Saturday Night Contest - Resolutions for 2018

CaseyRudd

Director of Operations
Team member
Jun 5, 2009
3,393
3,801
Charleston, SC
www.instagram.com
Hey guys, hope everyone is having a great weekend! Had some troubles posting the contest, but we finally have it up - apologies for the delay! As 2017 comes to a close, we are reminded of everything we have done over the past year and where it has gotten us heading into the new year. It's always exciting to begin a new year, so first and foremost, happy new year from all of us at theory11!

We want to know - in your own words - what you feel you have accomplished over this last year (2017) in magic and / or cardistry. Some of you may have performed your first professional show, others may have come up with a cool idea or concept that found its way into your repertoire, or maybe you just discovered the art and want to share how it's impacted your life. The contest tonight is simple - tell us about it.

In addition, we want to know what your resolutions are for this next year - 2018. What are your goals? What would you like to see yourself accomplish in magic and / or cardistry over the coming year? We want to hear about it!

Because this is a written contest, everyone of you is free to participate. Submissions should be posted as responses to this thread - and all entries must be in by tomorrow, Sunday, December 31st at 11:00pm EST for judging. We will review the posts and announce the winner (selected at random) once time is up. Note that submissions can vary in length - but are limited to 500 words, maximum.

The winner takes home 1,000 Elite Member Points and ANY 6 Decks of your choice (of those that we have in stock).

We look forward to reading through all of your accomplishments, aspirations, thoughts, and goals!
 
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Aug 6, 2017
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In 2017 I have accomplished a lot in magic. I started magic in early July this year and have made it so far. I have created routines to preform for friends, family and strangers. I accomplished reading through a couple magic books including royal road and Harry Lorayne's CUCM. I was able to balance my school work (which is tough for me I get stressed) with learning magic. I also created new social relationships through magic, meeting a friend through magic, and having others see me as the "magic person" which I like. I also have gotten to join T11 which has helped me accomplish so many things including little details of wording, fixing sleights, organizing routines, etc. I feel like I have accomplished a tremendous social fear because I used to be a more shy, kept to myself person (which I still am a little) but through magic I have made many friendships.

In 2018 My main goal is to get my first gig. At 15 years old I am not seen as someone with authority but I want to be able to go up to the owner of a parlor or store and show them what I can do. I want to be able to get hired and work for money. I also want to get into coin magic. I have briefly gotten into it but I want to get much more in depth. I would like to also learn some basic cardistry because it is a neat art form.

That is my 2017 accomplishments and 2018 goals!
 
Jan 13, 2015
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First off, I just want to wish everyone a happy New Years and hope that you will all accomplish the goals you have planned for yourselves.

In 2017 I am proud to say that I have accomplished the following:
  • Attended my first all day magic convention.
  • Preformed a magic show for an audience of over 500 people.
  • Bought several magic tricks (from theory 11 of course) with money I saved up from a summer job.
  • perfected the haunted deck trick.
  • added many more tricks to my day to day routine.
In 2018 my goals are:
  • Preform another large show
  • attend another magic convention
  • Start uploading street magic videos to my YouTube channel
  • Post magic content at least once a month to my Instagram.
  • Purchase the tricks I've been wanting to add to my collection.
  • Have my own magic effect released on the marketplace.
Wish you all the best for 2018 and good luck to all!
 
