My creative process is mostly problem solving. Coming up with ideas is the easy part. Asking the right questions, I think, is where my experience pays off.
This green bag was the result of solving problems and asking questions. The initial idea, years ago, came in response to “how can I work in a theatre with no easy access to the audience?” Then, just this week, I revisited that idea and asked myself “Can this work under social distancing rules?”
Once I had the defined goal, the work was fast and easy. Along the way, innovations came almost accidentally, solving problems as they arose in my prototype.
Are you looking to jump-start your creative muscle? Try challenging yourself with these questions:
Questions To Inspire Creative Solutions For Your Magic Performances.
- Can I do this card trick with something other than playing cards?
- What does the physical action or process of the trick remind me of from real life? What is the metaphor?
- What is the worst part of this routine? (and how can I make it the not worst part?)
- Which dogmatic “rules of magic” am I following in this trick? Can I break the rules?
- How would this look different if it was performed by a magician I admire? (What would Max Maven do? What would Mac King do?)
- If I re-build this prop from scratch, what could I change?
- From the hundreds of thousands available tricks, why am I performing this one? What draws me to it? How can I communicate this importance to the audience?
- How does this trick naturally connect to another trick? What if the two were combined?
- What is the artistic/theatrical choice of this routine? What would happen if I turned it up to 11? (committed to it more strongly)
- Whatever the magic effect is, can it happen in reverse?
- If this same effect was in a beginner magic kit, what would be the simplest possible method?
- If it was in a Tommy Wonder book, what would be the most complicated method?
- What if this stage trick was made into a close-up trick? (or vice versa)
- What if a birthday party trick was made into a classy corporate banquet trick? (or the other way)
- Can I dream up 10 completely different methods for this trick? Then identify the strength and weakness of each one.
Great list! I would also ask an inversion of #5: “How would this look different if it was performed by a magician I despise?” It could help illuminate answers to #3 (“What is the worst part of this routine?”). Though perhaps instead of naming a particular magician I despise, maybe I come up with a fictitious character of a bad magician, to minimize the negativity (and to eliminate the possibility that I meet that magician some day and accidentally blurt out “oh hey, you’re part of my creativity exercise” and then have to explain myself).
Yes, love it! Bob Fitch told a story like that in his lecture; pushing a magician to perform like his rival as a creative exercise. Apparently it brought a lot more energy to the routine!