Toronto’s Gabriello Pitman started his business, Gabriello Pitman Live in January 2011. He is also the Entertainment Director for Dueling Magicians, a position he has held since May 2009.
Most of his shows are solo; however, he does have duel competitions with his cousin. He performs all across Toronto; he has performed at weddings, bar mitzvahs, art shows, birthday parties.
Pitman mainly performs in the corporate world, “Especially in terms of like professional events.”
“So it all started out with magic, my cousin did magic, and it really bothered me that I couldn’t figure it out. So then I just devoted more time to it – looked up some resources and start figuring out some magic, started performing a bit, him and I started performing together which was really fun.”
Pitman wanted to do more than just trick people; he wanted to make it “More of an experience.” Therefore he went on to learn hypnosis. “And then from there I’m able to combine hypnosis with the magic to make it more of a real experience for people.”
When Pitman was younger, he played the piano and guitar. It wasn’t until later that he decided that magic was his true passion. “I always competed and in order to compete, you had to perform – in front of a group of people.” He also says, “I always enjoyed performing so magic was then just the next step to perform.”
Pitman did an undergrad in physics at Laurentian University; he then came to UofT to do a PHD in physics. He then realized that the program wasn’t for him. “Two years in to that I had decided that I had enough of it and so I took a leave to do what I’m doing now full time and professionally, and now I have officially left the program. So I was studying physics and then from there I just jumped in to my own business.”
Sometimes, Pitman may want to try a new trick; if he’s not confident to perform it on stage, he might try it on a stranger on the street first. Approaching people on the street can be quite nervewracking; however, Pitman has a strategy to make it look simple. “Dr. Mike Mandel said ‘If you pretend that you have the confidence to do something and then you just pretend that you’re not pretending anymore, it’s essentially the same as having the confidence.’ So it’s like a double negative that cancel out and then you just have it.”
Pitman isn’t following the same path that the majority of people take; he is doing what he loves to do, and is having fun while doing it. “It’s pretty cool I must say, it’s a good deal, I mean I get paid for something that I love to do, so I can’t really complain about that – it’s pretty awesome.”
Building a network with people that are in your field is very important; it allows you to gain connections, learn from others, and even enhance your skills. Working and collaborating with other magicians can not only give you new ideas for upcoming shows, but can also help others with theirs.
“It’s actually really good; I think it’s really important too. I mean not even from learning new tricks like not from that perspective, but from more of a psychological perspective, like how they see things.”
From an audience’s perspective, a magic trick looks effortless; however, there are many factors that are a part of it to make sure it is successful.
“For a magic trick to work, there are lots of things that you have to do, in terms of controlling the situation for it to work because you’re creating an illusion, so there are some things that could ruin that illusion. So other people have different – different takes on how to make that trick work perfectly. So that’s where it becomes really helpful to speak with other magicians.”
In terms of particular tricks, yeah there are some specific mechanics behind a trick that maybe I don’t know and they do know. And then we’re able to learn that stuff too. Most interesting is the psychology behind it, talking about the psychology behind it and making it work.”
As a magician, you should always be prepared. Whether it be performing for a friend, a family member, or in front of an audience. “There’s of course some stuff that doesn’t work, but that’s something you gotta do in a low risk situation so, you do that on like a family member or a random person that you don’t know, when it’s not a professional situation. That way if it messes up it doesn’t matter. But in a show, it has to work, but by all means there are still times in a show where something doesn’t work that well. But as a performer, it’s hard to be ready for everything, but you have to kind of have – they call it an out. So it’s like an alternative ending, if something doesn’t work perfectly, so that to the audience it still looks as if it worked perfectly or at least close to perfectly.”
The out is an excellent skill to have; you just might need it should a trick fall flat. Pitman explains the out in great detail. “Sometimes you just have to just improvise, other times you can be ready for – like you can anticipate – if this went wrong, I’ll do this instead. Other times you just have to improvise. But at the same time like if a magic trick is gonna go bad, you can’t really fake that the magic trick worked. Like it’s obvious that it goes bad. So if it does go bad, you might want an alternative presentation such that you were ready for it to go bad, so if I try something with you and it doesn’t work, I might wanna frame it as if it’s good that it didn’t work because maybe that proves that the next thing’s gonna work even better.”
Pitman says each trick can take different amounts of time to practice, some can take five minutes, and others can take a few years. “Some tricks are self-working, they’re super easy to do, and the others are a little more complex.”
Here is a link to Pitman’s website. http://www.gabriellopitmanlive.com/
mattgreencc 