Sep 23, 2017
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This year, I learned my first trick, performed to a few friends, and fell into the most amazing, magical world imaginable. Over time I've accumulated my beginner library, and been studying royal road and card college as if I was going to be graded on it. I went to my first magic shop, met some amazing magicians, and had the greatest discussion about theory and performance that an amateur could ask for. I've befriended magicians from school, online, and from shops. I've found the greatest online community, filled to the brim with delightful magic conversation. For 2018, all I wish to do is finish my current library, become better, and maybe, just MAYBE, perform for my first "real audience" here's to a magical new years for you all
 
Jul 1, 2014
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This year, I decided to start learning Mentalism seriously. I bought Practical Mental Effects and 13 Steps to Mentalism and really enjoyed both of them. They gave me everything I wanted to know about Mentalism and even more. I managed to perform more confidently with all the knowledge I learned from the books. Still, there is a lot more that I feel that I haven't fully understood so in 2018 I will continue reading and learning and performing. I'm also graduating in June so I hope I can get a job as an interpreter and maybe, working as a part-time mentalist, not just a hobbyist like now. Long way to go, but I will try to make it.
 
Nov 25, 2013
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This year, with regard to magic, I created my first (beginner) effect. It was a cool process to go from idea to creation to mastery. I hope to come up with new ideas in the future as well. I also purchased some awesome new effects, one of my favorites being the DMB spread control 2.0.

I also learned a my first two handed cardistry move, the Werm. That felt really good to do so I'd like to continue learning new moves and hopefully inventing my own. I definitely appreciate cardistry more now that I've tried it and seen first-hand how hard it can be.

I've gotten into card collecting in the past year and expanded my deck collection from like 10 decks to more than 70 or 80, and hope to expand it even further in the next year.

Next year I would like to continue practicing and inventing magic and cardistry, but more than anything, I want to learn about card production. I have lots of ideas for decks, but no idea where to start to produce them. I hope to learn more about this in the future.

Happy New Year everyone!
 
Jan 26, 2017
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2017 was kinda rough for me. I was injured the entire time, and performing was kind of hard (especially after spring of this year). However, this meant that I had a lot of time on my hands. I started out the year fully immersed in magic, very eager to learn. I learned how to truly develop my performance so that it isn’t a boring “lemme trick you”, but rather engaging entertainment for the spectator. I worked on my patter and formulated how my performances should go. That is probably my favourite accomplishment, as it allowed me to perform for some people. I ended up performing a lot toward the end of spring and the start of summer, and had some of my favorite performances of all time as my spectators really enjoyed it. I was ready to do more, but my injuries didn’t really let me. However, I took this time to read more and practice.

I bought some new books, and read through some basic level ones to increase my knowledge (which I’m still reading through). I also read through some more advanced stuff. I started reading some of Marlo’s works, and decided that I should put myself to the test. I started taking notes on things I read and things that I thought of. I started creating potential effects that I can test out in performance and build on to fully personalize them. I ended up fully working my way through 7 or so effects/tricks, and having ideas written down for a lot more. I also worked to get my favorite custom trick to the best that I can get it, especially after learning some more moves with the books I read through.

Unfortunately, I kind of slacked off of magic over the last 3+ months as I was on crutches and didn’t feel like doing magic as I couldn’t perform. However, I have recently began recovering, and have re-entered the magic world and am very eager to learn. In 2018, I hope to go through the basics and refresh myself on everything that I have “forgotten”. I am going to work my way back through the Royal Road to refresh myself, and then Expert Card Technique. Then, I’m gonna practice like crazy until I get everything back. I have 5 books that I really want to get through next year, including Revolutionary Card Technique. I would also like to read through more books, but want to finish these first. I mostly want to start performing regularly, whether it’s on the street or at school (maybe even get a gig or 2). I want to build on my performance-ship and make it really engaging for the audience. This will also allow me to start testing out some personal creations and build upon them. I also want to expand my magic library, so long as I read everything. Most of all though, I just want to perform.


Good Luck Everyone! Sorry mine is long!
 

willtupper

Elite Member
Apr 28, 2009
283
335
2017: Got over a lot of my own "imposter syndrome," when it comes to magic. This may sound silly, but for the longest time I honestly felt like I wasn't "cool" enough for magic. I know, right? Yet this year I managed to perform for more people than I ever had before, shopped a lot at both local magic shops (and realized how utterly blessed I am to live within fairly close driving distance of TWO brick-and-mortar stores). Um... attended an amazing lecture the other night, read a lot more books. This year, at least when it comes to magic, has been good to me.

