Would you prefer a magician to be professional if he is ONLY excellent at self-working?

It's down to entertainment factor, but I think a professional magician should have skill as he acts as a role model for younger magicians—portraying "self working" magic to beginners often urges them to waste a lot of money.

I completely agree.

I think a professional can use anything they want. I consider a professional as someone who suceeds in entertaining and making people happy.

I believe it is all comes down to whether you are entertained but often sleights are more entertaining as there are no gimmicks etc.

For me a professional is the one that can do effects with sleight and also effects that are self-working.

This is the real magician.

I agree with Luis. If you can mix both together well, you can really be astounding.

However, if the effect can be done by sleight of hand, I think it is better to invest the time needed and learn it that way than to just rely on gimmicks all the time.

I'm with Zombieboy here, what would you (as a magician) prefer to watch—a magician pulling cards out of the air with card catchers on each hand, or by pure sleight of hand?

I'm sure most will agree with the latter of the two!

Kevin

I don't disagree that sleight of hand is much more beautiful to see. I just think that if you combine the two it could keep people really guessing.

There are some very powerful self-working effects available. I was performing once and I observed one person in the audience who was rolling a half dollar across his knuckles. He was quiet and standing in the back. After a couple of sleight of hand effects I noticed that he was telling everybody around him how everything was being done.

Without saying a word I immediately shifted to self-working effects. After two or three, he had no clue what was going on. (A good self-working trick will do that to you.) When I went back to sleight of hand, his friends were watching the magic and not paying any attention to him at all. Both types have their place and I encourage everybody to have an ample arsenal whenever you perform.

Steven

As long as the effect to the audience is that they are seeing something magical, and that it entertains them - then I don't see a problem with self working stuff.

Of course, a magicians magician would prefer the sleight of hand. But I'm more into performing for normal people.

Well said, but still, you don't get the sense of satisfaction of mastering a convincing sleight if you use a gimmick.

After putting most of your comments together, it comes downs to this: It all depends on how good the magician is with other things also. For example, his character, personality, showmanship, timing, etc. Even though the magician is excellent at self-working tricks, he won't be professional if he is not good with the preceding.

A radio DJ friend of mine does comedy magic. He cannot use stuff that requires "skill" or "sleights". He has no experience as a performing magician.

That said, he's the most entertaining, funny, and audience-endearing performer I've seen in a long time...in fact gets standing ovations at the end of most performances.

Every trick is self-working. "Kid's stuff". But watch him on the Comedy Club stage, watch his audience and turn green with envy! He's a natural.

With all my "knowledge" of sleights, and experience with the "classics", I could never get an audience reaction like his... ...

Some people are natural performers. Sleights are not always necessary, and people love Brian's style just the way it is. I've heard comments afterward about how he blows away "professional" magicians...and that makes me a little sad. He reminds me of Cardidi, in that things just "happen" to him, much to his bewilderment...my only complaint being the "blue" element involved, but that's the nature of Comedy Clubs today.

Sleights vs. self-working...hmmm, I guess it really DOES depend on the performer...

Doug

My belief is that self-working or slieghts are just tools in the magician's tool box. He or she must learn to use which ever tool gets him or her the best results. The bottom line is that you must be entertaining to your audiences. If your audiences come away entertained, happy and have had a fun time with your performance, then you have done your job well.

Absolutely. I get more satidfaction out of putting an entertaining routine togetther than I do from mastering difficult sleights.

On the other hand...

The thing I like about knowing sleights, is you can perform at a moment's notice, with someone else's deck of cards. You don't have to be carrying anything with you, and never have to apologize for not.

Per the video "On The Spot", it's a great idea to have a small number of mastered, generic sleights with coins and cards, "just in case".

A fellow magi here locally, says he uses no gimmickry. He shuns double-backs, shell coins, IT, and such. You'll be blown away by his skill with cards and coins! In fact, I just learned a great new force just last night!

Long live Sleight of Hand!

Doug

All the sleights in the world do not count for anything if you can't entertain with them. Just something to think about.

Yep. Just coming back from a magic convention it was clear to me that some of the most skillful and clever sleight magic outthere can be some of the most boring - as the performer lets the skill take over from the entertainment. If it bored me, then it's sure gonna bore a lay person.