I love magic.
I love to read new magic from books and to watch new magic on video.
I love to perform magic.
I love the feeling that comes to me when I amaze and entertain people.
Seeing magic performed in theatres and on the street absolutely delights me...

But I hate to practice.

Consequently, in reality, I perform very little because I only know a few effects well enough to meet a standard that I demand from myself. And this gives me no end of grief.

I have yet to find techniques that help me to enjoy the dirty work of learning and honing effects to perfection. The very idea of endless repitition of sleights and manipulations is enough to make me run in terror right to my PS2 and veg out in some mindless vicarious violence until I can work up the nerve to return to my study for another 15 minutes of practive.

Clearly this isn't the most effective way to excel in my chosen craft.

What to do? What to do......

Gaddy

I love to practice. I have a deck of cards or coins in my hand at all times. Practice can get agrevating but keep at it. I probally practice about 8 hours out of the day. Give or take a couple hours. I don't think there is any thing wrong with leaving the practice to do something else, Some times magic can get frustrating. Good luck to you though.

Pick one thing that you think looks cool. Work at it until you get it looking good, then show it to a friend, sibling and note their reaction. When you get that amazed, Wow, Cool, No Way reaction, you'll want it again and you'll leave GTA:San Adreas behind for a while longer to practice another trick. It's working for me, maybe it'll work for you too. Good luck.

Have a deck of cards and a set of cois always at your pockets. Play with them (practice sleights) any time your hands are not busy with anything else. If you are watching TV, Vegging out in the couch, driving with someone, walking etc it is a good time for practice. This time is more like playing with the coins or deck. Once you see your skills improving you are going to want to devote more time to little by little. Afterwards devote one day to just practice and one day to reading or watch DVDs (try to watch the same stuff you are practicing and not new tricks. To much information does not help). Keep the balance. Have fun with it as you have fun with your PS2.

Joaquin

You can ofcourse also buy packet tricks, theyre easy to do mostly and have big shock factor;)

Unfortunatly, in today's society we want instant gradification.

Practice will seperate the serious from the less serious magician. The pay-off is well worth it.

Just my opinion,

Bill

Gaddy, I am of a similar(ish) mindset as you are. however I cannot say I 'hate' practice, just find it the least enjoyable part of magic. however I found that forcing myself to get past the totally inept part of learning a move to the point where I was nearly average is the worst part. this is also the shortest part (from my experience so far). once I have got to a stage where I can pull the move off to a nearly average level I find that sitting there practicing while watching t.v. or in a 5 minute break at work etc seems pretty effortless and barely requires much thought.

In short put up with the initial struggle then sit there practicing in your leisure. you will soon realise that you have become proficient at that move and be able to move on to the next struggle. its definately all worth it in the end

Bill, you said it simple and sweet.

No pain no gain.

I love to practice. When people ask me when I'm performing for them, "when do you have time to practice"? I tell them, "I'm practing now".

The old adage "Practice makes perfect" is never too far out of my mind, even though attaining perfection takes a lifetime of practice and most of us mortals will pass away before achieving perfection. I love to practice and the fruit of practice is performance without conscious effort. A knife's edge is only as keen as you hone it. With use it becomes dull, but with a few strokes of a strop or stone, it becomes sharp once again. So it is with magic, learn to enjoy it by practicing it! Jcards01 said it best.

<<<KRaZy4kardz>>>

I love practicing magic I always have a deck of cards on me and coins.

I love to practice. It consumes my time and reaps benefits. Learning has always been a favorite thing for me to do. Between the ropes, coins, balls, cards, rubberbands, silks, Cups & Balls, matches, etc. there is little room for bordom. Practice, it's the next best thing to performance.

It's not practice to me, it's fun. I love it.

I love to practice sleights for hours.
I am still afraid of performing for other people though... there is just so much on stake. What if - after so much work - the effect does not kill the audience?
Well I guess I have to get out into the real world an just do it.

Q. How do you get to Madison Square garden?

A. Practice!

Whoever said that, and in whatever context, had it right. In my (limited) experience of magic, whatever I and / or spectators get out of it is directly related to how much practice I've put in.

Nick

I suppose I do myself no favors by enjoying mentalism so much. The type of "practice" one must do is very hands on and "real life"- the moves are easy, the hard part is making it look real. every time it is performed it is further practice- if that makes any sense...

Sometimes I don't like to practise either but I just tell myself I have to if I want to become a professional some day(which I do). Think of all the benefits you will get from practising and then it will be easier to practise because you know you will get rewarded in the end when you get to share your magic with others. You can only get better with practise!

The first time I tried the classic coin palm it seemed to be a monstrous impossibility! I was advised to constantly practice, that with time it would come. When it started coming together I was amazed. Now I understand the concept of practice and that if I stick with my desire for proficiency anything is possible. I had to accept the fact that what I want to do is going to take effort, time, and discipline.

I have little time to practice, and that's in little chunks. I was having a real problem trying to decide what to practice in a given time slot, especially with the numerous things you learn as a beginner. Following some advice I read elsewhere on these forums, I took a retired deck of cards and started writing down each thing I need to practice, be it trick, routine or sleight.

Each time I'm ready to practice, I give the cards a shuffle and practice whatever I pick out. If you want to ensure that you eventually practice everything, you can remove the card, but I don't usually do that.

This avoids the situation where I've got so much to practice that I don't end up practicing anything.

This is working well for me.