2018: There's this restaurant, not that far from me. I don't quite know how to describe it, but they don't take reservations, and we have waited well over THREE HOURS for a table, and it has been 110% worth it. Best food in the world.

Every time we go, I wind up performing for people waiting with us at the bar (they have this bar, kind-of adjacent to the actual restaurant, which also serves as a "holding area" while we wait to be called for our table). A deck of cards, some straws, some matches... I've discovered I can hold down court & entertain folks I don't know fairly well, and I really, really, REALLY like doing it.

So, in 2018 I'm planning on pitching (and getting!) my first gig at that particular restaurant.

I wish you all a weird, wild, wonderful, and most magically fulfilling 2018! :D
 
Jan 26, 2017
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Virginia
This may sound silly, but for the longest time I honestly felt like I wasn't "cool" enough for magic.
We're magicians... .we spend our free time playing (with) cards by ourselves... we're not exactly the coolest people :D

Seriously though, I know exactly how you feel. When you think magician, you think of this suave guy who can converse with anyone. In reality, very few people are like that, so there is this big shadow over us as beginners to do everything perfectly. But eventually, you hit this point where you stop trying to be that magician and just try and perform like normal people, and it's the best feeling ever. I legitimately did not try to perform for the first year I was into magic, because I had the same thinking as you did. Looking back at it, I was just wasting my time.
 

Khaleel Olaiky

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2013
535
573
For 2017 I decided to put quality over quantity,
for example, I love making YouTube magic videos, over the years I used to put goals as making 30 videos or something like that but, this year I made a goal to make only THREE videos but three AWESOME videos and I did it,
I filmed three pretty cool ideas
one cardistry and two magic videos that I’m really proud of.

Also, I used to make goals as learning a number of tricks but this year, I’ve made it differently I just wanted to perform, just perform more and more for real audience trying to take my showmanship to the next level, and that what I actually did, I haven’t done big shows or anything this year but I’m pretty sure I have performed very good close up performances throughout the year.

Now for 2018, I’ve always loved themed stage shows
you know, stuff with a story something like Penn and Teller style of performing, telling a story using magic was always fascinating for me, so for the past year I was coming up with this idea of time traveling theme for a stage show,
Performing a number of effects in a way that gives the audience an experience of what does it feel like to time travel, I am now putting my final touches to the script and I’m planning to perform it for the first time in 2018 and hopefully it will be a great show,

And the second thing I really want to do this year is to meet more magicians in real life and having more jams, I don’t do that usually because there are no much magicians in the area I’m living in but I guess I’m going to put the time and effort to travel more so I can meet more magicians in real life because I think that’s one of the things that really helps you give your creativity a push towards a good direction,

Anyway, I wish everyone who is reading just right now a very happy and successful year of 2018 and thanks for Theory11 for making this community amazing every single year.

Khaleel.
 
