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Just a curiosity topic really..

But how long did it take you to find your genre of magic that you wanted to perform?...

What other types or styles did you try before you found what you liked?...

Are there any other types you would like to try, but havent for one reason or another?...

f x

I'm not really sure that I have found my style yet.

I started off with cards but after trying out a sponge ball routine I realised how much fun that sort of magic could be, so I moved into lots of sponges, ropes and good fun magic that makes people laugh.

At the moment I've been getting really interested in mentalism but because of the way I am, I can't get away with acting the serious mentalist so am trying to do it in a more fun and pink and fluffy sort of way. I don't know if I'll ever get anywhere with it, I think the sponge bunnies and silly, funny effects fit me better.

I'm about 4 or 5 years into magic now and still haven't found my main area. I usually use cards but bought myself a chop cup and a coin shell a couple of weeks ago to try new things out.

It took me about 5 years of juggling to find my main area to concentrate on, now i've changed my mind and am trying to combine 2 things into one.

It's a work in progress for me. It's a journey rather than a destination, and a jolly nice journey it is too.

But how long did it take you to find your genre of magic that you wanted to perform?...

d'no. Ill let you know when i find it.

It's taken me years only about 7 or 8 months ago I scrapped everything I had and started again which I'm still not finished with yet. I have now moved into a mentalism routine or gambling demonstrations of how the card cheats used to cheat in the early 1900s and that is all I do now but I do still buy general close up magic tricks for my own amusement and to demonstrate to friends and family.

As you should know I'm still finding where I stand in this crazy world of magic and mentalism

What an interesting question. Keep in mind that I am second generation magician, I grew up around magic and professional magicians I actually started off around 10 yrs old demonstrating in the magic shop and in that case it is almost always close up magic, with a little parlour magic thrown in. Mostly it was card magic but I learned early it is best to be well versed so while never going into stage magic I learned cards, coins, ropes, silks and the list goes on. I figured out what I really liked only after talking with Jeff McBride who suggested making a few lists the first being your life experiences, the second being the effects you can actually perform and the effects you want to perform. Firstly if your first list is shorter then the other two, stop and get a life. Secondly choose the effects that best describe or you can routine to describe your life. In this way you will always be original even if the individual effect is not.

I took that a little further and added a list of what really interests me and then I began to think about the person I would like to be in a totally made up world where anything goes, and tell that story.

Well the only thing that sort of fit was bizarre magic. Even then I couldn't really find anything out there that worked. Docc Hillford conjuring up demons was close but not practical. Tony Andruzzi fit the bill better he used to try this little gem where he had a tray of sand and from the sand he conjured up demons, close up style. Perfect however even the great Andruzzi had problems with it. With the leaps and bounds in technology I figured out a method but not from a tray of sand but from a book of runes. Just chanting over the book and great long black snakes would come bubbling out of the book. A few things became obvious. The snakes were not corney rubber things they actually turn to charred remains once they stopped oozing into existance. Two I am not an actor and I'm not a very serious person. Absolutly no way I could fit into some demon or wizard type role with any degree of seriousness nor could I wear a costume or any other nonsense. Nor did I want to go corney, somehow I had to change things around yet keep the very dark, very bizarre aspect. And finally I was not about to make a living at it, then again I didn't have to the Magic shop itself did very well, I was in my Twenties and living in British Columbia and there is no real venue for it, other bizzarists were not all that 'dark' I wanted to raise the dead and start a new religion. I came up with a few workable routines but it wasn't till I met a kindered spirit and we could bounce ideas off each other that things really started to mesh.

Now I still play around with my bizarre magic but its just for me really perhaps one day I'll write a book on the subject seeing as anyone with a computer seems to think they can write a book, can they all be wrong? And I'm back to the ho hum world of card magic (which is only ho hum to magicians, spectators absolutly love card magic) coin magic and a few others and once again I've found the wonderful world of "invis thre " the rest of the word is there you just can't see it.

Sorry this was long and off topic, I'm bored at lunch at work.

I'm not sure where I want to go with this. Nobody should ever be completely satisfied with their material, it encourages atrophy.

I think I have a better idea of what I don't want to do - sponge balls, rope, big flashy stage pieces, these are things I don't think I'll ever be interested in because it wouldn't interest me as a spectator. And ultimately I think that's probably it - I want to do magic that I would find interesting. And that tends to fall into either card tricks or mentalism.

reformedarsonist wrote:I'm not sure where I want to go with this. Nobody should ever be completely satisfied with their material, it encourages atrophy.

I think I have a better idea of what I don't want to do - sponge balls, rope, big flashy stage pieces, these are things I don't think I'll ever be interested in because it wouldn't interest me as a spectator. And ultimately I think that's probably it - I want to do magic that I would find interesting. And that tends to fall into either card tricks or mentalism.

You may find what the audience wants is to be entertained and it over all does not matter the genre of magic but the quality of the perfomer. Not a reflection of you after all I've never seen you perform, it just felt like a good opportunity to make a point.

I've been doing magic for a couple of years now. I started out with tricks with cards and coins but over the last 6 months or so I've began moving more towards mental magic which is something that I really enjoy. I wouldn't say that I'm an old school mentalist but really do enjoy mental magic and the different angles that you can approach it from.

I started doing everything except cards. I had those Paul Daniel's and Stephen Mulhern sets and used to love doing them. Then I got Complete Course in Magic and started doing coins and handerkerchiefs.

Then about three-four years ago I started with cards, and mainly Gambling sleights. I used to do loads of research on the history of it all and loved practising all these terribly hard moves. But situations are rare where you find yourself with enough table space and a close up pad to actually do any of these, so I started looking for more 'in the hands' type card effects. And now that's all I do now, just card tricks. Pretty boring really.

psychic - and only a recent revelation - but yeah...psychic...within my own framework and criteria...

no talking to those that have (pardon the pun) snuffed it....

still working on the new "me"...

I started with cards, and i'll probably end with em too. They're just a great tool for me. You can do mentalism with them ( touchy subject i know, i await the wrath of the serious mentalists out there ), you can do flashy poker style tricks and people dig those because poker is quite hip these days, and you can just entertain people with something that fits snugly in your pocket.

Some magicians tend to overthink, overanalyze and give the layman too much credit. A good trick is a good trick, regardless of the tools used. Cards are boring or safe to some magicians, but not to me, and in my experience, rarely to the layman either.

As I started to reply to this post I became aware of some things that lead me to believe that there is a need to "expand" on my thoughts in hope of not just clarifying why and how I evolved into the who and what I am today, but hopefully, help those involved with this quest when it comes to avoiding some of the pit-falls and likewise learn how to "go with the flow" of things in life.

I'll post a link to my reply once it's up.