Tight Situation

Mar 22, 2010
32
0
He's just suggesting a trick that projoke might find helpful in these situations. That's what he asked for

Thanks for the heads up, but really, I'm aware of that. I'm just wondering about the why here ;).

Maybe it's just me, but I find that looking at the why is often infinitely more helpful and interesting than the what. How can you truly understand something and how and why it works, if you're not given the motivation behind it? How can you possibly accept a conclusion if you're not given the reasoning behind it? There has to be some sort of logical flow that follows from the premise and leads up to the conclusion, no?

I fully realize what the advantages of key cards are, with regards to being completely surrounded or when handling a deck that is in bad shape. What I fail to grasp, however, is how switching to a different effect or method will solve what I think is the true problem.

This might be due to my failure to actually see the true problem here, of course. For all I know, I'm just rambling here from behind my computer about how they should try to focus on dealing with people first, and effects later, while the true problem was actually one of method.

This is why I requested about the reasoning here. Again, all I'm trying to do here is to get some theoretical discussion off the ground, as opposed to simply suggesting more tricks. That way, we can maybe all learn from each other's ideas and positively contribute to a greater collective understanding of why we do what we do.

Just a thought.
 
Jun 6, 2010
796
0
Nashville, TN
Thanks for the heads up, but really, I'm aware of that. I'm just wondering about the why here ;).

Maybe it's just me, but I find that looking at the why is often infinitely more helpful and interesting than the what. How can you truly understand something and how and why it works, if you're not given the motivation behind it? How can you possibly accept a conclusion if you're not given the reasoning behind it? There has to be some sort of logical flow that follows from the premise and leads up to the conclusion, no?

I fully realize what the advantages of key cards are, with regards to being completely surrounded or when handling a deck that is in bad shape. What I fail to grasp, however, is how switching to a different effect or method will solve what I think is the true problem.

This might be due to my failure to actually see the true problem here, of course. For all I know, I'm just rambling here from behind my computer about how they should try to focus on dealing with people first, and effects later, while the true problem was actually one of method.

This is why I requested about the reasoning here. Again, all I'm trying to do here is to get some theoretical discussion off the ground, as opposed to simply suggesting more tricks. That way, we can maybe all learn from each other's ideas and positively contribute to a greater collective understanding of why we do what we do.

Just a thought.

Ah, I get you.
 
Mar 27, 2011
44
0
Thank you all for the solid advice, I appreciate it very much.
Someone before asked "why do bees flash during DL"
My answer: They have no border and if the deck is moved a little bit it is exposed. Therefore I do not feel confident and sure with them
 
Nov 27, 2009
456
3
I see the point about the borderless-ness. I also think that if your dl would flash with Bee cards it'll flash with any borrowed, borderless cards. Work on your DL until you can do it with borderless cards. If you cant to a dl with borderless cards, you can forget about using an Artifice deck for an ACR, and I'd hate to see someone robbed of that little bit of fun.
 
Sep 1, 2007
131
0
It seems to me that an underlying problem here is your level of confidence in yourself when it comes to performing magic. From what I can tell, you are able to confidently flourish for these crowds, but as soon as there's an obstacle in the way of your magic, you let it stop you. If you have the ability to perform the "magical" techniques, yet lack the confidence, maybe just look at the level of confidence you have in your ability to openly perform your flourishes. Just a thought.
 
Mar 22, 2010
32
0
Aaron.Williams said:
Ah, I get you.
Good, I'm glad that's settled.

@Toby:

My question still stands ;).

Maybe I should just switch sides here though, just to get some different points of view into the discussion.


It seems to me that an underlying problem here is your level of confidence in yourself when it comes to performing magic. From what I can tell, you are able to confidently flourish for these crowds, but as soon as there's an obstacle in the way of your magic, you let it stop you. If you have the ability to perform the "magical" techniques, yet lack the confidence, maybe just look at the level of confidence you have in your ability to openly perform your flourishes. Just a thought.

This is actually a really interesting point. I remember often feeling the same way (and even using the same "solution") when I first started out. For the people hanging around on these boards who are struggling with the same problem, I'll see if I can give some helpful advice.

When you get right down to it, confidence is probably the most important problem that most people face when dealing with strangers, or worse, people that they know but aren't friends with. You'll be especially afraid of screwing up in front of those people, because if you do, you're both guaranteed to see them again and they won't have the urge that your friends have to hold back any negative comments.

