Press "Enter" to skip to content

How Studying Magicians Changed My Perspective on Creativity | John Logan | TEDxBryantU


[Laughter]
imagine the year is 1700 you’re sitting
on a park bench in Boston and you think
to yourself hmm
what if one day we could see the entire
city of Boston within 10 minutes it’d be
pretty cool you’re optimistic friend
overhears you and says silly boy Yeah
right that would be impossible there’d
be nowhere we could ever see the entire
city of Boston within 10 minutes stop
daydreaming so you give up now what
could you do in 2018 to see the entire
city of Boston within 10 minutes and I’m
sure there’s different things going
through different people’s minds right
now let’s just use an airplane for an
example now an airplane was created in
1903 so an impossible idea in 1700
became possible in 1903 200 3 years
later let’s fast forward imagine the
year is 1950 you’re sitting on a park
bench in Boston and you think to
yourself whoa look at that air planet s
flew above me I’m curious where that’s
going what if one day we could instantly
know the destiny should put an airplane
at any moment again you’re optimistic
friend over here is you he says silly
boy Yeah right that would be impossible
stop daydreaming give up great friend
you got right see you give up now what
can you do in 2018 to see the entire
city of Boston within 10 minutes this
one’s a little bit harder so I’ll
actually tell you the answer it’s Siri
yes if you ask Siri Siri what plans of
buggery right now you can just click on
the flight number and I’ll tell you
exactly where it’s going yes it freaks
me out too so what important so Siri was
created in 2004 so an impossible idea
1950 became possible in 2004 54 years
later always remember what if visions
and concepts that may seem impossible
could become a reality one day I want
trying to experiment I want everyone to
take out their phones for me and go to
their camera application I’m going to
give you exactly 10 seconds to take a
picture of me holding this sign trust me
you’ll want to do this
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
hope you got a nice picture me wonderful
wonderful so who am i who was this weird
person talk about airplanes time travel
than having to take pictures my name is
John Logan I am a magician I’ve been
doing magic for the past 15 years
however over the past five years I’ve
consider myself more of an researcher
researcher on creativity research on how
magicians and entertainers think how
they get the point A to point B had to
have a vision in their head and make
that vision a reality how do they
develop new ideas and take those ideas
and apply them to their creative
performances on stage so I was very
lucky to actually travel the country for
five years doing research on this
process I contribute over a hundred
magicians and I hear just a few of them
just a highlight we have Eugene Berger
Kayla Drescher Paul Green Justin Willman
Joel Ward stassi’s f Jonathan Levitt and
Doug McKenzie if you google these names
you will realize that they have their
own TV shows they’ve won numerous
creativity awards and they’ve worked
with big names such as David Blaine
David Copperfield and Penn & Teller so I
knew I was in good hands when I was
studying their thought process again I
interviewed over a hundred people here
just a few of them that I interviewed so
after I realized I studied how they
think I realized there are three
different types of magicians we have the
creators over here the creators is about
focuses on creating create for others
the scientists of the prop eventyr
they’re the ones who behind the scenes
who create all the material then over
here we have the performer performers
focus is like connecting with the
audience performs from other perform
some of the creators material maybe the
showman the scriptwriter the person
who’s in front of the stage and then
right in the middle we have what’s
called a creator performer magician
their focus is on creating and
connecting creats material and performs
their own material the
jack-of-all-trades the sole artist then
I did more research on creativity and I
study entrepreneurs and yes that’s
exactly how entrepreneurs think as well
we have the creator entrepreneur problem
problem solving creat solutions the
inventor the app developer and over here
we at the performer entrepreneur well
all about relationship building creates
connections the salesman the social
media person and the right in the middle
we have we have what’s called the
creator performer entrepreneur the focus
about creating
connecting creates opportunities both
relationships the jack-of-all-trades
maybe the founder and maybe the CEO now
one emphasize that not one is better
than the other or worse than the other
in order to have a very successful
creative team you have to have at least
one of these on your team so after I
analyzed all the data I created what’s
called a magician entrepreneurial
journey search wealth or brainstorming
creating the context communicate the
idea feedback and then tweaking however
before I dive into this as a magician
doing a talk like this I realized I
needed to do an experiment and see if my
strategies will work so actually need
someone right there wanna help me out
perfect one I’ll come up on stage
wonderful before as I into for those who
don’t know I actually had my own show on
Patriot’s calm and I perform magic to
different Patriots players in doing a
football team and what I’d asked him one
