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Station10 Regular user Indiana 198 Posts |
My mind is reeling and I get dizzy from trying to take everything in. Even though I'm not new to magic (started when I was 14) I did take a 20 year hiatus and just got back into it. I feel like a kid in a candy store. My eyes are wide and I'm standing in the center not knowing which way to go.
There are so many aspects of magic that I want to learn about (or relearn as I've forgotten so much over the years) that sometimes I don't know where to start. I would have thought that being older and hopefully more mature (I'm 46 now . . . just a few years older than the awkward 14 year old I was when I started magic) it would be easier for me to focus on one or two areas. But alas maturity gets thrown out the window when it comes to magic. A blessing and a curse since I am now able to afford to purchase much more props, books and dvd's than I could when I was 14. Add to this the fact that information is much more accessible through the internet and discussion boards that my exposure to a much wider spectrum of magic and it is easy to see how one can easily become overwhelmed. Other than pure persistance is there any advice anyone can give on how to stay focused and limit yourself?
John Gilmore
www.blindeyemagi.com "I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic." ~ Harry Houdini "To Strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" ~ Alfred Tennyson |
WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
Well, it always helps me to have a specific goal. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter if I meander through a variety of books and resources since I'm just learning for fun at that point.
But when I am writing a new show, or reviving an older show that I haven't done in some time, or just working on a new routine to replace what's already in a show - then I focus on that project specifically. So maybe if you work towards having a specific show that will help you focus?
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
Terrible Wizard Inner circle 1973 Posts |
As an adult hobbyist I too struggle with the overwhelm of magic.
All I can say is three somewhat paradoxical things. One, there is a genuine benefit to spending time exploring and reading/watching magic broadly - all aspects, varities, history, tricks, props etc. This is a normal part of the maturation process within any exciting new discipline, IMHO, and cannot be avoided. You might end up roaming far and wide, but don't berate yourself - it is a necessary, and hopefully fun, part of growth. You'll need to experiment so as to learn what you really want to do, what you like, what you are able to do, what fits your personality etc. Also, it won't be entirely wasted time as all that knowledge and experimentation will ultimately make you a more knowledgable and well-rounded magician. Two, as a hobbyist rather than a pro you have a very different context to working magi. You have the luxury of time to travel the highways of magic without worrying you've gone down a dead end. When your next pay check isn't reliant upon doing a dozen tricks you can afford to venture off the beaten path and play. However, as a hobbyist and not a pro you have the disadvantage of not having regular changes of audience - you will find that the only way to get performance flight time is by usually performing to the same set of people. To keep them, and you, interested you'll need a much bigger repetoire than the worker. You'll have to have lots more tricks up your sleeve, but you'll have mastered them less. You'll also have an audience that knows you, is less in awe of your status, and more willing to trip you up - they'll be harder work and you'll get less response. You will need to make sure your tricks are intrinsically stronger (you'll have less showmanship and status to bolster weaker material) and more bullet-proof (they will examine your props, mess up instructions, and you won't control the angles). Third, you'll nearly always have less than professional environments - no mat, often outside, maybe no table, no case or props with you except what's in your pockets or borrowed, no time, and less audience attention. Thus you'll benefit massively from tricks that are impromptu, angle-proof, easy to do, require no set-up or reset, require no mat or table, can be done surrounded in noise and wind or done anytime, anyplace. The paradox, then, is that being a hobbyist pulls you in two opposite directions: on the one hand you have the time and space to explore a huge range of magic, and the lack of different audiences will push you into always seeking a new trick; but on the other hand, your amatuer context will drive you to choosing only those tricks that meet certain restrictive criteria - strong, short, direct, angle-proof, pocket props only, impromptu, examinable, repeatable, easy, in-the-hands, idiot proof. That's the difficult dilemma to solve - too much in either direction and you'll either have loads of useless knowledge and nothing to perform, or the other way and you'll run out of audience for your half-dozen go-to effects. Good luck! |
donny Loyal user Colorado 263 Posts |
^^thorough understanding of the creature known as "hobbyist".
It's not their senses that mislead, it's their assumptions.
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Terrible Wizard Inner circle 1973 Posts |
Cheers, donny . I wish someone had explained this to me when I first started magic.
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Station10 Regular user Indiana 198 Posts |
Terrible, thank you very much for your response. Yes, you are correct on the duality of being a hobbyist. I do want to learn about all aspects of magic and love reading about the history of magic. Only problem is there is only 24 hrs in a day and some of that has to be spent working at my "regular" job and sleeping ... there is just so much to learn and so little time.
