After my post from the other day, I started thinking about stooges and their place in magic. This is something I've been meaning to write about for a long time now so I finally forced myself to sit down and do it. Strap in, this'll probably be a long one.
Years ago I probably would have told you that stooges had no place in magic and anyone using them was lazy and should find a way to accomplish the effect without a stooge. Now I realize that it's not so black and white. There are certain scenarios where having a stooge, instant or otherwise, can strengthen the effect. There are also times when using stooges can weaken things overall.
In my opinion a poor use of a stooge is a trick that can only be accomplished by using a stooge. I feel that these tricks look too impossible for an audience and they often correctly assume that the assistant is in on it. An example of this is something I feel like every magician hits on early in their career: Too-Perfect Mind Reading. It's not too much of a stretch to think "Gee, instead of forcing a word or using a center tear or a peek wallet, why don't I just have Bob help me out and tell him to say giraffe?"
Instead, I think a stooge should be used to strengthen an effect. They should be part of the method, not the entire method. An example I've seen of this being tossed around in the past is using another magician who knows the same stacked deck as you in an ACAAN effect. A real spectator names any card, your stooge names the corresponding number in the stack, or vice versa.
You could also use that to eliminate the weak point in a one-ahead routine. The simple 3-Way Test from Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic is one of my favorite pieces of impromptu magic, but I don't like that the third stage needs to be a force. Yes, you can get lucky with equivoque or you can use a psychological force, but ideally you could ask people to make completely free choices. Doing that for the first two stages and limiting choices in the third, to me, makes it look fishy. Having a stooge for that third stage can clean things up for you immensely.
I used a stooge a few months ago when I needed to film a video for something. I had been performing the Invisible Deck all day at a festival and towards the end I decided to get some footage of it. Instead of filming the actual routine, I grabbed someone I knew and basically said, "Hey, you're gonna help me make a video real quick. I'm going to ask you to name a card. Say the seven of hearts." I turned the seven around in a normal deck of cards, turned the camera on, and did my ID routine. It was exactly the same as I had done all day long, except I didn't need to do any math and I couldn't possibly screw it up. In my mind, that's the perfect example of using a stooge. It streamlines a performance, anyone watching would see the same thing as if you didn't use a stooge, and you can do the same thing in a non-stooged way.
Now that I've gone on and on about using stooges sparingly, let's talk about an idea I had that takes it to the other extreme. What if you did a magic show where everyone there was in on it except one or two people? I'm picturing something small and intimate, like after hours in a coffee shop or in a hotel suite. The show can seat maybe a dozen people total. Every time a person or couple books a ticket, that show becomes sold out. Early in your show you can do a "traditional" magic trick using the real spectators. As the show goes on, you do effects using your stooges that become more and more impossible. I'm thinking use them to sign duplicate cards or coins, think of words from the dictionary, use them to do the cleanest version of the lottery effect you'll ever see. The sky's the limit, I would just try to keep it at least semi-plausible.
As long as your stooges don't ham it up, the people who actually buy tickets and come to this as a real spectator are going to see the best magic show in the world. I think if this were to be actually done, you would need to select your stooges carefully. You can't have an audience full of your friends in case someone recognizes them. I think actors or people from Craigslist would be the best bet, but then I don't think you'd be able to sell tickets at a high enough price to be able to pay people. You would also have to keep track of people who have seen the show and be careful to not let them see the same show twice. Maybe switch things up with your stooges, but then you run the risk of someone getting confused. Maybe limit people coming back for a second showing by having tickets be sold out if they try to buy them. There's a lot of problems but I think they could be solved, I just don't know if I could solve them in my current position. I would love to try one day though.
Let's take this a step further into the extreme: What if everyone at the show was a stooge, but everyone though they were the only one? This is starting to become more performance art than magic show, but the idea of it really gets me. I think this would be best in an casual setting, like a house party or cookout or something. Individually and well in advance you approach your guests and tell them you're going to try out your new show but you need their help in one part. If they could just do X, you'd really appreciate it. Set up the whole show with different people in different roles.
Again, the whole thing can be as impossible as you'd like to make it but I feel that the more plausible you can make it, the better. Pull off the whole show (though I guess it is more accurately a play at this point) and afterward everybody's still amazed. I would love to do this and just sit back and see how long it would take people to realize, if they ever did. I think with the right group of people they would just keep quiet about it and be amazed forever. Again, I would love to try this but I'm not sure I can ever pull it off.
Well, that's what I've got to say about stooges. For now, anyway. I could probably talk forever about it but I would probably talk myself in circles more than I already have. I might revisit this at a later date.
- Andster
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