I presume that all of us here seek to be or to become magicians, rather than people who can do some tricks. For those of you who are "yourselves" when you perform, what happens when you're not in a performance situation? Presumably you're exactly the same. If so, I envy, you, because I, for one, am sometimes upset, angry, irritated, depressed, or one of many emotions not congruent with an entertaining performance persona. I find it impossible to purely and simply be "myself" when performing because I have an unfortunate scruple that tells me audiences deserve some kind of effort on my part to at least put on a modicum of charm if I dare to stand in front of them and expect their approbation. To continue that good-humour and playful banter at all times and in all places would be exhausting and inappropriate in my life. It would seem, additionally, all you "yourselves" that you've examined how best to present your pieces of intimate magical theatre, and by lucky coincidence found the stoical, never-changing "yourself" to be the one character to best convey these effects.
I would contend that this stance is absolute BS. You may very well be a version of yourself when you perform. Indeed, to completely dispense with all aspects of your natural character would be nigh on impossible. However, an audience do not want to see tricks performed by some guy. They want to experience magic performed by a magician. "Yourself" is not a magician, he is some guy who knows some tricks, some moves and some flourishes. If you want to be a magician then I'm afraid you'll have to be something other than "yourself".