John Gilmore
www.blindeyemagi.com "I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic." ~ Harry Houdini "To Strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" ~ Alfred Tennyson |
Terrible Wizard Inner circle 1973 Posts |
You're not wrong! . O, for a 48 hour day, a 14 day week, no job, and infinite cash, lol.
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Station10 Regular user Indiana 198 Posts |
I'll settle for the infinite cash . . . I can make the 24hr day and 7 days a week thing then work for me.
John Gilmore
www.blindeyemagi.com "I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic." ~ Harry Houdini "To Strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" ~ Alfred Tennyson |
Aus Special user Australia 996 Posts |
Station10 I have written a guide many years ago about this issue it might pay to have a read.
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......forum=41 Magically Aus |
Station10 Regular user Indiana 198 Posts |
Aus,
Thank you very much. That was a great post . . . although I'm a little disappointed. I thought you were going to tell me how to get infinite cash .
John Gilmore
www.blindeyemagi.com "I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic." ~ Harry Houdini "To Strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" ~ Alfred Tennyson |
Aus Special user Australia 996 Posts |
Quote:
On May 2, 2017, Station10 wrote: Look up Miser's Dream. Magically Aus |
Station10 Regular user Indiana 198 Posts |
Touche!
John Gilmore
www.blindeyemagi.com "I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic." ~ Harry Houdini "To Strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" ~ Alfred Tennyson |
0pus Inner circle New Jersey 1739 Posts |
Quote:
On May 2, 2017, Terrible Wizard wrote: I would suggest that almost all of these criteria drive the professional magician's choices as well. I think it was Tommy Wonder who observed that the amateur magician also had the luxury of preserving/performing classics from yesteryear that require too much preparation and manpower than the working professional could ever commit to a single trick. |
Terrible Wizard Inner circle 1973 Posts |
I guess a lot depends upon the individual contexts. From what I see, which admittedly is very limited, the professionals can perform with far greater range of props and material than the amatuer.
It's difficult, for example, to imagine that I would ever get to perform with linking rings, cups and balls, rope, chop cup, gaffed envelopes, gaffed cards, gaffed coins, wands, boxes, bags, balloons, long gambling demos, bizarre magic routines, memory demonstrations, colour changing knives, dice, pre-arranged decks, long mentalism effects, book tests, magazine tests, slates, blindfolds, silks, rabbits, hats, and a hundred other things anywhere near as much as I get to perform with a cheap deck of cards or a borrowed coin. Or anywhere near as much as pro's do. So whilst yes, I daresay many of my criteria will be in the mind of the worker too, I humbly submit that their showmanship, their skill, their environment, their status, and the time and audience attention given to them allow them to apply those criteria a lot less stringently than the hobbyist will apply them to themselves - especially criteria like: pocket props only, impromptu, short, in-the-hands, and examinable. A simple test might be what I would take with me if I knew I was doing a show or walk around gig compared to what I take to my day job. |
Wizard of Oz Inner circle Most people wish I didn't have 5150 Posts |
Terrible Wizard...coming in strong with some great posts. Thank you.
As a fellow hobbyist - actually, mostly collector now - I totally agree with everything TW said so well. But here's what I have to offer, to love magic is just like loving any other art form. One doesn't need to perform it to appreciate, and enjoy it. One just needs to respect it. I came back into magic after being away from it for probably close to 20 years, and was seduced by the "stuff" that I missed. I built magic as a teen (and performed it...probably poorly), so I've always had an attraction to apparatus and how props were designed and functioned. When I came back to magic I discovered Tenyo for the first time. And Collectors Workshop, Alan Warner, and other high-end builders. Now I'm into bizarre magic, and all that theatrical field has to offer. Long story short, it's about love. If you are getting back into magic, just enjoy the ride. Don't feel pressure to perform. That's only part of the art. Just like film, theater, television...the list goes on. One can enjoy an art without necessarily being an artist. Introduce yourself gradually. If you want to perform and feel compelled to perform, then you probably should perform. But realize that you are a hobbyist, and that offers you some advantages. You can study. You can create a character. You can do free shows with that character and fail, without having to worry about financial repercussions. You can then charge small fees for your shows and learn even more...again without repercussions. Then, if you've become comfortable with your character, your skill, and your professionalism...you can be who you want to be. Or, just be a hobbyist and love magic. Perform for friends. Perform for strangers here and there. It's all good. Just respect the art. Practice. Make every performance your last, and you're good to go. Done.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
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Terrible Wizard Inner circle 1973 Posts |
Thanks for the compliment Wizard of Oz, and thanks for the very personal and informative post. . Good stuff.
