By Bruce "Charlie" Johnson
You need to direct the audience's attention to essential elements in your
act. We'll look at tools that can help maximize "focus": gesture, eye
contact, color, contrast, height, placement, movement, sound, pauses,
lighting...
In Harry Blackstone's barnyard act, he produced a number of ducks that were
shooed into a small house. An assistant chased a lose duck across the stage.
Then the house was dismantled, revealing the ducks were gone. Where did they go?
While everyone was watching the duck chase, another assistant simply walked off
stage carrying the ducks from the house. Nobody saw them because they were
looking elsewhere. A perfect use of focus control.
In a doctor clown skit, a "doctor" clown and a "nurse"
clown argued over where the "patient" should sit. During the argument,
another clown picked up a gin bottle, tipped it to his ear, and water streamed
out of his mouth (he'd held the water in his mouth since he entered). Nobody
laughed because they didn't see what he did. They were watching the
"doctor" and "nurse." That was a poor use of focus.
Focus is directing the attention of your audience where you want it, as well
as away from where you don't want it.
POINTING
The simplest way to direct focus is by pointing to something.
In the 118th Edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus,
the clowns did a firehouse gag at one end of the arena. The next act, a skywheel,
was at the opposite end. Shifting focus across that wide space was a challenge
the show handled with elegant simplicity.
Before the clowns lost the audience's attention, Kenny Ahern, one of the
clowns, stepped away from the others achieving focus for himself. Then, with a
dramatic sweep of his arm, he pointed to the opposite end of the arena. The
spotlights raced to that end, and the entire audience at one moment saw the
skywheel going around with two tigers inside and two men on its outside. It was
a very dramatic moment that elicited an audible gasp from the audience. The
element of collective surprise would have been lessened without the clown's
grand pointing gesture.
EYES & (MIS)DIRECTION
You can point with your eyes. The audience will look where you look. In a
group skit, if all the clowns look at one character or at one particular spot,
the audience will look there too. If a character enters wearing a comedy costume
(for example, a "nurse" clown with padded bosom and derriere), you can
enhance audience reaction by having all the clowns look at the point of entry
just before the character arrives. The audience will see the character as soon
as he or she enters, and they will react at once. This simultaneous reaction
reinforces each individual's response so it has greater impact than if it builds
gradually and tapers off. In an intimate setting you can look with just your
eyes, but with a large audience you also need to turn your head towards what
you're looking at. In sleight of hand magic, if you look where the object is
supposed to be, your audience will look there instead of where it really is. If
you use a sleight like the "French Drop" to seemingly put a coin in
your left hand (while actually retaining it in your right hand), keep your eyes
on your left hand and make a throwing motion. Follow the flight of the imaginary
coin with your eyes. Some members of your audience will think they was the coin
fly into the air and vanish.
If you look into their eyes at the crucial moment in a trick, people will
tend to meet your eyes instead of watching your hands.
CONTRAST & COLOR
Any contrast attracts attention.
Color, for example, can be used to control focus. If all the characters are
wearing bright, multicolored costumes, but one wears a solid white, the audience
will tend to watch the person in the white. (The exception is if the background
is solid white.)
If your costume uses EQUAL amounts of different colors, none of them will
take focus. If your costume is completely constructed of patterned fabrics, the
patterns will cancel each other out. Solid color accents, however, will
establish contrast. Burlesque comics, for example, would apply solid color
lapels to their plaid jackets. Conversely, a solid colored costume could have
patterned accents for contrast.
Small areas of many different colors blend into a gray image. A predominate
color accented with smaller amounts of a contrasting color will create a better
impression. "Frame" your clown face with a color that contrasts with
your predominate costume color. This will direct attention to your face. An
example would be a red wig and a red bow tie worn with a yellow costume. Small
accents such as red buttons and red socks would help tie the costume together.
Color contrast on your props can also help control focus. For example, there
are many juggling tricks where one ball does something different from the
others. If each ball is a different color, none receive focus. If two of the
balls match and the third is a contrasting color, the odd colored ball pulls
focus. What you do with it will be more obvious.
Another color consideration is that stage lighting is designed to flatter
flesh tones. It tends to accent red colors and leave green shades dull. A red
object definitely draws focus on stage.
MOVEMENT
Movement is a fundamental tool in directing focus. If all the characters
except one are still, the audience will watch the moving one. It is important
for clowns to learn to be still so the audience sees what is important.
Contrasting speed is also useful. In the thirties, the prevailing circus
clown movement was very fast. Emmett Kelly attracted attention to himself by
deliberately moving slowly.
