Hi everyone,
My name is Ashwin Khurana, and I am an upcoming magician from the San Francisco Bay Area. I have this crazy new idea that may just work, but I need everyone's input in order to help make it a success.
Everyone know what I am talking about when I say "Youtube magic junkie?" All sorts of things pop into my head - little kids (and some BIG kids) who learn magic solely through Youtube videos and tutorials, etc. Your perception may be similar or different altogether, but I think we can agree that this is NOT the path any of us would recommend to a young boy or girl interested in magic, correct? Comon' everyone, admit it. Theory11 and other sites are great, but a HUGE percentage of the book knowledge we have is not available (not yet at least). Although we try hard to say that "just because you downloaded some great videos, with tons of substantive material, doesn't make you a magician," sometimes we can't get that point across. But this is not my point.
My crazy idea is to create a Youtube course for upcoming magicians, focusing on the school environment. Honestly, look at how many young kids are getting into magic! They're practically flooding the magic market! They are also the most susceptible to what i call Magic Fever - that sudden urge you get to start learning magic when you see it performed for you. All the youth, and I'm going to place them from 6th to 12th grade, go to school every single day. You see, there is a ton of material for the working professional, the restaurant worker, and even the street magician. However, there is no single place where ALL of these young magicians can learn how to become a successful magician in school. School is the performing playground for these young magicians, and most of what occurs at these high schools will set the precedent for how the magician looks at magic for the rest of his or her life.
I have just graduated high school, and I've been performing every day (yes, literally every single day of my life) for the last six years (6th -12th grade). I want to share my story, my experience, and my journey from a young and shy magician into a confident and well-known magician throughout the entire High School Bay Area network. Like I said before, a lot of who we become as a magician is determined by our humble beginnings performing at school. For those of you who are young magicians, you would agree that it is sometimes a struggle to become the magician you WANT to be, at school. Where do you go to for advice? Where can you ask questions that apply to your specific situations? I'm here to help, and I'm hoping that the magic community will come along with me for the ride in order to help all of you.
In my course, I want to go over a large number of items, such as: audience management, dealing with hecklers (because our peers can sometimes be the most brutal of laymen), creating routines that keep your image "fresh," diversifying your repertoire, showcasing your personality and style, sharing your story and sending your message to your audiences, publicizing and advertising [for your shows perhaps], using Youtube and other media as a device to gain popularity, using magic to network efficiently and smartly, learning how to sometimes say "no," learning how to approach people (YES, it IS different from Street Magic), etc. I'm sure that you can all name ten things you had problems with as a magician in school, and I'm sure that we can add at least a hundred specific questions to the list.
There are, however, other PRACTICAL concerns we must deal with, such as: time management - learning how to get in quality practice time during a busy school schedule, working on your style (clothing and fashion), learning how to garner that amazing first impression before you even start performing - and then the even better impression you must give to heighten the performance, networking with people to help spread the word about your magic, using your school's resources efficiently, using media efficiently (Facebook, Youtube, blogs, etc), public speaking skills, how to become the magician you want to be with a very low budget, etc.
There are TONS of ideas I want to get across through this course, and my goal is to help steer young magicians into a direction where they can pursue the art of magic in a more nurturing environment. Having been through the entire process, I think I can offer some unique perspectives on the subject of becoming the great school magician that some of us want to be, and I would love to have as much help as I can get in facilitating the transformation of this idea into something real.
If you are a young magician interested in learning how to become the magician you CAN be, leave a comment below and I'll be sure to contact you if you have any questions for me. Post your questions, however specific they may be, and we'll use this as a temporary forum for your the answers you seek. For those of you who would like to give me some advice or who would like to help contribute to the course "syllabus," shoot me a PM or leave a comment here. ALL suggestions are completely welcome. I'm looking forward to collaborating with many of you, and I challenge the Theory11 team to try to help me in my endeavor. I think this idea has potential to be turned into a DVD of some sort, one that I think would garner great response from the magic community of young magicians.
thanks for your time. To learn more, check out www.facebook.com/askMagic for more. I just started the facebook page a little while back, so there are only 50 or so followers, but I'm hoping to get the page up and going. My course will be featured on youtube, and my current Youtube account is www.youtube.com/thekingofcards. I put up some filler videos of some random effects I've performed so that my page isn't "empty," but this stuff is from a very long time ago. I'm not too proud of my effect selection, video editing, or quality of performance, but I wanted to put something up to keep people busy.
