Where do people start out once they have learnt tricks ??

[DominusDolorum]

I'm gonna beat a dead horse and say that you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes. You can reflect on why it didn't work out and what can you do to make it better. Sometimes it's more practice, sometimes it's something in your presentation. For the latter, my best advice is to just have fun with it. If you're having a good time (i.e. don't have a deadpan expression or a blah attitude), then your audience will have a good time. Smile, laugh and bring them into your world; you'll all have a better time.

Also, you're not officially in the club until you mess up at least once

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I say practice nonstop.

A common misconception, particularly with magicians and jugglers I have found. There is definitely such a thing as "over practicing". You brain can literally only learn so fast. When you start doing a new move you are creating new neural pathways in the brain tissue. The more you do a particular move, the more those neural pathways are used, the thicker and faster they get. However, it takes a certain amount of time for the brain to do that, it's not instant. So what happens is you form the pathway, and then if you keep going at it, it gets kind of 'muddy' and that pathway isn't as firm as it could be. It's much better and more efficient to practice one thing for say, 20 minutes, then switch to something else or stop all together. Give you brain time to absorb what you've learned, then circle back around to it.

Once you have really learned something you don't have to do it constantly to maintain it. There's moves I haven't done in months or even years which I can still do if I want to. I would have to brush the proverbial cobwebs off to get it show worthy, but the skill is still there.

 

[MisterE]

A common misconception, particularly with magicians and jugglers I have found. There is definitely such a thing as "over practicing". You brain can literally only learn so fast. When you start doing a new move you are creating new neural pathways in the brain tissue. The more you do a particular move, the more those neural pathways are used, the thicker and faster they get. However, it takes a certain amount of time for the brain to do that, it's not instant. So what happens is you form the pathway, and then if you keep going at it, it gets kind of 'muddy' and that pathway isn't as firm as it could be. It's much better and more efficient to practice one thing for say, 20 minutes, then switch to something else or stop all together. Give you brain time to absorb what you've learned, then circle back around to it.

Once you have really learned something you don't have to do it constantly to maintain it. There's moves I haven't done in months or even years which I can still do if I want to. I would have to brush the proverbial cobwebs off to get it show worthy, but the skill is still there.

I resectfully disagree. A sleight will be useless the moment you think about it. You shouldn't be thinking about it for practicing. Practicing should be repetitive, flawless execution. When you practice imperfectly you get bad habits. Stop when you cannot practice due to fatigue. One thing I know is the best excuse ever: "I have small hands". My hands are barely bigger than 15 cm(6 inches). I learned the Charlier cut in less than a day. I didn't stop practicing, just sort of practicing it subconsciously as I was watching videos or doing work. Actually, that said, I probably didn't have anything better to do than learn magic since it was summer.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

You have your way, I have mine.

You may want to research how the brain learns things.

 

[RealityOne]

I resectfully disagree.

Muscle memory is like regular memory. The best way to commit something to long term memory is to recall it several times from short term memory. Each time you recall it strengthens the memory.

The same with muscle memory. Repetition without recall beyond a certain point is counterproductive. Think about it this way, you aren't going to be performing 10 or 100 top palms in a row while putting the card back on top of the deck. By practicing it that way you are ingraining what comes before and after in your muscle memory. You would be better off practicing a move for 10 minutes a day for a week (70 minutes) than practicing it 8 hours straight (480 minutes).

 

[Maverick85]

If I were starting out, I think I'd first branch out into some people I know but maybe not well enough to call friends. If you know someone who works in a fast food place, ask for a few minutes of their time during one of their breaks.

I tested a lot of my patter and presentation on guys at a local firehouse. They've got a really stressy job, and not many people show up there and go "hey guys, I thought you might like to see a few card tricks if you're not too busy." Admittedly, for a pretty girl it might seem like walking through lion country wearing a sirloin suit, but if that's a worry, take a guy along. Brightens their day, gives you a chance to try out material on an audience that's totally unfamiliar with you. I told 'em right at the start "My goal is to become a professional. If you guys notice anything, see anything fishy, bust me. I won't get mad at you because you'll be helping me." and stuck to that.

