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Phase 1. The Discovery Stage.
You discover Magic, or as some say, Magic has discovered you. The magic bug has been awakened. You realise that Magic is an ideal way to help turn the inner introvert into an extrovert. This is the easy answer to becoming the life and soul of the party.

This is a time when secrets are the main interest. Tricks are mainly bought to find out how they are done. The more methods you know, the cleverer you feel.

At this stage you are buying magic without reading reviews, but just because the sales blurb makes it sound exciting. You are buying children’s magic when you have no intention of ever performing to Children. You are buying magic that has a 50% chance of ending up in the back of the draw, destined never to see the light of day.

Phase 2. The early CUPS stage
(for more info on CUPS click Here)

Your pockets now bulge with the enormous number of tricks that you always keep ready to show anyone and everyone at the slightest opportunity.

You are only performing to friends and family at this point and so you are constantly having to buy new effects, just so you always have something new to show.

You avidly check the internet message boards just to see what the latest miracles are, and if one person recommends something as being the best thing since zig-zagged bread, then that’s good enough for you. You HAVE to have it.

Other performers are scrutinised for any slip that will give away how the trick is done.

Discussions are rampant between you and other magicians at the same stage of development (if you are luck enough to have friends that do magic that is), and although a good time is being had by all there are elements of one-upmanship.

Phase 3. The latter CUPS stage
You have discovered the written word. You consider subscribing to a Magic magazine, and now try to limit yourself to buying just DVD’s and Books, although every now and again early CUPS gets the better of you and you splurge out new effects too numerous to mention.

We likes them my precious. We needs them tricky trickses….

You become secretive about spending money on magic, and now you feel pangs of guilt mixed with excitement every time a new jiffy bag pops through the door.

“Was there anything interesting in the post?” says your lovely assistant.
“No – nothing much just a few bits of junk mail” you say as you sign for the latest wonder effect.

By now you are on first name terms with the postman, but with friends and family magic is almost becoming a dirty word.

However, you have progressed to actually performing a few times to non-friends/family. The only problem is you never now what to select from you vast collection of tricks, and rather than performing a routine, you are just showing different magic tricks.

But the reactions. The reactions from these ordinary, everyday people. You feel sick to the stomach before you do it, but the elation you get after you finish is like a drug. A very addictive drug..

Phase 4. The Penny "French" drops stage.

Your library is growing at a tremendous rate, but you realise that many of the books have never been read all the way through. It is like pride of ownership is more important than magic knowledge.

You realise that you have tricks now that have not even been opened.

You realise that you don’t have to perform all tricks as the instructions suggest. You discover that they can be personalised to work for you. For the way you work.

You start thinking now that presentation and routining have a very important part to play.

Now whenever you see a new trick described, 90% are dismissed a being not the sort of thing you do.

You are now watching performers not to work out how they do the effects, but rather why they are so entertaining. You realise that two magicians doing the same effect can get totally different reactions.

You realise that entertainment is more important than fooling people.

Phase 5. The Purist stage.

You have stopped buying the Books, DVD’s and effects, and now are concentrating on reading and re-reading your vast library.

You do have CUPS though, and there is no cure, so you will from time to time be tempted. Your best bet is to find a CUPS support group (A Bra?)

You now are much less interested in gimmicks and self working tricks. You want to be a purist. You want to do impromptu magic with just a borrowed deck of cards and maybe a few non gimmicked coins.

You are still performing gigs to various groups of people. You have even been getting referrals, and now only perform to friends and family when they ask (although you long ago discovered that by shuffling a deck of cards in a corner, someone will normally say “show us a trick”).

The paid performances you now do are no longer a series of tricks, but well thought out routines.

You look down on the performers of all the latest gimmicked magic. You are above them.

Phase 6. The Acceptance stage.

You no longer look down on performers of the latest gimmicked magic. You no longer look down on magicians with a limited repertoire. You realise that many of these people are professional performers. For them it is their bread and butter, and even if not anyone with an interest in magic can't be all bad.

There is no need for these professional magicians to have pockets bulging, they know what they do, and they can do it well. Their acts are polished. They have years of experience, not just of doing magic, but of handling people, of entertaining people. You respect these people.

You respect the Art. You respect other magicians, no matter what level. You respect the history of magic, and indeed wish to read more about it..

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You are now on the first rung of the ladder…

Great post and there is a whole lot of truth in it. Even though my own path in magic isn't directly as you describe due to magic finding me at age 4 when I was given my first copy of Bobo's, and growing up surrounded by hard core sleight of hand workers including my father, Ron McMillan, Harry Baron and several other of my fathers friends I basically started at the sleight of hand/books stage and didn't discover the CUPS stage untill some years later (As soon as I was old enough to have a job and money to burn ). That said though I think I went through all the stages in your post, just in a slightly different order.

