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(Or 'The Magnifying Glass Effect')
Transforming
and Performing Close-up on Stage
A Musing by Lee Alex
The corporate
market demands size – big advertising equals big returns! (not
only for your client but for you too!)
With this in mind, I would like to discuss the process of
performing for an audience of over a hundred; or for any
size audience where the performance requires an effect to
take place on stage and out of the realm of close-up magic.
Most of my corporate work has especially been for companies
who hold internal launches to their own sales executives
before the product actually goes on the market for the
general public. These are private meetings with groups of
people who know each other and who meet regularly in a
relaxed work atmosphere. The emphasis is always on entertainment
and audience
participation.
Lee’s Note: It is often the case that some
important manager or executive wants to be the magician or
person seen to be performing the illusion. But, this is a
topic that will be discussed in another essay. ‘Everyone
wants to be a Harry Potter - Turning your CEO into the
World’s Greatest Illusionist’ to follow.
Because of the large number of participants, the grand hotel,
the accommodation, the food, the travel, the transfers, the
meeting rooms, the technical equipment, the parties, the
daytime activities, the promotional material, the concerts
and any number of other unseen expenses, it is more often
than not that the client will be left with a minimal budget
but expect maximum effect! This, my dear friend, means that
you have no money to perform your illusions!
Have no fear – the Magnifying Glass Effect is here!
Specifically, how to transform a simple close-up effect into
a full-blown audience participation illusion-sized show!
Example #1
I would like to begin with
detailing a close-up effect that I had lurking in the bottom
of a drawer. Some of you may be familiar with Harries Magic
from Sweden (http://www.harriesmagic.com/).
The particular effect in question is ‘Horse Race’:
“A beautiful race course with
three tracks in different bright colors is shown, three
horses and a deck of cards with large dots. You ask two
members of your audience to choose any two horses. The third
one is yours. Place the horses on the starting line and the
fun begins. The spectator shuffles the deck and is never
touched by you after that. The starting gun is fired (not
included) and they’re off! The spectator now deals one
card at the time face up onto the table. The racehorse that
matches the color dot on the face up card moves one step
towards the finish line. For a while, it looks as if one
spectator is going to win. But out from nowhere, the
Magician’s horse
wins the race!
HORSE
RACE is fun, fast and extremely entertaining, perfect for
close-up. The effect can be repeated if you wish. No matter
which horse you end up with, no matter how may times they
shuffle the cards; you will always be the winner! Only one
deck of cards is used and everything can be examined before
and after the race. The spectators have free choice at all
times and handle the cards. Absolutely self-working and no
forces whatsoever! Complete with the race course, horses,
deck of cards and routine.”
Here is how I use the Magnifying Effect to strip down this close-up piece of entertainment and transform it into a full-blown stage-size illusion.
If you are familiar with the effect, you know that the props
you receive are those plastic farm animal horses that we
used to play with as children, a mat “racecourse”
approx. 30 cm long and a deck of poker-sized playing cards.
The first step is to reproduce the racecourse to fill the
stage – twelve meters long and four meters wide. The
racecourse is made from green grass – the type that you
see at the grocers. This is actually sold at carpet shops
and DIY shops and really looks like real grass! Add coloured
spots made from 3mm Perspex. The whole thing resembles a
deluxe looking “Twister” game! For fun, we added hurdles
– artificial bushes found at the flower store.
The horses are replaced by people! I did not want to be one
of the ‘horses’ and also wanted to include as many
people from the audience as possible (the original uses two
spectators and the magician). So I use three volunteers to
be the ‘horses’ as well as a couple of others, whose
roles are described below.
I also changed the plot of the
original presentation by making the whole thing into a
prediction. It is a great audience participation
presentation piece packed with fun, colour, comedy and is
very visual. To a certain extent, it resembles more of a
game show than an illusion.
Three people are chosen at random
from the audience by throwing three different coloured soft
rubber balls, matching the colour spots on the racecourse,
into the audience. I cannot tell you how many times the
balls have been thrown back at me before I finally get the
spectators on stage – this in itself is a riot! The three
people brought on stage are each dressed up in different
colours by my girl assistants. Each wears a baseball cap,
t-shirt and bandana that match the spots on the racecourse.
