talkmagic.co.uk

Hi everyone,

My name is Jimi and I’ve been on this planet for just over 21 years now. I live in England at the moment but I’m hoping to do at least a years work in Canada starting some time later this year. You may have seen my name lurking at the bottom of the board for some time now, I’ve been waiting and building up the confidence to post my first post.


I would say that I’m fairly new to magic, but I doubt there is anyone in the world who can claim they haven’t experienced magic (or their perception of magic) at atleast some point in their life.
I am, however, fairly new to performing magic.


Picture this scene if you will, which may seem familiar to many of you. When I was about ten my parents brought me a magic set and I played with that for quite a long time, it was pretty basic and mostly full of cheap plasticy gimmicks. Eventually I gave up on it and moved on to the exciting world of Power Ranger action figures and Transformers (or whatever the craze was at the time). Even as a child the thing that bugged me was the fact that most of the tricks that came in this set relied on a prop of some sort and they didn’t seem to have any place in the ‘real world’, “What we have here is a perfectly ordinary, everyday, bright red plastic urn containing a perfectly normal and mundane fluorescent yellow ball!” None of it seemed natural and flowing to me. I maintained a strong interest in all things to do with magic, but gave up on the performing side.


Fast forward ten years using your minds built in time acceleration module and witness me enter a bookshop. Actually it wasn’t a bookshop as such, it was an online shop and I was browsing it whilst I was meant to be working (which incidentally I’m meant to be doing now). Somehow I ended up looking at books on magic. As far as I was concerned the world of magic had moved on greatly since when I was ten, there seemed to be more people performing impromptu magic, far less props and no one was even mentioning rabbits and hats!
Before I knew what was happening I was finalising my order for ‘The Royal Road’.


Cards to me fall into a beautiful place in the world of magic, most people have a deck of cards in their house and it doesn’t seem too bizarre to suddenly produce a deck of cards from your pocket (well certainly far less bizarre than pulling the red plastic urn of mystery from your pocket). Cards routines can be impromptu or part of a fully planned stage performance and maintain an air of mystery and interest without blatantly screaming “Theres deception afoot”. But stopping at cards wasn’t enough, I’d been bitten by the magic bug and was coming down with a nasty case of ‘Mentalist Fever!’


I decided the next step was to study magic a bit, so I invested in some books on magic and psychology, magic and showmanship and the history of magic in an attempt to expand my knowledge of the field in general. My mind somewhat expanded I decided to buy some more books on all aspects of magic as well as some dvd’s as well. I’m really trying to focus on menatlism at the moment, but any kind of magic that has a quick set up with minimal gimmicks appeals to me and my ‘style’. I say my style, I’m still trying to carve myself one at the moment, until then despite a mostly mental base I’m trying to experiment with as many different types of magic as I can.


One thing I’ve notice when performing around friends and family, which you, my dearest readers, may have noticed as well is how often you get compared to existing magicians, even if your act has nothing in common with them. Recently I did a mind reading and coin bending trick for a few people in a mall. Afterwards I was feeling pretty good about myself and the reactions it had gotten and a friends said to me “you’re not Derren Brown y’know” talk about having the wind taken from under your wings. Its not so much the comment as it is the comparison, I’m sure Derren Brown wouldn’t want to have his name tarred by having me as a representative of him. Sure it is at heart a Derren Brown trick (although my friend later said he had no idea it was one of Derren’s) but I had tried to present it in my own unique way.
A similar reaction from family and co-workers is “Oooh, you’ll be the next Derren Brown/ David Blaine/ David Copperfield/ Paul Daniels/ Whoever” firstly I am no where near the league of any of those magicians, and I doubt I ever will be, I am very far from being even remotely talented. The main thing that bugs me again is the comparison, but I have an answer for when people say that to me now. Whenever people say “You’ll be the next _______” I simply reply:

“No, I’ll be the first Jimi B”


Anyway, sorry for rambling on so much and giving you probably far more history than you’d care to read. Thanks for taking the time to read it. Its an absolute pleasure to be in all of your presences and I look forward to many happy years of posting here.

Hi,

I wouldn't worry about length (there's a gag about size not being everything but I'll not go there), I for one have found the intro interesting...I've got figure out how you made me decide to post

I have got some cast iron advice from lurking here for the past few days! It appears you've been doing the same!

Take care, and enjoy the ride!

lmw.

Hi and welcome to TM!

Welcome to TM Jimi, have fun.

Welcome, Hope that you enjoy your stay

Hello Jimi from Lowestoft and welcome to TM.
This is a great forum and I'm sure you will enjoy the company.
Best greetings from Iceland!

Welcome

A similar reaction from family and co-workers is “Oooh, you’ll be the next Derren Brown/ David Blaine/ David Copperfield/ Paul Daniels/ Whoever” firstly I am no where near the league of any of those magicians, and I doubt I ever will be, I am very far from being even remotely talented. The main thing that bugs me again is the comparison, but I have an answer for when people say that to me now. Whenever people say “You’ll be the next _______” I simply reply:

Yes, these are common comparisons. As magicians we get a lot of undeserved credit. This takes some time to get used to. The lines I like the most are when people say something like.
"In credible, I have seen this type of thing on television, but is so much different when you experience it yourself...." If I am happy with my performance I take it as a complement, however if I get the response after having done the bridle trick, it is a bit depressing that the layperson has such poor judgement...

The best complements are always the one I get from "knowledgeable" spectators. Once a spectator for exsample said he had watches shows and seen magicians in Las Vegas, but that what I did was even more strange and magical.. Again nice, but obviously underserved. However we should remember the old truism that "the magic takes place in the mind of the spectators".

Welcome to TM.