talkmagic.co.uk

i totally agree with magicdiscoman, i couldnt have thought of anything better.

a magician is a performer an entertainer, someone who has spent time in practising the art and above all enjoys what they do and believes in them selves

Larry i think what you did to that kid was not the best way. This Kid may have just started and of course being young he may be getting used to Magic. I have had magicians perform in front of me and i would never say i am a magician, i will watch them perform their trick and then shake their hands say well done that was amazing and thank you, not only because the trick maybe brill but because this person built the courage to perform in the first place


Jags

I have to agree. I am a hobbyist and am reasonably confident with cards. I do magic for people when I can and so far it has never gone wrong (probably because I am so paranoid I practice loads). However, this said, every performance, regardless of the audience, feels like being on stage at wembley, stark naked and in front of 70,000 professional magicians. For this reason, whenever someone does a trick on me, even if it is one I know I can do better, I try to be as supportive as possible. Anyone who can work up the courage to try their tricks out on anyone else deserves hearty applause!!!! We all have to start somewhere and we have to remember that we probably did some pretty awful magic to people when we first started, but what kept us going was their encouragement and support.

On the magic question - I tend to stay away from gaffs now (apart from a couple of favourites!!), purely because i enjoy learning and using sleights. When I first started I, like many people, relied more heavily on gaffs. Magic performed well with a gaff is no lesss valid than magic performed well with unprepared items, it is all about the experience you create for the spectator. If someone is genuinely amazed by what you have done then you have added to their appreciation of magic as an art form and that can only be a good thing for all of us.

boo, have just had to update my profile to read (31:AH) instead of (30:AH).....oh alas.. Birthdays are great but the getting older bit sucks.

I still slip on some tricks

but thats where i learn further


Jags

Sorry if I bring up something someone alread said (I got board of reading the previous posts ) but I feel that its not about whether you have 100% gimicks or if your a master of sleight of hand. Its all about your performance. All tricks are basicially very simple and unimpressive, but if you display it in a way thats unbelieveable, then your a magician. Like a Svengali Deck has the most simplistic mechanics you could come up with and yet if you "perform" with it, then it becomes magic.

Hum....good question...

Here's my thoughts,

You can call your self a magician when.... (also see below)

- You are able to confuse / baffle and entertain someone by using a trick.
- You have practised and studied a trick / a set of tricks that you have the ability to entertain.

Personally i dont call myself a magician. I say i am an entertainer. By saying this, i can perform a trick with borrowed object, pack of cards and the odd / occasional gimicked object. OR i can perform a simple vent sketch, make someone laugh or anything else that i can do etc.

I know I used to do some pretty awful tricks, but my cousin shoiwed me some tricks when I was younger that made me want to do better magic.

I know that the tricks he showed me were only a fraction better, and look who does the magic now

mimulus wrote:Some food for thought larry! If you were performing a routine for someone and had been getting good reactions and that person at the end took your cards and started to do things that were more exciting ..and started to steal some of your lime light how woud you feel?

I think upstaging just creates a very negative impression all round. I'd still do the big-grin-clap-handies bit at the end like everyone else, but later I might offer to show him an effect of my own with his deck when there are fewer people around. If he's not interested, well, there we are... Next time I might do a little something of my own after he's finished running through his shtick - with his deck - if people want a bit more.

I think that it's for others to call or refer to you as a magician. It's up to you to create something magical for them to coax them into calling you a magician.

In my opinion if your using only self working tricks then you're a trickster. To become a magician then you at least should learn some slight of hand and misdirection

I don't call myself a magician but the people who ring me up and book me do, so who am I to argue?

Magicdiscoman (MagicDiscoMan) hits the spots, as usual, with his comments.

I recently did my audition for an august and learned group of people using nothing but stock tricks (diebox, silk tube, dream bag, etc.) and at the end one of the members said that I shouldn't be too disapointed if they asked me to come back and re-audition. After all, he explained the art of magic was using sleight and having good forces.

As I was leaving I was approached by someone and told that I would receive a formal acknowledgement from the committee that I had been accepted as a member. (huzzah!)

In the car park, another member approached me and told me that he'd never seen any of the tricks used in the way I used them or with that patter. Of course he must have seen them used the same way (only way they work!) but what he meant was that they were different tricks (mine!) because of the way that I do them and with the patter and routines that I have made.

Weaving stories, practicising misdirection, doing your own stuff is part of being a magician. Repeating parrot fashion what you've seen on a DVD, doing tricks without polish or entertainment (wow, how many people are great mechanics but boring farts?) means you do magic and are (hopefully) on the road to becoming a magician.

Vic

You can call yourself a magician anytime you like. You can also call yourself a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon anytime you like. That doesn't prove anything.

What's important is when OTHERS call you oe of these things; that's when you ARE that thing.

In short, you can call yourself anything you want but it doesn't make you that; however, if others say you are a magician (or a millionaire or a race-car driver), you obviously have done enough to convince them of that and, therefore, you are!

agreed!

Vic - I have dream bag! I use it with my vent character. What a fab little trick!

we agreeing it's how you can make someone feel as opposed to how skillfull you are then? i certainly am!

i personlly think a magician is a guy who is in a tux or dressed nicely with a top hat and a wand on stage.

well i don't know what to call myself though... but others have called me a devil, a crazy man, and a "wtf?".

oh yeah, what was a 14 year old doing at a club anyways...

Zero000 writes: ". . . a magician is a guy who is in a tux or dressed nicely with a top hat. . ."

A guy in a tux and top hat is not a magician; he's a fashion disaster!