talkmagic.co.uk

Ok, here is another "S**t -stirrer" for you!

I think I'll continue with this run of questions...kind of a gut spilling confessional...brutal honesty with yourself and trusted others is a profound journey you can take right now, it'll do you good...

How many tricks do you actually perform properly?

Seems an innocent enough a question, hmm? Read on my little "liars" ...

Personally I am a trick slut...I have too many and most of them I never perform, but I am a self confessed "armchair performer - techno-boffin - inventor". ...you know, one of those!

I do find, however, that I tend to have a few stalwart favourites that I practice almost out of bordom...to calm my nerves and feel like a magician from time to time...Doubleback, Colour Monte, Matchbox Penetration, What's Mine is Mine, Haunted Key, a simple bill appearance/vanish with a TT, and a few gaffed deck effects (Svengali type things) ...nothing elaborate.

Do you tend to leap about a lot from the latest cool effect and "magician fooler" to keep friends and family on the hop and to amuse your own need to "do new stuff"? Or do you really think you have come to perfect ALL aspects of a trick or set of tricks to the "nth" degree and perform them with time worn slickness and grace?

Really...REALLY?

Who was it that said something about a magician perhaps being best served by knowing a limited series of tricks VERY well and performing them beautifully? I'm sure I read something like that.

Where do you HONESTLY think you are with the wide world of tempting tricks out there? C'mon...what you actually do...not what you'd like to believe about yourself.

Professionals always have a much smaller repertoire than amateurs because they have to be good.

Amateurs like myself can afford to fool around with hundreds of effects because we don't have to sustain a high level of performance.

But if an amateur wants to reach a professional standard they need to restrict themselves and work hard at their (now small) repertoire.

I reckon a dozen tricks is enough for most serious performers.

(I know the amateur/professional distinction is over simplistic, but I'm sure you guys know what I mean.)

Interesting...........

I have what some would consider a fairly decent collection of tricks and like most, this continues to grow month by month (usually around pay day). I'm a sucker for buying new tricks that I haven't seen before and that impress me. Sometimes I buy because of outstanding quality. Saying this, I have made a conscious effort not to buy any more card based effects and have stuck to this for the past three or four months.

There are tricks amongst my collection, including fairly new ones that I don't touch anymore for a variety of reasons. These are usually tricks that I can perform, but in the interest of honesty I don't consider that I perform these any better than adequate. Most laymen wouldn't spot how they were done if I gave and impromptu performance, but I've either got bored with them, they don't fit too well into my routine, I may have bought to put away for a later date or I have bought to be in the know. A few I will perform badly but I'm not always encouraged to practice and improve with a few of these.

Personally I am a trick slut...I have too many and most of them I never perform

I suppose that I'm not too different!

Moving on, there are a small number of tricks, perhaps no more than a dozen that I consider that I perform very well and these are the ones that I will get out and practice to boredom. More often than not, these are also the ones that are in my routine because they are tried and tested and they work well for me in that they nearly always get a good reaction from an audience. I say 'nearly' as you will often come across someone who's not interested and will watch, so that they're not left out (usually a bloke).

These are a combination of cards, coins, rope and other bits. Some are self workers and some aren't. Some of these I get fed up with and others I still love but they all seem to work for an audience. Some of them are also tricks that are adaptable and can be presented in a number of different ways which is another reason that I regularly play around with these ones. Experimentation if you like.

Who was it that said something about a magician perhaps being best served by knowing a limited series of tricks VERY well and performing them beautifully? I'm sure I read something like that.

I didn't say it but I do work to this principle.

Looking at what I've payed for in the past six months, none of it has been added to my working routine but will usually be in routines for friends and family who tend to be my test audience. I may not perform all of these tricks flawlessly and they may not link together or flow together effectively, and I do realise this but I'm looking for different things from my magic at this point. I'm looking for the experience of performing a new trick in front of a critical audience and judging their reaction. Some of these may become favorites but will not necessarily get into my main routine.

Where do you HONESTLY think you are with the wide world of tempting tricks out there? C'mon...what you actually do...not what you'd like to believe about yourself.

I'm by no means the best magician and will never get even close to being the best magician. I'm trying to be the best that I can be. I get a fantastic amount of enjoyment from my magic and I can pass some of that onto others. That in itself is part of the magic for me.

Moving on, there are a small number of tricks, perhaps no more than a dozen that I consider that I perform very well and these are the ones that I will get out and practice to boredom. More often than not, these are also the ones that are in my routine because they are tried and tested and they work well for me in that they nearly always get a good reaction from an audience. I say 'nearly' as you will often come across someone who's not interested and will watch, so that they're not left out (usually a bloke).

These are a combination of cards, coins, rope and other bits. Some are self workers and some aren't. Some of these I get fed up with and others I still love but they all seem to work for an audience. Some of them are also tricks that are adaptable and can be presented in a number of different ways which is another reason that I regularly play around with these ones. Experimentation if you like.

this is me to a "t" i also have about 20 tricks that i don't realy like or don't like performing or just don't perform well.
so i'd have to say i perform about 5-10 tricks well which is no meens vast but I'm comftable with it.

The words of the advertiser are generally like that old story of some naked guy in a backyard who came across a naked woman and tried to steal a piece of her fruit when his snake got excited ( or something to that effect - I am sure you have heard the wife's tale somewhere)...

Temptation is the name of the game, and learning to kill it.

We all have bought effects in the passed, umpteen upon umpteen, upon hundreds, and these have either gone into the bottom of the bottomless wardrobe, out of the window into the garbage, or we have sold them on to our "friends" ( could be substituted for sucker!) at the local magic club.

Take a look at David Williamson for example. He will openly admit that he only knows five effects, and never performs more than this.

Marvin Roy as Mr. Electric performed the same act for many years, each delicate step choreographically worked out until it could be done blindfolded.

Take a look at the Vegas magicians for example - most have a straight routine, or a limited repertoire which changes only once every few years ( and then only one or two effects are changed).

Contrary to the common saying " familiarity breeds contempt" I suspect that the exact opposite is true here with the magic effects.

And there in lies the key difference - someone who knows a lot of tricks, or a person who deserves the title magician, who performs magic effects...