Okay, to be HONEST...most magicians start out wanting to show off.
But to be FAIR...it is not exactly show-off. It is just a want for the limelight. It is just a small plea for attention and a wish to appear special. There is a thin line of difference between all this and showing off, and that line is what makes all the difference.
Those who do magic for showing off, don't last long. In fact, they don't last at all...they love magic for a week or two, then they switch to, I dunno, skateboarding?
But those who want a little bit of limelight and attention, they do last.
And I guess am one of those who started out like that.
I started magic thinking, "Whoa! My friends will be SO amazed if I do this!"
I feel there's nothing wrong to this approach. Why? Because it gradually dies out and something else takes its place. Let me try to explain a bit of this.
I started magic wanting attention. And I got it. A LOT of it. And that was when I realised that wait a sec, why am I getting so much reaction? I mean, all I did was use Magician's choice in its MOST BASIC AND NUDE form. And they look like they think am God or something. Then I realise, that it was not about me. Hard to admit, but it was not my ''cheerful face and charming persona and wits and smart jokes'' that people loved (I know that people must like you to like your performance, but I don't like Jibrizy at all, yet I unwillingly love his performance sometimes, so...). It was about THEM. THEY thought the coin vanished...THEIR dreams came true...THEIR minds were blown. THEY believed. THEY could have chosen not to, but THEY did bear with me.
And then I wondered if I could expand their reactions a bit, enlarge them. So I started buying books than just rely on About.com and googling "easy and killer magic tricks''.
Then I started to get more philosophical abt magic, thanx to the preface the authors add before the books on magic. And then without me knowing, somehow, somewhere, sometime, I have no idea when, my focus changed. I started paying more attention to the audience. I understood performance is more important than tricks. And all this happened gradually, NOT all at once.
So you see? I started out wanting to feel special. I ended up making others feel special. I started out wanting attention. I ended up giving others attention. I started out wanting the limelight. I ended up sharing it.
Therefore, I don't feel there's anything wrong with that kind of approach to magic in the beginning, it changes later. No idea when, maybe a year later, maybe years later, but it does inevitably...irrevocably. So nothing to worry abt
And I don't think anything abt the PURE show-off kind off people. I mean, they won't love magic for more than a few days, so I dunno what to think abt them
They prolly want attention too, but magic isn't for them Or they want attention for some silly purpose that doesn't mean much to them.