I LOVE working for non-magicians. For so many wonderful reasons. Firstly, they’re so much more excited about magic. Secondly, they tend to be experts in their own area and that only ever heightens the magic. Finally, they always agree with my work ethic around methods.
You also get away with a lot in theatre, film and television. Magic doesn’t need to be presented as a challenge, you can lean into a story, and you can far more easily surprise and delight the audience. It might be odd to suddenly change the lighting in your magic show for a close-up trick, but it’s perfectly normal to change the lighting for a new scene in a play.
For those of you with my book, you’ll know my take on methods. Methods are meaningless. The best method is the first one that works. It’s that simple. I’d rather spend a week making the first method that works look amazing than rush everything after spending a week playing with different methods.
A surprising number of magicians want to perform totally new methods. They hate the idea of performing an existing method. I assume they’re trying to impress convention magicians. No viewer at home will care or notice if your coin bend trick uses a new method…
