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I remember someone mentioning that they had lots of cut out eyes.

Marvell wrote:I remember someone mentioning that they had lots of cut out eyes.

Ed Gein?

I'm liking this thread, again lots of useful advise here I'd like to add a few more practice related questions if possible?

I'm practicing as much magic a day as humanly possible but I'm not 100% sure whether I am distributing everything I am learning particularly well? Let me explain.

A typical day for me is sat in work at a desk so I can't sit there with a pack of playing cards nor can I set up a mirror to see if for instance my French Drop is gradually improving, so for most of the day I keep a coin handy and practice concealments like the classic palm, downs palm etc etc (as well as going on TM ).

On my lunch hour I'm still unable to sit at my desk with a pack of cards so I go to my car (sad I know but there's nowhere else to go!!) and have been practicing The Hindu Shuffle, Overhand, Dovetail and sometimes read through a trick and slowly go through it to see if I can get it to work (the latter I'm not sure if best practice to be honest?) I go back to work and play with a coin, practice concealments and generally play with a 50p.

At home however I sit at the table and this is where think my time could possibly spent more wisely. I have a few card tricks from Alkazar and Mark Wilson that I've decided I like, so I sit at my dining table and slowly go through each one (I can't remember the names of them at the moment but I can find out later) again making sure I know how they work and then I perform a quick trial on the missus. Now at this point I've not included any patter at all but I've jotted down lots of brief ideas in my notebook but haven't practiced the trick with any patter included. Would you say this is unwise? The trick feels somewhat incomplete and I know that the performance is extremely important (have I just answered my own question?)

Add to this that on an evening I also want to practice some vanishes from Bobo and some other coin tricks in front of the mirror you can probably see why I am questioning my current practice routine! Am I trying to cram too much in? Should I be more disciplined?

Any advise regarding the above would be most appreciated

Take it one step at a time. My advice would be to work your way through Mark Wilson's book first, learn each section before moving on to the next. Run thhrough every trick in the section and when you've done that go back over it and make a note of a few tricks that you really like. Work on these tricks, practice them as you would perform them and that includes patter. Try putting together a routine or two of 5 tricks.

But do take it slowly and really get to grips with what you're learning before moving on to something else.

Adam, I've found there are few places where I can't practice something or other. Most people will fiddle with a pen at work, or doodle in a meeting or something. A coin will probably go unnoticed as long as you're subtle with it. Mind you, more than once I have snapped out of a lovely daydream at work to find that everyone has been staring at my hands for the last twenty minutes.

If I'm somewhere where I can 'tune out' safely (like presentations at work and stuff) I can run through things in my head, such as parts of routines that I'm not happy with. Nobody blinks if you write things down.

Mind you, I got caught fiddling with my deck under a table once. "What are you doing under there?". Heck.

I recently read some great advice about practicing and how to stop oneself from learning bad habits.
Usually a sleight is made invisible by making it look look like you are doing something else e.g D.L is meant to look exactly like a S.L.

So for practising the example above you would alternate between the two. First perform a D.L and then a S.L. Over time this should develop to a point where each is identical as you get instant feed back from studying the difference between the two.
I have found it very useful in the attempt to create invisible and natural sleights.

You may think you have practised loads and that you can do the trick each time perfectly but when your around people you get more tense and concentrate on just one thing getting the sleights right the chnces are you'll muck them up because your focused to much try to relax and communicate with the spectators more. Do some easy tricks on them first to get them relaxed and you'll also get to see if their responsive to your tricks if so carry on with your tricks. Theres an old saying that goes like this "practise, practise then practise some more" put it to use

I remember a quote from somewhere, not quite sure who it was by.

"Don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong".

Basically in practicing you will eventually get the effect performed good at least once, but because of this, it doesn't mean you can do the effect perfect everytime.
The tricks I truly master are the ones that I can perform without having to think of what I am doing, I let my hands do their own thing and I don't necessarily need to concentrate on the cards, that way I can speak and present the trick smoothly without slurring speech or patter due to concenration, or handling the cards in a sketchy manner.

Although this mainly comes with confidence, I practice a lot of tricks for a long time, depending on the effect it could be in the space of a day, or perhaps a fortnight.
Then in continuing with practicing, you give yourself a real life challenge perform it to a spectator if you fail then you know that you need to practice, if you suceed then you can consider what else can be added or done to make this better.

I follow the quote "The more you do something, the better you get".
And again linking back to what I already said, once you have performed the trick enough times you can automatically do the effect without thinking and make it smooth and flowing, in the handling and presentation.

An example of this is when I perform Reset, I have done it so many times its like a flourish where my hands remember exactly where they have to be and what to do, that way I can have my mind clear to think on the patter and presentation.

Its almost like learning a self working trick, the trick does everything for you, so you can think on the presentation, and in the same sense the more you perform a trick that needs more thought, the better you will get at doing it and it becomes simpler and easier to perform with the experience gathered.

Just practice some more, show it every now and again, and practice to the extent where you don't have to think about what you are doing.