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.I have also eliminated the repeat counting of the cards by the spectator since I envisioned this as a stand-up pieceperformed without audience assistance.SOME FINAL THOUGHTSYou might wonder whether this second script represents the end of the process for me? Am I now finished with theediting process? Is the script now "set"?Absolutely not! I fully expect the script to change and grow as I continue to perform it -- and as I change and grow.In performance, I must be attentive to the reactions each of the lines of the script receives from my audiences.Which lines are connecting? Which ones are not connecting? These questions go on forever.And tomorrow, Max Maven is coming to Chicago to spend eight days.I have a strong suspicion that he will suggestnew and exciting changes, not only in the scripting but also in method here described.Five Secretsby Eugene BurgerOriginally published in Genii MagazineI am visiting my friend Max Maven in Hollywood, and I told him that I was planning to write a column aboutsecrets.He immediately (in that terrifyingly bright way of his) directed me to the following quote from the Britishsocial critic Malcolm Muggeridge: "Secrecy is as essential to Intelligence as vestments and incense to a Mass, ordarkness to a Spiritualist seance, and must at all costs be maintained, quite irrespective of whether or not it servesany purpose."Last year, I was not surprised when many magicians went slightly crazy (some even ballistic!) over those televisionshows that gave away some of our secrets of magic to an audience that was primarily composed of the completelydisinterested.Now that the uproar has quieted down somewhat, let's talk about secrets.When I watched those TV specials, I felt kind of dirty, too.But, I didn't personally join any of the movementsagainst them, for two reasons.First, I felt that all the fuss and protest activities were giving free advertising to theexposure shows.They were fanning the fire, in the hope of putting it out.And that hope was sincere.But things justdon't work that way.I was, quite frankly, stunned when I saw the full-page ad in VARIETY sponsored by the Academy of Magical Arts,the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and the Society of American Magicians.From my perspective, thepeople who really benefited from that ad were precisely the people we wanted to make disappear.The second reason that I avoided joining in these protests is this: In the United States, more secrets of magic aresadly exposed in a single week's worth of performances by unprepared and unthinking magicians than were revealed17 in all of those dreadful TV shows put together.That's the fact of it.We need to tend to our own gardens.But sometimes I wonder, what are the secrets of magic, anyway? Are the secrets of magic really about Double Liftsand forklifts?Maybe the deepest secrets of magic are so secret that we don't even know them.So, let's look at what I think aresome useful (if offbeat) secrets that perhaps we're in danger of forgetting.Here's a good secret: Most people really DON'T want to know how it's done, unless they're pushed into that mindsetby a magician who frames his or her work in a confrontational way.When those specials aired, many laypeople toldme that they had started to watch, and soon changed the channel.They realized that knowing too much can take thefun out of many activities--and magic is clearly one of them.Here's another secret: An audience isn't simply "there." In a very real sense, we CREATE our audiences through ourown attitudes, words and actions.Let's say you want to perform a piece of magic for a group of people.The wordsyou use to introduce this will, in large measure, guide the reactions you will get.Consider these two possible opening lines: "Here's a trick I've been playing with for the last couple of weeks," or,"Here's a piece of magic I've been working on for the last six months." Do you see the differences? Whichintroduction is likely to create more interest, set up a better expectation, and ultimately produce a more profoundresponse?Okay, how about another secret: If you broaden the range of your magical reading, you'll also expand yourunderstanding of magic
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