Mind blank

Jan 26, 2017
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Virginia
Sometimes when I start performing a trick, something clicks off in my head and I forget my steps that I normally take. I thus have to improvise. The performance normally ends up going, but my brain is yelling "AHHHHH" the whole time.

Am I the only one that this happens to? If so... uh... Have a great day!...? No but seriously, what should I do? I assume you are going to say more practice, and I 100% agree with that, but this has happened to me a few times when I was doing my then favorite trick.

Maybe a better way to memorize what I need to do? Or a way to plan it out in my head?

Thoughts?
 
Jul 15, 2017
107
95
Lol, take it from someone who has done a LOT of performances in my life, not so much with magic but still something that requires me to remember line and steps, get good at your improv. It happens to everyone, whether they want to admit it or not. The sign of a great performer is being able to convince the audience everything went according to plan, when it went the complete opposite way. As for making sure it doesn't happen often, it's just practice, even when you think, "I've got this down, so now I'm just wasting time." Keep doing it. Muscle memory and skill comes to us in those moments of insane repetition and grinding. I hope that helps!
 
Jan 26, 2017
2,173
1,338
23
Virginia
Lol, take it from someone who has done a LOT of performances in my life, not so much with magic but still something that requires me to remember line and steps, get good at your improv. It happens to everyone, whether they want to admit it or not. The sign of a great performer is being able to convince the audience everything went according to plan, when it went the complete opposite way. As for making sure it doesn't happen often, it's just practice, even when you think, "I've got this down, so now I'm just wasting time." Keep doing it. Muscle memory and skill comes to us in those moments of insane repetition and grinding. I hope that helps!
Will do! Oh & its not even just muscle memory. Its like having a card lost in the deck and doing a pass to get it to the top, then doing a hermann pass to get a card above it, only to realize you needed it at the top lol.
 
Jul 26, 2016
571
795
It could be a symptom of Magicianitis - the tendency many of us have to learn soooooo many tricks - especially card tricks. Then the brain sometimes get jumbled because of all those tricks and methods crammed in there. The cure? Spending a few weeks doing nothing but just a few of our strongest tricks/routines, practicing them and refining them over and over and, over and forgetting about all the others.
 
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Jul 15, 2017
107
95
It could be a symptom of Magicianitis - the tendency many of us have to learn soooooo many tricks - especially card tricks. Then the brain sometimes get jumbled because of all those tricks and methods crammed in there. The cure? Spending a few weeks doing nothing but just a few of our strongest tricks/routines, practicing them and refining them over and over and, over and forgetting about all the others.
Oooooh, That is a really good point!
 
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WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
Humans love patterns. Make sure that the stuff you perform is all unique, and then practice and rehearse it until you're sick of it.

As Al E Cat Dabra said, magicians have a tendency to learn a ton. A lot of that material is similar. So sometimes your brain is going to branch down the wrong neural pathway and you'll blank.

But if everything you do is unique, you form the pattern of that trick in the neural pathways, so that one step automatically goes to the next one in your head.

That being said - I still blank occasionally. Usually if I make a change to something. There's a step in my energy transfer routine that I forget about 25% of the time. It's supposed to go second, I often end up slipping it in second-to-last.
 
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