Teaching

[ReubenGazertheAmazer]

Have you ever come across somebody you know, that has a very strong, general interest in magic? It's not a, "Man I want to get the ladies and freak my friends out" kind of interest, but a genuine interest for the art.

Somebody I know, who's in his 20's (Michael Kras also knows who I'm speaking of) performed a very simple, key card trick for a group of people. He explained about him being in university and studying psychology and it all tied up nicely. Turns out it was on the spot, created patter! Pretty impressive for a beginner.

Anyways, the moral of the story (more of a question), is, when is it ok to "teach" or guide someone to continue in magic? Should I be recommending him to go to the shop, recommending books, or what?

My other question, is that has anybody here met someone that has been attempting to figure out their effects, and you are skeptical to guide them magically, for any reasons (such as their interest in magic is for the quote near the top, they are unrespectful of magic, they will reveal things, they're close in your surroundings such as in school or work and you don't want another magician, etc.)

 

[Nikki]

Since its a beginner tell him to go to the library and check out some books on beginner card magic. Recomend royal road to card magic.

This has happened to me a friend of mine had an interest in magic after seeing me perform and at first he told me he just wanted to learn one trick to show his family...he randomly asked me this and i didnt know if that was ok, so i asked some of my magician friends and they told me teach him a key card.

Then he told me he really wanted to learn more and i asked him if he was serious and he said he is and still trys to convince me, im still not sure, but i know he wont reveal the secrets so its okay. He takes my advice and the time to learn before he shows people so hes not too bad, just very lazy. Now at first he was a little disrespectful of magic, but in my opinion beginners need to be tought to respect it like with anything, when your a young child you need to be tought to respect adults and such. Like he didn't know it was frowned upon to trade with people so he did that, but he did listen to me after i explained how that was wrong just a bunch of little things like that. he understands now though and i believe he has a greater respect for magic than he did before.

Now if you send the person to the library and if he learnes the basics and takes the time, you'll be able to tell hes more serious maybe. If hes just in it for the secrets you'll be able to tell dead on. it would be obvious. So if you are skeptical guideing him....test him first. see how far he'll go.


theres been many threads similar to this one, but heres my 2 cents



-Nikki

 

[Michael Kras]

Chris is genuinely interested, I'd say, having known the guy for a few months and seeing what good attention he pays to it. Like you said, he's very good presentation-wise considering many novice magicians don't even consider presentation, and really wants to learn. Plus, he's watching magic videos online all the time now and is driving himself nuts over a certain colour change

I'm glad you brought this up... I was also a bit iffy on the whole thing. Funny, before I even opened this thread I had a feeling that this topic would be about this.