From: covin@tartarus.uchicago.edu (David Covin)
Subject: Re: Being Polite
Organization: University of Chicago Computer Science
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 22:09:26 GMT

In article <1993Jan20.222818.29690@nmsu.edu> tnielson@sulu (THORIN NIELSON) writes:

> This problem I have regards the protocol of telling  
> someone you know how it's done.

Hm.  Well, I definitely would like to hear magicians' responses to
this.  I can offer my own feelings, in return, but they may stem from
a weird perspective on magic.

I juggle.  I have little or no skill at magic, but have done a lot of
reading about it.  Thus, I often have pretty good guesses as to how a
trick either was or could have been done, particularly at the lower
levels of skill.  What tends to impress me, and what I most enjoy
seeing, is: 1) Good performance.  A well-presented trick, good patter,
            good rapport with the audience, general ability to
            entertain.
            2) Skillful execution.  Even if I'm quite certain I know
            *how* the trick was done, if I couldn't *see* it done, 
            I get a kick out of it.  Sometimes I get *more* of a kick
            out of it in this case; i.e., even knowing what to look
            for, I couldn't see what was done, so the performer must
            be skillful indeed.

I think that the second may stem somewhat from my juggling, which is
why I mentioned it-- in juggling, there's rarely any question of *how*
a trick is done, the thing is to do it *smoothly*, so it looks good.
And I tend to be impressed by tricks that I've *attempted* but not
*mastered*-- I know how hard it is, and yet this person is doing it
with apparent ease.

Anyway, when someone *does* impress me, I want to convey to them some
of that "wow, that's really cool" feeling I have, in hopes that it
will make *them* feel good too.  I feel that if I can honestly
compliment someone, I should.  Now, I'm sure that it's legitimate to
praise the non-trick-related parts of their performance: laughing at
their jokes, following their patter with an attentive and appreciative
smile, generally conveying the impression that they have engaged and
entertained me.  I would guess that it's also legitimate to praise
a skillful sleight in a general way-- "Wow, that's really smooth, I
couldn't see how you did that at all."  

I do not know, however, how well a random magician is likely to
receive the statement "Even knowing how you did that, I couldn't see
you doing it at all."  It's sort of a different category of praise;
rather than the praise of a mystified audience member who was "fooled"
by the trick, it's the praise of a person informed and knowledgeable
about magic who was *not* "fooled," but was still impressed by the
skill.  It implies that I have some basis for judging the magician's
skill, to think that my praise of it might mean something.  The
magician, on the other hand, might not *believe* that I really have
any basis to be a judge of skill, and so might not feel that my praise
is worth anything-- and, at the same time, putting me in the category
of an ignorant audience member, might be disappointed that I wasn't
"fooled."

So, I don't know whether it's a good idea for me to give that sort
of praise, and I'm looking for this thread to provide some answers
from magicians as to how they would feel about it.

On the other hand, if there's *nothing* to praise about a performance,
it probably *is* better to say nothing at all, unless you're actually
somehow offended by it or else there's some reason to think that the
performer might appreciate constructive criticism from you.  I
*really* don't think that any but the absolutely most unskilled
magician would appreciate attempts at constructive criticism from a
non-performer like myself, so I'd just keep silent.  What's the point
in saying, "I know how you did that, and I wasn't impressed"?

If you weren't impressed or entertained by the performance, but want
to encourage the peformer to keep trying anyway, you could try giving
a smile (thinking to yourself, "I'm pleased that they're trying, 
anyway,") and saying something very general, like "Gee, that's pretty
cool."  That is, if you honestly think that there's *something*
cool about what you just saw, if only that it's somebody else trying
to do magic, which you're generally in favor of.

This may be more of a general ettiquette thing-- you could try asking
Miss Manners... :)

--
David Covin                           covin@despair.uchicago.edu
Newsgroups: alt.magic