I involve more people by choosing a
‘bookie’ from the audience. The only role of this person
is to guard the prediction that I introduce.
The
prediction is in the form of a whiteboard on an easel, back
facing the audience. Under the guise of writing the three
names of the ‘jockeys’ (our three brightly dressed
volunteers) on the board, I write the following:
NAME
OF WINNER (which you know)
WILL BE THE WINNER OF THE RACE
Those of you who own this effect will know how this works!
The whiteboard is placed on the easel, covered with a piece
of cloth and turned around so that it faces the audience.
When this is done, an announcement is made that “All bets
are now closed!”
Lee’s
Note:
You should not make a point of predicting anything. In fact,
although this piece is a prediction, it is not directly presented as such. By the way,
the prediction also makes the working of the effect 3 times
simpler than the original as you only use one method (i.e. I
choose the simplest method out of the three given and make
that person the winner).
A
jumbo deck of cards is used to make the presentation play
big. It is shown to be made up of three
sets (equal number) of different coloured cards that match
the colour of the spots on the racecourse.
This is done by placing the cards in a stand that has three
rows, one below the other. The cards are then laid out in
their respective cards, in each row, so that the audience
can visually see that there are the same number of cards for
each colour. In
the original version, there are more cards for one colour
than the other colours and spectators often suspect that is
why that particular colour wins, although this is not the
case.
A team of two ‘spotters’ is also chosen.
As per the instructions, the cards are divided into two
separate packs. One pack is handed to each ‘spotter’ and
the packs are shuffled and thoroughly mixed. Because the
cards are too large to shuffle like a normal pack, the cards
are often dropped on the floor etc, which add to the fun!
The
deck is reassembled and one of the ‘spotters’ is given
the task of turning the cards face up one by one. The other
‘spotter’ is given a megaphone to announce the colour
loud and clear as it turns up.
The jockeys are positioned on the racecourse and move
according to the colour being dealt and shouted out. My girl
assistants egg on the audience to cheer for their favourite
and I provide an entertaining running commentary of the
race. Throughout the race, the whole stage and room is in
filled with action and excitement.
Finally,
one of the jockeys wins! Now, it is up to you to turn this
scenario into an illusion with a very magical impact.
To
emphasize the impossibility of the effect, you make sure the
name of the winner is announced over the megaphone so that
the audience clearly knows who the winner is. You now
address the spectators on stage and ask the usual questions
to prove that no stooges are used. These questions include:
“Have we met before?”, “Has anything been planned
between us?” Or “Can you reassure us that you were
chosen at random?” etc.
The ‘bookie’ is asked to bring the white board to the
front of the stage and uncover it. He/ she reads your
correct prediction aloud bringing the routine to a
conclusion. Emphasize the prediction by asking the winner if
he/ she had any idea that he/ she would win etc. and invite
all the spectators back to their seats.
An alternative prediction prop
revelation can be in the form of a trophy. The trophy is on
display throughout the routine, but unknown to the audience,
it is missing its plaque. It is a simple matter to engrave
the name of the winner on a plaque with an engraving pen
backstage by a backstage assistant once a ‘jockey’ wins
the race.
The plaque is then stuck in place on the trophy by a girl
assistant who does so in the act of bringing the trophy to
the front of the stage. The trophy with the name of the
winner is read out to show that you knew who would be the
winner right from the start.
If you wish, you can give the trophy to the winner as a
souvenir. The 2nd and 3rd place winners can be presented
with smaller trophies for their participation, or are given
‘booby’ prizes for not having won!
The above is an example of how a
close-up number that I rarely used was made into a
stage-filling illusion with a magical result.
Example #2
For
a sales conference, a Tip-Over Trunk can be made into an
audience participation number by combining it with the
‘Seven Keys to Baldpate’ effect. A Double Tip-Over Trunk
is opened, shown empty and locked using the padlock. The key
is mixed up with a number of other keys in a glass bowl.
Members
of the audience are invited to choose a key and try to open
the lock. Naturally, no one can open the lock until the top
salesperson of the period (as awarded by the client) tries
his key. Because he is the top salesperson, he holds the
correct key and opens the lock.
