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It was Malcolm Gladwell who pointed out that to become an expert at anything you need to put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. I know magic is not all practice as it is charisma, performance, entertainment etc. But you cannot tell me you have practiced anything near 10,000 hours of magic (both entertainment and technical skill) and there is really one outcome in my opinion... Not good enough to perform 'professionally', just my honest opinion anyway.

May God preserve me I am QUITE sure I have spent way, way more than 10,000 hours of practice in my life. What an awful thought...................

Sure, as a result of all this practice I am pretty skilled at sleight of hand but I have known since I was a kid that ENTERTAINMENT COMES FIRST. It is FAR more important than the magic. I first learned this from a beginner's book and I am very glad I took notice of it at the beginning. It was "Conjuring" (I think that was the title) by Wilfrid Jonson. It said, "First, you should remember that the object of a conjurer is not PRIMARILY to deceive. That is his secondary object-his first being to ENTERTAIN"

To be frank I found both aspects difficult but the entertainment was the hard part. You can always find easy tricks to do if you can't manage the difficult ones but how the hell do you ENTERTAIN people? I found that the murderous part of the whole business. But because of old Wilfrid Jonson I knew it was something I had to master and I eventually did. And the magic becomes STRONGER if you can entertain so there is no conflict of interest.

As for Bill Malone and Michael Vincent I am afraid I don't like either of them but for different reasons. The former is too "over the top" for me and I wish he would quieten down a trifle. I hate noisy exuberant performers no matter how eminent they are. Especially when they are trying to be funny but can't quite manage it. I find the noise takes away from the magic. You see, even though I believe you should be entertaining that does not mean the magic should be ignored. As for the latter performer I am afraid he looks far too pleased with himself for my liking and I do find him a trifle dull but then I have a very low attention span. Despite my disapproval I am well aware that both of them have their fans. And of course I like very few magicians. Pray that I am not in the audience when you are working. I may well be reading a book. Of course I am very tactful and will make sure that I am seated behind a very fat member of the audience so the performer can't see me. Diplomacy is my second name.

I suppose to sum it up I believe that entertainment comes first but the magic, although it comes second, it should be a very close second. There is no point doing wonderful magic if your audience is so bored by it that they pay no attention anyway.

Like Mark I have certainly passed the 10,000 hours - but it should be pointed out that this figure referred to the amount of practice needed to become world class at a discipline, not the amount of hours that were needed to perform a discipline to an acceptable professional standard.

Jim, you are right - I find Michael Vincent's performance, while technically brilliant, do not engage me. Having said that, he might well say that my performance does not engage him. That's a matter of taste. But I do not think that entertainment needs to be humour. I am quite happy to watch a moving, a chilling, or a thoughtful performance. Just so long as it is entertaining.

Jing, the reason I have a bee in my bonnet about card magic is that there is so much of it. Go to any club and all they seem to do is flick cards at each other. Go to a convention and the place is full of desperately bad card conjurers. I know that mentalism suffers from the same problem, but there are fewer mentalists, thankfully. I love mentalism, but I find it difficult to watch most mentalists. So it is not just cards I dislike! As for bad kids performers, natural selection deals with them. Most kids performers are pros, and the bad ones fail to make a living and go back to stacking shelves.

Oh, I dunno. I have seen some pretty atrocious kid show performers. Oddly enough in the old days I hardly saw a bad one. Now they are everywhere.

Interestingly enough, Derren Brown refuses to be labelled as anything. Those who know his background will appreciate that he started out as a table magician in and around restaurants on the south coast. He got annoyed when performing a cigarette through coin routine as one of the specs blurted out "there's obviously an hole in it." He realised that the mechanics of the effect were irrelevant, and it was purely a matter of how your audience 'perceive' the effect. If they decide that the method is obvious, then it is obvious and your trick has failed, whether they are correct or not. It was this incident that spurred him on to look more at the narrative side of magic. Using magic as a vehicle for storytelling and engaging the audience rather than performing at them.

He refuses to say that he is a mentalist, although most mentalists seem to worship him as the greatest living mentalist. He refuses to be labelled a magician, even though a lot of what he does is steeped in conjuring and deception. He doesn't want to be labelled as he doesn't want to be put in a box and defined. I think this is probably the best attitude. I have the word 'magician' on my business card solely because I know people will identify with it more readily than 'mentalist.' However, I yearn for the day when I don't have to put anything on my business card except my name. I much prefer performing mentalism to magic as it suits my personality and I like the storytelling aspect that goes with it. However, my primary goal with any effect is always to entertain.

As for card tricks, every now and then I perform the cards across for people - usually if I get handed a shuffled deck that's not my own. It always blows people away and it's so simple it's untrue. Those knucklebusting tricks are for competition magicians and geeky teenagers. Give me a solid self worker with a good story any day of the week!

k

Some good points there. If you saw a poster advertising, 'An evening with Paul Daniels', or 'Derren Brown in Cabaret', or 'David Copperfield World Tour' you'd have a fair idea of what you'd see there - no need to say more..

Cards across with a borrowed deck is a superb routine - and I have a very short attention span for card tricks!

I am a cardman, and love every moment of it.

I done walk around with my cards at my daughters school summer fair and I got gasps of amazement for my CARD tricks sorry if that steps on peoples toes and most prob be flamed about it but I love card magic.

It doesn't matter what sort of magic you do as long as you're enjoying doing it and your audience is entertained. People are always putting down cards or sponge ball or whatever it is that they don't like but the best thing you can do is not to listen to them and do what works for you.

How often do I hear people saying that they'd never be seen dead with sponges, they're out dated and childish? Guess what my favourite routine to perform is, which also happens to be the one that my audiences seem to enjoy watching? The sponge bunnies.

Lady of Mystery wrote:It doesn't matter what sort of magic you do as long as you're enjoying doing it and your audience is entertained. People are always putting down cards or sponge ball or whatever it is that they don't like but the best thing you can do is not to listen to them and do what works for you.

How often do I hear people saying that they'd never be seen dead with sponges, they're out dated and childish? Guess what my favourite routine to perform is, which also happens to be the one that my audiences seem to enjoy watching? The sponge bunnies.

I was thinking of doing sponge bunnies.