Being a magician. What is a magician anyays? Cards, coins, doves? Is it about going to kids birthday parties, or taking the stage to a sold out house? Is it about the newest effects or the coolest toys? Or how about all of our “secret” clubs and organizations for magicians by magicians, is it about them? What does it mean to be a magician?
When you get up in the morning, you put on your magic clothing, (for the most part we all have preferred wardrobe selections that we perform in.) you set your effects, pack your tricks, and your off to go entertain someone. You are one of thousands, maybe hundred thousands, of people who perform magic. What makes you so special? You’re doing something that has been already done before. For the most part, nothing original. When I see a magician perform I often ask myself “What are they all doing? I’ve seen this before.” Doves are produced from handkerchiefs, pick a card, any card. Lame. There’s nothing special to that, that’s just re-hashed stuff from some other guys act. Where is the originality, where is the character? Where is that ledge that I can grasp and hang my attention on? In attempting to find that ledge what I find instead is the most obvious short coming of most of magicians. The lack of self in anything they do.
Magic is, of course, an art. There are those who are short sighted enough to disagree with me on that, however I still object that magic is a performance, and performance is an art. Therefore magic is an art by proxy. Of course magic is only an art when done correctly. You can buy a trick, and use it to fool a friend. If you do so, you are no more a magician than what you did was entertainment. You’re just someone with a trick deck. To perform magic correctly, to make it an art, you have to dig deeper into yourself, find yourself, sort through years of objections, self doubt, and emotional junk that lives inside all of us and find that one tiny kernel of you and make it shine through. Polish it, and own it. Like most artists, one is not born with the ability to entertain. It’s a learned skill. Certainly the talent, and the desire are something that you are born with, but the skill to entertain must be acquired through study, and self expression. I think there isn’t anything wrong with performing someone else’s material, patter, or effects when you are learning. The artist after all, learns to imitate before it can create for itself. Someone who draws pictures must first trace the object they wish to draw hundreds of times before their hand and mind learn what it is it must do on it’s own. The same applies to us. When you purchase a card trick, it’s important to learn to present it the way it’s packaged. You learn the slights, and get insights onto what patter works. The depressing thing is that most people are satisfied with that, so much so that they fail to take the next step in their own personal evolutions. The step into opening themselves up and letting what’s inside out. Sooner or later, you’ve got to take those training wheels off, think for yourself, and begin to own your act. Sooner or later you’ve got to stop imitating, and start creating.
I can’t tell you how to perform your act “correctly” about as much as I can’t tell you how to find yourself. It’s such a simple thing it’s complicated. Somewhere along your path of personal development the little light above your head should go on, you should say to yourself “I wonder if I can make this ‘better’ or different”, and then try to do so. If that light doesn’t go on you are either lazy or you need to check the fuses. What I can tell you is that you should never be too comfortable with where you are at any given time. You should explore new options, try new things, and consider new philosophies. Try as you will, you can’t perform magic the world has never seen before. Magic isn’t going to get any new innovations anytime soon. No matter how you try to dress it up, a pick a card trick is still a pick a card trick. The plot will always have a card selected, only to be revealed by the magician later on. Sure the reveal changes, but the plot never will. The only thing you can do differently is change your presentation style. Strip away the usual patter, insert your own jokes, personality, and be yourself! You are the dynamic aspect of magic. You are the cogs that turn the evolution in our world, and you determine the direction magic will take in the future. You won’t know your potential until you try, and I encourage you to not settle for just average. I encourage you to consistently attempt to be better than you were the day before.
Like an artist staring at their blank canvas we stare at our blank decks of cards. Not blank in that they don’t have print on them, but blank in that they aren’t special. But neither is that artists canvas. However with time, dedication, the right tools, study of technique & theory, and inspiration that deck as well as that blank canvas will undergo an amazing metamorphosis into something far more than the limitations of its original design. It will transform itself into something of beauty that will be admired by, inspired to, and observed with people for many generations to come. Transforming the ordinary into gold may sound a lot like alchemy but I’ve got another word for it. Magic. That would make the practitioner a magician. What is a magician? Someone who changes things. Performance into art, cards into memories, and the lead, common ore of ones personal being into the golden shining material of who we all want to become.
