Welcome to the digital age my friends. You live in the moment of NOW! If you’re anywhere around my age (which I will not disclose) you can remember when television stations signed off for the evening. Then they were on 24/7, then you got cable and cable begat the DVR, now you go to Netflix and you choose what you want to watch, when and for how long!
Well in this day and age of choosing and tiny computers in the hands of everyone in America, there has been a significant shift in the attention spans of all of us, myself included. That’s fine if it’s me multitasking a blog post while half-watching Daredevil on Netflix but how does that impact a magic show?
People don’t realize it but Harry Houdini escape tricks weren’t 2 minute episodes. They were escape tricks with real cops, real cuffs, real straight jackets, real heights and submersion. These feats could last an hour and you know what people were doing while waiting for the great escape artists of old to "prestidigitate" right before their very eyes? They waited, that’s right they waited and chatted with each other postulating on the odds of the escape artist’s survival chances.
That’s a significant amount of time to see if someone is going to pop out of a padlocked crate. If Rick were to attempt an act that lasted that long, he wouldn’t return to the same size audience that he left there as I am sure some would opt to read about it here than stick around. This week’s video is about the change in the attention span of our audiences and how it impacts the show.
Drop your comments below, we would love to discuss them with you.
Thanks for reading and talk with you soon, Chris T.
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