We’re all keenly aware of the AI revolution and how it consumes so much attention in the media and online. It seems like there are a lot of things it can do, but there’s also plenty of concerns and caution. In this issue of the Erudite Magic Digest, we’re going to examine how AI can help us with our magic.
An Introduction
Interestingly enough, I was already discussing the use of AI in the world of magic during a weekend getaway with some close magic friends (more to come on that subject in a bit).
BUT THEN!
A little over a week ago, David Williamson shared a link on his Facebook page, which turned out to be a twelve and a half minute AI generated podcast about The Expert at the Card Table. The discussion is between some AI voice generated characters unpacking the book as if they don’t really know much about magic. He created this [very passable] discussion by simply uploading the PDF of the book and providing the prompt. He reports that the whole thing took about 90 seconds.
Of course, when you spend hours every week working to generate videos on YouTube discussing magic books, something like this gets your attention. Is this the future of book reviews?
After listening to the AI discussion of the book, it doesn’t really go into any significant depth, so I don’t think it’s going to replace what I’m doing anytime soon.
But, what is impressive, and perhaps useful, is that the tool - NotebookLM - can help you do research and find things you’re looking for. I haven’t played with it as much as the tools I’m about to share with you, but what I can tell you is that this is going to be an important tool for doing serious research. This tool will search across the sources you give it and even summarize things for you, all while providing chapter and verse.
I’m just starting to play with this one, so I’ll keep you posted as I discover more of what it can do. But for now, I want you to be aware that these things exist, and that you can start to play with them, too. As of today, it’s absolutely free to use. I’ll be interested to hear what things you find to make the most of it.
It’s a creative tool
Generally speaking, I find that AI is helpful as a creative assistant. Often, I use tools like Open AI’s Chat GPT to quickly generate ideas, and this is important in the magic sphere.
Last year at TRICS in Charlotte, Blake Vogt spoke about generating ideas being one of the keys to his creativity. His goal is to come up with 5 bad ideas every day, knowing that eventually, he’ll accidentally stumble across a good idea (even if it’s not obvious at first). However, if you try to create good ideas, you’ll never create any ideas, hence his goal to create bad ideas.
With that as the goal, an AI tool like ChatGPT is perfect, since you really have no idea what the quality of the output will be.
Of course, you can ask it for any type of idea, but if you’re new to the technology, here are some of the ideas I’ve deployed while with my friends to help us with our magic. I think these prompts might be useful to you, too.
Character Development
This chatbot can help you determine the types of effects you could perform within the confines of your performance persona.
It helps if you already have a good idea of who you want your character to be and have a strong tagline to go with it. For example, I call myself The Psychic CPA, because I’m an accountant and CFO who performs mentalism. But don’t worry, even if you don’t already have a good idea, you can still use this tool to help you.
If you do have a moniker you use for your magic character, you can feed it into Chat GPT with the question about what kind of tricks a character with this nickname would perform. If you don’t have the label, you can describe yourself and what you’re about, and it still works.
While on that recent trip with my friends, we did it for each of us, and the results were quite impressive. Of course, a chatbot is never going to design your act, but that’s not the point. It’s actually a great reference for what types of magic or mentalism people would expect to see from you with a name like that.
In fact, it spit out an entire act for each of us. It wasn’t perfect, but as I said at the beginning, it was a way to get started.
One of the great points about it is that it doesn’t necessarily have any preconceived notions of what’s possible, so it cooks up the “effect” as seen from the audience’s perspective. You can then decide if it sounds like something you would want to perform.
Props and costume
You can add another question to the same prompt to ask what this character would look like, and the AI tool will deliver a characterization for you with plenty of details, including the clothing, shoes, and even accessories. If any are missing, you can directly ask for them.
Not only that, you’ll get an idea of the types of props you could include in your act. For example, it suggested that I would use flipboards and dress in a suit.
As with the tricks, this is going to come down to personal preference, regardless of what the computer thinks would suit you. There is no substitute for taste - you still need to have a firm idea of what you want to do or where you want to go. But this can take a lot of needless work out of the process.
Music
You can feed the same information through to ask about the types of music that might accompany your performances, and it will suggest songs and/or styles that might work. I don’t currently incorporate a lot of music in my act, so this is one area I’m finding it helpful to decide on the styles of music that might work for The Psychic CPA.
Nothing’s perfect, but it’s a start!
Asking the right questions
It feels like the new skill to develop for using AI effectively is learning to ask the right questions. That’s why I’m providing this guide to help you get started! But I’d love to hear from you - what types of questions are you asking or finding to be useful?
Of course, it seems like missing the whole point if I didn’t ask ChatGPT what kinds of help it could provide to aspiring magicians, so here’s what it said:
A chatbot like me can help you develop your magician act in several ways:
Creative Ideas: I can suggest themes, routines, and tricks based on your style and interests. If you have a specific concept in mind, I can help brainstorm ways to expand it.
Script Writing: I can assist you in crafting engaging scripts or patter to accompany your tricks, enhancing the storytelling aspect of your performance.
Practice Tips: I can provide tips on how to practice effectively, including warm-up routines and techniques for refining your performance.
Audience Engagement: I can suggest ways to interact with your audience, build rapport, and create memorable moments during your act.
Marketing Strategies: I can offer advice on how to promote your act, from social media strategies to building a website or creating promotional materials.
Feedback on Ideas: If you have specific tricks or routines in mind, I can help you refine them or offer constructive feedback.
Learning Resources: I can recommend books, videos, or other resources for improving your magic skills or understanding stage presence.
Interesting list! I have no idea if it can do all of these things effectively, but I guess I’ll take it at it’s word. See if it can help you with any of these items and report back with your findings.
At the end of the day
AI is never going to be a magic bullet that does everything for you and magically change your magic performances for the better. But, with the right approach, it can help alleviate some of the work we have to do and give us ideas that then allow us to make decisions or iterate those initial thoughts into something that’s truly ours.
What really worked well, though, for me and my friends was being able to bounce these ideas off of each other in an environment where we already know each other and have a good sense of what would work, or how we could take the initial list and make it into something customized and special, instead of generic.
AI won’t replace human creativity and ingenuity. That’s always going to be a specialized human thing, but we can use the tools at our disposal to help us with that process, just like I did with my friends.
BTW, if you don’t have a circle of magic friends you trust with this process, I *highly* recommend you get them. We had a blast working on tricks, sessioning, developing each other’s characters, and even performing for some people on the island. If you want to see what our getaway looked like, you can watch my video recap here:
Great article, Jeff!
I have been thinking about A.I involvement in magic alot lately. Great issue!