To beginner magicians.

Apr 6, 2011
540
6
Lansing, MI
This is one of my personal favorite card forums, a place that I love coming to for the heaps of excellent advice as well as the joy of giving some of my own every now and then. There has been a recent trend however that i'd like to address, in the most likely vain hope that it might curb this problem.

This forum is a place for magicians of all levels to come together, work together, and learn together. Through many mediums and with many types of magic you can almost always find what you are looking for. Now, I hope I speak for more than myself when I say this forum is NOT a place for you to advertise your youtube channel, ask for subscribers, or look for an audience for your youtube contest. If you have worked hard on a sleight or effect and are looking for critique or advice, by all means, I would love to see it! However, I do not want to see every trick you know, and I most definitely do not wish to see something you have been practising for all of two days. I apologise if I am coming off as pretentious, or a little high on my own ego, but I feel like this problem is just getting worse and worse, and needs to be addressed.
 
Jul 13, 2010
526
34
I think you refer to the recent "spam" in this forum and you`re absolutely right.
Sometimes it`s interesting to watch a performance on youtube, someone showing a "new" idea or asking for help or something like that, but most of the time, it`s not. Especially not tricks shown to the camera without an audience.
Not my cup of tea.
Go out and perform for real people. Everything else is just time wasted.
 

Bryson G.

Elite Member
Jun 13, 2013
47
19
I agree, I don't find it fun to watch you do a card trick you learned off of Youtube 30 minutes ago. This is my first time in the Card Technique category of the forum and I've only seen 3 threads that weren't advertisements of a channel. This needs to be known.*Insert frustrated and deranged cry here*
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
I'll report the threads, see if we can get a mod to conflate them into a couple of master threads assigned to specific users.

EDIT: Report sent. (sigh) The things I do to kill time when I'm sick.
 
Jun 12, 2013
12
0
New York
I think that everyone out here should stick to the posts regarding only and only magic..after all this is what this community is all about..neither any kind of spam or promotion should be practices out here. But it is sometime good to break the sweat off and talk about the other topics as well..i guess that will be a great idea.
 
Jun 19, 2013
45
0
Hey guys! Ok, so I see that everyone actually really DOES get offended if I or anyone else mentions the word "subscribe". Now, I want to apologize to everyone on here for making it seem like I spam. I really didn't know and really WAS new to this. Now, Steerpike, No I did not expect to get any comments on my videos telling me I'm super good. Also, out of all honesty, you did come across rather cruel, beings I am used to constructive criticism fromcstrangers. BUT, I realize that is your form of critique. I do apologize Steerpike for giving you attitude. Just, at least try being a TINY bit nicer when you critique please haha (I am not trying to start another argument). You see, I came on here to learn and get better, not seen as a spammer and etc. Also, NO I am not overestimating the use of my language....so please stop that. (for Steerpike)
Now, Tyler. I know you aren't trying to attack me. You are just Trying to preserve what this forum is all about. I apologize as well. And to ALL of you, sorry guys!!
OK, so. Now that I have that over with...I ask all of you not to hate on me if you do, i just want advice.
in that case, would it be OK to upload a video ONCE a week? In which I DONT promote my channel? Let me know what you guys think. Once again, I apologize. :)
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
Here's the thing. Even if all you do is post once a week without asking for subscribers, what are you contributing to the forum?
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
What experience do you have which makes your advice or opinions worth considering?

No offense intended, but if I'm looking for advice, I want it to come from someone who knows more than me. Which means having more experience than me, in most cases. I'm not going to ask advice on video production from someone with a collection of videos pointing at his crotch while disembodied hands do stuff with cards. I'm going to ask advice from the guy who's actually created interesting videos.

So how often do you perform for real, live audiences? How long have you been performing?
 
Aug 2, 2008
496
0
Cincinnati
Here's my suggestion: once you put up 1 video, and 1 only, read the constructive criticisms and then go practice that for a month. Then go back to your thread and repost a newer video showing your improvement. Work on the new comments you get. Then go out and practice for real people, maybe your parents or friends first. That is how you will get better. If you post a new video each week, you aren't given yourself enough time to improve one effect.

The issue with some many magicians is they can do a lot of card tricks badly. A good magician can do a few card tricks perfectly. (I believe Aaron Fisher said something of the sort....)
 
Aug 2, 2008
496
0
Cincinnati
And I say that from experience. Nowadays, I'm waiting months before I go out and try it on someone. I'm still not completely comfortable attempting the pass and I've been working on it for five years. Could I get away with it? Probably. But I'm not willing to risk it just yet. Soon I hope!
 
Apr 6, 2011
540
6
Lansing, MI
Mrdude, my respects to you for cutting tail and admitting your mistake, as that can be a hard thing to do. You tried and failed at it once before, please stick with it this time. Trust all of us when we say, the best thing you can do for yourself is to just sit back and listen to the advice of the magicians on here. This is a wonderful community of magicians, with ludicrous amounts of combined experience, and the advice that has been given to you is agreed upon by all of us.

Christopher and Steerpike can be particularly hard judges of one's work, deal with it. They know much, much more than both of us combined. Times three. Maybe four. Their criticisms are about as constructive as they get. What is common amongst the youtube magic community is what I like to call euphemistic criticism, better known as babying. "A man must be ground to nothing before he can be shaped into a hero." That quote, which I cannot for the life of me remember the origin, simply states that you must have no ego, whatsoever, before you can begin to become your best. Now while that is not a goal many men will ever attain, things such as euphemistic criticism are certainly not taking you in the right direction. They are a combo of ego-boost+kind-suggestion, when what you really need is humbling-remarks+meaningful-suggestion; which is better known as constructive criticism. Obviously there was a bit of discord between you and Steerpike, wherein you both made many assumptions of the other, again, deal with it, move on. Which is what I think you're trying to do. Props!

As to your new plan, many of the suggestions on here are already significantly better. However a nice compromise occurred to me. I'm sure that if you were to show to the community here that you are ready to take your magic to the next level, and that you're ready to leave behind many of your current less than beneficial ideals and practices, many here would be willing to give some of their time, effort, knowledge, and experience to you in the form of a little project. Essentially, show the community you're ready to move on, take the advice we have already given you, reflect and act upon it as soon as possible, and next week show us your improvement. Personally, if I can see that you are really striving to better your magic and your practises as a whole, I will be more than willing to watch your videos and offer advice in a weekly format. However, I cannot stress this enough, you have to show that you are both listening and working hard. If myself or anyone else feels as though our time is being wasted, we will stop wasting it.

In conclusion, we would all love to see you grow as a magician. Many here would love to help you on that journey. Personally I am willing to help you in a weekly project. BUT you have got to drop a lot of the things your holding on to, such as learning from people like andyfieldmagic or mismag, worrying about your youtube fame, and the like, so that we can know our efforts are not in vain. AND you have to be willing and ready to take tough criticisms and advice, and learn from them.

I truly wish you the best in this,

Tyler
 
Sep 8, 2012
86
1
They really are right. I was looking for good threads today, and actually had a hard time finding good threads. Most of them were videos of poorly executed card magic. And don't worry about youtube fame, I think I can handle a deck pretty well, and my most viewed video has 93 views. I posted a thread a while ago, because I needed some help around center dealing. And I got none. Ofcourse, I got help elsewhere, but maybe I couldn't get help because magicians were unable to find my post because of stuff you do around here.
 
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