Any opportunity to do your material for a live audience is a chance to confront the jitters and realize you're not going to smother to death, get through any mental blockages you might have in public speaking, and allow you to connect with real people who don't have any obligations to you personally. With firefighters, police officers, etc, you're working to a crowd who usually only see people because something's going horribly, that's a plus too.

You'll do great. My personal rule is a minimum 10-12 hours on each effect before I try it on an audience. It sounds like a lot, but you need to have your patter worked all the way out and you need to have seen whatever glitches can pop up in the routine before they pop up in a performance. When you've got that much time with an effect, you come to know it well and develop a sense of how well it's going and that's invaluable when it's before an audience.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Solid advice.

I would say, though, 10-12 hours isn't much. I usually spend that long coming up with the script before I even start practicing and rehearsing.

 

[MagicAbs]

If I were starting out, I think I'd first branch out into some people I know but maybe not well enough to call friends. If you know someone who works in a fast food place, ask for a few minutes of their time during one of their breaks.

I tested a lot of my patter and presentation on guys at a local firehouse. They've got a really stressy job, and not many people show up there and go "hey guys, I thought you might like to see a few card tricks if you're not too busy." Admittedly, for a pretty girl it might seem like walking through lion country wearing a sirloin suit, but if that's a worry, take a guy along. Brightens their day, gives you a chance to try out material on an audience that's totally unfamiliar with you. I told 'em right at the start "My goal is to become a professional. If you guys notice anything, see anything fishy, bust me. I won't get mad at you because you'll be helping me." and stuck to that.

Any opportunity to do your material for a live audience is a chance to confront the jitters and realize you're not going to smother to death, get through any mental blockages you might have in public speaking, and allow you to connect with real people who don't have any obligations to you personally. With firefighters, police officers, etc, you're working to a crowd who usually only see people because something's going horribly, that's a plus too.

You'll do great. My personal rule is a minimum 10-12 hours on each effect before I try it on an audience. It sounds like a lot, but you need to have your patter worked all the way out and you need to have seen whatever glitches can pop up in the routine before they pop up in a performance. When you've got that much time with an effect, you come to know it well and develop a sense of how well it's going and that's invaluable when it's before an audience.

Thank you

 

[Casual Distraction]

I'm no professional nor do I aspire to be one. When I was in the military I did magic to pass the time and lighten the mood as war is stressful.

I also used to be a teacher and would do magic to ease the mood, incorporate in into lessons, give the students something to look forward to if they behaved...etc.

If I wanted to try something new out I'd go to the lower primary areas as those kids are brutally honest and I recall flashing a sleight and some 6 year old called me out on it. But it's practicing and those kids aren't going to remember your failures after a week.

I also would go to nursing homes and Veterans Hospitals and the VFW to practice as the people enjoyed it and if I did screw up I'd show them the trick or what I was planning to do (the older people aren't giving the secrets away anyways!)

My point is there are many avenues to practice and get better.

I haven't done much magic in years but slowly getting back into it just for fun.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I'd go to the lower primary areas as those kids are brutally honest

Yeah they are.

 

[myHaggis]

"An amateur does many different tricks for the same people, a professional does the same tricks for many different people."
~Hugard and Braue, Royal Road to Card Magic

My advice is to be a little bit of an amateur and a little bit of a professional. Try out a lot of new tricks on your friends and family. As you progress, take the ones you like and perform for strangers. Perform the same tricks for a bunch of different people and see how your handling and presentation change.

Enjoy the ride.

