Vanish Magic Magazine 40

BEHIND THE SCENES
DOUG BENNETT
THERE'S NO TIME LIKE AUDIENCE TIME
In case you haven’t heard, Jerry Seinfeld’s new special, “Jerry
Before Seinfeld”, just dropped on Netflix. This is great news for
aspiring comedy magicians. Heck, even if you do a serious
silent manipulation act (not that there’s anything wrong with
that) you need to watch this special.
Right now you’re probably thinking, “So, I watch this Seinfeld special
and …yadda, yadda, yadda…suddenly I’m a better magician?”
To which my answer is, “Yes!” But that can only happen if you take
this very funny show’s seriously simple secret to heart.
At the risk of sounding like a late-night infomercial, this secret
is literally worth bazillions of dollars. Just ask Jerry Seinfeld. And
right now it’s available absolutely free with your Netflix subscription.
And if you’re bumming Netflix off a friend’s account (and who
isn’t these days?) this career-changing secret is actually cheaper
than free.
Just what is this secret? No, it’s not the “Puffy Shirt”.* It’s not a “Muffin
Tops”.** It’s not even a sure cure for “Shrinkage.” *** It’s…wait for
it……Audience Time.
Let me explain in sentence so long that David Blaine couldn’t even
hold his breath while reading it:
“Jerry Before Seinfeld” is a comedy special wherein you laugh
practically non-stop as Jerry explains what took him from his days
as an unknown wannabe comedian doing free open-mike sets at a
club called “The Comic Strip”, in seedy 1970’s New York, to his May
6, 1981 debut appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson---a right of passage that was every comedian’s dream (not
to mention the dream every magician).
Yeah, I hear you. Jerry Seinfeld is a comedic genius. But he still had
to pay his dues. And he did that by moving into a crummy cracker
box of an apartment in downtown New York so he could get up in
front of an audience, night after night, and hone his craft. And if
you really want to be a better magician, you need to do the same.
This isn’t to suggest that you don’t need to practice and rehearse
in front of a mirror. That goes without saying. But if you ever want
to get better, at some point you need to put yourself in front of an
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