When do you know you are a professional?

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Sep 1, 2007
457
0
San Diego
maybe check out "what makes a better magician."

but w/e

my opinion is that when you can entertain the audience succesfully and they ask for more. which is why i consider myself a professional magician
 
Sep 11, 2007
235
0
34
Houston TX
A professional is someone that is receiving pay for a performance or once your making a living out of magic then your pretty much a professional, not if you do one gig a week is actually making a living out of magic, I hope I made sum kind of sence lol

Caesar Trujillo
 
May 4, 2008
207
3
NYC
a professional magician is someone who is able to perform well and has a nice patter.
Also, a professional magician is someone who can come up with creative tricks from different concepts in magic.
At least that's what I think
:)
 

morpheis91

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2007
199
4
Philadelphia
www.myspace.com
I disagree I think that you need to be making money to be considered a pro. I am not saying that you are not good you can be at pro level but not necessarily pro. Its just like with golf or any other sport. There are many amateurs who play at pro level but they are just not pros because they dont make money or arent paid to do what they do
 
Mar 30, 2008
203
0
DC
You will know when you are a professional.

You probably practice your sleights and trick every day and try to perfect them as best you can. You also probably go on Theory11 everyday and see the tricks they have to offer, as well as the performances in the Media Section.

When you see your sleights and presentational skills as perfect as some of the Artists or Theory 11 or some people in the Media Section, and when you get the same if not better reactions, that is when you will "kniw" if you are at the professional level.
 
Sep 26, 2007
591
5
Tokyo, Japan
This is actually quite a simple answer.

Being a Professional usually falls into two categories or classifications:

One: When your primary income comes from your trade, i.e, Sports, Acting, Design, Magic, Dance, etc...

Two: When a various professional league / organizaion recognizes you as a registered professional. For example, competing in a professional golf circuit, billiards circuit, bowling circuit. These usually involve passing preliminary tournaments, or a professional qualification test.

Being a professional is not just a matter of skill. You can say that someone is of professional skill, but not a professional. For example, my good friend is of the Pro level in billiards, but he doesnt play in the pro circuit, thus he is not a pro.

For magic, if you are making the majority of your income from magic, you are a professional. Since there is official Magician's professional association that overlooks the working Magicians in the States, world, all countries etc... then the only way to be classified as a pro, is to base it off of your income generated from Magic.

For those of you that don't earn your income from magic, but are very talented, then alass, I am sorry, you are just a "Talented Magician," or "an Advanced level Magician."
 
Sep 1, 2007
662
2
A professional is someone with a profession. So a professional magician is someone who's profession is magic - your primary source of income. A professional is also usually recognised by some kind of governing body as indicated in the previous post.

I am semi-pro; magic is one of my sources of income but only my main source of income "in season" (summer and christmas). To say that you consider yourself professional because you check this website every day or that you practise every day is incorrect. In fact, if you're not supporting yourself - if you're in school for example - you CANNOT be a professional because making a living is part of the definition. Call yourself an expert though by all means :)
 
When you wake up, what do you do? (Hold on, I actually have point here)
Well, let's say you sleep with pyjamas, shall we? Well, so you take off the pyjama, and dress yourself with everyday clothes.
Now let me ask you - when you dress yourself, do you even think about it? I guess the answer is no... But think, you weren't born with the ability to dress yourself. Somewhere along your life, probably as a baby, you put some serious thought as to how to dress yourself. Over time, as the years passed by, you got so good at dressing yourself, that it became quite a natural thing to do. You don't even think about it, you just take of your shirt, pants, etc. without having to concentrate or even consciously think about it.

When we do things as naturally as dressing ourselves, that means we've become professionals.

So, when the day comes, you'll be able to just hold a deck of cards in your hand, and just think about doing a pass, and your hands will already do it for you. On that day, you'll know you are a professional.
 
To me at least i think your a professional when what you do can give you enough to survive. if you do magic part time as a second job kind of thing, to me you are not considered a professional because your job is not magic, it adds to your normal job.
But this is just me, i could be wrong and this is just my opinion
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
When you wake up, what do you do? (Hold on, I actually have point here)
Well, let's say you sleep with pyjamas, shall we? Well, so you take off the pyjama, and dress yourself with everyday clothes.
Now let me ask you - when you dress yourself, do you even think about it? I guess the answer is no... But think, you weren't born with the ability to dress yourself. Somewhere along your life, probably as a baby, you put some serious thought as to how to dress yourself. Over time, as the years passed by, you got so good at dressing yourself, that it became quite a natural thing to do. You don't even think about it, you just take of your shirt, pants, etc. without having to concentrate or even consciously think about it.

When we do things as naturally as dressing ourselves, that means we've become professionals.

So, when the day comes, you'll be able to just hold a deck of cards in your hand, and just think about doing a pass, and your hands will already do it for you. On that day, you'll know you are a professional.

That makes no sense at all. If I can write/type without thinking about it, does that mean I'm a professional writer/typer? If I can walk without thinking about it, does that mean I'm a professional walker? Or more extreme, if I can throw a football without thinking about it, does that mean I'm a professional football player? Sorry, but what you said just doesn't make any sense.
 
That makes no sense at all. If I can write/type without thinking about it, does that mean I'm a professional writer/typer? If I can walk without thinking about it, does that mean I'm a professional walker? Or more extreme, if I can throw a football without thinking about it, does that mean I'm a professional football player? Sorry, but what you said just doesn't make any sense.

I was trying to get the general idea, but, um, yeah, you are a professional walker... Walking is pretty hard, you know, it took you a couple of months at least to master it when you were a baby, and babies have a much faster learning rate than adults.

If you play football, and you want the ball to move from point A to point B, a normal person will have to put a lot of effort, even unconsciously, to think about in which direction should he kick, how strong, etc.
However, a professional player will just think about getting the ball from point A to point B, and his body will do the motions for him, and usually he will also get it right.
Remember the first time you learned to do a double lift? You had to pay close attention to the feeling in your hand, and usually the cards separated from each other, and most of the time you didn't get it right. However, over time, you got more experience, and now all you need is to tell your body "lift two cards" and that's it.

I can give tons of examples from all sorts of places, but I'm sure you get the idea. Yes, you are a professional walker, so to speak, it's just not very impressive, because most of the people can do it. But not all people, let me tell you. My grandfather, for example, in his last years, had sometime forgotten how to walk, while walking.
And most of the people can throw a ball, but not all people can throw a ball and get it where they want it to be. That's professionalism.
 
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