When working on a new piece, I research and work through every version I can find. I play with the moves and handling for about six months, and then I will walk away from the research phase for a period of six months to a year. After this time, I will sit down and try to perform the piece without review and see what stuck and in what shape the routine is. I try to determine what is truly necessary in the piece to further audience conviction and engagement and what is mere fluff designed to impress.
I work to see what techniques have crept into my performances (as I will discover when I need to perform a false shuffle under fire and then all of a sudden realize that I am using a technique I learned for another effect). I then analyze how the techniques will affect audience conviction.
I am fascinated by the perpetual quest for the “easiest” trick. It occurs to me that technical requirements should only be considered for how strong a conviction level they create on the audience that everything is on the up-and-up…
Method should only be one factor that contributes to the total experience by the spectator… Yet we magicians are on an endless search for what is “easy” as opposed to what is appropriate… Only when the easiest method provides the highest level of conviction held by the spectator that what he perceives is what is, regardless of degree of the impossible…
There is a difference between easy method and easy effect (whatever that is)… If easy method is also transparent to audience because of simplicity, it does have an impact on audience experience (enjoyment, appreciation, whatever). What fools me is not an issue, the issue should be what methods are the right methods for me–and for my audience–when constructing or adapting a routine for performance…
I usually pick a magical plot because I see how I can make it work with my character. All of my pieces have an intriguing hook that must engage me first. If I (or more accurately—my character) are engaged, the audience must be swept along for the ride. Occasionally, I am intrigued by a plot, but don’t have a specific idea of how it might fit into my performances. Hopefully, during the time off, my subconscious is at work looking for the connections that can make the piece important to me. If not, when I sit down to revisit the plot, I begin the search for how to integrate the material in a logical way (for myself and my participants).