! Want to see another trick?”… nervous laughter occurs, until, finally, these strangers feel the relief of the Magician leaving, moving on to his next group of strangers.

You’ve seen it. You’ve been there. For those 5 to 10 minutes, you felt that your job was to laugh at the right moments, applaud at the the finale, and act interested in this Magic performance because it was the polite thing to do. You didn’t want to make the Magician feel bad. You didn’t want to be insulted anymore for not giving enough attention. You breathed a big sigh of relief when he/she finally left. If you’re the Magician in this story, you made it all about … you.

That’s the Anatomy of BAD Magic.

Simply put, you cannot engage and lead the audience to moments of wonder if you do not LOVE the audience. If you do not KNOW people, or care to drop your own BS, then your tricks might be good, but they won’t be great or memorable. If a Magician concerns him/herself with the trick itself, the applause in return for the trick, nerves, humor at the expense of the audience, then I don’t care how good the technical skill of a trick was – you are performing for an audience of one, leaving your fellow traveler on this magic carpet ride behind.

It’s widely known that there are two types of magic, those performed or created with other Magician in mind, and those created FOR the audience. Magicians can be impressed by speed, yet an audience can get lost by a trick they can’t follow. Magicians can impress themselves and each other with clever difficult maneuvers while the audience likely won’t care if the Magician hasn’t given them a connection, a reason, a disarmament to care.

How can you be more courageous in your Magic?

Performing Magic is a social act. It involves misdirection, and selective attention, of course; but more than anything, it involves knowing PEOPLE. It involves a vulnerability that makes the audience feel as though they can trust you. Magic includes You, the Trick, &, most importantly all of the psychologies and experiences, and universal truths and shames and hopes and fears and loves that ties everyone together in a social experiment. Magic does not exist in a vacuum. If you are not KNOWING and caring about what realites people bring to the show, then you become a ship captain leaving your crew and guests behind at the shore.

So what IS the Anatomy of Magic? It’s not really the Magic, the Cards, the Illusion, the Coins… It’s having something to say in your own Voice. It’s Authenticity and Truth telling among the Illusion. It’s Courage & Risk. It’s stepping outside of your need for approval or power or need for validation and finding a greater reason for your magic. Find delight in the moment of wonder with your audience.

The skeletal bones of magic is not in the deception nor the skill (though, like a great athlete, one must master the physicality of it all) – it is in the Engagement. Do I have your attention? Do I have your trust? Do I have your buy-in and willingness to go on adventure? Start there. End there.

Great Magic needs you. People need wonder and excitement and hope and imagination – and a Magician is uniquely qualified to provide a kind of emotional heart and mind surgery on his audience. But only, if he is willing to reach out his/her hand and genuinely request permission – “May I take you on a magic carpet ride? I want to show you what is on the other side of disbelief? Trust Me.”

The world needs the Magicians right now. Show up and be counted. I’ll see you there on the other side, Magic Makers.