Beyond The Stage

After taking a quick peek at JC Sum's website http://www.illusionbooks.com/ you will quickly realize that most of these books are for the serious magician/illusionist and they have a price tag to reflect that. Fortunately, JC has written a set of lecture notes that is packed with great information and with a relatively low price tag.

These notes are 37 pages long and the broken up as follows:

Forward by John Teo, IBM Ring 115 President.

Introduction

About JC Sum

Magic's Greatest Secret Revealed

Building a Professional Stage Show

Performing Magic for Money

Producing Magic for TV

Annex: Applause Devices

Our forward is a single page with glowing praise, as is expected in any forward. I look forward to the day when a forward is not complimentary, perhaps if it were written by Simon Lovell? Any who, often the forward allows you to see just how high up one's friends are. The president of Singapore's IBM Ring doesn't seem very significant but that is a North American perspective.

Our introduction is also a single page detailing Mr. Sum's intentions. To allow magicians to produce higher quality magic and shows, an admirable goal.

About JC Sum is like reading the dust jacket of a hardbound book, I understand why it is here, but in a short set of notes, unnecessary.

JC now presents magic's greatest secret, which isn't quite correct. It should say magic's greatest secrets, because there is no single secret, rather many many tips to improving your performance. The main point/secret is communication, and Mr. Sum spends the next 10 pages listing and explaining verbal and non verbal ways to improve your communication with your audience. Broken down into three distinct segments, Creating the Magic Experience, Controlling the Audience, and Captivating (Entertaining) The Audience. A great deal of this information presented follows the lines of good theatre. You could learn much from learning about playwriting and screen writing. The only part of this section that seems out of place is the example. Mr. Sum's example is a close up trick (The Ambitious Card) which seems wrong given he is Singapore's foremost illusionist.

Mr. Sum briefly mentions the need for perfection in execution of technique, and I couldn't agree more. It is imperative that your technique on stage be flawless, otherwise the illusion is destroyed for the audience. Unfortunately, again, Mr. Sum presents close up examples, while they are common and familiar to any magician, they are coming from a world famous illusionist, not Guy Hollingworth.

Other points in this section include the importance of scripting and how to improve with scripts. Distance from the audience and connecting, enthusiasm, sincerity, etc. A lot of great stuff!

The next section of these notes covers Building a Professional Stage Show. This section is short considering the topic and the depth is not what you might hope for. That being said, the information presented is very practical. JC immediately recommends a set of lecture notes by Denny Haney of Denny and Lee's. You can see a review of those notes here.

JC highlights 3 steps in building a stage show:

1. Construction

2. Development

3. Evolution

A variety of tips are given on choosing material, and considerations that need to be kept in mind. This is information only a seasoned pro can really give you. We also get other factors that make a trick better or worse for a stage show than another. Your favorite trick is not always a good trick for your show.

The classics are referenced and a short but strong list of classics is given and as JC mentions, a full show of classics can be put together for under $500 bucks, they can all be done surrounded, and they pack small and play big!

Formatting the Show

This is where these notes shine! JC present his way of stringing his tricks together to create the strongest performance possible. This includes which tricks to choose first, which tricks have to take a back seat, where to put what tricks, etc. All of this information justified the price of the notes. It's rare to find truly career enhancing information and I think this might be just that information. If you believe your show formatting is the best it can be then ignore this.

JC has very specific goals for each segment of the show. Opener, closer, personality piece, etc. Following JC's explanations are an example stage show program. You get to see the work in action.

Development

The second stage of the show building process is development, once you have a show it is far from over. Although the initital show is the most demanding process, the show is like a living thing, it continues to grow or shrink and becomes something different. I grows with you as a performer. Development is when you polish up your material, record bits of businss and get really tight on the scripting. The focus shifts from the physical tricks to the specific presentations. This is also when you being to discard your weaker material for stronger material. Some of your original choices will not work out. That's as it should be. JC continues to help you refine your work and make it professional grade material.

Evolution

This is when you can start taking input from other people, performers, magicians, etc. This process never ends. The chapter ends with a timeline of how long these 3 stages should take.

Performing Magic for Money

I'm a bit disappointed with this section. Specifically because it has been dilluted over a number of areas instead of concentrating on a handful of effective sources. While JC addresses a number of common magic problems he doesn't target any one market well enough for an aspiring full time magician to really get his feet wet. A lot of emphasis is given on how to sell a service, an intangible product, like magic!

JC gives some basic promotional tools that every performer should have. Nothing revolutionary, Business cards, website, promo video, and show information (Brochure, flyer, etc.). Some great information is given on how to write up your show for marketing materials.

This section ends with some ways to get started marketing yourself. The first one being Referrals. It's a bit difficult to get work through referrals if you are just starting out, afterall who is going to refer you? Charity work is great for getting those referrals and meeting good people to hire you. JC does give advice on harnessing your social circles for referrals.

Direct Marketing, cold calls, targeted mailings, etc. This requires a very specific market/list of people to approach and market to. This can get very costly as well. If you have the money to back a marketing strategy like this it could prove to be the best money you spend!

The last source is agencies. A google search will uncover many reasons you should and should not work with agents. But the most important one in my mind is that this is work that you otherwise would not get.

The last sections of the notes is Producing Magic for TV. I understand that this is good information but in a book that plans to move you from amateur to professional it seems a little out of place. That being said let's take a look at the worthwhile nature of this chapter. JC has clearly been on TV A LOT. All of that experience is clearly demonstrated in this chapter. How to prepare for a television appearance, what sort of material is good and bad for TV, having your creative voice heard even! All very important information that would be hard to learn elsewhere. Fortunately there is another set of lecture notes available from the Camirand Academy that was written by the late Gary Ouellet on this exact topic! You can take a look at those here. If anyone is interested in those notes and would like to see a review, please email me and I will post one.

Following this chapter is Annex: Applause Devices

Once again this is very theatrical information. More emphasis on theatrical training than magic here but nonetheless some great information. JC presents his techniques for garnering applause and his personal opinions on applause cues. First we are presented with the 3 mistakes magicians make with regards to applause. Next we are given verbal and visual cues to prompt applause. Last, we are given a run down of the different types of applause, from polite applause all the way to standing ovation.

This set of notes is a bit pricey at 30 bucks. I would expect a 20 dollars price tag on something like this. That being said the information presented is very good for the performer very new to performing professionally. If you read the above review and feel these notes are the proper stepping stone in your career, buy them! If you are curious about the demands of performing professionally, buy these notes. If you are looking for information that is very specific, such as magic on TV, perhaps you would do better with the notes from The Camirand Academy of Magic.

These notes are certainly helpful to a me as a professional and I think that any professional magician wouldn't hesitate to throw 30 bucks at the possibility of a tip, trick, or bit of advice that could lead to even just one more booking.

I recommend these notes available from JC directly at Illusionbooks.com for 30 dollars, shipping included.