Ok, let’s talk about commitment…
No, I’m not getting down on one knee and asking you for your hand in marriage!
I’m talking about commitment to your performance and the persona you wish to portray whilst performing.
Last night my friend and I went to see a Led zeppelin tribute band play. Now, I’m not really a fan of Led zeppelin, I don’t dislike them but apart from a few songs, I’m not really familiar with their music.
However, my friend is a fan so he noticed the flaws in this tribute band much more than I did. Although I enjoyed the show, I did notice that sometimes it felt as though they were holding back a little.
They just didn’t seem too passionate about what they were doing.
The crowd eventually dwindled and some people left the venue, presumably because they weren’t enjoying the show.
Naturally I got to thinking about mentalism and I had a mental-ism!
Sometimes we might not give it our all when performing and there can be many reasons for this, we may be feeling ill, tired or just not really feeling in the mood.
But no matter how we’re feeling if somebody is good enough to give us their time and attention, we should endeavour to perform at our best for them.
If we as entertainers aren’t fully committed to our performance or character, then how can we expect our audience to fully commit their attention to us?
Chung Ling Soo was a Chinese magician active from 1900 until his death in 1918.
Only he wasn’t actually Chinese, his real name was William Ellsworth Robinson. He was so committed to his act, that he wore traditional Chinese clothing, shaved his facial hair, used grease paint to change the tone of his skin and had a traditional Chinese hair style.
As Chung Ling Soo, William Ellsworth Robinson maintained his role as a Chinese man flawlessly. He claimed not to speak English, he only ever spoke onstage occasionally, using broken English and when speaking with journalists he always used an interpreter.
Now if that isn’t commitment, then I don’t know what is!
Chung Ling Soo quickly rose to fame in Europe and eventually became one of the highest-paid performers on the vaudeville circuit.
Now imagine if William Ellsworth Robinson had broken character in public, do you think he would have been nearly as successful as he was?
Me neither!
Uri Geller is another fine example of commitment to character. Every magician and mentalist in the world knows Uri used/uses trickery to achieve his “miracles” but he’ll never admit to it and why should he? He’s had a very successful career making people believe that what he does is real magic. To say otherwise would only shatter the illusion.
Now I’m not suggesting anyone should go to the extremes of Chung Ling Soo or Uri Geller but if we could harness some of that commitment to our own characters and performances as they did, then surely it will only help us grow?
Rock on
Ryan