talkmagic.co.uk

I have been practising magic for 25 years and know a fair few tricks now. However, I was wondering how many tricks you knew very well that you could perform very confidently to spectators. Do some of you have 10 amazing tricks or 100 average tricks or somewhere in between ?

Usually the tricks I learn I pick up pretty quickly and I am able to do them well after about a week. The problem is that I often forget the tricks that I know . But sometimes I flip through my magic books and I look at the effect descriptions and I think to myself "Hey! I love that trick! I'm gonna perform that right now!".

about 8-10, i'd say.

it's better to know a few tricks, but perform them well, rather then knowing lots and perform them badly.

thats a quote from somebody I'm sure of it!

i know an extreme amount of effects, some i perform once and neveer again, but i always keep note of them in my magic book just incase!

I've mastered about 6 effects

I know about 6 effects well. I know a couple others but they don't really fit my style so I never use them.

I know about 5 perfectly. The first is my ACR, I even fool myslef sometimes!

shaneking wrote:I have been practising magic for 25 years and know a fair few tricks now. However, I was wondering how many tricks you knew very well that you could perform very confidently to spectators. Do some of you have 10 amazing tricks or 100 average tricks or somewhere in between ?

Read the first paragraph to the preface of RRTCM

I can safely say I know about 3 standard routines.

I'm at the stage where I like coming up with my own routine by mutating standard routines that I've practised. At this point, I wish I know more but I can perform about 2 routines I came up with myself. I have to say though that they're both works in progress.

About 200 effects all in, of which I can perform roughly 160 to a perfect standard every time. By which I mean about 3.

Tomo wrote:

shaneking wrote:I have been practising magic for 25 years and know a fair few tricks now. However, I was wondering how many tricks you knew very well that you could perform very confidently to spectators. Do some of you have 10 amazing tricks or 100 average tricks or somewhere in between ?

Read the first paragraph to the preface of RRTCM

twas what i was going to say.
when someone asks me how many tricks i know i usually say "er.. about 6..." or something. although now I'm learning a wider range of stuff, like escapology (how fun!); but i'd still say i only know about 5 or 6 card tricks, of which i regularly perform 3.

You know, it strikes me that if you know about 6 techniques, you've got a career just by dressing them in different presentations.

I'm sure Derren would agree

1. being an entertainer, the rest is just props.

IT really doesnt matter how many you know.

And no, no one has mastered an effect, to master means you perform the effect flawless everytime, your presentation cant be beat, needs no refignmnet... Mastering is near perfection.

Its not how much you know, it what you do with that knowledge and how you do it.

Every effect I perform I am always changing; whether it be just more practice or a new patter, or even a word.
I never perform an effect the way its taught in a dvd or book. I always make a change or two or three, or more.

And when i get an effect, it may be months before i take it public.
There is a very good reason for that, many of the newer magicians wont know or care to understand.