Broad, large movements takes precedence over small ones. Magicians wanting to
hide a movement of their fingers often make a sweeping movement with their arm.
The audience will watch the arm moving and, consequently, not notice the
fingers.
Vertical movement pulls focus. A juggler in an atmosphere setting can attract
attention by using high throws. Sometimes circus clowns carry a box of popcorn
when they are going to take a fall. As they go down, they throw the popcorn into
the air. Everyone watches the popcorn which permits the clown to perform a more
safely controlled drop without being noticed.
HEIGHT & TABLEAUS
Height attracts attention. The tallest clown in a group tends to draw focus.
A clown standing on a prop will draw focus. If all the clowns except one are
seated, the standing clown will draw focus. In the minstrel shows, all the
entertainers would sit in a semicircle, but those playing an important role
would rise. (The converse is true, especially in a photo. If all clowns are
standing except for one sitting in the front, the seated clown may draw focus by
contrast.)
When I was with the Carson & Barnes Five Ring Circus, a new handbalancing
act was added to a display of balancing and contortion acts. The new act was put
in center ring, not because it was the best, but because they performed on the
highest pedestal and would draw more attention.
Height can also help create tableaus that direct attention. If clowns are in
a line in order of descending height, they from an arrow pointing to something.
The effect is greater if one clown is standing, one seated, one kneeling, and
one on their hands and knees.
In a tableau, if all the clowns except one are grouped together, the isolated
clown tends to draw focus. If the the other clowns are looking at him, focus is
guaranteed. If the other clowns do something to draw focus, and the isolated
clown stays relatively still, they will become forgotten. If they suddenly move,
they will immediately draw focus back to themselves. Any kind of change will
attract attention.
In tableaus, the characters on the ends of lines attract the most attention.
In minstrel shows, the two performers seated on the ends played important roles,
telling jokes and conducting dialogues. They didn't have to stand to gain focus.
Another important character, the interlocutor, was seated in the center. The
central position in a tableau is also a strong one. If everyone turns toward the
middle, this character becomes the center of attention.
AUDIENCE PROXIMITY
Generally, the character closest to the audience will draw focus if they are
FACING the audience. By being closer, they seem larger. It is a convention that
a character speaking to the audience in an aside will move forward first to get
attention. If the other characters freeze, the speaker will have complete focus.
A character near the audience, but looking AWAY, will loose focus. During a
conversation, if a character moves upstage (away from the audience), the other
character must turn away from the audience to continue interacting. The upstage
character will receive the focus. To maintain equal focus, the downstage
character must shift position to remain on the same stage level. In the theatre,
this is known as COUNTERING. (A good beginning acting class can help you learn
how to do that.) Generally in variety arts, you don't turn your back to the
audience unless you have a strong reason for doing so. Any moves upstage are
done by backing up.
SOUND
Sound will attract attention. Loud noises are often used by circus clowns for
that purpose. On stage, a sudden shout will draw focus, but only if the audience
can tell where it is coming from. A clown making an entrance from the back of
the house, the seating area, must make some kind of noise to attract attention
from the stage. A magician vanishing from stage and reappearing in the audience
will use noise to let the audience know where they are. For his 1990 TV special,
David Copperfield reappeared in the audience straddling a motorcycle and revving
the motor. The sound made people sitting in rows in front of the
motorcycle turn around to look at David.
Sound is not a perfect means of attracting focus. It isn't always possible to
tell where sound is coming from. Sound systems can make it worse. Here's an
example to show you what I mean. Amusement parks often use performers to provide
pre-show entertainment. At one park, the pre-show was performed by a roller
skating car hop entering from the back of the audience and trying to find a
customer who had ordered some food. She spoke into a wireless mike so her voice
came out of the speakers. It was easy to hear that somebody was talking, but
almost impossible to locate her. Audience members kept searching for her on
stage because they associate amplified voices with being on stage.
Another aid used by circus clowns to gain focus is a flash pot that creates a
bright light or puff of smoke. Some flash pots go off with a loud bang while
others are relatively quiet. Part of the effectiveness of a flash pot is that
the smoke remains hanging in the air, providing visual proof of the source of
sound.
An unexpected bang can startle and annoy audience members. They should be
used judiciously. Safety precautions always have to be followed. (Terry DaVolt
wears a hearing aid today because of hearing loss he attributes to using
pyrotechnics without ear protection while he was with the Ringling Bros. and
Barnum & Bailey Circus. He urges all clowns using flashpots or other
explosive devices to use ear plugs or other sound protection.)
