By Ben Christensen
I was listening to a podcast entitled Itricks – The Magic Week In Review where a magician by the name of Tyler Wilson was being interviewed. During the podcast he mentioned how character comes from who you are and how it is more important to the magic then the trick itself. I completely agree. Let who you are help decide how your character acts. Not that there cannot be distinguishing differences between how you and your clown character act in public. The clown is simply an extension of who you are as an individual.
Tyler Wilson goes on to use the analogy of a caricature. A caricature is nothing more a cartoon drawing that exaggerates prominent features of the person. My father has had a few different caricature’s drawn of himself. They always have a big chin! It is not that my father has a gigantic chin in real life, but it is a feature that the artist noticed and exaggerated for the sake of the cartoon drawing.
There is a friend of mine, Angel Contreras, who has drawn a lot of caricatures of clowns. He has been seen at a number of different clown conferences and festivals with his unique promotional materials and drawings. On the other end of things, Jim Howell has painted pictures of various clowns, many of them famous. Angel’s drawings of clowns come out very different than a Jim Howell painting. Whereas Jim’s drawings look almost real, Angel’s drawings emphasize the unique aspects of the character. Jim’s painting mirrors the clown as he or she is. Whereas in Angel’s drawings, the clown character should try to mirror the painting.
Again let me clarify. I am not saying that you should go have a caricature done so that you can find out who you are. Instead allow your character to naturally embody those things that make you unique. Allow the things that you want to rise to the forefront and give depth to your character. At the same time do not try to force a certain preconceived notion of what might be funny to dictate your actions or costuming. Experiment, but do not stray from the essence of who you are.
When Tyler Wilson talks about his character as a caricature he states that it is him, but certain aspects are focused on while others stay in the background. The character easily becomes larger than life and there are traits that define that personality, but it is still based off a piece of who he is.
There are a lot of different characters and looks I have donned over the years. Some of them worked and some of them did not. I felt most comfortable when the characters seemed to come from a piece of me. Allow the character to be unique and stem from who you are.
If you are interested in what is going on week to week in the world of magic then you may want to consider downloading the Itricks – Week in Review podcast on itunes or thought the itricks.com website. It is not an instructional podcast, but rather a overview of what is happening with who.
Finally, I always love to hear from other WCA members. Feel free to contact me at Ben@BenComedy.com or though the website at www.BenComedy.com