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Dick Oslund Inner circle 8357 Posts |
Quote:
On May 2, 2017, Station10 wrote: Hello "Stat 10"! A most interesting post! I've been performing as a magician for 70 years. About 20 of those years as a part time professional when I was a teenager and young man, and, later, 50 (+/-) as a full time professional, touring the USA, coast to coast, and border to border. Now, I'm comfortably retired, and, "off the road", but, I will never, I hope, lose my interest in magic. I do an occasional "spot date" (as opposed to a season tour) and, mentor a few young fellows, who have "dreams". Some of those whom I've mentored, are now in the business, others enjoy magic as a hobby. At Jon Racherbaumer's insistence, I bought this "infernal electrisch peckenclacker" about 8 years ago, and wrote a book about my life in magic. I never dreamed, as a teenager in the '40s, that I would someday write a book that is now selling all over the world! My typing fingers are now calloused!, and, I am not expecting that it will be a "book of the month club selection", but, I'm enjoying PMs and, emails from those who are reading it. Some old timer, who "ate off of it" (as Frances Marshall "usta" say) once put it this way: "Doing the act, is my hobby, I'm an amateur magician.--Getting and keeping the act booked, is my profession!" (Show business is spelled, $how bu$ine$$ !) I really enjoyed reading your post! --especially your analogy of the "kid in a candy store"! I have a newspaper clipping about an old friend, Harry BLACKSTONE, JR., as a two year old, in a candy store, in my memorabilia file, that, perhaps I'll publish some day. (LOL) So! Enjoy your "second childhood"!!! Indulge yourself! Read a couple biographies of a couple of the old timers. Fantasize!!! Read some of the classic works like "Our Magic", the Fitzkee Trilogy, etc. --I think you would enjoy Ken Weber's "Making Magic Entertaining". Ken, now successfully retired from performing, uses many anecdotes of successful ENTERTAINERS. I enjoy looking at, and handling a well made, or classic prop (At least you didn't say, "APPARATUS"! --That's an antiquated term from the 18th century!!!) My old friend, Jay Marshall, "usta" say, "Never fall in love with a PROP!" When I was 13-15, I was fascinated with "cans, pans, tubes, boxes, and red velvet bags on a stick", but, I soon "outgrew" that! My working act, used mostly generic props like rope, silks, cards, coins etc. When I joined the Navy, my working act fit in a cigar box size case. I made enough money doing that act, while in service, that I could send home my pay check, and, live on the show money. Once the novelty of your "rebirth in magic" wears off (and, it very likely will) you'll realize "where" you want to be, and, "what" you want to do! Meanwhile, be that "kid in the candy store"! I have old friends, who are happy, just collecting "apparatus", or books, or memorabilia. Others perform for friends in social situations. A few "book" shows for a fee, which "supports" their hobby. There is nothing "wrong" with any of those. BTW! You misspelled "persistEnce"! hee hee hee (Somebody, in a recent post, objects to my using "hee hee hee"! --It's MY "peckenclacker", and, I'll write the way I want to! #$%&, I just did another "Charlie Miller"!
SNEAKY, UNDERHANDED, DEVIOUS,& SURREPTITIOUS ITINERANT MOUNTEBANK
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Station10 Regular user Indiana 198 Posts |
Dick,thank you for your comments. I think I actually met you once or twice in the early 1990's at Fun Inc. My uncle worked there for Jay part time and I came from Indiana several times for some of the lectures and shows they did there, the most memorable was Eugene Burger.
My sweet tooth is calling me now.
John Gilmore
www.blindeyemagi.com "I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic." ~ Harry Houdini "To Strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" ~ Alfred Tennyson |
Station10 Regular user Indiana 198 Posts |
And let me correct myself here. Magic Inc . . . not Fun Inc.
John Gilmore
www.blindeyemagi.com "I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic." ~ Harry Houdini "To Strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield!" ~ Alfred Tennyson |
Dick Oslund Inner circle 8357 Posts |
Yeah~! I haven't seen Gene for about 10 years! We had lunch in New Orleans just before Mardi Gras. When you're in the business, it seems that friends are always in syzygy!
Gene is not only a fine magician, he's a THINKER, too.
SNEAKY, UNDERHANDED, DEVIOUS,& SURREPTITIOUS ITINERANT MOUNTEBANK
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