It is a rare occurrence when I will disagree with Mr. Daniels, genius that he is, but I must disagree on this one...I have a stand that I use when practicing any given piece. It is an old vanity dresser with a large, tri-fold mirror. This allows me to see the different angles simultaneously.
But, that is my express purpose for it - to figure out which angles are bad in any given sleight and to work out covers for those angles. I do believe that "mirror practice" could become a bad thing if used improperly, which, I feel, is what Mr. Daniels is getting at.
I don't use video at all. Not only do I find that to be a cost prohibitive resource, I also find it to be too much in the line of set up, just to practice a simple move or even rehearse a full scale routine.
In any given rehearsal, I imagine my audience in their place - for walk around, close up, I imagine the audience seated at their table and I rehearse at my kitchen table. I look at the empty seats and imagine that the folks are sitting there. I look at them, I talk to them, I treat the whole rehearsal as if I were actually doing it in real time. I do not use a mirror for this, nor do I use a video camera...I use my imagination. If I'm rehearsing a stand up or stage act, then I have my table with my equipment and I imagine my audience out in their seats. If I need an assistant, I choose one, call them up, treat them as if they were real and go about my full rehearsal in this way. Again, no mirror or vid.
The mirror is strictly there to watch my angles in practice. And, there
is a difference between practice and rehearsal.
do i have to talk a lot (either for friendly reason or for distraction) during a performance?
Nobody can answer this question for you, it is intimate to your performance and how you view yourself in front of an audience. I may talk a lot, you may be uncomfortable with that. You cannot be become comfortable being something that you are not. If you want to be comfortable becoming something that you are not, then magic isn't the answer, but rather formal lessons in acting would be the way to go.
So, you script your work prior to any given performance to suit your own personality. For thoughts on scripting and rehearsal,
click here. You see, this is hard work if you honestly want your performance to come off as smooth and magical.
Sadly, most people seem to think that you learn a trick and go forth and fool and entertain your audience. It just ain't that simple. You not only have to learn your sleights to perfection, but you have to learn your entire performance to perfection. This requires hard work and great dedication. It also seperates the men from the boys (and the women from the girls). Anyone can present puzzles, few will become
magicians.
The problem with magic is that we, as magicians, are the script writers, the directors, the technical consultants and the performers. That is a tall order.
So, the best that you can do is spend the time to script your material, practice your sleights, rehearse your peformance then get out there and do it. By performing, you get the chance to see what works and what doesn't. If it doesn't work, you get rid of it. If it does work, you keep it.
The only possible way of being able to judge what works and what doesn't is to know your routine forward, backward and upside down before you ever show it to anyone. If you've achieved that level of refinement, then you can step outside of yourself during your performance and watch the audience, rather than your hands. Now, there are times when directing attention means that you must watch your hands, but you are still capable of being fully conscious of everything happening around you. And therein is where you start becoming the magician that you want to be.
how much time do you spend on perfecting each tricks? i know there isnt a definite answer and definitely varies from tricks to tricks, from person to person. but i just wanna have a rough idea.
You've basically answered your own question. I do have some further thoughts, though.
The amount of time needed to get any given trick down comes with time and experience. If you do an Ambitious Card Routine, then you are very familiar with the DL. Later down the road, you need to learn a trick that uses a DL, but is not the Ambitious Card. Well, you already are studied and practiced with a DL, so you will learn the trick much more quickly than someone who is learning a DL for the very first time in their life.
Therefore, experience also dictates the speed at which you learn a trick.
Nevertheless, you are still going to need time to rehearse the overall performance, no matter how experienced you are. I strongly recommend that you don't fool yourself into believing that you can simply learn the trick with no time given to scripting and just start doing the trick. Of course, it can be done, but it won't have half the polish of a professionally minded individual that takes the time to script, rehearse and, more importantly, routine the material.
For thoughts on routining,
click here (you'll have to scroll down, just a bit). Like I said, doing magic rather than showing puzzles requires work and dedication.
Best wishes in your journey.
Mike.
