False Assumptions About Magic...

These are a list of thoughts that are not true that many beginners, and some more expirianced people, may think about magic.

1: My hands are too small to accomplish any tricks.

Wrong. This is a common excuse among the magicians who are early into practice and are having difficulty learning. You may think that your hands are too small to do a Charlier cut but they are not. You simply may just have the technique wrong or you may need some more practice. I come from a Polish background and my family has very fat fingers, as do most polish people. If something like this may be the case you may just have to adapt the method slightly. Your hands are only too small if you are from 1 year old - 4 years old.


2: I can perfect a simple trick in under 1 hour.

Wrong. Lee Asher, who is an artist here, tells people to make sure they know 3 tricks perfectly instead of 15 tricks fairly well. This is absolutely true. A trick has many variables let me list some for you.

Method- how the trick is done...
Fluency- how smoothly it can be performed...
Flash & Flourish- cuts and other eye candy that make the trick more profesional...
Patter- the story or speach which acompanies the trick...

All these must be absolutely perfect before the trick is ready to be shown. First practice in front of the mirror for hours. Then practice without the mirror. when you have spent the neccesary time on the trick perform it for someone who'll keep the secret if they catch you.


3: I can tell my friends how I did a trick.

Wrong. Your friends may get jealous when you get more attention and spoil the secret for everyone. They might not even do that much. They might even just tell their friends how you dead it and then they tell everyone. If you want to be a REAL magician then you need to uphold the golden rule. Never tell ANYONE how your tricks are done.


4: Magic is expensive.

WRONG. Magic can be learned for only 3 dollars. Simply go out and buy a deck of cards then go down to the local library and get a free library card. Then you can take home a bunch of books on how to do magic tricks and stuff. but remeber to learn 3 tricks perfectly before learning anymore.

That's it for now but there will be more to come. Bye for now.

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-man,
Dylan P.
 
May 24, 2008
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Thanks for that Dylan, i think that will make a lot of people, myself included, start working harder. My three tricks I'm gonna PERFECT are ACR, Sandwhich- basic method, and Stigmata. Plus ima work real hard at starting coins
 
Thanks for that Dylan, i think that will make a lot of people, myself included, start working harder. My three tricks I'm gonna PERFECT are ACR, Sandwhich- basic method, and Stigmata. Plus ima work real hard at starting coins


Do not start coins until you have mastered those three effects. Or maybe due like ACR, Sandwich, and Silver Dream or one coin trick. Stick to three for now. Have fun.

The Man of Steel, Superman,
AKA: Dylan P. ( Happy hijackedmagic :D)
 
Apr 28, 2008
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I guess it's fairly helpful to new magicians, I don't entirely agree on point 3 though, it's very helpful to have a friend you show stuff to so they can give you an honest opinion on how good something looks and if you flash anything etc.
 
Dec 23, 2007
1,579
4
38
Fredonia, NY
while i agree magic may not always be expensive it is not always that easy. my local library has exactly 2 books on magic. both are ridiulously pointless to read and serve no real purpose other than to frustrate you with what you do not know. true magic doesn't have to cost hundreds of dollars but at the very least you are looking at about 40 dollars not 3 and thats just basics.

cards-$3.00
decent book on cards (eg. Royal Road or Expert at the card table)- $10-20
decent book on coins-$13.00
another deck of cards after your practiced your first deck to death-$3.00
hobbie to love forever-priceless
 
Awesome essay Dylan P. Loved it. I hope lots of beginners read this. Hope the mods post it as a sticky.

(p.s. on the Spiderman-Ironman deal) Gladiator from the Shi'ar Imperial Guard can kick the living crap out of any comic book character. Any other die-hard Marvel geeks will know who I'm talking bout. For non comic book geeks he basically beat the crap out of the entire X-men team by himself without breaking a sweat.

-Excuse the exposure of the other side of myself (the comic book geek).
 
May 24, 2008
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Do not start coins until you have mastered those three effects. Or maybe due like ACR, Sandwich, and Silver Dream or one coin trick. Stick to three for now. Have fun.

The Man of Steel, Superman,
AKA: Dylan P. ( Happy hijackedmagic :D)
Its not that im not good at them, i just need to work on really presenting it to make it more amazing, but yeah ill replace stigmata with winged silver. But the card ones, i just need to present more, because i talk to spectators a lot more when i do coins for some reason
 
Feb 28, 2008
354
8
I was talking to a local magician who says one of his friends just use bridge sized cards if they think their hands are too small. We both agreed that it was kind of silly as most people can just palm a card, even if it's really tight...

Very good essay BTW. I think most people lose sight of having quality over qauntity. However, I think a good part of being a magician (or a performer of any kind) is working on being able to talk with people opposed to talk at people. I myself have been sort of stuck in my routine that I didn't let certain moments settle for the effect to be even greater... But I think that only comes with experience, more so than practice.
 
Nov 15, 2007
1,106
2
37
Raleigh, NC
Well written and some pretty good points.

My perfected three pieces of magic are:
Personal ACR
a card through table effect that a friend showed me years ago
(cliche) two card monte.
I actually do a 3 card monte demo to 2 card monte and I now end in Daniel Madison's One.

Other than those three, I have Subway and the Queens from the trilogy as alternatives. Been working on card across/card to mouth.
I do some stuff from Royal Road, after you do some harder pieces of magic things like 'you do as i do' seem to hit harder...go figure.

Very good though.

And to the side topic::Gladiator was a beast. Superman got to hyped up as the comic progressed, batman-though bada$$-is just a really good hero(super intelligent maybe?), spider man is okay in my book-I just wish the movies were closer to the comic.
As for me-Gambit was always a personal favorite, never really a star on his own, I think it was the cards...:)
 
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