Aaron.Williams said:
Good, I'm glad that's settled.
@Toby:
My question still stands
.
Maybe I should just switch sides here though, just to get some different points of view into the discussion.
It seems to me that an underlying problem here is your level of confidence in yourself when it comes to performing magic. From what I can tell, you are able to confidently flourish for these crowds, but as soon as there's an obstacle in the way of your magic, you let it stop you. If you have the ability to perform the "magical" techniques, yet lack the confidence, maybe just look at the level of confidence you have in your ability to openly perform your flourishes. Just a thought.
This is actually a really interesting point. I remember often feeling the same way (and even using the same "solution") when I first started out. For the people hanging around on these boards who are struggling with the same problem, I'll see if I can give some helpful advice.
When you get right down to it, confidence is probably
the most important problem that most people face when dealing with strangers, or worse, people that they know but aren't friends with. You'll be especially afraid of screwing up in front of those people, because if you do, you're both guaranteed to see them again
and they won't have the urge that your friends have to hold back any negative comments.
The particularly ****ty thing about a lack of confidence is also that the only way to really get over it, is to do those exact things that it's holding you back from doing. Hooray for catch-22's.
Fortunately however, there are a couple of ways you can cheat yourself here;
- Stop performing at school. I know, this way you won't get to build up your reputation as an awesome magician. However, you'll also get to avoid the people in the category mentioned above. Most importantly though, you get to avoid the hormone-driven, competitive, status-oriented social experiment that is highschool.
- Start performing for strangers. This way, you'll still get your practice in, while at the same time being releaved of the dooming repercussion you fear to face if you screw up around people you know. Alternatively...
- Stop performing altogether (for now).
Instead, start practicing seperately. Practice magic, and practice dealing with people, but don't combine them yet. Regarding magic, pick some (like, three) effects that you really like, preferably technically easy. Then practice, practice, practice. This is the default advice, and it's a good one. Practice not until you know how it's done, or even until you can do it without screwing up. Practice until you start doing it accidentally, and flawlessly. Then practice some more. Do
not deviate from or expand upon those effects. Yes, it'll get really really boring, really really fast. It's also the only way to really master anything.
Regarding people, start approaching strangers, and
talk to them. Don't worry that you don't know what to say. At the risk of repeating myself;
ask questions. Do not try to impress them with how awesome you are. Do not try to talk to them about yourself. Talk to them about themselves, and they'll keep on going for hours. Afterward, they'll walk away thinking "What an unbelievably nice guy" (or girl). And, the weird thing is,
they won't have the slightest idea about who you are or what you do. Still, you've got your practice in, and possibly (probably) made someone else's day particularly beautiful.
If you still find this to be a bit above your league, here's another suggestion. When out on the streets, going about your daily routine, make eye-contact with people, and
don't break it off when they look back. Instead, smile (Slightly. Don't try to pull off some weird-ass grin here), and maybe give them a small polite nod. Do that for a couple of weeks, then continue with the next phase.
Do exactly as before, but say "Hi" to people when they're close. That's it, just "Hi". Following these steps should build up your confidence enough to eventually start to actually approach strangers and start a conversation. You'll get some practice in the meantime because some people whom you say "Hi" to will actually come over and start a conversation with you by themselves. When this happens, remember to
ask questions.
- If you choose to continue performing in school, stop doing "hard" tricks, and focus solely on very easy and/or self-working tricks. Like Toby's suggestion, look at effects with key cards. Possibly, look at effects that make use of duplicates or stranger cards. Then, let those special items do the work for you. This way, you can focus your own energy on interacting with your audience, while at the same time not having to worry overly much about screwing up a move, keeping an eye at your angles, hecklers burning your hands, etc. As a rule of thumb, pick effects with no more than one "move" in them. Make sure you still put in the required time to work on your presentation though.
You might have started to think that you are "above" those kinds of effects, as your sleight of hand is developed much further than what is required for their execution. Do
not make this mistake. Your audience doesn't know what method is used, so it's not like they could even
consider thinking less of it than some effect utilizing UltraHardMove2000.
Anyway, this post has gotten way longer than I originally anticipated, so I'll leave it at this for now.
To close, @everyone:
Really, feel free to jump in and completely burn down everything I've said and/or add thoughts that you feel should've been included. I
know that there are a lot of very experienced and intelligent people frequenting these boards, with insights they've acquired through years of experience, that I haven't even
begun to think about. The following comment is mostly geared towards those people.
Threads on this topic (and closely related ones) are
constantly being created by people who are just starting out, and they're all running into the same problems.
Let's
really give them something to think about, shall we?