June 3 , 2009

The Prestige of the Story

It isn't enough to make something disappear.
You have to bring it back.
Michael Caine in The Prestige

I have said many times to many audiences that we as human beings dearly love the number 3. Witness the number of things that come in threes: musketeers, blind mice, stooges. (There are others, but it wouldn't be a very good example if I went beyond three, now would it?)

There are also three parts to any good illusion or magic trick. As explained in the above-mentioned movie, starring Caine, Christian Bale, and Hugh Jackman, these parts are the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. I've played around with closeup magic for years and learned in the process that a good illusion is like a good story: you can't leave off the ending.

The Prestige is a period piece, a mystery, and a love story, with a soupçon of the supernatural. Just seeing David Bowie playing Nikola Tesla surrounded by glowing arcs of electricity is worth the price of admission. The story itself deals with the rivalry between two stage magicians, as well as with the three parts of an illusion.

Let's say you want to make a coin disappear. The pledge is telling the audience that you're going to make the coin vanish. Then with a deft move, the coin vanishes. That's the turn. But the trick isn't over. Finally, you bring back the coin in a surprising way, such pulling from behind an audience member's ear or out of your nose. That's the prestige, the true payoff for your audience.

I've tried stopping with just making the coin vanish, but it always came off as unfinished. That's because I was always asked, "Where'd it go?" I can't just make up some lame joke about aliens taking it or the bad economy. The trick is unfinished until I make the coin come back. Then the audience's question becomes, "How'd you do that?"

It's supposed to be a part of the magician's code never to reveal how a trick is done. One reason is certainly about trade secrets, but it's also about economics. Once you give away the secret, the audience has no further use for you. But that's a good thing in the storytelling arena, because your audience isn't interested in writing, speaking, or presentation techniques anyway; they just want to find out what happens next and to be entertained along the way.

Be sure your stories are made up of all three requisite parts: the beginning, the middle, and the end. And be sure the proper ingredients are in each part. The pledge is the beginning, where the problem is established; the turn is the middle, where problem gets worse; and the prestige is the end, where the problem is resolved.

No shortcuts allowed. You can work magic with your stories, but if you leave anything out of the structure, your audience might be the thing that disappears.

And good luck bringing them back.

~end~