MC'ing a magic contest

[CraigMitchell]

A colleague has been asked to MC a magic contest ...

Can anyone recommend any clever bits of business / gags / routines etc that they have used which would work well under the conditions ?

Your ideas and brainwaves would
be welcomed ... the more madcap the better

Thanks !

[Brad Henderson]

bob Escher and friends used to do a a variation on the Nairobi trio using crazy costumes and ending with a pie in the face. I had the pleasure of being in it a few times, and even have presented it with my own crew.

karrell fox and duke stern (later abb dickson) had a bunch of amusing bits perfect for a magic centered audience.

and there's always a lota bowl

[erdnasephile]

Just curious on how people view the role of the MC at magic contests.

In other performance type contests I've attended (dance, speech, ice skating, etc.), the MC's tend to be very neutral so as not to have any chance of biasing audience response.

Bill Cosby takes a similar approach when he MC's jazz festivals (although his reasoning is that he wants to do nothing that would take away from the performers).

OTOH, it seems that many feel magic contest MC's should be entertaining and be able to keep the audience smiling/laughing during set changes.

Wouldn't it be more fair to go with the neutral MC? (not as fun though, I would admit).

[Brad Henderson]

I agree. saw on emcee for kids contest basically kill a couple of kids' chances.

close the curtain. play some music. voice over intro next act. repeat.

[Tom Moore]

In performance contests generally its considered that the MC should sit at either end of the spectrum but definitely nowhere in the middle. The MC should either be entirely utilitarian "next up it Dave Smith from Texas" or should be someone with 110% bombproof material who has familiarised themselves with every act performing and ensured that not one single piece of material he's using in any way lampoons or bolsters any of the acts competing. If the MC comes on, fluffs a trick, ruins a gag, sets the wrong tempo for the next act, duplicates any material, echo's a theme, gets lucky with a gag that earns a standing ovation before one act but not before the others then he IS directly influencing the way acts are graded and judged. Whilst judges looking at purely technical matters wouldn't be influenced by this, magic contests are predominately based on "feel" and "instinct" rather than box-ticking and grading of defined skills.

I'm sorry to say if your friend is having to ask for advice on material then he shouldn't be MC'ing a contest as it means he's not going to have the unbiased, bombproof material he needs.

[mrgoat]

One tip is to LEARN THE NAMES OF THE ACTS.

I hate it when people come on with file cards...

and now, my very special friend, he's gonna make you laugh, it's (Pause as he looks down and reads name) Damian Jenkins!

Sigh

[CraigMitchell]

MC'ing a magic contest is a very difficult thing to do well.

MC's generally are unable to rely on their usual performance sets in case it conflicts with the contestants material, time between acts needs to be flexible depending on setup times - and you still need to keep the audience entertained with sufficient 'bits of business'

Perhaps to steer the discussion in another direction - have you seen any particularly novel means of revealing / announcing the next act ?

[MJLauck]

What I learned at the last IBM/SAM was the MC has a difficult job. There may be quite a bit of time between acts as they set up, but the MC should not talk about the acts, for fear of influencing the results, or perform any magic while filling that time. The only thing left to do was to make fun of Oscar Munoz.

[MaxNY]

Duane Lauflin was the best, he had dozens of little bits of business.

[NYCJoePItt]

I will make the assumption that your friend has been asked to MC because they are talented in some way that they are comfortable on the stage or in front of an audience. Having said that, your friend should already be experienced in putting together presentations. I would suggest to your friend that they find a series of anecdotes related to magic (I am making no assumption that your friend is in the magic business) as it relates to some field with which they can relate. They should be prepared to ad-lib these anecdotal stories from their own hand held cue cards if needed in between acts. Or if there is no prep time needed, they can do a quick version of the anecdote they prepared and then announce the next act.

As an example, your friend is in library science. They are probably very good at looking things up on the internet. The could find out a couple of interesting facts on the new Houdini series coming up as well as how they relate to the real Houdini. Or since this is a magic competition, they could speak on any other type of competition, suppose they watch World Wide Wrestling, they could do an anecdote on that... etc.

If your friend is not in Magic, not good in front of an audience, not a presenter, then I would suggest that they simply keep it to announcing the name of the next act.

[Brad Henderson]

here is an idea for future convention contests: lower a screen and show videos of either legendary magicians or past years' winners of that contest.

kills time. entertaining. if usin previous year contestants it establishes context and baseline for adjudication.

heck, even stopping and starting a showing of any of the art of magic type TV documentaries (with permission, of course) is better than any emcee I have ever seen at a magic contest.

[Timothy Hyde]

Karrell Fox outlined 20 or so of his fun Intros in "Another Book"

I doubt that many of them would clash with current magic contest fare