Chill Out.

Craig P: Hey Geoff

Away from magic - what do you do to chill out? I am assuming you are not Mr Magic 24 / 7

Craig P

Geoff Williams: That's right.

I play finger style guitar (own seven by my last count). Leo Kottke is my main inspiration here. Anyone wants me to send an mp3 of one of my tunes, drop me a line (gwilliamsmagic@yahoo.com).

I collect autographs (and not just of magicians). I have around 4400 and some are quite interesting. I even have a signed photo of Houdini.

I lift weights. I'm not a huge bodybuilder type but I'm in almost as good shape now as I was 20 years ago.

I'm a Macintosh addict. Just gave myself an iMac G5 for Christmas to help with my music-writing habit.

I work with the high school youth group at our church and play guitar in on church worship team (there's that guitar thing again).

Other than that, I use my free time to sleep and sometimes eat.

Craig P: Do you have any plans to come over to the UK and lecture at any point? I know for certain you would be a welcome addition to Blackpool any year!

Thanks.

Geoff Williams: I would LOVE the chance to visit and lecture! It's high on my "to do" list.

I would REALLY enjoy the Blackpool convention!

Craig P: A topic that is debated a lot is - Can you mix comedy and mentalism. I would be interested in hearing your views on this Geoff - do you think it is possible.

Also do you think it is possible to mix mentalism and more visual magic in one performance or does one negatively affect the other?

Geoff Williams: Craig,

I don't think the question is "can you mix comedy and mentalism," but rather "does mixing comedy with mentalism hurt the effect?" I do some mentalism and, because of my slant on things, it usually has a comedy element involved.

Scott Franz and I recently won a comedy award with a mentalism routine we performed. It was quite out of the ordinary and something that you'd never see Derren Brown do (hopefully). Was the mentalism lessened by the comedy? Probably. But here's the main point: we we're trying for maximum astonishment, we were shooting for maximum entertainment.

We all have seen mentalism done poorly. It can be some of the most painfully slow, drawn-out, boring of all the moments you can experience with the possible exception of listening to a Ricky Martin album backwards to try to discover secret satanic messages (hey, I was home last night and needed something to do). But WHY was it so poorly done? Because the entertainer forgot about entertaining.

Ricky Jay (not a mentalist) has a rather dry, monotone delivery with almost no expression in his face, which, according to all of the photos and clips I've seen of him, doesn't appear to be having a good time. How does he do it? He's INTERESTING, injecting multitudes of trivia and minutia into his patter, which is so enthralling, the magic, which is astounding, is only secondary. Even if the trick fails, you enjoyed the journey.

Should we leave mentalism only to the serious types? Dai Vernon was not a huge fan of mixing comedy and magic in general. He realized that levity does distract somewhat from the magical moment. I'm not disagreeing with that. I just want to "sell" entertainment. Some of it contains magic and some of it contains mentalism and there are even a few flourishes in there for good measure.

If your goal is strong mentalism, you probably don't want to put in many (if any) flourishes (visual magic) and such since that can become the "method." If people figure that you're just using your manipulative skills to help you read minds, then you're failing to accomplish the mentalism thing. It becomes a sleight-of-hand thing.

And in case you were wondering, Ricky Martin backwards still sounds like Ricky Martin.

:(

Craig P: I know from Brain Candy that you and Scott work very well together and your 2-person act is great.

What advise would you give to someone wanting to put a 2-person act together?

Thanks

Craig P

Geoff Williams: My advice would be:

• Find someone who has the same vision, sense of humor and budget as you - try to agree on as much as possible. A 2-person act is a give-and-take thing so be flexible and rational.

• Brainstorm - toss out any ideas no matter how wild they may be

• Set deadlines and goals (short range & long range)

• Script the routine and then edit it down drastically

• Read everything you can

• Don't be afraid to fail

• Wear clean underwear (your mother called)

spfranz: That's really great advice Geoff. I especially liked the "give" part of the "give-and-take" rule.

Geoff Williams: You would. I meant to say "take and take."

Yo, yo, Scott Franz is in da house!

(Everyone keep an eye on your wallets)

Day-to-Day Magic

Sinajar: Hi Geoff, thanks for taking the time out to answer our questions.

So when you're out and about not doing gigs, do you carry any magic with you, like cards etc?

Also do you have a favourite packet trick?

Thanks.

Geoff Williams: I always have a silver dollar, Chapstick lip balm and some dollar bills.

I use the silver dollar for "Magic Coin Test" (it's in my second lecture notes and slated for a future DVD release).

The lip balm cap I use for a short thimble routine.

The dollar bills can be used in a variety of ways, mostly for "Bipolar George" (also from my 2nd lecture notes) and "Rollover Bills" which I found in a beginner's magic book, but just kills laymen.

I also always have a "Wonderland Bill" in my wallet; it's a specially cut bill that folds inside out while the spectator has a grip on it. Great commercial effect and HIGHLY recommended.

If I can locate a couple of rubber bands, I have another 15-20 minutes of material from which I can draw.

I sometimes have a deck of cards in my coat but prefer to use borrowed cards (and other items) in an impromptu situation. Impromptu magic is some of the strongest magic you can do. Just having a deck of cards on your person (even if they are normal) can be suspicious-looking to lay folk. Unless I'm at a gig, I prefer to work as "cleanly" as possible.