Lessons Learned From Legedemain - Lesson #3

[Tally]

Lessons Learned From Legerdemain – Lesson #3

Introduction

It is Labor Day! I hope you enjoyed the last two Legerdemain series. The summer of 2009 has been a wonderful time for my magic. I have enjoyed much practice without the hassle of school. I have also glued my eyes into books like Showmanship for Magicians by Dariel Fitzkee and The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman. There is one fear that has plagued my magic. That fear is the fear of bombing a trick.

Lesson #3 – Fear

Let me tell you a story.
On August 20, 2009, I went to Hooters with my brothers and my cousins. I had been practicing making salt disappear from one hand and reappear in the other for about a week. I felt confident enough to perform. As we finished our buffalo wings, my cousin asked me to perform to a Hooters waitress. I got everything I needed to perform and now we just needed to call one of the waitresses over to watch. It wasn't the fact that I would be performing for a waitress at Hooters that sent chills down my spine, it was the fact that I could mess up my trick. I did not have the guts to call a waitress to our table. After about five minutes, I called it quits. I put all my apparatus away. My cousin was very disappointed. I rode back home in the car, quiet as a mouse, thinking about what could have happened if I had successfully performed the effect. At home I felt horrible. I regretted that I had not followed through with my performance.

Final Thoughts

What would you do if there were nothing to fear? What would you do if you knew you could never fail, that you would succeed at everything you do? What would you do if you viewed every mistake would make you a better person? Would you not then do whatever the hell came to mind? Everybody fears something: fear of embarrassment, fear of loneliness, fear of disapproval. But the thing that must be done is to take action despite of fear. This is what separates the people who change the world and the people who just take up space.
Join me, and together, let us make a decision to never again let fear dictate our actions.

“I cannot fail…I can only learn and grow.” – Unknown

First Lesson:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=112965502618
http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?t=19730&highlight=lessons+learned

Second Lesson:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=133169757618
http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?t=21015&highlight=lessons+learned

Written by Anthony Nguyen
Edited by Steve Einhorn

 

[RDChopper]

Bump.


I feel sleepy, Ill try to contribute something tomorrow

 

[hector_cervantes]

Start of with saying nice topic tally ... mmmm If there were nothing to fear I believe we magicians would not get the same thrill we normally get when we perform I mean its a great thrill to see their eyes after a great effect, but if you think about it really 80% of the adrenaline comes because of the fact that we could mess up .. it when messing up that we really have to use our showmanship skills and quickly tranform that into a great effect or at least a cool one to layman eyes, that really in the end helps us to become more familiar with our effects and the things that can go wrong with it. I believe that once you mess up a trick its really hard to mess up at it again, belive me you will review the set up or the gimmick handling to near perfection just to not feel that pump of adrenaline when the wrong card comes up ... its hard to wrap your head around it sometimes but failure pushes you to become better.

 

[Tally]

Start of with saying nice topic tally ... mmmm If there were nothing to fear I believe we magicians would not get the same thrill we normally get when we perform I mean its a great thrill to see their eyes after a great effect, but if you think about it really 80% of the adrenaline comes because of the fact that we could mess up .. it when messing up that we really have to use our showmanship skills and quickly tranform that into a great effect or at least a cool one to layman eyes, that really in the end helps us to become more familiar with our effects and the things that can go wrong with it. I believe that once you mess up a trick its really hard to mess up at it again, belive me you will review the set up or the gimmick handling to near perfection just to not feel that pump of adrenaline when the wrong card comes up ... its hard to wrap your head around it sometimes but failure pushes you to become better.

I understand where you are coming from, but I do disagree. I hate the feeling of thinking I might mess up. That does not give me adrenaline. What gives me adrenaline is the feeling that I could really amaze someone with something I actually practice really hard and worked out everything I could think of. The thought that I could mess up is not fun. I agree with what you said that once we magicians mess up a trick, it's hard to mess up again, only if we go home and fix up the presentation. Failure does push all of us to become better, true that, but I really don't like failure. Failure will come and I'll accept my mistake and fix it, but I hate failing. Winning is so much more fun. But, thank you very much for taking time to read this.

 

[menderkant]

Confidence takes time to build. Keep working on that same trick over and over. Improving it one small step at a time and you will eventually find yourself at a point were performing this trick will not be a fearful event. Attitude is very important when performing, and usually a fearful attitude is not the one you should go with. It can make the spectator uneasy.

I think its a good thing you didn't perform the trick. Doesn't sound like you were ready. But don't worry, you'll get plenty more chances to perform.

 

[Jonathan Brown]

One thing I learned from Public Speaking in college is that being nervous is good. It drives the speech, performance...whatever. They key is taking that nervous energy and concentrating it into a usable energy that can push you forward. The key to that is to just do it. No one wants to fail, but think of it this way. How do you know you wouldn't have performed flawlessly? You don't because you didn't go for it. Grab the chance man, and use it to build your self esteem. Trust me. One or two good runs and that feeling gets weaker. It never disappears. (To this day, I shake and tremble until I get in front of an audience.) But when I hit the stage it all goes down. And about 60 seconds in and you're doin' great, then you get over the hump and start coasting down the hill.

Jonathan

 

[Tally]

One thing I learned from Public Speaking in college is that being nervous is good. It drives the speech, performance...whatever. They key is taking that nervous energy and concentrating it into a usable energy that can push you forward. The key to that is to just do it. No one wants to fail, but think of it this way. How do you know you wouldn't have performed flawlessly? You don't because you didn't go for it. Grab the chance man, and use it to build your self esteem. Trust me. One or two good runs and that feeling gets weaker. It never disappears. (To this day, I shake and tremble until I get in front of an audience.) But when I hit the stage it all goes down. And about 60 seconds in and you're doin' great, then you get over the hump and start coasting down the hill.

Jonathan

I agree. Nervousness can help. Nervousness never goes away, but you just need to use it to your advantage. True, you never know until you do it. Which is why lots of people regret lots of things. They just are so afraid of the bad things that could happen, then they don't do it, and then they wonder if it could have gone awesomely.

 

[RDChopper]

good threads deserve to be on top.

 

[William Draven]

What would you do if there were nothing to fear?

I would be very worried if there ever was a time that I did not experience some kind of fear prior to a performance. I would be concerned that I had somehow died and or was dreaming.

Fear is an important emotion for those in performance arts. It lets you know your alive, it focuses your attention on all areas of performing and helps you learn and realize mistakes, perhaps as fast as you make them.

Fear can be mistaken anticipation or performance anxiety.

Fear can also act as a safetynet when you are performing acts that are dangerous. It will let you know when you maybe pushing yourself just a bit too far.

In short there is nothing wrong with fear, it's what we do with those feelings that are defined as either "good" or "bad".

If you never step up to a challenge, fail or pass, you'll never know what you can do. If you never fail you will also never grow. You were with friends and family. They probably wouldn't care if you botched a trick. Sure they might have ribbed you for it, but that's what family is for. And the waitress? Chances are you'd never see her again. So what's to lose?

Next time, go for it!