Keeping focus / motivation whilst learning.

Feb 17, 2018
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Hello all.

Now i know this is probably something a lot of you have gone through at one point when you started this journey which is why I'm asking here as there's more of people here that give honest and great advice then anywhere else i could ask.

I have asked a lot of questions already and I will do when I get to a situation like i am now.

I've been focusing on learning magic seriously from the beginning of 2018 and i am enjoying it and i am definitely better than when I started, but i feel like I'm getting to a point where I'm starting to lose focus and motivation to learn a particular move or trick from the books i have.

If you have ever been in this position before what have you done / what advice were you given that helped you out? What made you keep the focus and motivation to keep learning even if it felt difficult?

I know that skill only comes with time and practice and I will continue to do so but I wanted some advice so if you can offer any then thank you.
 
Dec 5, 2014
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Hey!
I know exactly how you feel. I started learning magic in high school and when I began college, my drive and passion for magic plummeted as I was too indulged in my studies.
I found that taking little break from learning tricks and focusing on other things for a little bit made me realize how much I missed magic and actually helped give me more determination.
So I suggest leaving the "difficult" trick aside for a bit, dip your toes into a new trick and then go back to the one you were struggling with.

Hope this helps a little haha
 
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WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
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I honestly don't have to grind away at skills like that any more. I've been doing this about a decade now, and I have a wide foundation of skills. You'll get to that point, too.

My biggest piece of advice is to stop grinding and switch things up. Go do some performances. Or if you're not prepared for performances, maybe just focus on learning routines instead of just sleights/moves. Maybe explore something you've never really worked with before - like if you're all cards, try coins. Try learning a mind reading trick. Learn cups and balls (surprisingly fun, if you don't take it too seriously, and will teach you all the skills needed for magic).

For me, I grind through books over winter. 20-40 every year between Nov and Feb for the past few years. I then spend the following months putting that new knowledge to use.

So switch it up. Do something new with what you're learning.
 
Feb 17, 2018
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@Tmakabe I originally started learning a few basic / self working tricks for my brothers wedding which was last month, i only ended performing for one person in particular and they definitely enjoyed it, but now that i don't have something to work towards it feels like the motivation has gone, but the other side of that is i know that i want to improve and one thing that i guess is keeping me motivated in a sense is i am actually getting my nieces and nephews interested in magic and from that their parents are now having to go buy them cards to learn but taking a break every now and then seems like an obvious answer that i didn't even think about so thank you.

@ChristopherT you mentioned about mental tricks, i have always had an interest in that area as well as Hypnosis and I'd love to learn something along those lines, but the thing I'm worried about is practice, like anything that area to me feels like it would need a lot of practice and finding out what to learn and having someone willing to help me learn / practice is something that worries me but it doesn't make me not want to learn it either so any tips or advice you can give me in that area would be greatly appreciated.
 
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RealityOne

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Nov 1, 2009
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For me there is two types of learning. The first is learning knowledge. I know a lot of effects and methods that I don't use. To me that just adds to my ability to tweak effects that I do perform so that it suits my style and performance needs. The second type of learning is practice.

Enjoy learning knowledge. You don't have to perfect everything you read in a book, but understanding how and why it works is a great mental exercise that brings a change-up to just practicing effects.

I've found that practice works better when your goal is to perform. You seem to acknowledge that when you say that you don't have something to work towards. So find something to work towards! It could be something that is going to happen -- like a family get together or it could be something that you would like to happen eventually -- like performing in a park for a group of people or doing a children's birthday party.
 
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WitchDocIsIn

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Sep 13, 2008
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Excellently put, David. I agree 100%. No surprise there. I am almost 100% motivated by creating new shows these days.

@ChristopherT you mentioned about mental tricks, i have always had an interest in that area as well as Hypnosis and I'd love to learn something along those lines, but the thing I'm worried about is practice, like anything that area to me feels like it would need a lot of practice and finding out what to learn and having someone willing to help me learn / practice is something that worries me but it doesn't make me not want to learn it either so any tips or advice you can give me in that area would be greatly appreciated.

What kind of tips are you looking for there?

I am a bizarre mentalist. That's what I do. In my magic library are roughly 165 books. Of those, roughly 2/3s are mentalism, bizarre magic, or hypnosis centered. That is to say, your post is very vague.

The only tip I can think of that is appropriate is this - decide whether you are going to do mental magic, or mentalism. Commit to the decision.
 
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Feb 17, 2018
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@ChristopherT I've never really been able to explain myself properly so that doesn't really help me when I ask for advice.

I'm not sure what correct terms to use are for these areas but in my head I know what I'm on about I just can't type for some reason.

If you could help me understand what the differences are I'd appreciate it.

@RealityOne thank you for that, i am doing a few tricks every so often if i go shopping or meet with a friend, if i have learned something that i haven't done yet then i perform it. I liked having something to work towards because it helped me focus, but now I don't i can take a bit more time to understanding the effect/ move /trick a bit better in terms of angles or story telling in general.
 

WitchDocIsIn

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Sep 13, 2008
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The main difference between mental magic (and all magic, really) and mentalism is the theatrical approach.

Magic aims to create a suspension of belief. Mentalism aims to create belief.

Which is to say, magic presents a sort of alternative reality for the audience to explore for a period. In this reality, things that are impossible to us, are actually possible to the magician. Mentalism presents a possibly true reality that we didn't realize exists.

That applies to whether the mentalist is using a supernatural explanation (ie: psychic) or scientific one (ie: psychology). But the main goal of the mentalist is to make the presentations he's giving seem like they could be real. That's where the power of mentalism is derived. If the methods/presentations don't feel 'real' then it seems like tricks, and since they are often non-visual they are seen as less interesting than magic tricks.

