Home Counties Magical Society

Geoffrey Durham is probably one of the most well known faces in magic, he's appeared on countless TV shows, and is constantly 're-inventing' himself to stay at the top of his career.

His set of lectures are based around his book, 'Professional Secrets - A Life in Magic', and in a completely different approach to lectures, he's strived to make each one different.

The Home Counties Magical Society enjoyed lecture number five.. which I feel was one of the best, as Geoffrey talked about routining, harmony, volunteers and running orders.

One of the first things Geoffrey talked about was Harmony, or the audiences need to have something ‘completed’ an end to an effect, for instance, the torn and restored newspaper. Geoffrey talked about how the trick was perfect and an audience loved it, because the newspaper was restored, there was a logical end, you have torn up the newspaper, you've restored it, and from an audience point of view.. the trick is complete, unlike tricks where you vanish something, to have it not re-appear, these 'complete tricks', from Geoffrey's viewpoint make an audience feel happy, and comfortable.

He also talked about how showmanship is not about great magic, or huge tricks, more that ‘Showmanship is the art of making someone like you”, indeed the whole essence of his lecture was about you as the performer, not the trick, not the magic, these are less important, but about making the audience like, and remember, and want to see you.

Geoffrey continued to talk about running orders, constructing and handling volunteers, He talked at length about how important it is to have the correct timing, from being introduced, to walking on, from approaching a group correctly, without intimidating them, to creating anticipation through just a few seconds delay.

The lecture continued with the running order of your tricks, what should be performed first, to put your audience at ease with you, what you should never ever do as your first trick, and how to bring in the audience through your second and third trick, to being able to bring up volunteers without any fear on their part.

He also explained why he does his infamous ‘hand flasher’ as a method to get people to sit up and look, and raise their heads, and why he chooses to use ‘cheesy’ lines to open his act.

One of the interesting parts of the lecture was based around running order, or order of tricks, and the variety of the lengths and types of tricks performed, a 3 minute effect, followed by a 30 second effect, followed by a 10 minute effect is much easier and more pleasing for an audience than three effects of 5 minutes. The same can be said for the type of effect Long, Short, Funny, Charming, Volunteers, Non Volunteers, all allowing the audience to enjoy and focus on you the performer.

Geoffrey also spoke about how he is ruthless with his effects, effects being cut or kept in his act, when (and to some on the evening) it seemed to make no sense what-so-ever. Tricks that went down well, and created a huge audience reaction, often were cut from his act after performing them. Why? because they distract from him as a performer, they either hide the face, or are performed with him ‘out of the picture’, Geoffrey is one of the best known faces in magic for that very reason, all this effects are centered around (as his book explains) his face.

The tricks are linked with his face, people are paying and wanting to see him, not the trick, he’s performing the effect to the audience, not to the table or the floor. After almost two hours of lecture, the evening ended with another 30 minutes of Questions and Answers, mainly around the process of routining, and throwing away effects.

For me the lecture was very clear, if your audience comes away saying “That was a fantastic trick”, then you have done your act wrong. If they come away saying “That was a fantastic Magician” you have done it right. The evening was a goldmine of useful information, and made a wonderful change from trick after trick lectures.

Geoffrey Durham is available for lectures (each one different!) and his book ‘Geoffrey Durham - Professional Secrets’ can be found through his website