The day Teller gave me the secret to my career in magic. (2021) | Hacker News Reader

The day Teller gave me the secret to my career in magic. (2021)

shwood.squarespace.com

76 pointsTomte14 comments

It makes so much sense that Teller's heroes are storytellers. I think the default assumption for why magic is fascinating is because it defies intuitive logic, but that's only one part of the equation. A great magic act isn't just the trick, but how the context is delivered to the audience to surprise them.

> I do the old Needle trick. I get a guy up on stage, who examines the needles. I swallow them. He searches my mouth. They're gone. I dismiss him and he leaves the stage. The audience thinks the trick is over. Then I take out the thread. "Haha! Floss!" they exclaim. I eat the floss. Then the wise ones start saying, "Not floss, thread. Thread. Needles. Needles and thread. Ohmygod he's going to thread the need..." And by that time they're out and sparkling in the sunshine.

In this example, the audience is probably getting at least as much joy out of being surprised at where the act goes next as they are wondering how Teller can swallow the needles. The extremeness of the act may not be as important at that point, especially for those familiar with Penn & Teller, because we can already accept that they can somehow appear to be doing something like swallowing needles. It's the fact that we don't exactly know what's going to happen next, or even if the act has completed, that makes it exciting regardless of how particularly advanced the magic is.

Or it's just child-like imagination.

Not everything needs to be over-analyzed until it's squealing like a stuck pig on christmas eve.

You're on a site full of intellectual types. Of course we're going to over-analyze everything. That's part of the fun!

While you have a fair point, I see it as being overly reductive. Yeah, what's being stimulated is the child-like imagination, and that's certainly the most terse way of describing it, but leaving it at that seems to dismiss the inherent mechanics of that type of entertainment. It takes a lot to put a grown adult into that imaginative state, and most people can't do it effectively. If they wanted to, they might struggle because they are no longer children and don't know what it takes to really tickle that part of the brain. I'm not pretending like I would even approach the skill level of someone like Teller, but I like to think I can somewhat understand what he's saying in a similar way to appreciating the artistry of a painting even though I am a lousy artist.

Maybe it’s just me, but this website is unreadable.

Yep! I used reader mode on safari for IOS to read it. I’m sure other browsers have their own form of reader mode.

The title sounds like clickbait bullshit but there's real, genuinely amazing career advice from Teller included, so well worth a read.

Exactly, it's good human advice too. Advice on how to be a passionate, opinionated force in your industry while still being a hood, compassionate human. Advice on how to have complex relationships, how to keep that sparkle in your eye, how to parse through all that it is to be human and give the audience (customer) what they want while also getting what you need for your own humanity.

If only the website were legible...it's hard to read even after highlighting all text.

https://archive.ph/Uhw7z

This article is a meta magic trick; the color of the text made it vanish!

Had to use Reader mode on Safari to read it.

The one thing that Teller doesn't mention since his response is going to a fellow magician:

Put in an absurd amount of practice time. Teller has clearly put in a RIDICULOUS amount of time doing prestidigitation. And he uses that as the basis for practically everything.

It's right there near the beginning:

"I am 47. I have been earning my living in show business for twenty years. I have been doing magic since I was five, which makes it 42 years."

I think what the OP is inferring is the ridiculous amount of practice time per day and per week, even after 42 years doing magic (and by now, in Teller's case, it is approaching 70 years). Lots of people have been doing something, whatever, for decades, but there's no "practicing" whatsoever.

That was a nice letter and great advice for any career.

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