talkmagic.co.uk

Hi TM Members..
I just thought I'd share my current relationship with my magic with you..

I got into magic first because I was a Tarot Reader who met a close up magician in a new age shop I was working in about 10 years ago.
I was so blown away by what he showed me that I persued an interest with magic for a few years but then I dropped it.
A few weeks ago I found myself re-discovering my old magical interests and decided to give it all another go.
Through all this time I have been working at my "day job" as a Tarot/Psychic Reader.
Here is my bone of contention..
I don't really want to practice in front of friends, continuously thrusting my deck-of-cards in front of them because I don't want to have to keep going into the scripts and the role that performing a trick/routine involves. When I'm with my friends, I'd rather hang out with my friends and be "real" with them without using them too much as guinea pigs.
But I really want to perform magic (without becoming a bore or even worse a magic-prat).
It's such a chicken-and-egg situation.
Because in order to perform magic, you need the confidence, and in order to get the confidence you need the experience (and presumably the learning curve of doing numerous tricks in an ultimately lukewarm fashion until they are honed).
So where do I go and to whom do I inflict my magic onto?
This leads me to thinking that maybe I should perform for charity first.. and so I am going to be open to giving free performances when and where I can.
And if anyone on here has any ideas or offers then I would be most greatful.
I think that's it really (for now).
I just suppose I need to add that I can practice as much as I want in front of a mirror, at home to myself etc.. but nothing will compensate for the experience of performing in front of real live people with their eccentricities and foibles and randomnesses.. all this whilst I'm trying to remember the mechanics of the trick also and pull the whole thing off! You can perform a trick to your friends, once, twice, three times, but to get the real experience comes from performing so many times in front of so many people and the whole thing is such a nerve-wracking daunting task, to notch up the experience!
I don't have the same problem with my Tarot readings but that's only because of over 10 years experience of dealing with all manner of people and questions.
I just wish I had the same amount of experience with my magic and mentalism and feel thoroughly daunted by the forseeable task of gaining that experience.. which is why I gave it up for a few years earlier on. But I'm determined not to be thwarted this time. So all advice greatfully recieved
Thanks for reading this rambling.

Do as much rehearsing (not just practising moves) as you can before showing friends. If you know the routine backwards, that too can give you confidence. There are some things you can only get by performing, but a lot of it can be nailed by making sure you're happy with what you have to do.

Personally, I wouldn't do a charity performance until you've done some stuff for friends and family. Even if you aren't getting paid, you still need to put on a good show for the charity.

Hey voodoomick, we have much in common. I was a tarot reader first and then many years later "discovered" magic (a David Blaine TV show blew me away and I realised that magic didn't have to be Paul Daniels). What I now do is work professionally as a magician and a tarot/palm reader - and 90% of the time I combine the two. So a "normal" card trick becomes something quite mysterious when one introduces a palm reading in the middle of it. If you start working as a close-up magician and you have the ability to also read palms and/or do the tarot you will find yourself much in demand. You'll also see how once you do a reading for a spec, no-one else will want to see any magic - it'll be readings all the way!

Here's an idea for you. See what you think. As you work as a tarot reader, once you've done a reading for a client why not say: "I have something new I'm working on. Would you mind if I just see how it works with you?" Then perform your trick, whatever it may be but something with a psychic flavour would obviously work best, and see how your client reacts. If they ask if its a "trick" say yes. If they think you've done something amazing psychically, don't discourage it! If you screw up just admit that it's still just work in progress. May work???

I don't do many paid gigs, most of my performances are done in the pub. I'll usually start off by showing some tricks to either friends or the barman. This usually gets a bit of interest from other people in the bar, when that happens I'll start performing for them.

I've recently descovered that sponge balls are a brilliant attention grabber so now I'll always perform sponges first.

so many good sponge reviews... i have no choice but to get some for crimbo...

sponge work helps you with your coin work full stop, and metioned someware else i think the sponge ball kit dvd is a good choice.

for me i never had many friends, boarding school accent and all that, so i used to practise wile having coffee sponges and coins and a lot of not trying to turn the haunted key.
often people would come up and ask if i could show them something and i would go from there, later on as my experience progressed i handed out business cards.

oddly enough i started out doing rune card readings, practising spreads and readings in coffee bars and recoeved the same reactions to magic practice.

haha i do that whole, 'practice in full view of everyone' thing so people ask to see a trick, and so it takes away the idea you forced yourself upon them...