Showing posts tagged 'but don't take my advice'.
"Magic has no mystery to magicians. We work variations of standard methods. What will seem new or baffling to an audience is simply a technical challenge for professionals. If an innovative new illusion is developed, it is only matter of time before the effect is reproduced by others.
— Christopher Priest, “The Prestige"
This first sentence, Magic has no mystery to magicians, reminds me of how I quickly became aware of the most common joke forms when I started writing my own jokes. And suddenly jokes didn’t seem so magical. When you see how they work and that often it’s merely a template sentence with new words.
Being aware of these forms is great and using them actively will help you a lot, especially when you’re starting out. But true elegance comes when you can use the same tools and not make the template obvious.
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As one of my favourite comedians, Daniel Kitson says after a joke in the beginning of one of his free-to-download, though a bit old shows (as I remember it and often quote it); That joke was basically a pull-back-and-reveal, you just didn’t notice, ‘cause it was executed to perfection. I think it was my third listen, but finally I understood and my jaw dropped.
(Quote via Magic has no mystery to magicians – marks.dk)
Source marks.dk
