Overly Simplify V.S. Ora Ora Ora
If you know me personally, you will find out quickly that I am a crazy fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Nothing is more satisfying than watching the moments when our main characters start throwing continuous punches or attacks with their Stand powers to give that critical hits to the enemies with long battle cries, such as "Ora Ora Ora Ora", "Muda Muda Muda Muda" or "Dorararara"...... it depends on which part of JoJo series you are reading/watching.
Of course, I am not here to tell you to do a long battle cry as you are executing techniques in your magic performance.(You could do that, but your audience might think you have issues.)
As we move along with time, a lot of magic has been simplified or made shorter nowadays, and that means some build-ups or continuous phases that can lead to the "critical damage" to the audience's sanity have gone missing. Some beautiful routines that take time to perform have been overly simplified to one trick ponies or little gags in extreme cases.
I think there are many reasons why we tend to do things in such a way, and here are some I can think of as I am writing this:
1. There's a limited amount of magic that a person can handle in a short time frame, and that amount is different for everyone. Lay-audience tend to be able to take less than people who have experienced more in magic.
2. Multi-phase routines can be predictable, and you want to avoid repeating a trick more than one time.
3. As David Williamson always says, "You want to leave your audience wanting more."
4. There's a time limit for your performance on your platforms, such as the short time frame for Table Hopping before food comes to the table at a restaurant, or 1 minute time limit for an Instagram video post…...
5. Simplified magic with less phases is more “practical” to perform.
6. At the end of the day, your audience will only remember the strongest moment in your multi-phase routine, so why not just do the strongest effect?( Thanks to Paul Harris, David Blaine, Garrett Thomas, etc.)
Some of these points might overlap one another, but you can see there are plenty of reasons why magic performances have become shorter nowadays. Frankly, sometimes too much is too much. I cut down some of my materials if it's necessary for my performance in real life as well.(1-4)
But I stand against simplifying magic just because it is more “practical” for me to perform. Some routines can be easier for performers to do if we do simplify them, but some things will be missing, and the result might lead to your effect being less appealing to our imaginations. I strongly suggest you take a look into Tommy Wonder's Practical Thinking and Sweet and Sour Simplicity essays in Books of Wonder Volume I for more details on this.
And I somewhat agree with Paul Harris's thinking. Suppose that your audience doesn't have the terminology or experience seeing magic in real life, even if they are very smart. It is true that people can only articulate so much about what they witness from your magic to others, and it makes sense that they would only put down notes for the strongest effect they can remember the most in their heads.
However, I think modern audiences can remember and describe articulately what they see to others more than what we expect nowadays, plus, if you do your job well to deliver an idea or effect, your audience should be aware of what's happening clearly, even if they don't have the same terminology/ language as you who are more experienced in magic. I don't think it's fair to strip away some interesting materials for them just because we assume they are not going to understand.
I also agree with David Gerard, who's one of the few top pros in magic around San Francisco Bay Area. In his lecture notes 24 Months, he mentioned an idea from Maya Angelou in February 2018, and I am going to paraphrase it here:
When people go out to see a good comedy show, perhaps they will not be able to remember every single punchline or all the little bits from a comedian, but they'll remember how the show makes them feel. They will remember the moments that they are laughing so hard after they go home, then they will remember that comedian is funny as hell.
It is probably true that your audience will not be able to remember every single little detail, subtlety, or the fine touches you do in your routines, but that doesn’t mean all the hard work doesn’t matter. They are important to make them feel what they feel about you at the end when they go home and think of what you did.
Gary Kurtz is one of my heroes in magic. (Mr. Kurtz, if you happen to be reading this, please know that we need to meet in person one day and I need you to sign my books. #fanboydanny) In his Full Frontal Assault notes, He mentioned, “Many People have remarked that watching me perform is a little like hallucinating. Performing a one climax trick is not going to create that effect, but a series, a seemingly endless assault on the senses will.” I think that is something that’s lacking in our magic now. Too many of us are focusing on a trick with one big climax in the end, and we sometimes overlook what seemingly endless multiple phases can offer in our routines.
In conclusion, I suggest that you should have at least a couple of routines that have build-ups or continuous multiple phases that can potentially lead to the "critical damage" to audience's sanity ready with you. Just in case if you need to go “Ora Ora Ora” like Jotaro Kujo with your magic, and better yet, have these long routines to be modular, so you can stop anywhere anytime if you really need them to be shorter depending on your performing situation.