Chapter 08: Story

Like in advertising, a magic act can tell a story about “before and after”. An old grandmother wants to transform herself with a magic box into a young girl, but something goes wrong, and she turns into an ugly dog. While this is just one way of transformation, there are plenty of things that can be transformed. Is there something you can think of? What would you like to see transformed? Here are some typical before and after examples:

Before After

Old Young

Dirty Clean

Weak Strong

Ugly Pretty

Loser Winner

Hell Heaven

Broken Functioning

Rain Sunshine

Wrinkled Smooth

Blind Vision

Repetition attracts the most attention from audiences when it is enhanced by a puzzling variation. We all know that a magician should not repeat an effect, but by disrupting a regularly repeated pattern, the audience focuses their attention on the performer. Think of something that you can repeat with variation.