Bizarre magic, in the simplest sense, is just magic that focuses on story rather than method. It's often spooky or occult themed, but that's not a requirement as David London's surrealist shows demonstrate wonderfully. I've also seen funny bizarre and all sorts of other styles. It often skates the line between magic and mentalism in my opinion. Which is why I think of myself as a bizarre mentalist.
 
Feb 17, 2018
41
28
The main difference between mental magic (and all magic, really) and mentalism is the theatrical approach.

Magic aims to create a suspension of belief. Mentalism aims to create belief.

Which is to say, magic presents a sort of alternative reality for the audience to explore for a period. In this reality, things that are impossible to us, are actually possible to the magician. Mentalism presents a possibly true reality that we didn't realize exists.

That applies to whether the mentalist is using a supernatural explanation (ie: psychic) or scientific one (ie: psychology). But the main goal of the mentalist is to make the presentations he's giving seem like they could be real. That's where the power of mentalism is derived. If the methods/presentations don't feel 'real' then it seems like tricks, and since they are often non-visual they are seen as less interesting than magic tricks.

Bizarre magic, in the simplest sense, is just magic that focuses on story rather than method. It's often spooky or occult themed, but that's not a requirement as David London's surrealist shows demonstrate wonderfully. I've also seen funny bizarre and all sorts of other styles. It often skates the line between magic and mentalism in my opinion. Which is why I think of myself as a bizarre mentalist.


Ok then, I've never really thought about it before but now you've explained it i understand what you mean so thank you.

I've not really paid a massive amount of attention to it, the only thing that i really noticed is Hypnosis (in different forms wheatear that be stage or college as I've seen it called, sorry if I've got them wrong) or mental tricks in the way of asking a spectator to select a card and deducing what that card is in one way or another.

I'm not sure I'm making much sense but I can find a link of a couple different videos/effects that i have seen so you can know what I'm trying to say if I'm confusing you (i tend to do that to people)
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
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Honestly, at this point you're probably better off studying the fundamentals and building your performance skill before worrying about specializing.
 
Feb 17, 2018
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Honestly, at this point you're probably better off studying the fundamentals and building your performance skill before worrying about specializing.

That is a fair comment, i think that because I'm still technically new to this world I'm trying to learn anything and everything I can regardless of what it is and if i actually have an interest in it.

Is there either a book or dvd that you can recommend i look for to learn the fundamentals of mentalism / Hypnosis?
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
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First - separate the concepts of Hypnotism and Mentalism in your head. While many mentalist shows feature hypnosis, they are not interchangeable.

Second - yes.

Hypnotism (this is gonna be a long one) - In my opinion, the only source you need is Anthony Jacquin's 'Reality is Plastic' (Which I refer to as RiP). As long as what you want to do is hypnotism demonstrations for small crowds, meaning 1 subject and an audience. Maybe as many as 3-5 subjects. If you want to do stage shows, I'd recommend other resources, but for "close up hypnosis" - RiP is all you need.

RiP covers all the foundation techniques, all the basic information that you need to know, and a decent amount of the theory behind it. If you do what's in that book, you will be able to hypnotize a large percentage of subjects successfully.

The Trilby Connection is a DVD set that is an excellent supplement to RiP. This is basically a video of Anthony teaching a new student the information that's in RiP. The benefit here is that you see someone start from zero and develop the skills until they are able to go to a bar and do hypnosis live in the real world. You see her make mistakes and recover - that helped me a lot. There's also a bunch of footage of Anthony and a few other experienced hypnotists doing some demonstrations which shows you how they deal with real world environments.

Now - if you want to really delve into hypnosis, there's a -ton- of resources out there. The problem is that many of them are just repeating the same information (which is largely available for free if you search enough) - which is the very basic stuff. A lot of it is crap that someone came up with in an attempt to be distinctive in the hypnosis world. A lot of it is based off of outdated information. Meaning, a lot of resources for entertainment hypnosis are based off information in The Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnosis, which is based off performance hypnosis from the 40s. There's been a lot of advances since then. For general hypnosis theory I recommend Mike Mandel's Online Hypnosis Academy - I honestly don't think any other course will teach you as much of the theory behind hypnosis. It took me about 16 months to work through the whole course, and because of that I can easily 'hold court' with hypnotists that have been at this for decades. If you want to specifically do stage hypnosis, The Stage Hypnosis University is the course I'd recommend. There's not a lot of theory, but Michael will guide you personally to be a professional stage hypnotist.

The thing to remember about hypnosis is that it's not a trick. It's not a matter of do this step, then this step, and then this step, and the person is hypnotized. It is a mode of communication. It is learning to quickly and effectively guide the subject's mind into a place where suggestions will be more powerful. If you treat it like a trick, or like a check list that you have to get through, you're going to fail frequently.

Ok! On to mentalism.

Start with Bob Cassidy's Fundamentals, Karl Fulves' Self Working Mental Miracles, Annemann's Practical Mental Magic, and after those, Corinda's 13 Steps to Mentalism, and Elliot Bresler's Switchcraft (which is a PDF). Hopefully by the time you've worked through all of those you'll have developed the proper theatrical approach - understand that you have to perform mentalism as "real". Whatever you claim is - that claim has to be treated as if it were the truth.

That can be supernatural (ie: psychic) or it can be scientific (ie: psychology) or maybe something else (ie: energy). I perform as someone who applies science to the supernatural to find possible explanations. You have to find your own character, and decide what that character is exhibiting, and do that as if it were totally true. I don't think mentalism can succeed without that commitment.
 
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