Some years back I wrote a e-book called "The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Lewis. I consider e-books to be against the laws of nature and I will never do one again. However, I thought it would fit the theme of the book as it was all about posts I had made on the internet. Professor Spellbinder who is a member here had a lot to do with putting the book together.
One excerpt from the book caused quite a bit of positive comment and since I am in a generous mood I thought I would produce it here, particularly for older magicians who are now going to seed and are even crappier than they used to be. Or were brilliant at one time and not so brilliant now. Perhaps I should read it myself but I am not going to. Positive thinking you know.
Anyway here it is:
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When I first saw Billy McComb 45 years ago, he was the funniest performer I had ever seen. Then 35 years ago, when I was working the nightclubs, he was just very funny. 25 years ago he was
merely funny. And he has remained so ever since. He is still funny but you should have seen him in his younger days. It was quite something.
It is very easy to get less effective as the years go by. I call it the “dropped details” theory that I came up with. You go over great, but one night you drop a detail. Everybody still loves you,
so a month later, you drop another detail. You still go over terrific and you don’t notice the dropped detail and you carry on without it. Then a couple of months later, you drop another
detail and you still go over well and you still don’t notice you have dropped a detail.
However details mount up and after a few years you have dropped so many details that you wonder why you are not going over as well as you used to. You will probably blame it on changing audiences and changing times. But you will not put the blame where it really
belongs. On the dropped details.
Same thing with Jay Marshall. He was a fantastic performer when I first saw him years and years ago. Probably about 45 years ago. Then I saw him gradually deteriorate over the years. Dropping details right, left and centre. Getting worse and worse as the years went by. Jay Marshall got standing ovations in his later years at magicians conventions only. If he worked anywhere else I suspect that the results would have been quite different.
This is probably because Jay Marshall and McComb were unfortunate enough to be good in the first place. If you are good you are far more likely to deteriorate in the fullness of time because you get lazy and drop details. However if you are mediocre in the beginning you might have the shrewdness to know you are bad and try to improve.
I am not particularly referring to age when I talk about dropped details, although, of course, if you are old then I expect quite a lot of details have dropped. The key to resolving this is to
realize that the details are dropping and that you have to either replace them or get new details.
Not going over well on a consistent basis has a salutary and motivational effect on you. Going over great leads to complacency.
Same thing with Cardini. I saw a film clip of him and marvelled and marvelled. I have never seen anything like it since and I don’t suppose I ever shall. I don’t think that any of the young
hotshot whippersnappers with silent acts come even close. And they never will.
Yet I was told by magicians that had seen Cardini in his earlier years that the movie clips did not do him justice. That he was far, far better in his younger years. He must have dropped
details for these older magicians to say that. Lucky he had a lot of details to drop.
There may be great screaming up and down simply because I have said that a couple of icons in magic are no longer as good as they used to be. Yet I did not say they were no good. I merely said they were not as good as they used to be. At one time they were superb. Now they are merely good.
I will however be happy to admit that a noted restaurant magician told me that Jay Marshall once performed a stand up act in his restaurant in his later years and went over great with the
laymen so perhaps I am wrong. I doubt it though. I AM Mark Lewis after all. .