Mar 15, 2017
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2017 was the year where it all started for me. While I was surfing on Youtube, I came across a 2014 video: Mat Franco's very first AGT appearance. His showmanship and the tricks that he did captivated me. It was nothing that I've ever seen before. I started studying magic, unfortunately, on Youtube, coming across channels like Russian Genius, Jarek 1:20, Jay Sankey, et cetera. I continued on a little while, before I discovered Cardistry, it was a craft that I've never seen done before with cards, the flourishes were so elegant, yey what captivated me was the aerials/card flicks. So, while searching for some card flick tutorials, I came across Chris Ramsay. After watching his videos, his point of view, his magic and his philosophy changed my entire perspective on magic. I started realizing what magic is and what it can be. At this point, I realized what [censored] some Youtube channels were for stealing effects from magicians. And so, I think, this is where my journey in magic truly begun. I started purchasing effects and learning from the creators themselves. I started talking to good people like Xavior Spade and I realized that magic isn't just "Bam! Do a trick! Repeat!", I realized that I needed my own personality; something that defines me as a person, and especially as a magician. After watching some of Richard Turner's videos, I realized that I had a long way to go. But that didn't discourage me, as stated by Malcolm Gladwell, "Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.", I started practicing at least 3 hours a day, even doing so in class, at school, sometimes. I also bought books, based on the recommendations of Chris Ramsay, Jason England, Xavior Spade, et cetera. I have practiced a long list of moves, though, I fell in love with Lennart Green's magic, and started mainly practicing his moves through Takumi Takahashi's A Study on Lennart Green. With some influence from Luke Dancy and Alex Pandrea, my main Double Lift became the Push-Off Double Lift. And through Richard Turner and Daniel Madison's influence, I started practicing gambling techniques. Through Dimitri Arleri, Ekaterina and Andrei, my flourishing has improved, though, it remains secondary, especially when I have the difficult moves like the Ambitious Riser by Ray Kosby, first exposed to me in the form of Alter by Kelvin Chow, and the Clipshift by Chad Nelson. And now, slowly, but surely, through Xavior Spade's influence, I might start using gimmicks as at first, I was only practicing my sleights, due to the fact that I considered using gimmicks a form of "cheating". I had also performed a few shows for my friends and family, though, that was mainly my "devoid-of-essence" performances, back when I was still a beginner.

For 2018, nothing changes, I will still practice, despite all the obstacles that will come my way at my age (e.g. Exams for school, for Chinese school and for my pilot license, competitions for my martial art, and prom (especially prom.) I will not book any gigs, due to my what-I-consider-still-beginner-level skills, however, I will slowly begin to contruct what I will do, and who I will present as (how I will present myself, mysterious, funny, et cetera) based on what my friends and family tell me how I am, and from observing other magicians perform, and also from listening to other people's point of views on how magic should be performed.

Summed up, 2018, and the many years to pass, I will hope to develop myself and improve what I already know, I will be constantly practicing, hopefully becoming a new generation magician that would make the very best proud of where magic is, and what it has become.

Never lose sight of your path, godspeed, to the many magicians across generations. Happy 2018, and remember, DEALT (Dreams, Excellence, Analysis, Loyalty and Tenacity) -courtesy of Richard Turner.
 
Dec 30, 2014
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2017 has been pretty good even though I still have yet to get over the fear of performing I managed to perform a little bit for the NZ Taekwon-do team during our campaign to the world champs. Got some amazing reactions and definitely built up a name for myself as the team Harry potter something I'm sure most of us have heard. I'm also slowly venturing into cardistry and my card handling skills have improved a lot but by the end of next year my cardistry should have improved a lot more. I also got some more magic books and cards for my birthday today which was pretty nice!

2018 is going to be my year! Aside from all my non-magic related goals and resolutions I also am planning to join the IBM which I'm sure will help me along my journey. I am also going to design and fund my own designed deck of cards no matter how much work may be required. My cardistry is going to improve a lot and I would like to get more familiar with some impromptu tricks for when people ask "Yo shows us some magic!". I'd also like to create a few tricks which I will be really proud of as I am reading 'designing miracles' currently and it has made me look at more of the amazingly clever little idiosyncrasies of magic which I'm sure will help me on my way! The final magic related goal/resolution is to get at least 10,000 subscribers (hopefully 50K) on my youtube channel. Although it won't all be magic but some magic aspects will be spread throughout. To some that may seem difficult but my brother got to 100k on youtube and I know exactly (in theory) how and what to do. It's just a matter of doing it now!

I wish everyone a happy new year!

See ya 2017!
 
