Rule 8: Be Honest With Yourself
In 1911 Nevil Maskelyne and David Devant, two of the premier magicians of the day, published Our Magic. In the first section, The Art in Magic, Maskelyne outlines 20 rules for magic performance. After well over 100 years, are these rules still relevant, and do they apply to more than magic?
Rule 8: Always remember that avoidable defects are incapable of justification
There is a world of difference between having to compromise because forces beyond your control mean there is no choice, and choosing to compromise because forces beyond your control make it easy to justify.
This rule forces us to look closely at any justifications for compromise that we choose to use. Sometimes they are understandable and acceptable. In this case our job is to make the best of a bad situation. For example, I once ran an event where there was a film screening, and in the last fifteen minutes the power cut out. This meant the projector stopped working. We were lucky enough to have the director there, and they ended up talking through the last fifteen minutes, and actually it worked very well. However, in this situation it’s very easy to justify not showing the end of the film. It really wasn’t my fault, and I did what I could.
When reflecting on our own performance work, it can be a harder task. We need to be honest with ourselves, and be careful to not make excuses. If we can work out why something went wrong, we have to then explore every possible avenue in a search to discover how we can stop it happening again. This may sound easy but due to its nature, many people become invested in a presentation that they have written. It can be much harder to change things that don’t work, or even be honest enough with yourself to see them.
In order to do this, it’s well worth gauging your audience's opinion. Someone who is used to presenting to a live audience, from comedians to politicians, learns to judge an audience's reaction during their performance. Often, they will record it to learn from it. If you aren’t performing or presenting regularly, that might not be an option. You can ask a friend or colleague whether you can present to them and ask for their honest feedback. Another good habit to get into within the more corporate world is to have a short questionnaire you can give out eliciting feedback. Hopefully this honest criticism will tell you what you need to change within your presentation.
Another thing to remember is that a defect which may have been unavoidable in one show, might become avoidable in later shows. In the example above, it might be acceptable to try to use the same venue again for a film screening. However, if the power failed again that second time, without some serious reassurances from the venue about why it wouldn’t happen a third time, were I to use it again and encounter the same problem, that would be an avoidable defect and entirely my fault.
What this rule does is remind us that we need to try and understand whether mistakes are avoidable or not. If they were avoidable, we need to understand and change why they happened, and if they were not we need to ensure that everything else in place is as good as possible to make up for any shortfalls.