day is to think it did tell me different
songs and artists that they listened to
before a big game so I had them all
written down right here I printed them
out a pointer right here what’s your
name Lauren say hi to the audience
Lauren wonderful wonderful now you know
each other fantastic you just think you
see right here wonderful I’ll going to
you hold us with your left hand perfect
cue do this with your right hand make
circular motions for me
perfect yeah this big a big small
perfect you’re doing a great job so far
line great job I’m gonna I want you to
close your eyes in a second not right
now I’m gonna turn around okay the whole
audience we’re gonna count down ten to
one
you’re gonna close your eyes when we get
to one you’re gonna open your eyes and
wherever your finger is on the band or a
singer focus on that person okay make
sense audience we’re all gonna do this
together however I don’t want to who it
is so I’m going to go over here I’m
gonna have my back towards the audience
Lauren can you still hear me okay are
you ready audience ready set go
ten nine eight seven six five four three
two one good well when you have your
finger on someone or a singer or a band
or whatever yes you still hear me okay
I’m going to think of a song by that
singer of
that band that makes sense don’t tell
don’t tell me what it is though do you
have one in your mind okay take your
finger off so if I turn around I can’t
see okay I turn around okay one focus on
that song focus on that song um focus on
that song ah keep focusing keep focusing
I’m actually gonna try this here I try
this close your eyes for me repeat the
chorus over and over in the head don’t
tell me what it is if we could repeat
the chorus over and over in your head
over and over it over and over and over
and over in your head wonderful great
job Lauren okay
keep repeating it over and over and over
and over it over keep that in your mind
keep that in your mind keep it in your
mind
keep bending I’m getting something I’m
getting something I could be way off
here keep thinking and Lauren keep
things you’re doing a great job Lauren
doing a great great job
ah I could be way way off way way way
off I don’t need this great job Lauren
Lauren you’re thinking of a song right
now you’re pinna over and over in your
head Lauren nice and loud so people in
the way way back in here what song you
repeated in your head perfect by Ed
Sheeran ladies and gentlemen perfect
[Applause]
thank you thank you so much well I’ll
give you this I’ll give you this in the
souvenir so you can feel the backstage
if you want everyone give it up for
Laura listen to music Wow
Lauren has good taste in music
Wow good job wine okay let’s talk well
fourth brainstorming so I did about five
years of research on this so if I go
through every single research I did
we’ll be here till next Tuesday okay so
I’m going to explain one strategy
birthday so first one is opposite object
method if I said the word magician to
you most likely you would think the
bunny and a hat very stereotypical I
know guys but if you think about someone
hundreds of years ago we’re singing down
there in there in the room I had their
pet bunny and they had a hat say looked
like a show the Hat empty do some weird
magical gesture and pull out my pet
bunny they appear and bunny two things
have nothing to do each other became one
of most iconic tricks of all time an
entrepreneurship case if I told you I
want you to think of an idea that’s to
do with an industrial assembly line and
cheeseburgers maybe like John that’s
impossible right industrial assembly
line and cheeseburgers you may have
heard of McDonald’s that’s exactly what
they did two things have nothing to do
with each other emerged them together to
create McDonald’s so strategy to think
of ideas as have your team members
bringing different objects from home and
see people bind them together for
instance an experiment that we tried
with Lauren I used football an
experience I had with football interact
with football players and music if you
think about it they really met the new
that you’re the football and music you
could put some similarity but they’re
really about the new with each other
right next the next phase is treat to
context create the context is making it
relatable to the public storytelling end
is a great example as a magician my job
is to bring you on a roller coaster ride
filled with emotions that’s what I want
to do as a magician so I do storytelling
as entrepreneur this is what commercials
are for brain characters Tony the Tiger
Ronald McDonald they’re trying to sell
you an idea in 30 seconds
minute 60 seconds about a commercial
trying to sell you when I did right this
was all about storytelling so strategy I
would recommend is creating experience
around your idea so if I was trying to
pitch you an airplane I could easily say
okay we have a big metal thing and has
wings and foot people inside I can
conflate
it’s like John what are you talking
about right but if I said imagine you
could see the entire city of Boston
within 10 minutes right it instantly
draws you in create an experience around
your idea
for instance the experiment that we
tried with Lauren it was about the
football players listen to music I had
Lauren think of a song repeated so it
creates an experience around it the next
strategy is team improv as a magician
what if I mess up what’s my plan B I
can’t let you know that I mess up right
about what 90% of the people I