My name is Ashwin Khurana, and I am an upcoming magician from the San Francisco Bay Area. I have this crazy new idea that may just work, but I need everyone's input in order to help make it a success.
Everyone know what I am talking about when I say "Youtube magic junkie?" All sorts of things pop into my head - little kids (and some BIG kids) who learn magic solely through Youtube videos and tutorials, etc. Your perception may be similar or different altogether, but I think we can agree that this is NOT the path any of us would recommend to a young boy or girl interested in magic, correct? Comon' everyone, admit it. Theory11 and other sites are great, but a HUGE percentage of the book knowledge we have is not available (not yet at least). Although we try hard to say that "just because you downloaded some great videos, with tons of substantive material, doesn't make you a magician," sometimes we can't get that point across. But this is not my point.
My crazy idea is to create a Youtube course for upcoming magicians, focusing on the school environment. Honestly, look at how many young kids are getting into magic! They're practically flooding the magic market! They are also the most susceptible to what i call Magic Fever - that sudden urge you get to start learning magic when you see it performed for you. All the youth, and I'm going to place them from 6th to 12th grade, go to school every single day. You see, there is a ton of material for the working professional, the restaurant worker, and even the street magician. However, there is no single place where ALL of these young magicians can learn how to become a successful magician in school. School is the performing playground for these young magicians, and most of what occurs at these high schools will set the precedent for how the magician looks at magic for the rest of his or her life.
I have just graduated high school, and I've been performing every day (yes, literally every single day of my life) for the last six years (6th -12th grade). I want to share my story, my experience, and my journey from a young and shy magician into a confident and well-known magician throughout the entire High School Bay Area network. Like I said before, a lot of who we become as a magician is determined by our humble beginnings performing at school. For those of you who are young magicians, you would agree that it is sometimes a struggle to become the magician you WANT to be, at school. Where do you go to for advice? Where can you ask questions that apply to your specific situations? I'm here to help, and I'm hoping that the magic community will come along with me for the ride in order to help all of you.
In my course, I want to go over a large number of items, such as: audience management, dealing with hecklers (because our peers can sometimes be the most brutal of laymen), creating routines that keep your image "fresh," diversifying your repertoire, showcasing your personality and style, sharing your story and sending your message to your audiences, publicizing and advertising [for your shows perhaps], using Youtube and other media as a device to gain popularity, using magic to network efficiently and smartly, learning how to sometimes say "no," learning how to approach people (YES, it IS different from Street Magic), etc. I'm sure that you can all name ten things you had problems with as a magician in school, and I'm sure that we can add at least a hundred specific questions to the list.
There are, however, other PRACTICAL concerns we must deal with, such as: time management - learning how to get in quality practice time during a busy school schedule, working on your style (clothing and fashion), learning how to garner that amazing first impression before you even start performing - and then the even better impression you must give to heighten the performance, networking with people to help spread the word about your magic, using your school's resources efficiently, using media efficiently (Facebook, Youtube, blogs, etc), public speaking skills, how to become the magician you want to be with a very low budget, etc.
There are TONS of ideas I want to get across through this course, and my goal is to help steer young magicians into a direction where they can pursue the art of magic in a more nurturing environment. Having been through the entire process, I think I can offer some unique perspectives on the subject of becoming the great school magician that some of us want to be, and I would love to have as much help as I can get in facilitating the transformation of this idea into something real.
If you are a young magician interested in learning how to become the magician you CAN be, leave a comment below and I'll be sure to contact you if you have any questions for me. Post your questions, however specific they may be, and we'll use this as a temporary forum for your the answers you seek. For those of you who would like to give me some advice or who would like to help contribute to the course "syllabus," shoot me a PM or leave a comment here. ALL suggestions are completely welcome. I'm looking forward to collaborating with many of you, and I challenge the Theory11 team to try to help me in my endeavor. I think this idea has potential to be turned into a DVD of some sort, one that I think would garner great response from the magic community of young magicians.
thanks for your time. To learn more, check out www.facebook.com/askMagic for more. I just started the facebook page a little while back, so there are only 50 or so followers, but I'm hoping to get the page up and going. My course will be featured on youtube, and my current Youtube account is www.youtube.com/thekingofcards. I put up some filler videos of some random effects I've performed so that my page isn't "empty," but this stuff is from a very long time ago. I'm not too proud of my effect selection, video editing, or quality of performance, but I wanted to put something up to keep people busy.