Why Do Magicians Wear Tuxes?
By J.L. Siefers, Fri Dec 9th

This wonderful question has rarely bothered magicians fordecades. It should. Some possible answers might include:

•He is getting married today. •He just got off work as a waiter.•He is going to the prom.

Wait! The man is about to do magic. Surely anyone doing greatmagic wears a tux. It logically follows that a person dressed inattire not worn generally by the public in nearly sixty yearsmust be a well trained and entertaining artist.

I encounter responses such as:

“People won’t know we’re magicians if don’t wear our uniform,”bemoan penguin-like prestidigitators.

“Real magicians must wear tuxes,” cries the part-timeprofessional in his ill fitted and second hand attire.

The question of what magicians should wear has been around formore than a century. The correct answer has been around just aslong. Unfortunately, many magicians don’t get it.

Jean Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic, looked around athow his fellow magicians dressed. The common uniform for a “realmagician” was to dress up like a wizard complete with a conicalhat. Robert-Houdin chose to view magic as an art. He devisedmany wonderful effects. He would go out on a bare stage topresent his magic dressed in formal evening attire. The attirewas appropriate and commonly worn for evening theatricalproductions. Instead of dressing in way completely differentfrom his audience, Robert-Houdin dressed just like his audience.

The point being made is simple. If you want magic to be viewedas a fine art, take your performance and dress seriously. Letthe quality of your magic performance speak to the level of yourmagic artistry. If you want to be a magic clown, then dress likea penguin.

What about Lance Burton? Great question, thanks for asking.Lance’s performing personality makes wearing a tuxedoappropriate for his performance. Mr. Burton consciously linksback to magic’s historical roots. Figuratively speaking, hewears the mantel of magic passed down through the ages. Heportrays the great magician out of our past. Lance performsclassical magic effects

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while donning the classical magicalattire.

This is completely different from the approach of 99.998% of theother magicians wearing tuxes. Most part-time professionalmagicians wear a tux without regard to their performingpersonality. The key to what to wear is your performingpersonality. Begin with the assumption that a tux is not anoption. Examine the key elements of your performing personalitythat you want to communicate to your audience. Tailor your dressto consciously communicate those key elements.

Another factor to consider is whether you want to stand out orblend with your audience. Let’s say you want to blend with youraudience. This is common approach for the restaurant orcorporate magician. What will your audience be wearing? Try todress a little above your audience. Let’s say you want to standout. Find ways to contrast with your audience that communicatespositively to your performing personality. For example, assumeyour performing personality is that odd middle aged uncle thatall the kids love but make parent roll their eyes. You know thetype, every family has one. His style sense will be decades outof style but he will be clueless that he isn’t the hippest guyaround. If that is your chosen performing personality, then theperformer’s style will match the outfit. The point again is thatthe outfit chosen by the magician must relate to performingpersonality.

Let’s get back to the original question. Why do magicians weartuxes? Nobody knows including the magicians. Know yourperforming personality. Select your dress to complement yourvenue and performing personality. Treat your magic performancelike the artistic performance you want it to be.

Read about more controversial issues at: Learn-Great-Magic-Tricks

About the author:------------------------------------------------------------J.L. Siefers has been performing great magic for years. He hasshown hundreds of people how to successfully learn to do greatmagic tricks. Learn-Great-Magic-Tricks.com Click now to get your FREE magic tricks!------------------------------------------------------------