Creativity #2: The mind-set of a stock-line magician
Inside the mind-set of magician's use stock lines
Unethical peers
Once a line has been ‘borrowed’, ‘stolen’ or ‘ripped off’ by one unethical performer, it is almost certainly out there. The line will be around the world before the writer has got his shoes on for his next show. I’m not a mathematician but exponential growth is clearly not a friend of originality. Once a line has hit the ears of an unethical peer, it has flown the coop and there is nada chance of asserting a claim on it. It is now in the mythical ‘public domain’. The mind-set here is: I am never going to get caught or called out on it and I'm not really hurting anyone.
The Mythical Public Domain
This is how the above unethical peers justify the use of someone else’s hard-grafted endeavours. If enough people use it, I’m safe, it doesn’t belong to anyone, it is in the public domain. Anonymity gives the excuse some half-arsed weight, if no one knows who wrote the joke, it is hard to feel guilty about using it. Every line obviously belongs to someone, but the mind-set here is: I don't know who's line it is so I can use it.
Everyone uses them
Everyone picks their nose, but I still try not do it on stage. We all have our faults, but by airing them, we make it acceptable. Swearing used to really frowned upon, now even the 'C' word is edging towards acceptability. This is just because others have used these words with a degree of sucess. When one performer witnesses the sucess another is having with a stock line, it is encouragement to follow suit. It has become acceptable to not only use these lines, but it is actively encouraging with the publications of books with titles like ‘1001 one-liners for the comedy magician’. The mind-set here is: I'd be putting myself at a disadvantage if I didn't use the lines my peers use and they have no more claim to them than I do.
Lack of creative ability
This excuse gets my shackles up! If you aren’t able to write your own lines you are in the wrong profession. No one is born a brilliant performer, writer or artist. They have a desire and they work at it getting better despite failures. Magic is a creative art when done well yet I hear time and time again the whinge, I'm not creative, or funny. The rather irritating mind-set is: I can't write anything good myself so I'll use the lines I have heard others have sucess with.
Laziness
Using an already existing, tried and tested line is the easiest and fastest way to getting the reactions you want. Today everything seems to be about speed, fast food, high speed fibre broadband and being successful by 21! The effort a performer has put into writing a show is easily disregarded because no one ever sees it. An original act is the result of someone not being lazy. You don’t get anything for free in this world. The dissapointing mind-set here is:I want to take short-cuts to being good and successful, therefore I will use tried and tested material from other performers.
The audience don’t care
The audience do care, really this should read ‘The audience is not aware’. I’ve never heard the heckle ‘Charlie Miller said that in 1978’ but I’d love too. Stock lines still get laughs, the audience often haven’t heard them before, and they will attribute them to you. So all is golden, but for your guilt. Mind-set: I need to put on the best show possible for my audience, they are what matters.
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