Dec 1, 2017
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2017 is very special to me as I started practising magic and getting to know about the awesome people in this community.
The way I progress is a bit different .As there are so many moves and sleights to learn and the resources are also vast.People dont know to learn what from where.So I watched the instagram videos of my favourite magicians,and try to learn that that move.Usually ill download the video ,slow it down a bit ,and come to know about the mechanics.
My favourite magicians from instagram were:
Franco Pascali-Huge inspiration,Ive also listened to his podcasts from Magical thinking And artist podcast from theory 11.I saw the perfection and smoothness in him while he has a deck of cards in his hands.
Ollie mealing-again a great person with great sleight of hand.
Shin lim ,Alex pandrea and other artists.
In 2018 I believe and im confident that ill learn more sleights and try to apply it practical magic concepts.
The one move i got down in 2017 was ray kosby's Raise rise.
 
Jul 15, 2017
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If 2017 is any indication 2018 will change my life. I started doing magic in January of 2018 and quickly picked up multiple books and contacts that helped me absorb all I could and truly made me the magician I am at the back of this year. I had my first street performance in March, my first payed corporate gig in April, and by the end of this year I had made it on the 2018 season of America's Got Talent and had been invited to do multiple large events. After a year of straight grinding I am in love with performing magic and next year will be even wilder. I plan on doing a show that I'm 100% creating in January and then come March I will be in Vegas doing AGT. By the end of 2018 my goal is to be a respected known member in the magic community and perform at least 100 times. That's right my main goal is to perform 100 shows between Jan 1st - Dec 31. Wish me luck and I hope I get to meet a lot of you theory 11 crew on the way there!
 
Oct 9, 2015
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Colorado
I began building up a reputation at my school and performing for some really solid crowds all while destroying my social anxiety and shyness : heres the events in chronological order


The first occasion was March 21st at school , i got asked to do magic so i went into torn and resotred transpo from this site for a group of 2 girls and a guy , they freaked out , i had gotten the attention of theese 2 girls , i went into more magic for one of them , i remember my social anxiety and shyness just dissolving and pretry soon i had a crowd of 8 people , it still gives me a rush to this day.

The second occasion was at school again a couple of months later , in May , when i did magic for a group of guys , i started off with TNR transpo , i did more magic , then i realized i had another duplicate i didnt know about , so i called this girl behind me over and did TNR Transpo again for her and the 3 guys , and then after i let her keep the card , i got it back 5 minutes later with her phone # on it


The thrid time i was out at a camp in new mexico in July when i had managend to build up a crowd of 10+ people all on my own , i started off double exposure by asi wind to one kid , then afterwards went over and got his name , did TNR transpo for this girl he was talking too , she screamed outloud and suprise surpise , more people came in , so that happend, and i did more magic


August rolled around when i had a seinor event too kick off our seinor year , i did TNR Transpo for a crowd of a few girls and alot of jocks , and i did 2 card monte , all in all it was great

Then i had a double whammy last september at my homecoming game and dance , at the game i had gotten back when there was this one girl standing there from another school , i introduced myself and she knew who i was and knew i did magic , and so did her group of friends , i managed to show magic at the game to them and some other people , killed it all in all

Then at the dance i brought magic stuff and i decided to put my loops into action , i had 2 loops , first time i tried haunted deck , it snapped before i could load it , so i thought quick and improvised and did well , when i did haunted deck , the deck moved once and then the loop snapped , thankfully i had created a step and then just went to the step to reveal the card


Overall this year , i lived and learned , and i cant wait for 2018 , because i know this is only the beggining , thanks to people like theory11 for helping me get this far.


Evan White
 
Dec 28, 2017
2
5
I only discovered magic this last week. It has already been an amazing experience. One of my friends introduced me to Penn & Teller's show Fool Us. I lost track of time watching as many episodes as I could. I fell in love with the performances by Michael Vincent. The things he could do with a deck of cards inspired me to get started on my magical journey. So far I have lurked on various magic websites such as Theory11 as well as visited a local magic shop. I came to the conclusion of purchasing Card College and I have dove right in. It is a 5 book series, and have decided to treat it like college. Each book I will spend about a semester to two semesters long on it to really learn and understand what is being taught. I'm making it a point to really read carefully and fully practice each thing I learn. Even something as simple as a pinky break, I am striving for perfection.

