If there's one thing that's important in a show or performance, it's building a unique identity, a character. Be careful, this doesn't mean disguising yourself and having to create a distinct identity from scratch. It mainly means finding something to give the audience that they can connect with, compare themselves to. This "character" can simply be an "ordinary" person, but one that people would become attached to because of a certain speech tic. This character can also wear a distinctive garment or object. If finding this character is so important, it's because it will transform your act into a memorable one.
A good way to find your character is to film yourself, or ask friends to caricature you. The main idea is to reveal a personality trait, a language trait, an attitude, something that makes you recognizable among a thousand and that only you do. This attitude alone will represent your character and thus become embedded in the collective memory. Think of famous magicians: if I mention Jean Merlin, you probably think of his little hat. If I mention Norbert Ferré, you'll visualize his red clown nose, etc.
This first step of finding a character can take time, but I think it's necessary. Once it's done, you need to embody that character. Embodying a character means being consistent in your act or show. A magician must give their character a whole life, an approach that goes far beyond a simple costume. To do this, you need to write the character's story. So, even before writing your show, take the character sheet that defines your character and start writing their complete biography. You almost need to write an entire novel about the life of this person, this other stage alter ego. This includes talking about their family, friends, profession, habits, wounds, sorrows, griefs, tastes, and anything else you deem interesting to mention. Be careful, this doesn't mean you'll have to talk about all of this. You can write your character's biography perfectly well without the audience ever knowing two-thirds of it. Spectators don't even need to know that this biography exists. If you create it, it's mainly for you, so that you build a true legend around the character, so that there are no inconsistencies once on stage.
After this exercise, you will have found the beginning of a character and even written their entire life on paper. But in magic, there's another new step to take, because prestidigitation is an art in itself. Indeed, in one way or another, spectators will witness supernatural events, or at least events outside the natural. An extremely important question that YOU must answer in the character's biography is: "where does their power come from?".
Indeed, in a magic trick, something "abnormal" concretely happens. This abnormality must come from something or somewhere, and that must be well understood to avoid narrative flaws in the show. For example, if you do card tricks, you can play the character of a cheater. It is then logical that this person knows how to manipulate cards and that the trick is, in reality, a skillful demonstration of cheating. If you are more into organic magic, then perhaps you will need to learn about shamans and how they perform their rituals. Magic will then be invoked, and the magician will almost be a go-between connecting pure magic and the audience. One last example: you can wear a cartoon-style costume and be subjected to magic that falls upon you despite yourself. All these examples are there to give you leads and especially to show you that it is extremely important to define from the outset why magic happens, how it happens, and with what tools or by what means it happens. Knowing this strengthens the audience's immersion in your show or act.
I'll conclude with one last point, that of leaving flaws. While we've seen that all questions in the character's biography need to be answered beforehand, their story shouldn't appear too smooth either. This character must have flaws, doubts, they must not be perfect. A perfect character is inherently boring, and life is far from perfect. Take your friends' flaws and distill them into the character's life. Perhaps they have behavioral disorders, an illness, a deep hatred for someone or something, an unsuspected weakness, a betrayal they couldn't bear, etc. Finding these flaws, these weaknesses, is what will help you move forward, both in everyday life and in your character's life. Because it is on these flaws that the entire story can rest. It is also thanks to these flaws that the spectator will be able to identify, that they will see a touching character on stage, first and foremost human, which will make them appreciate the story you offer them even more.
1 comment
Très intéressant dans l’ensemble