Thought For The Week May 11, 2009

"Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough." -- Billie Holiday

When developing a running gag, I never know how many times to repeat it until I start performing it. If I do it three times during a show I don't know what kind of reaction I would have gotten if I had done it four times. The way I can learn is to keep increasing the number of times that I use it until decreased audience reaction tells me that I have used it too much. That allows me to figure out the limits of its effectiveness. I also begin to figure out audience clues that I am approaching the limit for a particular performance. Then I can use the running gag to its potential.

For example, I ask the audience if they want to see me juggle four balls. I act like I am getting ready to juggle them, change my mind, and start to put them away. The audience demands that I juggle the balls. I get ready, look up at the lights, decide that I can't juggle four balls under those conditions, and start to put them away again. The audience demands that I do the trick. This audience interaction increases their desire to see me perform the trick. When I give them what they want by juggling with four, their satisfaction increases their response and the amount of applause that I receive. However, I have learned by doing this bit too many times that I can start to alienate audience members who tire of it and they loose their desire to actually see me juggle. Then the response to me completing the trick is decreased. It has taken a long time to learn, but now I can sense how far I can build up anticipation with a particular audience.

The same is true with performing magic effects. My multiplying ball routine includes a move called Perpetual Balls. I have one ball in my hand. When I remove it to put it in a box on my magic table, another ball appears in my hand. I remove that ball, and a third ball appears. Every time that I take a ball away, another appears. I can continue it for as long as I want and have done it for ten minutes in practice. However, an audience would get bored with it long before that. The sense of wonder increases as more balls appear. If I just do it three times I don't get much response. By varying the pacing and my reaction to the appearance of the ball I can make it entertaining for a while, but eventually I have to do something different. That is when I start to multiply the balls so I go from one to two to three to four. The only way I have learned how many times to make a ball appear is by gradually increasing the number of times that I do it in performances until audience feedback revealed that I had done it too many times.

In the Half Dyed Scarf effect a scarf changes color as you poke it into the top of your fist and pull it out of the bottom. Most audience members assume that you are somehow secretly substituting one scarf for a second scarf that is a different color. Then you start to make it change color again, but you stop with half of one color sticking out the bottom of your fist and half of the other color sticking out the top of your fist. When you open your hand, you reveal that you have one scarf that is half one color and half the other color. I discovered a way to turn the half-colored scarf a solid color. When I tried it in performances I discovered that the first two transformations were enough. Transforming the scarf a third time was too much. By that point audience interest had tapered off considerably.

The same thing is true with physical comedy. When working in a circus ring you need to exaggerate your actions so they can be easily read by those seated the farthest away. I had to keep increasing the range of my actions until I reached the point of doing it too much. Then I knew by backing off a little I was doing it enough.

You never know what the boundaries are without testing their limits and going past them. Some people never discover their potential because they stay safe and never go too far. They are afraid of making a mistake, but a mistake just tells you the limits of your potential. Do you realize your potential in performance? How far can you go? How do you know you are getting the maximum response? How can you test the limits? Have you ever gone too far? How do you know when it is too much? What audience cues let you know when it is enough?