Some of my accomplishments have been:

1. Memorizing the Map of the Hands and Map of the Deck.
2. Adequate handling of the False Overhand Shuffles.
3. Dribbling Cards
4. Passable Ribbon Spread.

Currently I am working on the Peek Control.

My resolution for next year in regards to magic is to continue with Card College and other books that are suggested to me from forums like this one. I want to spend about a year more to finish up at least the first two volumes of Card College before actually trying to perform for anyone. Aaron Fisher suggests not performing for friends and family, or at least, that it is harder to do so. So I have been cautious about performing. I hope to eventually try performing a little bit, even if it is at least for my girlfriend.
 

Furrukh

Elite Member
Jul 24, 2010
780
679
Karachi,Pakistan
I'm not a person that makes up resolutions for the yr and keep up with them. I kind of go with the flow kind of guy. With that said let's go for what I achieved this year. For me the level at I am, it has always been difficult for me to come up with a routine. I could never show someone more than 3 tricks without having to look back at the deck or do some pre setting and even the 3 tricks that I could do didn't felt connected. So the biggest achievement for me was to come up with a proper routine and feels connected and I believe if I work on the story telling the routine could be done for a 20min small show. Must have to mention Joshua Jay and John Carey for the inspiring me to make my own routine.
And for the next year my goal is to work on my story telling for my routine and see where things go, and maybe win a skill based SNC in 2018.

Happy New Year Everyone
 
Dec 9, 2016
14
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This has been an interesting year for me in magic! As a kid, I was always interested in it and would spend hours learning tricks, but after a while, I got busy with school and other sports/activities. The reason this year has been so fantastic is because I have rediscovered my love for magic! After many years of no progress, I have picked up old decks and dusted off old books to regain the passion I once had! The Royal Road to Card Magic has been a great companion, and I have been able to start forming routines and start to be confident when people ask to see a trick. I've even developed my own card trick which involved a little bit of mentalism :)

My resolution for the 2018 year is to get at least 3 different card routines down and learn at least 3 different card controls. Being able to handle a deck is very important and I also want to put some flourishes under my belt. So glad to be part of theory11 and I look forward to the new year!
 

EricR5

Elite Member
Jul 18, 2015
90
101
In 2017, I was up and down with magic. Mostly down - until recently, picking back up with practice. This was the first year in a couple of years that I did not do a Halloween show. My goal for 2018 is to do another Halloween show, and make it the best one ever. Record it, too!
 
Nov 11, 2017
9
11
2017 was the starting point for me.
I almost given up on cardistry because I couldn't find any tutorials. When all I needed to do was just add the word "tutorial" when I search cardistry. (haha, stupid me)

After around a month or so I managed to learn a few basic cuts. After that I stumbled on a few magic videos and I realized I could mix cardistry and magic. So I started learning both. I would practice cardistry on and magic on other days

After learning a few tricks I decided to perform them to my family and friends.
The first few times I performed I felt very nervous I would often drop cards or flash a colour change

But I continued to practice and it payed off.

So my list of achievements this year are:
1)Performing to friends
2)Able to do two handed card flourishes like the were and five faces of Sybil
3)Able to pull off a decent card trick

2018 definitely has a lot in store for me. I would want to buy a couple of new decks for cardistry and probably a marked deck for magic.But I probably won't have that much time to practice compared to 2017 because I have activities and a major exam coming up

And my list of resolutions for 2018 are
1)Film myself doing magic or cardistry(maybe even both!)
2)Join a video SNC
3)Master the spring and dribble so I may do the anaconda or giant spring
4)Build up my confidence to do performances

So that's everything
Anyways Happy new year everyone and may 2018 be good year to everybody
 
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