The
trunk is opened to reveal his prize – a beautiful girl
assistant dressed in the company colours with a prize
donated by the company. (He keeps the prize, not the girl).
This
is a simple idea adapted from a close-up effect, but again
by using the magnifying effect, makes it play big with the
addition of audience participation.
Example #3
Here is a last example of how a rather humble investment is turned into a large stage piece.
The basic effect is Ted Amberg’s ‘Paintball Prediction’: A spectator is invited on stage to participate in a demonstration of psychic power. The magician dons a protective vest, jacket, mask and gloves. He hands the participant a paintball gun and instructs her to fire two to six paintballs at him, hitting him wherever she wants. After she has finished shooting at the magician, he picks up a sealed envelope from the table, opens it up and reveals a target that correctly predicts where on his body the paintballs would hit!
‘Paintball
Prediction’ comes supplied with a prediction-target the
size of an A4 sheet of paper. Not a very impressive way to
fill the stage!
In
my version, instead of the magician being the ‘target’,
a spectator is chosen to be the ‘target’. A volunteer is
invited onto stage and dons a protective overall, gloves,
facemask and goggles. (I have found that dressing the
spectator up and using them as the target gets a better
reaction than the magician dressing up.)
To
reduce the risk of the spectator getting hurt, which might
happen with a paintball gun, I use spray paint. The colour
is “freely selected” (forced of course!) and I make a
spray circle on the volunteer as a demonstration of how the
following spots should be sprayed. Three more volunteers are
then invited onstage to spray the victim. The result is a
spectator with 4 different spray-painted circles on
different parts of his/ her body.
Instead of the A4-sized prediction, I use a full-sized
window mannequin who is revealed at the end to have
spray-painted circles in the same positions on its body as
the spectator’s.
The
mannequin wears a matching protective suit and its head is
dressed up to resemble the volunteer after the audience
member is chosen. (The head is chosen from many to match the
hair colour, glasses, moustache etc. of the spectator.)
The
mannequin is placed behind the classic ‘Door Production’
along with a secret assistant who does the ‘dirty work’.
The secret assistant creates the ‘spray-painted’ circles
on the mannequin by sticking circles of fabric via Velcro
onto the protective suit. The protective suit on the
mannequin is made from a “teabag” like material that
allows the Velcro to be attached anywhere. Use the
‘hook’ side of the Velcro on the ‘spray-painted’
circles so that it will attach itself to the protective suit
that acts as the corresponding Velcro ‘loop’ side.
At
the start of the routine, the ‘Door Production’ is
opened to reveal the mannequin with its back to the
audience. (The secret assistant is hidden from view and is
never seen by the audience throughout the routine.) The door
is closed and is opened again only at the end of the
presentation to reveal the prediction.
After
the ‘victim’ has been sprayed, the secret assistant
creates the ‘prediction’. The ‘Door Production’ door
is opened and the mannequin is turned around in the doorway
revealing the correct coloured ‘spray-painted’ circles
in the exact same positions – twins lost at birth but
brought together again by destiny!
In conclusion, these are just three examples of dressing up small effects and making them into full stage sized illusions. The secret of the Magnifying Effect is to think big and play big; after which, you will surely win big!
Lee Alex
www.leealex.com
At the age of eleven when Lee first began to nurture his love
for magic, what started as a hobby soon became a way of
life. From the very beginning, Lee's special talent and
natural ability won him numerous awards from local and
national magic societies.
Lee's knowledge of magic developed rapidly and for many
years, whilst still in normal education, his flair for
foreign languages was employed by an international magic
supply company in England, where Lee translated magic
articles and effects for publication, along with
contributing his own original effects and illusions.
Lee's performing took him all over the North of England for
private and public performances - parties, fairs, fringe
festivals, hotels, theatres, magic society functions,
cruising, television and performing live for listeners over
the radio.
Since then, Lee has performed at various venues all over
Europe, Greece, Germany, Austria, England, Poland, Portugal,
Bulgaria, Turkey, Azerbeycan, Ukraine and at -40 °C in
Siberia!
Lee's original employment of classic effects brought up to date, mixed with creative scenarios have most recently seen him planning and performing at major events for international companies in Turkey.
