Magicians, just like other live gig earners, suffered significant setbacks during the lockdown. The same magic that captured our interest felt way apart. This art of magic termed appropriately as mentalism and rapid visual manipulation saw a humongous rise in fan following in the online era. But things took a mellow turn after this lockdown.
Major issues that hurdled their journey
Internet Connectivity
One major problem with all live internet shows is, yes, the internet. For magicians to entertain, even after securing an excellent audience number, a laggy network connection ruins it all. The art of magic is all about perfect timing clubbed with thorough build-up; that’s the key to capturing your audience’s interest. Weak network connectivity can easily lead to annoying interruptions.
There’s no way a smooth established connection stays buffer-free from both ends. The video quality sometimes ends up deteriorating, making the entire customer-watching experience too bland.
Attention Diversion
Another drawback of online magic shows. It becomes really tough to keep your audience engaged for a long time, especially when several distractions are around. The audience can quickly switch from one tab to another, losing your intent. Magicians who try super hard with their preparations and ultimate performance seem to find the ‘being in there’ feeling quite challenging.
Although everyone can connect easily from across the world, not everyone can relish the authentic experience of an offline magic event.
Interaction Issues
Related to our previous point, an enthusiastic audience missed the original flavor because of the lack of interaction between the two ends. Yes, you can chat or shower your sticker love through some platforms, but the performers tend to be demotivated along with the show. In an offline setting, it would be effortless to comprehend your audience’s reactions or if you are going well or not. Everything felt human enough to be understood.
But now, contemplating every member’s feedback from their tiny blurred face windows scattered across the video gallery made the entire otherwise joyous enjoyable process a bit flavourless.
Technical Glitches
Last but the toughest of them all. Preventing all tech-related issues is a total dream for many live performers. Shows get delayed or postponed because of minor glitches easily. Maybe your connectivity turned out to be a bit cranky, or it was the streaming platform that urged for updates; all this just adds to the many problems faced by full-time magicians.
They need tech support all the time. Nevertheless, it is not easy to maintain a blur-free, lag-free, and clear in sync audio and video connection with your viewers all along with the show.
Final Words
Even after all this, these performers have found many ways to improve in such tough, challenging times. Without compromising on their art or their performance, they have still managed to maintain their audience’s connection through a virtual barrier.