talkmagic.co.uk

Hey guys,

I know when working on my sleight of hand, the importance of practicing before a mirror and not looking at my hands directly. But I have read that practicing in front of the mirror can be deceiving, and that one should also practice for a rolling video camera and then look back at one’s performance.

Could someone explain to me why practicing in front of a mirror is deceiving and how performing for a camcorder solves this problem?

I have no idea why exactly, but several people have told me that it is the tendancy of magicians to blink, squint or even look somewhere else when performing a sleight.

With a video camera this obviously isn't a problem, plus, you can adjust the angle accordingly.

The mirror has been the magician's friend for a very very long time, long before the camera was invented. It is a time-tested method and it works great. From what I've read, you should look at your hands in the mirror while practicing, and it's worked great for me..

All that said, the video camera is a better prop to use because you can review your performance over and over again, and spot things you didn't when you watched it the first time around. It also helps camera shy people (like me) get used to the fact that they are being video-graphed during an actual show.

Of course, nobody has limited you to using only one of the two. Use anything you find convenient and anything that helps you perform better

I've used both, mirrors are great for getting an idea of how something looks and trying to work out what angles you've got. I always use them when I'm seeing how best to stand when performing and the best ways to cover moves. You can see exactly what you're doing in a mirror which is great for that sort of thing but not so good if you want to know how you're performance looks. If you really want to know how it looks when you're performing then a video camera is much better.

Anyone bingos any of that and you'll be in trouble

The main reason, as stated above, is that magicians tend to blink when a move is happening, and would miss any flashes that may occour.

Mirror time is important, and is good for getting the basic techniques locked into the memory, but video time is essential to get the right blocking, eyelines and misdirection. Going back over practice sessions is a very useful study aid.

When learning new sleights remember to go slowly and break things down.

Take care, Ian

I'll tell you why video is better.

1. When you make the mistake you are probably not looking in the mirror.

2. You develope tunnel vision, you will only be looking at one aspect. I'll use the pass as an example. You do it once in front of the mirror and you are concentrating on the front edge. Hmm looks good, but you didn't look at the long side. But you know that so you do the exact same thing but this time you look at your long edge. hmm that looks pretty darn good as well. What you don't realize is now the front edge looks like garbage because now all your concentration is focused on the side. You can't look at all places at once.

3. It is really easy to ignore what is actually going on in the mirror because once it is done it is done. On video it is there and in your face.

4. By practicing looking at your hands in the mirror and not at the audience chances are pretty darn good that when you have an audience in front of you, you will still be looking at your hands and not really recognize your audience at all.

5. Magic is more then the move. In the mirror you get a little snapshot of one tiny piece of the puzzle and then its gone. That is not at all what the audience sees. They see the whole package, and it is the entire process that sells the piece. There is mis direction forced or natural that is going on that you can't pick up in the mirror.

6. Put on your working clothes, set up your camera from what you think the audience percpective is going to be and just go for it, don't stop don't rewind. Just play through the entire routine and see what the audience sees when you watch it.

7. I know what you are thinking, "just learning the move" Learn the technique, go in front of the mirror if you must from time to time to check out that angle you are so worried about but once you know the mechanics and can pretty much smoothly fumble (?) your way through it, switch to the video.

Just because the mirror has been time tested doesn't make it wonderful, it only makes it better then nothing and also the best with what was available. Real mastery comes from going out in front of a live audience

Great last post! Especially when I was learning card techniques, I was failing on your 4th point... Always looked at my hands in the mirror, and that distracted my own attention too!

I often ask a friend to film when I try something new on a spectator or spectators (because you can then really review yourself and your audience-management). I found out that I'm different in a real performance, then in a performance for just the camera.

@ Lady of Mystery HAHAHA! ( i assume Bongos pretty much means to turn that into something dirty)

Anyway Omg the first poster talking about blinking; Its not just me then?! I just realized that I tend to sort of blink when doing a slight such as Joel Paschalls Believe.

On Mirrors vs. Cameras:
I would say that Mirrors are good because you can stop in the middle of a slight and twist your hand to recreate each angle. (though with enough cameras you can view from any angle you wish) Cameras also might (depending of the quality) not pick up sounds made by certain slights.

Lenoir wrote:I have no idea why exactly, but several people have told me that it is the tendancy of magicians to blink, squint or even look somewhere else when performing a sleight.

For the same reason small children put buckets on their head when they want to hide

"If I can't see it it doesn't exist"

Everything above about video taping yourself and mirrors is spot on.

But, I believe that the purpose of the mirror is being overlooked.

Using the mirror to judge your overall performance is (or at least can be) a bad thing. That, however, in my opinion, is not the power of using the mirror.

Take any given sleight - the DL or the false transfer of a coin.

Get in front of the mirror and turn a card over - not a DL, just a single card. Do it as you normally would. Study every movement of your hand in that mirror. Pay attention to any ticks or muscular anomalies. Study every detail in that mirror. Do it six times in a row.

Now, do your DL by watching in the mirror and make your DL look exactly and precisely as it did when you simply turned a card over.

Same with the false transfer. Actually put the coin in the other hand. Watch every muscle and study every detail. Do it six times.

Now, watch in the mirror again and do your false transfer making it match exactly and precisely to what you saw in the mirror when you did it for real.

Video will not allow you this kind of immediate result in making a fake move look like a real move. That is what you should use your mirror for.

Mike.

kolm wrote:

Lenoir wrote:I have no idea why exactly, but several people have told me that it is the tendancy of magicians to blink, squint or even look somewhere else when performing a sleight.

For the same reason small children put buckets on their head when they want to hide

"If I can't see it it doesn't exist"

Umm..I'm not so sure. I think that we become so conditioned to misdirection by glance that it actually becomes difficult to look directly at where you would rather the spec didn't.

if you practice in front of a mirror, you are still looking at what you are doing. by recording it you have to look at the camera, so if you perform live you look at the person and dont panic because you cant see what your doing. if that makes sense :p

Hello Everybody, perhaps should've done my introduction in the proper section but as you've guessed I've just discovered this site and want to get started.

I've practiced in front of mirror only and while I understand it's good points I think at some point you gotta move on to video and look into the camera.

I say this because the mirror still lets you see what you're doing with the cards or whatever and when I came to perform(just for friends at first) I noticed that I wasn't confident enough to look at them, I still wanted to check that it was two cards I was sliding off for DL or that my Erdanase(?sp) Break was completely covered etc etc...

Having the performance on video gives opportunity to check these aspects and more afterwards and leaves you free to practice focussing attention on the audience and even misdirecting their attention too.

Don't know if it'll help but great to get started on here. Thank you.

Should've read to the end, sorry Missykayy for repeating what you said in a long-winded rambling way

We lives, we learns though eh?

It seems simple to me (although I do tend to over simplify things) 1, for perfecting performance tecnique, practice to camera and 2, for practicing moves/slights etc. use a mirror ... over and over and over again.

At present, with 4 stictches in my thumb, the only practice I can do is brush up on theory, I don't think there is any substitute for that.