As far as card magic goes, Fisher's thrust of using relaxation and tension as tools for your sleights give rise to a level of ease and naturalness in performance, giving us more ablility to control the focus of the audience, plus a whole lot more...
I assume we're all in this endeavour called Magic because we love giving people the chance of enjoying the pleasure of being terribly, terribly decieved; astonished; or what have you. ie. we practice so we can perform for others.
I believe the Paper Engine teaches an extremely fundamental principle regarding performing -- the end of our means -- the purpose of our practice. Fisher's extremely insightful, full of great teaching and poinient statements.
I find myself wishing I purchased this earlier. It would have prevented many setbacks, most of which dealt with me being a bit nervous about my sleights, seeing the spec burn my hands, leading to me getting even more nervous, then messing up the trick...
So, I'm curious.... if you knew when you first started magic what you know now, 1) what would you purchase, 2) in what order, and 3) where would Paper Engine rank in that list?
so off the top of my head (I might edit this later) my card magic list would be:
A) Crash Course 1 & 2 from ellusionist (easy tricks, great reactions... I never would've gotten hooked with magic if I purchased a book first)
B) W:H's Stigmata (all time favorite)
C) Card Fundamentals 1 & 2 (T11 1-on-1... Great teaching and a great intro to Fisher)
D) Royal Road to Card Magic -- Book and DVD
E & F) Paper Engine / DnD's Trilogy (this is here because I loved the challenge of feeling like I bit off more than I can chew and for me their explanations were clear though would take work...)
If I stripped down my magic collection to the basic and essential, this is what I'd keep and what I wish I started with.
Edit: Added in RRtCM. I agree, basics first and of course you must have your slieghts down and your tricks well put together.
I guess the crux of what I'm asking, is when in the learning process would you begin putting an emphasis on performance, showmanship, routining, and audience management.
I assume we're all in this endeavour called Magic because we love giving people the chance of enjoying the pleasure of being terribly, terribly decieved; astonished; or what have you. ie. we practice so we can perform for others.
I believe the Paper Engine teaches an extremely fundamental principle regarding performing -- the end of our means -- the purpose of our practice. Fisher's extremely insightful, full of great teaching and poinient statements.
I find myself wishing I purchased this earlier. It would have prevented many setbacks, most of which dealt with me being a bit nervous about my sleights, seeing the spec burn my hands, leading to me getting even more nervous, then messing up the trick...
So, I'm curious.... if you knew when you first started magic what you know now, 1) what would you purchase, 2) in what order, and 3) where would Paper Engine rank in that list?
so off the top of my head (I might edit this later) my card magic list would be:
A) Crash Course 1 & 2 from ellusionist (easy tricks, great reactions... I never would've gotten hooked with magic if I purchased a book first)
B) W:H's Stigmata (all time favorite)
C) Card Fundamentals 1 & 2 (T11 1-on-1... Great teaching and a great intro to Fisher)
D) Royal Road to Card Magic -- Book and DVD
E & F) Paper Engine / DnD's Trilogy (this is here because I loved the challenge of feeling like I bit off more than I can chew and for me their explanations were clear though would take work...)
If I stripped down my magic collection to the basic and essential, this is what I'd keep and what I wish I started with.
Edit: Added in RRtCM. I agree, basics first and of course you must have your slieghts down and your tricks well put together.
I guess the crux of what I'm asking, is when in the learning process would you begin putting an emphasis on performance, showmanship, routining, and audience management.
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