Okay guys, here's my magic life story.
My best friend took me to my first magic shop, and instantly I was hooked. I started out buying small props and gimmicks, and would show my family each trick at least 5-10 times until they would know the secret. I was naive. I practiced for years, and never performed for anyone other than family and friends. Shortly after I got into cards. I never learned the 'basics' per say other than the ones that were essential in the tricks that I knew. I started becoming more fond of card magic as the weeks went on. I learned all of my tricks and sleights from DVD's. I never left home without a deck of cards. As good as I was at the tricks that I knew, I still didn't perform too much more than in the past, except like before to family and friends. I got my first non-paid gig, and performed nervously in front of a good number of people. Then my best friend, the one that got me started on learning magic in the first place, suddenly quit. Now I had nobody to practice with. I joined a magic club, but for some reason it didn't help me like I thought it would, most likely due to the age difference between myself, and every other single 30-40 year old. I always got positive and constructive criticism, and many compliments on how well I could perform, especially when the material's difficulty level was higher than most of the magic clubs veterans. This was my high point. I loved to perform, and perfect my craft, even though I still wasn't performing anywhere close to how much I wanted to be.
Time went on and I got my first job. I went from only 15 or so hours a week, to attending school, and working my shift after that, and the same routine day after day. I couldn't find time to perform, or practice. I then started practicing everywhere. At the movies, in the car, on break, in the bathroom, at parties, and school. Now anybody I hung out with, or were merely in the same room as me knew that I was a magician. Performing became a regular bullet point on my daily agenda, especially at school. But soon, I ran out of tricks, and people wanted to see new tricks. I started learning handfuls of tricks a day, and not giving them adequate practice. I messed up constantly, forgot patter and how to perform them, and it came to be the only way someone would watch me was if they felt like they wanted to try to figure out the method. I stopped performing, and started flourishing.
I quickly stopped flourishing, and dropped the deck altogether.
So this brings me to where I am right now. If I'm ever playing poker, or someone breaks out a deck of cards, I'll usually perform a fancy cut, and then they'll ask to see some magic, but aside from that, I haven't touched a deck of cards for about 8 months to a year. Whenever I pick up the cards again after a few minutes, it's like I never stopped. Magic was my one real passion. I lost my passion, and I want more than anything to get it back.
So if you've read this far, I thank you, and I'd just like to clarify. I'm not asking for anyone to feel bad or sorry for me. I'm simply asking for any suggestions on how I could go about rekindling the flame. I'd love to here any inspirational performance stories, or any ideas that could potentially help. Thanks in advance to anyone that posts!
-Gary Dlugoz-
My best friend took me to my first magic shop, and instantly I was hooked. I started out buying small props and gimmicks, and would show my family each trick at least 5-10 times until they would know the secret. I was naive. I practiced for years, and never performed for anyone other than family and friends. Shortly after I got into cards. I never learned the 'basics' per say other than the ones that were essential in the tricks that I knew. I started becoming more fond of card magic as the weeks went on. I learned all of my tricks and sleights from DVD's. I never left home without a deck of cards. As good as I was at the tricks that I knew, I still didn't perform too much more than in the past, except like before to family and friends. I got my first non-paid gig, and performed nervously in front of a good number of people. Then my best friend, the one that got me started on learning magic in the first place, suddenly quit. Now I had nobody to practice with. I joined a magic club, but for some reason it didn't help me like I thought it would, most likely due to the age difference between myself, and every other single 30-40 year old. I always got positive and constructive criticism, and many compliments on how well I could perform, especially when the material's difficulty level was higher than most of the magic clubs veterans. This was my high point. I loved to perform, and perfect my craft, even though I still wasn't performing anywhere close to how much I wanted to be.
Time went on and I got my first job. I went from only 15 or so hours a week, to attending school, and working my shift after that, and the same routine day after day. I couldn't find time to perform, or practice. I then started practicing everywhere. At the movies, in the car, on break, in the bathroom, at parties, and school. Now anybody I hung out with, or were merely in the same room as me knew that I was a magician. Performing became a regular bullet point on my daily agenda, especially at school. But soon, I ran out of tricks, and people wanted to see new tricks. I started learning handfuls of tricks a day, and not giving them adequate practice. I messed up constantly, forgot patter and how to perform them, and it came to be the only way someone would watch me was if they felt like they wanted to try to figure out the method. I stopped performing, and started flourishing.
I quickly stopped flourishing, and dropped the deck altogether.
So this brings me to where I am right now. If I'm ever playing poker, or someone breaks out a deck of cards, I'll usually perform a fancy cut, and then they'll ask to see some magic, but aside from that, I haven't touched a deck of cards for about 8 months to a year. Whenever I pick up the cards again after a few minutes, it's like I never stopped. Magic was my one real passion. I lost my passion, and I want more than anything to get it back.
So if you've read this far, I thank you, and I'd just like to clarify. I'm not asking for anyone to feel bad or sorry for me. I'm simply asking for any suggestions on how I could go about rekindling the flame. I'd love to here any inspirational performance stories, or any ideas that could potentially help. Thanks in advance to anyone that posts!
-Gary Dlugoz-
