On Jan 1, 2018, Ronin wrote:
Hi Andy,

Some books you might try (but please note disclaimers below):

On Jan 2, 2018, Terrible Wizard wrote:
I have to say that I haven't come across such a book, only the situation! Which is why I'm interested to hear recommendations. The lack of posts here might be reflective of two things: a) that many magi are professionals and so don't really encounter these problems, and b) there aren't many/any books that talk about such stuff!

From my own hobbyist experience I can only offer my own basic advice, and no books:

A) family and close friends are usually the worst audiences - they know you well, they don't have the normal 'social politeness barrier' that prevents examination of props etc, they'll want you to repeat tricks and tell them how you did it, and they might even want to mess you up deliberately. There are three ways to deal with this: a) don't perform for them unless they first ask to see something from you - let them come to you; b) demonstrate clear skill to them via flourishes and mental stunts (memory or lightning calculations) - they'll respect you more when you can do stuff for 'real'; c) only do impromtu 'fool proof' tricks for them.

B) try and develop your tricks around the following principles: impromptu, from a shuffled deck in use, no set-up required; done in the hands with no table required; short, direct and straightforward to follow; can be done surrounded and outside; fairly easy to perform; no gimmicks and totally examinable; super strong; the props are compact enough and normal enough to be everyday carry in the pockets. The more tricks you have of this kind the better off you'll be in the long run as an amatuer - don't waste time with all those really good tricks you discover that don't fit these criteria because you won't get to do them as often. Focus first on those tricks you can do anywhere, anytime, daily - it'll build experience and confidence.

C) a lot of well meaning advice given by professionals won't work for you as a hobbyist. The contexts are just too different. A classic bit of advice, for example is to focus on only six tricks as your repertoire and rather than get new tricks get new audiences. Sound advice for the pro, pointless for the casualist who has a limited, never growing circlle of people to perform for. The Jerx (an odd website worth checking out sometime) recommends closer to a hundred tricks for the casualist. Or, other workers might tell you about getting proficient in cups and balls, rope, egg bag etc. These are all great and worth checking out for your own development, but the chances of you being able to do many performances with these props are low - you gonna carry linking rings in your back pocket to work? You get the idea.

There's a ton more that could be said, but most of it is common sense. And I probably don't k ow what I'm on about anyway, so unless I end up writing a book about the amatuer situation, I'll best leave it there . Good luck!