Mark

phase seven:-

you have a well polished and crafted hildrens act which is your bread and butter a media libary to rival blockbusters and whsmiths and you are begining to get bookings for weddings and tablehopping.
after years of nuckle busting and long study your rewarded with parkinson's and your tenkie and hpc now looks like your useing jumbo coin's and desparately trying not to let it show.
you now trawle the net reading reviews and asking questions trying to piece a close up act tougether useing gimicked props and a newly discovered branch called mentalism which you had ignored because it dos'nt invole a lot of magic skill and besides there was to much to remember anyway.

phase eight:-

visa electron decides as usual to play up and as your neerest geniune magic shop is blackpool you then decide to go with what you have and wingit, knowing that your years of experience dealing with adults and children will alow you to do a decent performance.

phase nine:-

acceptance that your five close up effects and your stripper deck combined with a few portable children's effects are more than enough, cups jangles in your head everyday till performance day, which you will just have to deal with, thats the way the cookie crumbles.

My route wasn't quite like that either; I've never had a CUPS stage, partly because I'm a colossal cheapskate, partly because I was a juggler first (thinking about it, my CUPS stage was actually buying juggling props) and therefore resentful towards gimmicks, it took time for me to come round to seeing the value of gimmicks in their proper environment.

I've always been an extrovert anyway, most of what I do is another way to make a big noise and show off, though I also have a very active imagination so I sort of ended up in the fantasy land of magic as a result of that. Because I stalled getting into magic properly for so long, maybe I just spent my first three stages elsewhere.

So I guess I'm in the purist stage, but without the bit about being experienced and having lots of gigs and referrals.

Mark Chandaue wrote:though my own path in magic isn't directly as you describe due to magic finding me at age 4 when I was given my first copy of Bobo's, and growing up surrounded by hard core sleight of hand workers

Oh how I envy you. Discovering Magic at that age. Being surrounded by hard core sleight of hand workers, and above all not being ble to afford to have CUPS so that you get the most out of every single piece of magic that comes your way.

You lucky lucky b word. Some people just have it sooooo lucky.

Very cool post

I wish some of my friends were into magic so I could sit and chat for hours about it with them. Oh well, back to the cloning lab instead.

Ah, nostalgia At least now I know what CUPS is...

I like to think I'm in the Acceptance phase now, but I certainly went through most of the others for varying lengths of time. I would offer that there are a couple more phases, mixed in with the ones listed here. There's a session phase, where the journey of discovery blossoms - you spend hours at a time sitting with one or two (or more) like minded people and batter ideas off each other until daybreak. The Cynic phase, where nothing is good enough. And the work phase, where is becomes a job and most of the enjoyment is leeched out of you...

Take care, Ian

P.S. Something to live by (at least I do): Sammy Davis Jr's definition of a professional - Someone who does a good job even when he doesn't feel like it.

There's a session phase, where the journey of discovery blossoms - you spend hours at a time sitting with one or two (or more) like minded people and batter ideas off each other until daybreak. The Cynic phase, where nothing is good enough. And the work phase, where is becomes a job and most of the enjoyment is leeched out of you...

Thanks for that Ian. I love the session phase. Long may it reign. (as long as I have an umbrella that is).

There is also another stage that I just wasn't sure where it fitted in.

The Giving Something Back Phase

There is a stage at which point we wish to invent, write or innovate. I think this has a lot less to do with making money and more to do with a desire to be recognised or to give something back to the magic community. If money can be made from this stage all the better, but it isn't the driving force.

Absolutley stupendous post there my friend!

I have never learnt so much about myself in such a short space of time!

I think I'm somewhere mixed in between 3 and 4 at the moment. And you know the best thing about this post?

It shows us all that this road of magic never EVER ends (Sorry if that sounds a bit dreamy, but it's the way I feel. So there).

The Giving Something Back Phase

Ah, that sounds familiar...glub knows there's little money in Cottage Industry publishing!

Take care, Ian

bananafish wrote:

Mark Chandaue wrote:though my own path in magic isn't directly as you describe due to magic finding me at age 4 when I was given my first copy of Bobo's, and growing up surrounded by hard core sleight of hand workers

Oh how I envy you. Discovering Magic at that age. Being surrounded by hard core sleight of hand workers, and above all not being ble to afford to have CUPS so that you get the most out of every single piece of magic that comes your way.