The particularly ****ty thing about a lack of confidence is also that the only way to really get over it, is to do those exact things that it's holding you back from doing. Hooray for catch-22's.

Fortunately however, there are a couple of ways you can cheat yourself here;

- Stop performing at school. I know, this way you won't get to build up your reputation as an awesome magician. However, you'll also get to avoid the people in the category mentioned above. Most importantly though, you get to avoid the hormone-driven, competitive, status-oriented social experiment that is highschool.

- Start performing for strangers. This way, you'll still get your practice in, while at the same time being releaved of the dooming repercussion you fear to face if you screw up around people you know. Alternatively...

- Stop performing altogether (for now).

Instead, start practicing seperately. Practice magic, and practice dealing with people, but don't combine them yet. Regarding magic, pick some (like, three) effects that you really like, preferably technically easy. Then practice, practice, practice. This is the default advice, and it's a good one. Practice not until you know how it's done, or even until you can do it without screwing up. Practice until you start doing it accidentally, and flawlessly. Then practice some more. Do not deviate from or expand upon those effects. Yes, it'll get really really boring, really really fast. It's also the only way to really master anything.

Regarding people, start approaching strangers, and talk to them. Don't worry that you don't know what to say. At the risk of repeating myself; ask questions. Do not try to impress them with how awesome you are. Do not try to talk to them about yourself. Talk to them about themselves, and they'll keep on going for hours. Afterward, they'll walk away thinking "What an unbelievably nice guy" (or girl). And, the weird thing is, they won't have the slightest idea about who you are or what you do. Still, you've got your practice in, and possibly (probably) made someone else's day particularly beautiful.

If you still find this to be a bit above your league, here's another suggestion. When out on the streets, going about your daily routine, make eye-contact with people, and don't break it off when they look back. Instead, smile (Slightly. Don't try to pull off some weird-ass grin here), and maybe give them a small polite nod. Do that for a couple of weeks, then continue with the next phase.
Do exactly as before, but say "Hi" to people when they're close. That's it, just "Hi". Following these steps should build up your confidence enough to eventually start to actually approach strangers and start a conversation. You'll get some practice in the meantime because some people whom you say "Hi" to will actually come over and start a conversation with you by themselves. When this happens, remember to ask questions.


- If you choose to continue performing in school, stop doing "hard" tricks, and focus solely on very easy and/or self-working tricks. Like Toby's suggestion, look at effects with key cards. Possibly, look at effects that make use of duplicates or stranger cards. Then, let those special items do the work for you. This way, you can focus your own energy on interacting with your audience, while at the same time not having to worry overly much about screwing up a move, keeping an eye at your angles, hecklers burning your hands, etc. As a rule of thumb, pick effects with no more than one "move" in them. Make sure you still put in the required time to work on your presentation though.

You might have started to think that you are "above" those kinds of effects, as your sleight of hand is developed much further than what is required for their execution. Do not make this mistake. Your audience doesn't know what method is used, so it's not like they could even consider thinking less of it than some effect utilizing UltraHardMove2000.

Anyway, this post has gotten way longer than I originally anticipated, so I'll leave it at this for now.

To close, @everyone:

Really, feel free to jump in and completely burn down everything I've said and/or add thoughts that you feel should've been included. I know that there are a lot of very experienced and intelligent people frequenting these boards, with insights they've acquired through years of experience, that I haven't even begun to think about. The following comment is mostly geared towards those people.

Threads on this topic (and closely related ones) are constantly being created by people who are just starting out, and they're all running into the same problems.

Let's really give them something to think about, shall we?
 
Feb 7, 2011
362
1
Thank you all for the solid advice, I appreciate it very much.
Someone before asked "why do bees flash during DL"
My answer: They have no border and if the deck is moved a little bit it is exposed. Therefore I do not feel confident and sure with them


That's an invalid point, a borderless deck is not a handicap when it comes to double lifts. I haven't used a double lift in any performance in months, but bee's are my primary deck, so im always practicing the double lift anyway. A borderles deck will not a flash a double, it's only disadvantage is that a card face up in the deck can be spotted. Thats just a technical point I though id throw my two cents in for. Also, you should email lennart green and tell him mathematical effects get no reaction at all. I think ill just direct you to the quick fix you're looking for, blake vogt's torn restored effect is for sale in the tricks section.
 
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