My dear friend, Kurt Freitag brought me a lovely present while working the Magic Castle this week, a book on Southern Folklore. In it I discovered an interesting selection from a book about the early frontier, telling a tale of Daniel Boone using sleight of hand to get out of trouble:
“Boone, according to James Jall, was once resting in the woods with a small number of his followers, when a large party of Indians came suddenly upon them and halted–neither party having discovered the other until they came in contact. The whites were eating, and the savages, with the ready tact for which they are famous, sat down with perfect composure, and also commenced eating. It was obvious they wished to lull the suspicions of the white men, and seize a favorable opportunity for rushing upon them. Boone affected a careless inattention, but, in an undertone, quietly admonished his…
I first created the Magnetized Water routine for my medicine show in 2010.
The idea was to take a number of fairly weak magic effects and by combining them with a strong effect (Hydro Glass) make them work toward creating a strong impression of the impossible, the reality of magnetized water.
“Proving” anything is then unnecessary.
I want to talk to my customers in the audience, but don’t want anyone to feel left out or “out of the loop.” So I give a quick explanation of magnetized water, and then quickly turn to the complaints we have received and concerns of our customers in the audience. We want to apologize and explain.
Everything in this explanation is a demonstration of the “science” behind the effect, rather than a “proof” of its existence. The proof of the effect is assumed when the “customers” in the audience and their concerns are addressed.
It is not a pitch. It is framed as a disclaimer and public announcement.
I didn’t want to do two monologue pitches in my show and I already had the Amazing Miracle Oil pitch which comes earlier:
I wanted the Magnetized water routine to be as different as possible from the Amazing Miracle Oil pitch.
This “product placement” in the Magnetized Water routine is framed instead as an apology and an explanation for our customers’ complaints, or rather, concerns. It is not just another sales pitch.
It takes people off balance. It assumes that the magnetized water is real and is well-known. The defensiveness and water-treading “explanation” hooks the audience and draws them in.
My other medicine show themed effect, the Tantalus Tubes, was presented as a sneaky pitch/ad hidden behind the presentation of an “old” magic trick.
The true intention is only revealed at the end. People can’t really read the labels on the bottles, but when the advertising banner drops it becomes clear that all the bottles on the table are “Pop Haydn’s Tennessee Sour Mash Medicinal Whiskey.”
Tantalus Tubes is a real magic effect that just has a medicine show theme. It is not a sketch or monologue backed by magical “special effects” as is the Magnetized Water routine.
I wanted to maintain the “Medicine Show” theme throughout a 90 minute show but I didn’t want to be repetitive.
Magnetized Water is not really a magic routine at all. It is a character and story-driven sketch. The impossible isn’t proven, it is assumed and the audience’s supposed agreement to this reality is also assumed.
That is why sticking the bottle to the display board like a refrigerator magnet is even more satisfying than some of the stronger magic effects. It is creating the impression of magnetized water as a reality.
It confirms the idea of magnetized water in a very familiar way and fulfills a fantasy image that the audience may have seen coming.
These Youtube videos are the same idea as the Magnetized Water routine:
They are story driven, and the magic is not so much proof as special effects for something the story takes as a given — it is science after all!
I think it is good to experiment with ads, promotions, interesting video of all types, since it takes a lot of variety to maintain interest online. You want to promote your character and brand as well as post performance videos.
These sort of non-magic magic videos are a very good way of adding to online content, and building your off-stage story.
Don’t forget to publish posters, photos and memes as well. These help to create your online presence and develop your character and backstory:
If you Google Images Pop Haydn, you will see the variety of brand-building images that have been posted of me over the years.
Part of the value of “backstory” in magic is that it allows for you to develop your brand online using many different methods other than by “performance.”
Received a wonderful gift today from my friend in the UK, magician David Diamond, an autographed 8×10 of Tom Baker and a package of Jelly Babies!
Tom Baker was my Doctor.
Jelly Babies are much better than I anticipated.
Actually, Dr Who was a big influence on my creation of Pop Haydn.
He and the character of Professor Marvel from Wizard of Oz helped me to envision the character of Pop as a fantastic, magical being engaging with people in the real world as if he just walked out of a story or off the screen.
What would it be like to get to have a drink and trade jests with Falstaff? Try to match wits with the Flim Flim Man? Get in an argument with Indiana Jones?
The idea of Pop Haydn was to create a believable but fantastic character who interacts with the audience members and engages them in sophisticated play.
This character helps the audience to suspend disbelief and open their imaginations, while at the same time getting them to critically consider the argument for the impossible–the Magic.
The Magic entangles this memory of play and fantasy with the memory of a direct experience of the impossible.
The entanglement of fantasy and the “real” world is the soul of magic.
Pop Haydn is not originally from the 21st Century himself, but has been trapped here with a bunch of other maroons from another, very different time and place.
Pop is a magician, comedian, musician and medicine pitchman. He is a past Vice-President of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, California, and has been named performing "Magician of the Year" six times, winning in the categories--Stage, Close-Up, Parlor, and Bar.
He is the co-founder with Chef Anton of School for Scoundrels.
Friends of Soapy Smith
Website for the friends of badman Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith, the King of the Frontier Con Men. Run by his great-grandson and biographer, Jeff Smith.
Nancy Magill
Pop Haydn
Pop's Soapbox 