You lucky lucky b word. Some people just have it sooooo lucky.

Hehe swings and roundabouts though, my father was well known and had a very strong reputation as a card worker and so I knew that if I touched cards I would always be compared to my Father. The other thing is that people treat you differenly as a kid, adult magicians are wowed by the fact that you can palm a coin at 6 years old and so pat you on the head and say well done rather than correcting errors in your technique. So you get to build up a dozen years of bad habits untill you start getting judged by the same standards as an adult magician. At around 16 I got a rude awakening from Bobby Bernard (not known for his tact or diplomacy ).

I was at the Blackpool convention and I showed a coin routine to Ron McMillan, he then called some other guys over and they were all saying how good I was for my age etc and doing wonders for my 16 year old ego. Then I showed it to Bobby Bernard and he responded "That was s***!!!" I was dumbfounded, Ron and many other respected guys had been singing my praises and this rather blunt guy comes along and bursts my bubble. After a while I went back to him and asked him what was wrong with it, he responded "Why are you pointing, why did you turn to the side etc ect". He then showed me how it should be done. Suddenly I had found my mentor. Bobby had known my father for years and took me under his wing, but it took many years for him to beat those bad habits out of me (and he really did beat them out of me with a ruler across the knuckles). I then spent the next few years basically relearning everything I'd been doing for the previous 10 years.

Mind you it had its advantages, my Father was good friends with Gus Davenport so Betty always used to look after me in Davenports. Ron McMillan and my dad worked together in Gamages (and Hamleys) and so again I was always looked after at International. Through my fathers reputation I basically got a free pass to the "in crowd" and so the guys I was hanging out with were Jerry Sadowitz, John Lenahan, Kevin Reay, Peter Dudley, Johnny Johnson, Al Glennan, Eddie Gibson, Ron McMillan, Bobby Bernard, Shiv Dougal, Jack Delvin, Ali Bongo, Steven Tucker and a whole lot of others guys (many of whom were affectionately known as the Magical Mafia). Those were happy days sitting around Rons studio and in the lounge at conventions just soaking up magic. Back then I used to eat sleep and breathe magic, nothing else existed. Oh and I really miss the annual * up that was the Ostende convention. Man I really miss those days.

Yes I really was one lucky son of a b....

Mark

Mark, could you please rub it in a little further? It doesn't quite sting yet!!

Wow, what an upbringing. I bet you have some amazing stories.


Great original post aswell, alot of that is very familiar, although I think it's ever so slightly different for me, as it is for all of us.

IanKendall wrote:Ah, nostalgia

Nostalgia's not what it used to be Ian, it's not what it used to be.


(Sorry, it had to be said!!)

very intresting and true nice post.

I think I missed all this initially, but I just sat down and had a read through the whole thing... and all I can say is...


WE'RE NO WORTHY !!!

Bananafish... awesome and invigorating start. Mate, that was inspiring.

Mark... HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU THINK WE CAN TAKE?!?!?!? Man alive—that's some sort of enviable past you've had. Appreciated, it had it's ups and downs, but most of us will only ever get near that much talent at the distance of the TV screen.

What an absolutely fab posting...

Inspiring me to add not an additional, but a parallel area—which has become something of a relevance recently, and being honest, is the 'uglier' side. Check out the Knepper post for a glimpse at why I feel this worth mentioning:

Phase 1. The Discovery Stage: Subsection (i)—Casual Enquirer (pre-CUPS)
You've bought a few things from magic stores which have elevated your persona from zero to hero. You have no concept of performance, you simply buy the stuff, spend 30 seconds gleaning the instructions and voila! Instant magician—you're ready to perform.

You spend hours on the internet, trawling around trying to broaden your magic knowledge to keep your reputation up. You are thirsty for knowledge, and you feel that the information you seek is out there somewhere.

Joining forums and bulletin boards to pry the answers, trying to get that extra mileage out of your 'charm'. Your audience consists of your family and friends, most of whom you've now shown not only the tricks, but also the secrets.

You've now accumulated downloads, movies and documents, non of which you own or have any intention of purchasing.

All of a sudden, you've become a magic-maniac. More information than you can possibly handle. You know a little about a lot of things—and you feel you've ascended to a higher level of magical skill—even though you've not even sat and learned any of the basics of magic.

You still perform to your friends and family, and tell them that 'it cost a lot of money and time to get this good'. You're average, and you still don't spend long enough practising. You flop most times, and your performances wouldn't even convince a blind man that you're doing it right.

Even the smallest criticism now hurts...