PAUSES & CLIMAXES
Directing where you want the audience to look isn't the only purpose of
focus. It can also be used to tell them when to pay attention to an approaching
climax. You want to make sure they won't miss what is going to happen. A pause
creates anticipation. For example, a magician vanishing a bird cage will carry
the draped cage forward to the audience, pause, and stay absolutely still for a
second before throwing the drape high to reveal the cage has vanished. Attention
is focused on the moment the drape is thrown, fixing it even more firmly in the
audience's mind as the actual moment the vanish takes place. (On the other hand,
learn to do your sleights and secret moves smoothly. If you unconsciously pause
in preparation for doing a sleight, unwanted attention will be directed to the
moment that you do it.)
Background music suddenly going silent will also focus attention on the
moment. Another traditional way to announce an approaching climax is with a drum
roll.
In Blackstone's barnyard act, the ducks where gone long before the audience
realized it, and way before Blackstone made the audience think he was vanishing
them. No matter when the mechanics of the trick take place, you want to focus
the audience's attention on a specific moment when the "magic" seems
to happen. It becomes more mystifying because their mind locks on that moment
making it harder to think back to what actually happened. It also makes it seem
more magical and under more of your control. Magicians will often use a shout, a
flash pot, a pistol shot, a magic word or phrase, or some device (like a magic
wand!) to mark the "magic" moment.
In my close-up magic act, I use a snap of my fingers. Once kids understand
that convention, they sometimes ask if they can snap their fingers. I do the
effect cured to their snap, and they feel that they are making the magic happen
themselves. Sometimes an audience member challenges me to repeat a trick without
snapping my fingers. They come to believe it is the snap that makes it work.
Another way to create an anticipation of climax is to attempt something
twice, and then succeed on the third try, or to toss something into the air
twice and then make it vanish on the third throw.
It isn't just magicians who draw attention just before the climax of their
routine. Comedians telling a joke pause just before the punchline to make sure
everyone is paying attention. A joke doesn't work if the audience misses the
punchline!
Jugglers will also focus attention on their finishing trick by notifying the
audience that it is "time to be impressed and almost time to applaud."
Often the finishing trick will be a high one such as juggling on a unicycle or
on a rola-bola on a table, or something equally dramatic. Anything that
contrasts with what has gone before. An effective way to draw attention to a
finishing trick is to make a slashing gesture that cues the background music to
silence. The finish routine should be short so it doesn't lose its focus. Once
you've gotten the audience's attention don't let it wander by taking too long.
Hopefully the audience will start applauding during your last trick. You don't
want them to stop before you finish. The ideal is to get them to start
applauding and then finish to take your bow to swelling applause.
LIGHTING
A dramatic change in lighting (brighter, dimmer with a follow spot, a
different color, etc.) can highlight a climax.
If an entertainer thinks they have a particularly strong finish, such as a
striking pose or a dramatic revelation, they might "freeze", the
lights go out, and they make their exit in the darkness leaving the audience
with a sharp final image.
A follow spotlight is the most effective way to direct focus with light.
(Jugglers should practice with spotlights before using them in performance.) If
lighting levels in different areas can be controlled independently, it can be
even more effective in shifting focus across a stage.
Even if lighting levels can't be controlled, there are brighter areas on
stage where pools from different lamps overlap. At a Laugh-Makers Conference,
during a tech session for an evening show, Debbie O'Carroll walked across the
stage looking for the brightest area. She could tell where they were by the
temperature differences on her face. When she found them, she marked them with
masking tape on the floor. She stood on the tape to perform the important action
in her mime pieces.
When you work outdoors you'll discover a variety of shadow conditions. Seek
lighter areas to attract attention.
A FEW MORE COMMENTS
I've discusses several methods for controlling focus separately, but they
actually function in combination. You can cause confusion by unconsciously
directing attention to more than one place. Combine as many methods as possible
to force the focus where you want it.
Some elements of focus control may seem obvious, which is a problem. People
don't think about them, but you have to consciously use them.
In your act you need to decide what is important for the audience to see,
hear, and understand. Then you direct their attention to that. A clown who is
always mugging and attracting attention to themselves during a group skit isn't
helping themselves or the act. The clown who does things in a way that they
aren't noticed doesn't help either. Learn how to give and take focus and how to
transfer it to where it is needed. Then you will get maximum response to your
performance.
© Copyright 2001 by Bruce "Charlie" Johnson. All rights
reserved.