Winning Magic Contests
The Trick To Becoming An Award-Winning
Magician
by Steve Fearson
| Editors
note: Although Steve Fearson needs no introduction
at all, here's one for the uninitiated: Steve
Fearson won nearly a dozen first place magic
awards during his short performing career,
including the IBM and the SAM where he received
first place along with the coveted Silver
Medal, which has only been awarded a handful
of times. Nowadays he runs the new hit website,
Download Magic, which has been mentioned on
the Howard Stern show and is endorsed by David
Copperfiled, who performed Steve's invention
"The Laser" on his latest special. |
|
Are
you preparing for your first magic contest? Or are you
wondering why the heck you can't seem to win . . or
even place?
Well
I've won a few over the years and I've learned some
things that I'm happy to share here. I hope they help
to make YOU an award winning magician!
Question
your own motives. What is my ultimate goal?
The
first thing you should do is question your own motives
for entering a particular contest. You must have a clear
understanding of what your ultimate goal is so you can
enter the contests that will be the most effective in
helping you to reach your goals. It also helps to be
aware of what the motives of the other contestants might
be.
Ask
yourself, "Why do I want to win this award?"
-
I want to use my award to book more shows.
If you are promoting your act to magic conventions,
this is a great reason to enter a contest. But if you
plan on promoting your act in any other venues, your
time may be better spent performing or donating your
time locally. A first place award from a magic organization
your client has never heard of will not be as impressive
to them as an endorsement from local businesses or event
planners that you have worked with.
It's
nice to be able to use phrases like "Award winning
sleight of hand" in your promotional material,
but in reality you do not need to win the Grand Prix
at FISM to do that. Winning a contest at your local
magic club will do nicely.
-
I want to lecture or sell magic to magicians.
The magic marketplace and convention circuit has become
quite large and quite a few magicians nowadays devote
100% of their time to selling, performing and lecturing
about magic at conventions. If one of these magicians
wins a first place award at a major convention, interest
in their marketed effects and lectures will usually
increase dramatically. In this case you will want to
enter one of the major contests.
This
is the main reason I competed. I wanted to introduce
new effects to the magic public, and use my awards as
a marketing tool. I knew what my ultimate goal was,
so I knew which contests I needed to win.
-
I want to win a lot of money.
The cash rewards at magic contests usually are not large,
but have increased in recent years. Once they get into
the $5000 range though, you are going to be competing
with some of the big boys. That's a nice chunk of change!
Contests
often pay $50 to $500 for a first place win. Sometimes
there is no cash award at all. If you are looking for
money, you would be better off doing regular shows for
real people.
-
It's for my ego or I just want to see if I can win.
Respect from your peers can be a good thing. And so
can competition. Winning a contest can give you confidence
in your performance, but don't let losing discourage
you. People win and lose contests for various reasons.
It does not necessarily mean the magician who won is
a better entertainer than you, it means that they are
better at winning magic contests. The same holds true
for you if you win.
Prepare Your Act for the Contest
-
Resist the temptation to create a "contest act".
You'll need to modify your existing act for the contest
setting, but don't try to dream up an entirely new act.
I went through a few different contest acts before I
finally realized that the strongest magic I could do
would be the magic I did in my real act, for the real
world. I assumed that to impress magicians you would
have to be doing something really unique. That is not
the case. It is not as important to do something really
unique as it is to do something really well.
-
Timing is everything.
One thing most contests have in common is strict time
restrictions. This is because in the real world, a professional
act needs to run a set amount of time or you're fired.
It's also because if you run over, you can really screw
up the rotation of performers in the contest. So it
is important to know time requirements of the contest
and rehearse your act until you can meet that time within
10 seconds. Often you will lose points in 15 minute
increments.
If
you don't have an act of 7-12 minutes in duration that
you currently perform, you are probably not ready for
a magic contest. The truth is that unless you're a somewhat
experienced performer, it will be very difficult to
win any serious magic contest. You don't need to make
your living performing, but you do need to be comfortable
with an audience. And you need to be able to present
your magic in the form of an act. This means a flowing
routine, which is often themed.
-
Themed acts win more often.
Having a themed act is not absolutely necessary, but
it is one important thing you may want to consider when
it comes to winning a contest. Themed acts win more
often than non-themed acts.
When
I was performing, my act was not themed. Here is what
I did to add a theme to it. I was from Wisconsin so
I capitalized on the state being the "dairy state".
I wore a cow patterned tie, matching shoes and I had
a matching pen. I had a electronic moo machine in my
pocket and would activate that throughout the act. I
started calling the rope in my act string cheese (I
know, I know) and I threw in some farm jokes which I
had downloaded from the internet. Put these things together
and poof! I'm the Moogician. Outstanding in my field.
Better than the udder guys. Because I now had a themed
act.
Learn
the Rules and Play by Them.
-
May the highest score win.
Most magic contests have a scoring system that is used
by the judges to rate your performance. Points are awarded
in different categories like presentation, originality,
skill, audience response, etc. If possible, get your
hands on one of these score sheets before the contest.
Sometimes they will be made available to you, but you
can always try contacting a contestant from a previous
year and get theirs to examine. It is a valuable thing
to have.
Unfortunately,
scoring a magic contest is not an absolute science.
The categories can be vague and difficult for the judges
to score. For example, if you fool them too badly, it
could work against you. How can they judge your skill
level if they don't know your methods? What you're doing
may be require incredible dexterity, but if they think
you relied on a gimmick you may score low in the skill
category. Because of this, the outcome may not always
seem fair. The best performer does not always win. The
performer who scores the highest based on the scoring
system wins. This is not always the audience favorite.
Whether that makes sense or not is another issue. We
are concerned with winning the contest. And in a magic
contest it usually comes down to the score sheet. The
magic contest is what it is. It's their game. If you
want to win, you'll have to play by their rules.
-
The grand conspiracy in magic.
The contests are not rigged and contrary to what you
may hear, there is not a lot of politics involved. If
it makes you feel better, get to know the contest chairman
and the judges personally. Become friendly with them.
That way at least if it is rigged, it will be in your
favor! Really, if there is any bias shown during the
judging it could be that you may get a warmer reception
the second or third time around since many of the judges
are the same or were in your audience previous years.
So they know you. It certainly doesn't hurt to be a
familiar face at the convention you are competing at.
Again, whether that is right or wrong is another issue.
We are talking about winning the contest and the bottom
line is that you may get more consideration from the
judges if they know who you are. They may even be more
forgiving of a mistake if they have seen you perform
the same move flawlessly 3 years previous.
You
don't need to belong to any certain group or clique,
but it definitely helps to belong to the community.
Afterwards
- Ask for Advice
A
contest is a rare situation where you can get honest,
detailed feedback from audience members and judges.
Many of whom are experienced performers themselves.
Take advantage of it! What follows are 8 of the more
valuable tips that I've learned over the years, most
of which were offered by past contest winners.
-
Tip 1: Acknowledge your audience and respect any assistants.
This is the first important piece of advice I received
when competing. As a close up performer, I interacted
with my spectators but not in the way I needed to during
a contest performance for 100 people or more. The advice
was simply to ask the audience to give a big round of
applause to my spectator for coming up, or for helping
when they returned to their seat. A seemingly small
point that made a huge difference in the way I was perceived
by the audience.
-
Tip 2: Display your props to the audience.
This was James Celien's suggestion after watching my
close up performance. I did not realize it, but I was
performing for my immediate audience, the spectators
seated at my table. This is perfectly acceptable for
a normal close-up performance, but in a contest situation
you are often performing for an audience of 100 people
or more. Therefore you must present or display your
props (a selected card for instance), to the entire
audience. This was something that James noticed not
just because he had the perspective of the audience
member, but because he is a gold medal winning stage
performer.
-
Tip 3: Get a haircut 2 days before the contest.
This was gold medal winner Giovanni's advice. It sounds
funny but there's more to it than just the way you look.
It's also the way a new haircut makes you feel. They
day after the haircut would be a bit too soon, but by
that second day you're used to it. Try it, it works!
-
Tip 4: Be confident and plan on winning
You should walk into every contest with the attitude
that you are going to win it. You entered it to win
didn't you? That is where your head should be. Basically,
planning on winning will never make you lose. But if
you think you're going to lose, you probably will. So
plan to win.
-
Tip 5: Project that confidence
Walk into the room with a bounce in your step and your
head held high like you are on the top of the world.
Like you are genuinely excited to see the audience and
to show them your magic. If you are excited, they will
be too.
Also,
the contestants often have pre-contest meetings and
use a common area to prepare and wait for the contest.
There is usually a air of nervousness in the room as
the contestants eye each other up. If you appear to
be confident and calm, you will gain the mental edge
over the other contestants. Basically, it will freak
them out. This edge could make the difference between
winning and losing in the end.
-
Tip 6: Don't dwell on mistakes.
In a contest situation, a mistake really can make you
feel like you've lost the contest. And maybe you have.
But don't dwell on it. If you blow a trick, just continue
on with your act and do not mention it again. Inexperienced
performers will tend to dwell on their mistake. This
just keeps the memory of the mistake fresh in their
mind. In almost every case, the best thing to do is
to just continue on like nothing happened. If you can
forget about it, they will too.
-
Tip 7: Always give your all.
Whatever your reasons for entering the contest, winning
may not always be the most important thing.
When
I entered the Desert Magic Seminar competition, my main
objective was to promote my Fantastic Floatation, which
was a new effect at the time. Of course my main objective
was to win the contest. I did not win that year, or
even place. But when the magic magazines reviewed the
contest, the only trick they talked about was Fearson's
Fantastic Floatation! So much in fact that to this day,
people believe I won the contest.
I
also lost the first time I entered the SAM contest.
It was very disappointing, and I felt I had wasted my
time. A month later I received a letter in the mail
from someone who was in the audience and had enjoyed
my performance. My losing performance ended up leading
to 4 trips to Japan and numerous television appearances
there!
Give
it your all, and good will come from it whether you
win or lose.
-
Tip 8: When you lose.. Don't quit!
It's rare to win the first time you enter a major contest.
Many people lose numerous times before winning. Don't
let it get you down. Just learn what you can from the
experience, go home and prepare for next year. Remember
that a winner never quits and a quitter never wins.
That really is true. Also remember that the judges and
regular attendees at a particular convention will remember
you the next time and be even more eager to help you
improve. Everyone respects someone who doesn't give
up and persistence will pay off!
I
highly recommend entering contests as a way to better
your magic and yourself. You will find along the way
that there are many things much more valuable than the
awards to be gained from the contest experience. Contests
not only improve your performance, they also build character
and can be a lot of fun.
So
even if you don't win.. All is not lost! Good Luck!
- Steve
Fearson
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