talkmagic.co.uk

ok so i have decided to jump head first back into magic.

For those of you who don't know me i am a professional performer with several comedy/escape shows that i perform around the world at various festivals. i have been performing magic professionally for the last 8 years but since i have been working hard on my comedy and my performance of my festival shows i have almost completely abandoned my magic since it plays only a minimal part in my shows.

I have decided to start working on new tricks with a new attitude to learning, i.e not just learning tricks for the sake of them but actually learning specific tricks to fit into a specific performance and be able to manipulate this performance to work on a large or small scale either short shows or long performances.

for example i have recently begun work on a macabre show mixing mentalism and mind control with story based magic. creating a charector that both allows the spectators to feel safe and secure with me in charge while at the same time, making them aprehensive about what may be in front of them, and what journey they will be taken on. it will hopefully be an assault on at least 3 of their senses.

My basic question is, am i going about things the right way? i am basically sifting through lots of books to find tricks and stories that will fit my show specifically. while avoiding most other tricks (cards for example are almost completly being ignored) should i be trying to learn as many tricks as humanly possible or should i be working on specific shows. (i feel that learning loads of tricks is pointless as i forget them fairly quickly)

i would be interested in peoples thoughts.

cheers figo

A good way to go if your doing mentalism. Is to work more on your patter and presentation. Instead of cramming in as many tricks as humanly possible into your head or show, just stick to working a few select effects and presentation.

I don't know who said it or where I read it but there is this story about a world-famous magician to whom an admirer walked up and said: "I know 300 tricks! How many do you know?" and the magician answered: "Well, about seven."
It is not about how many effects you know, it is about how you present them. A couple of weeks ago I was asked for a poker routine and I had to admit that I didn't know any. Now I have added a different the pattern to an old trick and voila: There's a poker routine.

You are doing the right thing although it might be better to just find an effect that you like and make it suit your show instead of searching for someone else's work that already fits in with your style but might not be as good (not mentioning that this is going to be a lot harder to find).

Briareos wrote:I don't know who said it or where I read it but there is this story about a world-famous magician to whom an admirer walked up and said: "I know 300 tricks! How many do you know?" and the magician answered: "Well, about seven."

That would be David Devant! And he knew about 8

awsome that has boosted by confidence in my perception... cheers

Briareos wrote:I don't know who said it or where I read it but there is this story about a world-famous magician to whom an admirer walked up and said: "I know 300 tricks! How many do you know?" and the magician answered: "Well, about seven."

Gotta love it! I read that in the first few lines to the preface of Royal Road, and it slightly confused be back then
Great point though

You could almost paraphrase it,

'I bought 8 hot new mind blowing super cool tricks this week, how many did you buy?'
'None, I just figured out new ways to use the ones I already have.'

Figo wrote:ok so i have decided to jump head first back into magic.

I have decided to start working on new tricks with a new attitude to learning, i.e not just learning tricks for the sake of them but actually learning specific tricks to fit into a specific performance and be able to manipulate this performance to work on a large or small scale either short shows or long performances.

should i be trying to learn as many tricks as humanly possible or should i be working on specific shows. (i feel that learning loads of tricks is pointless as i forget them fairly quickly)

i would be interested in peoples thoughts.

cheers figo

I think you're going the right way about things. I did the same when I was getting back into magic, I concentrated on getting my 30 minute children's routine up and running, and on nothing else. I'm still adding and taking away and tweaking, but now that it's up and running, I have time to spend on learning other things.

It's always useful to know a couple of simple impromtu tricks so that if someone hands you a coin or something and asks you to do something with it, you can, but otherwise, concentrate on learning a few tricks well, rather than hundreds of tricks that you'll maybe perform to friends once or twice, and that'll never see the light of day in your actual show.