When you get up in the morning, you put on your magic clothing, (for the most part we all have preferred wardrobe selections that we perform in.) you set your effects, pack your tricks, and your off to go entertain someone. You are one of thousands, maybe hundred thousands, of people who perform magic. What makes you so special? You’re doing something that has been already done before. For the most part, nothing original. When I see a magician perform I often ask myself “What are they all doing? I’ve seen this before.” Doves are produced from handkerchiefs, pick a card, any card. Lame. There’s nothing special to that, that’s just re-hashed stuff from some other guys act. Where is the originality, where is the character? Where is that ledge that I can grasp and hang my attention on? In attempting to find that ledge what I find instead is the most obvious short coming of most of magicians. The lack of self in anything they do.
Magic is, of course, an art. There are those who are short sighted enough to disagree with me on that, however I still object that magic is a performance, and performance is an art. Therefore magic is an art by proxy. Of course magic is only an art when done correctly. You can buy a trick, and use it to fool a friend. If you do so, you are no more a magician than what you did was entertainment. You’re just someone with a trick deck. To perform magic correctly, to make it an art, you have to dig deeper into yourself, find yourself, sort through years of objections, self doubt, and emotional junk that lives inside all of us and find that one tiny kernel of you and make it shine through. Polish it, and own it. Like most artists, one is not born with the ability to entertain. It’s a learned skill. Certainly the talent, and the desire are something that you are born with, but the skill to entertain must be acquired through study, and self expression. I think there isn’t anything wrong with performing someone else’s material, patter, or effects when you are learning. The artist after all, learns to imitate before it can create for itself. Someone who draws pictures must first trace the object they wish to draw hundreds of times before their hand and mind learn what it is it must do on it’s own. The same applies to us. When you purchase a card trick, it’s important to learn to present it the way it’s packaged. You learn the slights, and get insights onto what patter works. The depressing thing is that most people are satisfied with that, so much so that they fail to take the next step in their own personal evolutions. The step into opening themselves up and letting what’s inside out. Sooner or later, you’ve got to take those training wheels off, think for yourself, and begin to own your act. Sooner or later you’ve got to stop imitating, and start creating.
I can’t tell you how to perform your act “correctly” about as much as I can’t tell you how to find yourself. It’s such a simple thing it’s complicated. Somewhere along your path of personal development the little light above your head should go on, you should say to yourself “I wonder if I can make this ‘better’ or different”, and then try to do so. If that light doesn’t go on you are either lazy or you need to check the fuses. What I can tell you is that you should never be too comfortable with where you are at any given time. You should explore new options, try new things, and consider new philosophies. Try as you will, you can’t perform magic the world has never seen before. Magic isn’t going to get any new innovations anytime soon. No matter how you try to dress it up, a pick a card trick is still a pick a card trick. The plot will always have a card selected, only to be revealed by the magician later on. Sure the reveal changes, but the plot never will. The only thing you can do differently is change your presentation style. Strip away the usual patter, insert your own jokes, personality, and be yourself! You are the dynamic aspect of magic. You are the cogs that turn the evolution in our world, and you determine the direction magic will take in the future. You won’t know your potential until you try, and I encourage you to not settle for just average. I encourage you to consistently attempt to be better than you were the day before.
Like an artist staring at their blank canvas we stare at our blank decks of cards. Not blank in that they don’t have print on them, but blank in that they aren’t special. But neither is that artists canvas. However with time, dedication, the right tools, study of technique & theory, and inspiration that deck as well as that blank canvas will undergo an amazing metamorphosis into something far more than the limitations of its original design. It will transform itself into something of beauty that will be admired by, inspired to, and observed with people for many generations to come. Transforming the ordinary into gold may sound a lot like alchemy but I’ve got another word for it. Magic. That would make the practitioner a magician. What is a magician? Someone who changes things. Performance into art, cards into memories, and the lead, common ore of ones personal being into the golden shining material of who we all want to become.
