Where's your creativity?

Feb 27, 2008
2,342
1
33
Grand prairie TX
As i browsed around the forums since my return ive been disgusted at the "advice" ive seen on performing.
One guy straight up said "just do angle zero, wounded, stigmata and distortion." The names of the tricks might be different but the outline is the same. name a luandry list of mainstream tricks and thats it. you're a magician.
Instead of buying the cool and the new and thinking that new deck of cards that is "the finest quality..." will help you be a better performer consider dusting off your old tricks and getting actually creative.
For example, Angle zero is for me the best card trick for close up magic. The possibilities are endless. So why do so many people drone a robotic copy of daniel madison's performance on the DVD?
ONE of the ways I perform this effect is I rip up the corner. Hold it in plain view and ask the spectator to cup his hands together and someone else pours water into their hands. I place the piece into their hands. They squeeze and it is shown to be encased in ice. (excluding my patter and act for the effect thats what basically happens)

So are you creative with your tricks or do you merely perform it the way the instructions tell you?
Can you think of a way to make the classic card to mouth anymore interesting?
How about a torn and restored card? there are millions of DVD's for it but do you merely tear it up and restore it?
I won't even talk about flourishing and cardistry. That genre has lost its luster with show off youtube videos done only for magicians and other cardists or in the privacy of their own room. But man don't tell the cardists that, they are supposedly advancing cardistry as a performance art.
 
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Feb 27, 2008
2,342
1
33
Grand prairie TX
if this forum was a zoo,the cardistry section warning sign would say DO NOT TEASE THE CARDISTRY STUDENTS: their minds are just as fragile as their bodies and they do not take criticism well.

But I digress, im rambling. this is mostly about creativity with magic tricks. Not just card tricks and not exclusive to flourishing.
 

RickEverhart

forum moderator / t11
Elite Member
Sep 14, 2008
3,637
471
46
Louisville, OH
My last bit of creativity was just a week ago. I used a combination of two effects to make them both even stronger. I took the classic scotch and soda coin routine and added the "coin deck" into the routine which allows for the spectator to make the magic happen. It also plays well for two people because a card is selected and lost in the deck which is set in full view on the table. I then go into a scotch and soda effect for the person standing next to them and as they make the mexican centavo disappear....it then reappears in the center of the deck and has sitting on top of the first spectators buried selection. It has been frying layman.
 
Sep 7, 2008
608
0
Creativity is not essential in magic. I have many, many friends who are working professionals. They are so busy performing that they simply do not have time to sit down and create new presentations and effects. They are very careful in choosing material that fits them so that no major adjustments have to be done.
 
Jun 1, 2009
1,066
6
I try for the life of my to create, but I just can't get a working method on things I come up with. I feel like my creativity comes in the form of how I perform things, not exactly what I perform. I definitely implement my own feel and style and character into the effects, rather than just doing them how they are taught on the DVD. If I don't like something, I change it, or add a little to it. In the beginning I would say almost word for word what the book or DVD told me to say. Then I realized that it's merely suggestions or how they perform it. Sure some effects are hard to change the patter for entirely, but that's where you deviate a little and put your own little tid bits into it.
 
Feb 27, 2008
2,342
1
33
Grand prairie TX
They are so busy performing that they simply do not have time to sit down and create new presentations and effects.

If they don't want to be creative, thats one thing. But I do not believe that for a second.
That goes hand in hand with the excuse of " im too busy to workout".
I get the same BS excuse from my clients and they never ever hold up.
 
Jul 2, 2011
115
0
Californiaaa
I suppose one problem would be that when some people purchase a DVD or video that teaches an effect, they often think, "Wow, that looks cool, I want to be able to do that."
Many people don't even consider trying to change the effect, because they see that the presentation given in the video WORKS, and they don't see any reason to modify the presentation.
Another problem might be the fear that a new performance of an older effect may receive negative reactions from the audience. I had come up with a few variations on the card-to-mouth routine, most of which don't involve my mouth, but I barely tried any of them because I didn't think they were superior to the original (even though some of them had gotten great reactions).
 

RickEverhart

forum moderator / t11
Elite Member
Sep 14, 2008
3,637
471
46
Louisville, OH
I somewhat agree with Jeff Prace on this one as well. Many of the full time workers may WANT to be creative and create something completely original, but most full time working professionals are very busy. Most of their day is consumed by marketing, phone calls, emails, packing up a show, traveling on the road, lecturing, etc. Once they get their full show in swing, and tweak it every now and then until it is almost perfect, for the most part it doesn't change. Look at Dave Kaplan when you get a chance.
 
