talkmagic.co.uk

Hi,

I have started to slow down a bit as the things which I am learning are starting to become more complicated, but I have a couple of questions. At the moment I am only learning one thing every couple of weeks, at which pace show I be learning new things? My only concern at the moment is that I feel like I am slowing down quite a bit, and not really doing very much.

My second question is how much do you/ should you practice every day? I have dropped from over 4 hours when I first started to about half an hour in the evenings now... Is there a certain amount that I should?

Any help on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

Tjex

That depends exactly what you want do with your magic...if you want to become a full time professional, both practice and networking should be prioritised and regular effort asserted...however if you are just interested in magic as a hobby, just practice when and how you want to.

Indeed, the only person who can really decide is you. You need to decide what you want out of it and what you want to achieve.

Teller came up with the idea for 'shadows' when he was 16 so he must have spent about 30 years working on it before he performed it. Basically, you should practice something until you're happy that you're going to give a really good performance of it- it could be a day, it could be 30 years, it all depends on what you want to achieve.

Indeed, you need to practice your routines until you feel completely confident with them. I spend some time each day going over my sets to keep them fresh in my mind and to see if i can improve them.

I no I am only in the very early stages of my magic journey.
Coming up to a year now, but in that time I have practised every day, for several hours.
I never seem to get bored of the challenge, the learning process is the buzz for me.

Two to three times a week I go over the routines I have learned, just to keep them fresh in my head, &
I imagine I am doing magic for a group of people in front of me, & I actually talk through the trick out loud, as though there were people there.

For me it's just a hobby, but who knows. I have already been asked to perform in the local bar, as well as the local restaurant, but apart
from nerves, I just haven't got enough well rehearsed stuff to go with yet.
It's got nothing to do with the money, I just love to see the public's reactions.

Stephen PDF file on "Performing Magic To The Public" is excellent, & makes for some interesting reading.

At the end of the day, as the saying goes. "Practice makes perfect" but we can always improve.

Good lord, I feel like a seasoned pro....

CArl...

Do you ever perform in front of a live audience? If not, I suggest you start. Doesn't have to be formal, or at a pub or some sort of routine. Starting out, it just needs to be a few tricks in a relaxed atmosphere. It is only once you start performing will you know what you need to do. Don't worry about being 'good enough' because if you wait till you are 'good enough' you will never perform. And you will never be good enough until you do.

If you are performing now and again. Great. My only advice is don't turn the hobby into a chore otherwise you will just drop it. Do what is comfortable for you.

bmat wrote:Do you ever perform in front of a live audience? If not, I suggest you start. Doesn't have to be formal, or at a pub or some sort of routine. Starting out, it just needs to be a few tricks in a relaxed atmosphere. It is only once you start performing will you know what you need to do. Don't worry about being 'good enough' because if you wait till you are 'good enough' you will never perform. And you will never be good enough until you do.

If you are performing now and again. Great. My only advice is don't turn the hobby into a chore otherwise you will just drop it. Do what is comfortable for you.

Thanks for the great advice, I am taking it very slowly and am making sure I enjoy it, even though I may not be practicing alot like I used to. Having said that I am putting together a piece for a small youth group talent show, so I better get to work...

If I was training for the Olympics, I wouldn't put in four hours a day. How many tricks and routines do you know? A working pro will have less than a dozen. Maybe you are doing way way too much. If you have been at this a year now, and have not done it in public, then I suggest your focus is completely wrong. You need to forget practicing and begin doing tricks for people. It only becomes magic when you perform it for a spectator.

Indeed Tony, i have less than 12 effects in my close-up act and for mentalism it is even less. Try to get out and perform for a spectator, you will gain much experience and have a lot of fun doing it. Even by having nine strong effects you have more than enough material. a working pro will probably have two or three sets of three effects they have used for a long time (even many years).

I have done it for half a year, and have a performance coming up next week on friday. I have reduced my practicing times, and need to sort myself out with some decent material. I know how to do quite a bit, but haven't yet put them into a series of routines

A good thing to do is to group things into sets. Each set will consist of three effects and gives you a good performance time for groups and tables. Start with a good fast card effect (e.g. Diminshing? Not Likely! By Paul Gordon or the excellent Icebreaker by Lee Smith -longer but multiphase) then maybe go into a ring flight or chop cup then you could end with a good ACR / card in wallet.

Stephen Ward wrote:... then you could end with a good ACR ...

I didn't know there was such a thing.

Not a fan of ACR?

I suggest you do something a little different. Instead of practicing individual effects like a magic dealer would and how everybody else tends to think. Try instead to learn routine's that have different phases in them and when you are working on the sleights required for it, work on the sleights only for about 20 min at a time, then take a 10 min break and come back to the sleight later on in the day. This should speed up your muscle memory a lot more than simply practicing something for hours on end.

As for the routine idea, it should make it easier for you to learn, because you want have to keep switching gears each time you practice/perform.