Don't get stuck in a rut or put too much time into one thing. I know several people and friends of mine who are amazing at the pass. They've developed so much work on the pass it is incredible! But they can't do anything else. I wanted to do the opposite. Honstly when I learned as much with manipulation as I wanted to in my late teens, I moved onto other things. I still do a card and ball manip piece. It used to be part of my bird act, but you have to learn to kill your babies, so I took it out of the bird act to make the bird act stronger and now do the card and ball act as a secondary act. The cards and balls is more like a "ballad"- for lack of a better word. But, like I said, I felt I had learned and concoured enough of that kind of manipulation to where I can comfortably move onto other things to help become a more well-rounded performer.
I see so many magicians and acts who are amazing at card manipulations, ball manipulations, or mentalism, or card tricks, or coin tricks but the minute they have to fill a 30 min show they totally bomb. I NEVER wanted to be one of those guys. I'm a magician, I should be able to carry a show as a magician. Not carry 10 minutes and say "well sorry that's all I have". So there comes a point where you have to just let go and stop and be happy where you are and move onto other things. In a laymen's eyes I get just as strong of a reaction off my card and ball routine as I do my bird act...why??? Because I'm doing magic. Sometimes you have to force yourself to stop thinking like a magician and think more like a laymen if you want to make it. The whole reason T11 and I joined forces was to introduce you guys to other venues and genres of magic in order to help you become more well rounded performers and be able to -if you want- grow as a performer and in your career. Audiences don't care about if I use manip cards or Bee brand cards. They don't care if I do the interlock production or a Cardini single production. Please don't forget that.
Good times, good times.
