Creativity Cue: Jazz Magic

One of the problems that magicians tend to have is finding inspiration and creativity. This will show you a fun, unique style of magic based on a genre of music: Jazz.

Jazz magic isn't a new idea by any stretch of the imagination, but it's an idea that is either becoming popular or going to the wayside, depending on the groups you travel in. For me, the idea of jazz magic is incredible. The idea of starting a trick with no real idea or methodology and seeing what happens is fun.

Still not following? It's simple. Take Dai Vernon's 'Trick That Can't Be Explained'. In this effect the spectator's card is found by the magician, the standard plot of any number of card tricks, to be sure. However, the difference in this trick (and what makes it infinitely more artistic for the performer) is that there is no method. The only method is that the more sleights you know and the faster you are with your mind, the better the trick is. And the real bitch of it? It's a killer trick.

Obviously the term Jazz Magic comes from the idea of jazz music, where one learns many little riffs and then puts them all together on the fly to create something beautiful and unique, and that's exactly what you're doing in this style of magic: you're taking methods and sleights that you already know and applying them on the fly with no forethought, and that means that you better know them perfectly, because if you have to stop and think, the effect is dead.

Now, in a different way, Jazz Magic is also starting a performance and simply improving your patter. This is much easier in some terms (you can memorize your set before hand) but it can also be very difficult trying to develop a patter that is engaging on the fly. The epitome of Jazz Magic is developing both your effect and your patter on the fly for fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime, unique to your spectator effects that they won't ever forget.

~Cameron Rivers