Perception.
It's all about perception as my business partner always tells me. You need to make a plan of how you want people to perceive you and a course of action on how you plan to implement that perception to your classmates.
I get where you are coming from. Magic today, at least in my immediate networks, is seen as something very dorky that only nerdy people do. That is their perception of what magic is. They see it as the ridiculous looking magician that goes to a kids birthday party and does card tricks or something. They don't perceive it the way I would because they more than likely have not been exposed to the brilliance of David Blaine, Darcy Oake, or Shin Lim.
This happened to me in my entrepreneurship class. I had invited the professor to come see my show because my side hustle is basically an entertainment production company and I wanted him to see what it was first hand. Unfortunately he was not able to make it due to a medical appointment but he did call me out during the middle of class once and asked how my show went. I told him that it went good and I was very pleased with how it turned out. A student from across the room asked what kind of a show it was to which I shyly replied it was an illusion show (trying to avoid the word magic like the plague). I think this confused the class because the professor clarified it was a magic show to which the class kind of giggled and snickered at this.
A girl behind me asked if I sawed a lady in half to which I replied "No but I stripped down half naked and covered myself head to toe in industrial chain and pulled off the Houdini chain escape. " The tone of the class began to change after that. The professor asked how the turn out was and I replied " I was very pleased with the turn out. We filled every seat in the auditorium and had to seat some of the youngest audience members on the floor. We had people ages 6-76 attend and had a very diverse crowd. For a free show, I was able to still make money off of it."
At that point the perception of my show and who I was to the class had changed. The class (to my belief) no longer saw me as the guy who wears a top hat, cape and a vest with a bunch of card tricks and streamers, and even small details like checking the
McGraw Hill phone number for references or professional contacts reinforced how serious I was becoming. Instead they now saw me as someone who was serious about what I do and that it was more of a stunt show than a kids birthday party act. But I think what really intrigued them was my turn out and the fact that I made money on it. Money talks as they say and I go even further to say it has the loudest voice.
That is how I changed the perception of my classmates. I consider myself to be an avid hobbyist of magic rather than an actual magician so I always shy away from telling people that I'm a magician because of the stigma behind it. Instead I tell them I'm an entertainer that likes to tell unique stories to people. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors to "come out" as a magician.
