Question to think about whilst reading this random thread....and true story
"What drives you?"
I grew up in a chicago suburb, big schools, tons of people. You could literally go to school every day and see someone you've never seen before. Everyday for your entire sentence being served. Halfway through I moved to a small town in Texas. I mean small! The mayor was also the fire-chief and a teacher! All of the kids grew up together, dated eachother etc. and I was fresh meat. To occupy myself I searched a magic site. Card Trick Central. I learned nearly every card trick and sleight they had. Cutting up short cards, making double-backed cards, everything just because there was NOTHING else to do! At this time, our good friend David Blaine came on the scene and being the only "magical" person in this small school, every one flocked to me with questions.
"how does he levitate? how does he get that card into the basketball? he's the devil!"
I was enjoying his street magic, and impromptu (alleged) tricks. I didn't want to tell them anything I had learned online about sleights and simple logic. Once the frustration and odd claims became too much and I tried to explain to them, "You can throw a deck of cards at basketballs all day long but you're NEVER going to get one to magically insert itself in there, now if you have a show and money...I'm SURE you could get a ball made with one in there."
Their response? "Well then how does he know they're going to pick the card that's in the ball smart guy?"
Ahh....would you like to answer this George Lucas?....use the force Luke....use the force.
Now I broke nearly ever rule of magic at that school. I repeated tricks, even told them how I did some of them, out of arrogance. I knew I could always change the sleight and thus change the outcome.
Now this woke me to an interesting revelation. Most of the tricks I knew were essentially the same skeleton with different clothes. They'd choose a card (or force) and I'd "lose" the card, then reveal it. I found I was creating more tricks than I was learning. I changed it depending on my mood. Do I force it? nah....I'll let them choose. Do I burn their card to ashes and use a double hidden in an envelope? Nah, they've become to wise to that. I'd mix tricks together until I came to a barrier. I bought Wilson's little bible, drove down the royal road, and still, I found myself performing the same routine with a different face.
I found then, as I find myself now, with no visible direction. What drives me in magic? I don't ever want to be headlining a show in Vegas. I don't ever care to be the next Criss, Cyril, Blaine etc. Although I admire various characteristics of them all. I enjoy David's monotonous start, "hey, you wanna see somethin'?" That gets me everytime. I always smile. Just walking up and dazzling people who probably would've just kept walking had he not had a camera crew around. But I don't aspire to become a professional magician. A true professional (IMHO) is someone who is proficient enough at their craft, to make it their profession. And I don't want to travel around performing magic for money. In that sense, music is my calling, and I'm actually working on a routine involving my guitar.(top secret) but i fear i may need the Cyril-sweat-shop to create the gimmick. Music is another form of magic to me.
So I ask you, what drives you? Is it your name on a marquis? Do you aspire to inspire? How many of you are working magicians?
I once met a man that introduced a boy to the infinite world of magic. The boy ran down dark paths, but came back to magic as a focus to hold onto after years of drug/alcohol abuse. And as weird as it sounds, Im thankful to be that boy. I just hope one day I can be that man.
thanks for reading....
Really the only people I show my tricks to are my friends and family, since I don't live in a place with lots of people walking the streets.