Sep 26, 2007
591
5
Tokyo, Japan
It sounds like the OP has a lot of random frustration, and he thinks the best way to try to get people to agree with him and his opinions, is to take a superior and condescending attitude towards others.

You obviously have the ENTIRE online magic community figured out.
 
Feb 27, 2008
2,342
1
33
Grand prairie TX
It sounds like the OP has a lot of random frustration, and he thinks the best way to try to get people to agree with him and his opinions, is to take a superior and condescending attitude towards others.

You obviously have the ENTIRE online magic community figured out.

Good thing we don't base what we read off what it SOUNDS like.
Agree with what opinions? i've done nothing but ask questions.
I am frustrated with most magicians. I hear and read too much talk about advancing magic and I don't see a hint of it.
All im doing is asking a simple question, is there nothing that sets one magician apart from another?
Instead of opening possibilities to new steps in ones magic you deliberately want to settle?

And yes, the forum doesn't seem to have changed much in terms of ideas and advancement actually. There's still the same few who actually post things worth reading, the ones asking for effects, who vs who, more crotch shot flourish videos,etc. Stuck in a rut as it has always been.
 
Feb 27, 2008
2,342
1
33
Grand prairie TX
My last bit of creativity was just a week ago. I used a combination of two effects to make them both even stronger. I took the classic scotch and soda coin routine and added the "coin deck" into the routine which allows for the spectator to make the magic happen. It also plays well for two people because a card is selected and lost in the deck which is set in full view on the table. I then go into a scotch and soda effect for the person standing next to them and as they make the mexican centavo disappear....it then reappears in the center of the deck and has sitting on top of the first spectators buried selection. It has been frying layman.

Merging tricks is a good one, great combo's can be made.
 
Jul 2, 2011
115
0
Californiaaa
It's too bad that several members of the community who aren't interested in innovating magic.
I'm probably out of place to say this, but if you don't think this thread matters, don't post in it; let people who do care discuss on their own.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
Creativity is not essential in magic.

I have not been here in 8 months because I got tired of the crushing dullness. But I'm logging in and breaking my silence to say that is one of the most depressing things I have ever heard a magician say.

It sounds like the OP has a lot of random frustration, and he thinks the best way to try to get people to agree with him and his opinions, is to take a superior and condescending attitude towards others.

If I remember some our conversations right, then I'm in danger of suffocating on the irony.

I have to agree with Simple Magic. Who cares? It doesn't matter.

Question: what do you have to bring to this conversation? What value do you add? Do you have any function outside of wasting my time?

Let's all be respectful here to each other. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

That doesn't make them right. Opinions are like people: most of them are stupid.

Magicians love to shoot their mouths off about how magic and mentalism are art, but when tasked to actually exercise a modicum of creativity and apply themselves to the craft? Pfft! No way, man. Didn't you know? If you exercise self-expression, that makes you gay. Just like having feelings or any education beyond 3rd grade literacy.

There's a reason I stopped visiting this place. And it's all of you. Not only do I not learn anything by being here that I couldn't get somewhere else, but whenever I or others try to help, we get ignored because we tell you to actually do some work instead of just spending your parents' money on the latest and greatest. If you are not exercising even minimal creativity, you are not a magician. You are a vending machine. Push a button and out comes a pre-packaged, generic trick.
 
Sep 7, 2008
608
0
Maybe I didn't believe it at first either - but what I said about my friends was true. Between their professional magic career, maintaining a family, and completing all of life's other essential tasks, there really is no time to work on creating new effects and methods. If that works for them, so what?
 
Feb 27, 2008
2,342
1
33
Grand prairie TX
Maybe I didn't believe it at first either - but what I said about my friends was true. Between their professional magic career, maintaining a family, and completing all of life's other essential tasks, there really is no time to work on creating new effects and methods. If that works for them, so what?

Im not speaking about creating methods, im talking about directly the performance and execution of his effects.
Its essential to his job, I would assume. To set himself apart from the rest of the magicians to continue to get gigs and clients.
He HAS to make time to be creative with his tricks, its his job.
If he is an interchangeable magician since he performs tricks straight from the package, then he can easily get cut from a job to another magician. Im sure your friend HAS had to be creative in his effects and executions to actually impress and get jobs.

I mean, how the heck can you be a magician and not be creative? It's like being a painter lacking in creativity. Doesn't make sense.
 
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