OPINION: Gestures and Tone

Strangely I find these techniques aren’t used enough in our magic performances. Perhaps it is because we have written and learnt a script, we are concentrating our lines rather than what we are expressing, plus of course, in the back of our mind we have trick to get through and best not hang about.

By changing the pace and tone of how we talk, we change the mood and so can create drama and suspense. At the very least it will be more interesting. Our gestures can convey almost anything, from anger to joy, a wave of the hand or a clenched fist.

We are pretending to magicians after all, so why not act the living daylights out of it. Why not pretend the trick actually matters to you and so it should to the audience.

I play with physical expressions a lot when performing, usually to build up to a ‘rug pull’ gag of some sort, but nethertheless it is there and brings the audience into my world. I’m always trying to create an emotion within the audience, and I’d like to think even if you can’t hear what I’m saying you’d understand the sentiment.

Below is link to a TedTalk which I think highlights how although what we do needn’t have any weight, we can give it quite a lot, just to improve the experience and magic.

Last point - The more hand gestures in a TedTalk, the more views it gets.