interviewed in states came from some
sort of improv background as an
entrepreneur what if an investor tells
me one thing and changes its mind during
the meeting what are you gonna do so a
strategy is do do team improv I would
actually recommend watching the show
it’s called whose line is it anyway my
dad and I used to watch it all the time
trouble and probably do improv games
highly recommend watch that show do some
of those games with the with your team
members at those two things
Warnock creates what’s called
psychological safety psychological
safety is the idea of building a culture
that encourages risk-taking people can
voice their opinions without being
embarrassed you need that type of
culture in order to have a successful
team it also works your brain in unique
ways so if anything ever goes wrong you
can trust yourself
and you can trust your team members that
they can think on their feet okay the
next stage is feedback which i think is
the most important stage I really do
that and this is the most important
stage a simple pros and cons list is
amazing after every show I do as a
magician I write down everything that
people liked what do people not like as
an entrepreneur is the same thing what
do people like what do people not like
about it see the communicating the
defeat that phase beforehand is your
communique and the idea you’re going out
there either performing as a magician
maybe you’re building the prototype as
an entrepreneur and there’s feedback
stage you have to get what people
thought about your idea okay so strategy
to do is do surveys I think so many
entrepreneurs nowadays they try to build
something that people don’t actually
want or kneeling waste so much money
and time and resources finally tweaking
tweaking it is again one of the most
important stages change one word
strategy is called change one ward this
is a very famous trick that I do you
take a person you have someone take out
a card sign it put it back in the deck I
take the deck I thought onto the ceiling
their car gets stuck on the ceiling if
we condense it into a few words it be
card to ceiling right let’s change one
word rather than card to ceiling we do
card to wall
I took the deck I throw it at the wall
gets stuck on the wall okay rather than
car to wall we do card in wall okay
rather than card in well we do phone in
wall what if I took your phone minute
disappear all of a sudden I had someone
call you here ringing inside the wall do
want to see you right now
no now right now what’s changing one
word
let’s do Facebook and Twitter Mark
Zuckerberg wanted to create a social
media platform where people can write an
unlimited character status they can do
their political rant for the join on
vacation all this stuff an unlimited
character status Twitter came along and
said Zuckerberg I like your idea a lot
but it seems like people are complaining
they don’t want to read the whole status
rather than an unlimited character
status we do a limited character status
140 characters 280 look how successful
Twitter has been so strategies to take
an existing idea change one word and you
can have a brand new idea okay so here
is just a sample a summary of my talk
here I want to try one last experiment I
want everyone to take out their phone
for me again I’m gonna give you exactly
10 seconds again trust me you’ll want to
do this 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 hopefully
you got nice picture me perfect now you
may be thinking well John how did you
use tweaking today had you used to
change one word strategy well if we go
back to the experiment that that we did
with Lauren essentially the poster
revealed the song so this poster I wrote
this big poster here reveal the song
that Lauren was thinking of let’s change
one word rather than poster reveal
we do post your reveals message in this
case it’s this poster reveals the
message of my talk and what is the
message of my talk good question
impossible is just a word to me
I don’t believe magic is about tricking
people I don’t perform magic to trick
people or fool people I think magic is
simply any situation that you thought
was impossible become impossible to me
that is real magic so if you have a goal
in your life that you think is
impossible to achieve maybe a
professional goal personal goal maybe
something in your bucket list that you
think is impossible to achieve if you
just witnessed magic which is the
impossible impossible become impossible
you’d be contradicting yourself if you
think that your goal in life would be
impossible to achieve I think so many
people nowadays have these goals that
they write down and then they
immediately cross it up because they say
you know that’d be impossible I can’t do
that because they overthink the solution
they overanalyze the solution to how to
get there and I think in my opinion the
most creative solutions of life are the
simplest they’re right in front of us
and we don’t even realize it so I
believe with enough determination
motivation and applying the strategies I
tell you today you can achieve your
impossible goals again I said the most
creative solutions in life are the
simplest they’re right in front of us
and we don’t even realize it the reason
I say that it’s good if you look at the
first picture you took today and the
second picture you took today you will
realize that my tie has changed color
remember that impossible is just your
word thank you very much
[Laughter]
Please follow and like us: