Alright, first essay! It might be a little shaky, but I'll try my best.

Alright, so there are all these posts on the Essay forum that say that good presentation is necessary in order to be a good magician. Also, there are many, many other posts (not in the essay forum) that agree with this message as well. I agree with all of these posts, and almost all of them have helped me out in one way or another. But, for the bewildered magician who doesn't know quite how to express himself (or herself) in his (or her) magic, here are a few little tips that helped me find my stage persona.

First, you should decide whether, while performing, you want to be your self, or someone else. Now, you're probably wondering how to be someone you're not. For an example, let's take Borat. Now, the character Borat is from Kazakhstan, and is very anti-Semitic. Normally, his jokes would offend me, as I am Jewish. However, I know for a fact that the actor that plays Borat (Sacha Cohen) is actually an orthodox jew. See the irony? That's one of the beauties of being a separate character.

Now, there are many good reasons why you'd want to be someone you're not. One is the many, many joke opportunities you could make. If you choose to be a very nerdy magician, you could throw in a lot of ytmnd or math jokes (that almost nobody will get). Also, you would differ yourself from the rest of the magicians who perform in your area. However, a drawback to this would be that you wouldn't be yourself (of course), so you probably wouldn't be completely natural with your new persona. Also, it's very easy to slip up and go out of character, which would be bad. Now, if you practice being in your character well enough, you can get some beautiful results.

What are the advantages of being yourself? Well, you are completely comfortable with yourself (unless you lack self esteem), and you would have lots of freedom with your sense of humor. Also, if you meet someone, and they get to know you personally, they realize that you are the same person offstage as you are onstage, which is nice for testimonials.

Now, back to the topic I promised at the beginning of this topic. How can you tell exactly who you are? Here's a little exercise you can do. On a sheet of paper (or in your magic journal), list a personal adjective, then under that, write the numbers one through five. List another adjective, then write one through five again. Do this with as many adjectives as you can think of. Then, grade yourself on each one on the scale of one through five (by circling the appropriate number). This all probably sounds a bit complicated, so I've made a short little list as an example.

Intelligence:
1 2 3 4 5

Athleticism:
1 2 3 4 5

Vulgarity (how much you use profanity):
1 2 3 4 5

Confidence in your magic abilities:
1 2 3 4 5

Gullibility:
1 2 3 4 5

Shyness:
1 2 3 4 5

See the point? Now, in case you hadn't figured it out, 1 is for really not (adjective), 3 is I don't know, or I'm not sure, and 5 is very (adjective). Two and four are middle-grounds.

Now, since I can't circle on these message boards, I'll write my answers here:
Intelligence: 4
Athleticism: 2
Vulgarity: 3
Confidence in magic: 4
Gullibility: 4
Shyness: 3

Of course, you aren't limited to these adjectives. You should try and make your own, and grade yourself honestly. You don't want to be lying to yourself.

However, if you want to have a different character than yourself, than fill one of these out for that character. I'm sure it will help a lot with forming your new character, and all of their personality facets.

Also, there are some other questions that will also be important for your character. Some examples are how old they act, what religion they are, what they believe in, etc. These questions really can't be graded very well, but you should still try to answer them anyway (on the same sheet of paper).

Anyway, I'd love to hear your guys' opinions on this idea, or this essay in general. And also, thanks for reading.

-davidcon

Intelligence: 3

Athletism: 4 (Between Parkour, skateboarding, snowboarding, etc.)

Vulgarity: 5 (Mehehehehe)

Confidence in your magic abilites: 2

Gulibility: 3

Shyness: 2

^^^^^^
Thats disgusting.



Back to magic. I have read in multiple places, most recently Gazzo's Art of Krowd Keeping, that the best way to create a stage character is to take a poll from your closest friends. Ask them how they see, you what are your most dominant traits. Mine are that im genuine, believable, witty, and magical. I amplify these traits on stage.
Whenever i write script for my latest routine, i constantly refer back to those four adjectives.

Replying to the post (and I realize it is ironic that I am doing this too) doesn't help the mods get rid of the bots' messages. Also, it brings the topic back to the top of the forum it is in. Just leave botted topics alone.

I wanted to respond to the magic topic...