I have been into magic for around a year and a half now, and cardistry for about a year. I am just so lost as to what the heck I want to do. I started with Joshua Jay's Complete Course in Magic. Then after that, I moved onto a lot of card magic. Later on discovering cardistry. And now I am just finding that I am so sick and tired of cards all the time. But my real issue lies within the fact that whenever I try something new like mentalism, coin magic, etc. I can never stick to it. I just don't understand why. I know that it has nothing to do with the performance aspect, considering that I am only 14 years old. But I just desperately want to find my niche in magic, or even cardistry. Like how Jason England is a card mechanic, Andrei Jikh is a card flourisher, and Eric Jones is a coin magician. This is not to say that they do not work in other realms of magic. Such as card, coins, rings, mentalism, etc. I just want to know where I can find my place. My worry is that by the time I am 18 years old or so, I will still have not found what really clicks for me, but if I were to find what I enjoy now then maybe by the time I am 18, I will already be quite familiar and substancially good at the art or genre that I choose. Whether it be in magic or cardistry. Thank you in advance, and have a great day.
What Do I Do?
- Thread starter JustinPillard
- Start date
I know that it can feel like time is slipping away and that opportunities are going past unexploited. At fourteen years old, though, you're in a great position. Your youth is an opportunity for trying out as much as possible, and really finding who you are. If you spent the next two years playing around with as many different types of magic (and any other, non-magical skills that grab your attention), reading as much as you can and imbibing as much information as possible, by the time you're sixteen you'll have a great foundational knowledge in many different areas. Sure, you might not be the world's greatest expert in any one of them but at sixteen, who is? By then, you WILL be closer to finding what really clicks for you.
Bear in mind that there's no requirement to be a specialist. Many great magicians are generalists, working with a variety of props and in a variety of performance environments. It might turn out that you're the next Greg Wilson, Daniel Garcia or Michael Weber, able to pick up any object and create magic with it. Or, it might turn out that, by developing a broad range of fundamentals, you end up combining different kinds of magic to invent a style that's completely original.
My point is, embrace this opportunity. You're fourteen, you don't have all the weight of expectation that comes with adulthood, so use that to your advantage.
Bear in mind that there's no requirement to be a specialist. Many great magicians are generalists, working with a variety of props and in a variety of performance environments. It might turn out that you're the next Greg Wilson, Daniel Garcia or Michael Weber, able to pick up any object and create magic with it. Or, it might turn out that, by developing a broad range of fundamentals, you end up combining different kinds of magic to invent a style that's completely original.
My point is, embrace this opportunity. You're fourteen, you don't have all the weight of expectation that comes with adulthood, so use that to your advantage.
I wouldn't worry about finding your exact niche right now. Do the kind of magic that makes you happy and keep exploring. Eventually you will find the type that makes you happiest. When I was fourteen I had just read Jim Steinmeyer's book Hiding the Elephant. I got into theater and thought that I was going to design grand illusions like Steinmeyer for stage magicians. As I got older I came around to like more close up and parlor magic. I feel like I have grown into a totally different type of performer at age 26 and find myself performing mainly at formal weddings and parties.
A year in card magic isn't enough time to figure out your place yet, for some it takes years to figure out who they are magically.
You've gotten some great advice from both TeeDee & Josh and the only thing I can add to that is that I started learning magic when I was a couple of years younger than you are now. Just today I was watching some old Alfred Hitchcock footage that sparked an idea into my head on where I want the direction of my magic style/performance to go.
So although it's been 25 years since I began learning and performing magic, I'm still tweaking things around a bit here and there that makes me happy with who I am as a magician.
As TeeDee said, embrace this opportunity, you'll be just fine.
|| Steven
You've gotten some great advice from both TeeDee & Josh and the only thing I can add to that is that I started learning magic when I was a couple of years younger than you are now. Just today I was watching some old Alfred Hitchcock footage that sparked an idea into my head on where I want the direction of my magic style/performance to go.
So although it's been 25 years since I began learning and performing magic, I'm still tweaking things around a bit here and there that makes me happy with who I am as a magician.
As TeeDee said, embrace this opportunity, you'll be just fine.
|| Steven