I know that this is kind of an old post now, but the RRTCM quote really resonates here. For me, it was all about finding that one trick that I could practice for hours until I got it down. Looking back on it, it wasn't even a hard trick, it just seemed so intimidating at the time (The trick is two card monte btw). After practicing for my close family, I eventually got the confidence to perform for some people at a family friend's Bar Mitzvah. People flipped out. It made me feel so good, and that is one of the main reasons why I continued with magic. My advice, is to try out many beginner-amateur tricks, practice them all a little bit, and find one that you can get the best reactions on, and show it off! Practicing in front of people made me get so much better in a pretty short time.

 

[Thebonemagician]

Im just worried if a trick doesn't go right and you go wrong then would look silly :-/

Messing up is part of life and is just something you have to get over. For any trick you do, there are a million different ways to do it. Dont think that because you messed up a move that the whole trick is ruined. Your audience doesnt know what youre going to do so use that. If you muck up a move, try to think quickly of a way you can get to the same ending of the trick or another move to clean up your mistskes. It always happens to me and you just have to deal with it. The trick should reach its climax by any means necessary.

On the other hand, getting caught you cant do a lot from. Say you get caught with a card palmed and your audience sees it. You cant do anything to clean it up and its just something that happens. Use it to learn from. Think "how did they see it?" And try to adjust your handling of the move so you dont get caught twice. I hope this helps

 

[CMT]

Was just reading some of this thread. I personally started with learning a good ambitious card routine. The beautiful thing is as you learn more you can keep adding to it and really make the trick as long of a routine as you want. To a certain extent. Dont make it jump to the top like 12 times and make it boring. But it really is a good starting trick to build from. Also I think if card tricks are your thing open with a non card trick. Makes for a more diverse routine when you start to pull out the cards. GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[Cantwell Magic]

HI I am a beginner and have just learnt a hand ful of tricks I've started out by showing family and confusing them lol but where do others start out once you have the trick where do you take the tricks to get yourself out there as a magician ??

Cheers !!

Come up with a good routine and get out on to the streets. Set up a table and start showing people who pass by quick tricks that catches the eye, after you have their attention then you can do the kind of trick that amazes, truly amazes. Plus getting a hat is never a bad step, always have a great hat.

 

[GrahamHorgan]

All very good replies here. One poster was mentioning that he has trouble when doing walk-arounds. That he tends to attract a lot of people when at one table. So rather than working all of the 20 tables. Hes basically working 3 parts of the room in large groups. More like a mini show without the stage. Can anyone with experience of walk-arounds weigh-in on how to better manage people to stay at their table or crowd, and give the impression that you will be coming to them?

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Was just reading some of this thread. I personally started with learning a good ambitious card routine. The beautiful thing is as you learn more you can keep adding to it and really make the trick as long of a routine as you want. To a certain extent. Dont make it jump to the top like 12 times and make it boring. But it really is a good starting trick to build from. Also I think if card tricks are your thing open with a non card trick. Makes for a more diverse routine when you start to pull out the cards. GOOD LUCK!!!

ACR is the Cups and Balls of card magic - it teaches you everything. Sleights, timing, misdirection, how to build a routine, how to end a routine, how to make it modular, etc. It can even give a fun challenge if you decide to change up your character - how do you make it fit the new character? It's a good routine to cut your teeth on.

All very good replies here. One poster was mentioning that he has trouble when doing walk-arounds. That he tends to attract a lot of people when at one table. So rather than working all of the 20 tables. Hes basically working 3 parts of the room in large groups. More like a mini show without the stage. Can anyone with experience of walk-arounds weigh-in on how to better manage people to stay at their table or crowd, and give the impression that you will be coming to them?

Pretty sure you're talking about me. To be clear, the situation I was in usually won't happen to a table hopper. Usually "Table hopping" means that there will be tables set up, and people will most likely be getting ready to eat dinner, or already have, so they won't be terribly inclined to get up. The scenario I was in was more walk around - food had already been served, toasts had already been made, and people were mingling. I had already performed two ten minute pieces, too, so they knew I could do some interesting things. I didn't mind having the crowds, I would have preferred it that way over working tiny groups, honestly. I'm a parlor performer at heart.