Hey all. I am new to the forum and besides some posts in the new user section (which do not count) this is my first official "counting" post. Anyway, I am brand new to performing magic but have been in love with it for years. For the past few months I have been practicing every chance I get with cards and am now also including practice in cup / balls and sponge balls. The question I have for you amateurs out there is if you have ever had any problems / complaints from practicing at work. I work in corporate America, and as many of you know, it is not always the most understanding environment. People are quick to take offense to the silliest things and I am interested to hear if any of you have ever had issues practicing your craft on co-workers?

Shane

If I had any second thoughts about it, I would avoid doing magic there. (And I'm an old graduate business professor.) There are safer opportunities available.

Thanks Bob, I definitely keep it to a minimum and only practice with those close to me. Even with that I try to ensure no one is overlooking while we do it.

Shane

Well as a croupier in a casino it is slightly forwned upon to demonstrate card manipulation and then turn to a customer and expect them to not think cheating is involved.

- Athelus - how could they possibly not enjoy the free show! But your right I think I would walk quickly away from the table after seeing someone demonstrating.

I work in a plant with around 200 people.i perform magic quite a bit at breaks and lunch. if I don't bring something with me. they get on me about it.they really
look forward to it.and it gives me plenty of practice.
todd

If you work at a desk job you can easily practice palming a coin or various coin sleights without raising any attention. Similar to Todd, I do perform at work. Every Monday, I do "Magic Monday" with the Marketing Department. It is usually a quick effect and then back to work. In our case, it helps ease the stress of the working environment.

A quick trick in the office isn't a bad thing at all. (Get your minds out of the gutter)

But I wouldn't do more than one or two. When you get more experience you might talk to your HR folks and tell them you would like to do a lunch time walk around show for about a half hour, which doesn't cost the company a dime. You also get experience and might get a gig or two out of it. It might even help you climb the corporate ladder, since everyone loves an entertainer. Such is life in corparate, as I'm sure you know. I'm a retired corporate guy and I wasn't into magic back then or I would have taken the same advice I'm giving you.

Since I do mostly kids shows. doing magic at work has landed me a lot of gigs with the childrens parents or grandparents from work. and school shows also because the men at work there wifes some are teachers also.

Are we talking practice or performing? I do both....in the lunch breaks or after work. ONLY in the breaks.

I'm performing which gives me practice. but like I said only at breaks or lunch.

Hey all!

Despite being pretty new both around here and in magic this topic covers some thoughts I had of late. As I said I am a newbie in magic and not yet confident to perform, so I stick with practice. At work that is limited to basic exercises, mostly palming little objects such as coins (living in europe the small size of even the 2€ coin makes it a worthwile exercise) or little balls. Just the stuff that hopefully nobody will notice and that wont distract me too much from the job at hand

Sven

There can be benefits to performing magic at work. Years ago I was a receiving clerk in a warehouse. I never performed magic at work but everyone knew I did shows on the side. One year I was asked to perform at the Holiday Luncheon as the were too cheap to actually hire someone to come in.
A couple of months later I was called upstairs into the Operation Managers office. The new IT director was there and he offered me a job installing the companies new computerized point of sale systems. It easily paid twice what I was making as a warehouse grunt and also came with a health benefit package.
Unfortunately I knew absolutely nothing about computers, and I told them so.
"No problem" said the IT Director. "You're smart and figure them out. What's more important is you've got great people skills and since you will also be training and supporting the equipment people skills are more important."
He had seen my performance at the Holiday Party and erroneously thought because of it that I had good people skills. I didn't tell him that my people skills were somewhat awful but my excellent crowd skills were what he had seen.
So they sent me to a couple of night courses in basic computing and the rest I figured out by myself. I'm still in computer support to this day. now doing it for our local electric utility.
A career change all because I did a magic show at a company Holiday Party. so yes, there can be advantages to doing magic at work.

It depends how good you are.

So far seems like most of you are doing what I do wi no issue. I practice a lot at my desk where o one can see. I even do the occasional shuffle while in meeting etc. but I only do the erformances for small isolated groups. I would also like to start opening staff meetings with a small effect to ice break which should be no problem.

Shame

I'm not sure I'd do a shuffle during a meeting. It could be distracting, and frankly, give the impression that you don't have your mind on the meeting. Just my opinion.

I work in IT and as you can imagine that can involve a lot of waiting around so I tend to keep a deck of cards on me at all times to practice at my desk to kill time. I havent had any complaints but I have been fairly good about keeping myself from getting too involved.

If you are performing make it a trick or two you know very well and do them at lunch once a week.

As for practising, That’s fine but people may watch and pick up bit and bobs of what you up to. But not to say you can’t practice. I use to practice ACR while on hold on the phone.

You might want have some close confidence you can use for trying new tricks on. So if it does go wrong the office bully don’t label you an egg that screwed up a magic trick 4 years ago.

Check out this link it migth give you a idea http://magicfriday.blogspot.co.nz/

Keep going have fun.

wow... somehow I am sure that if I would even dare to have a deck of cards visible during a meeting I would be asked to do that again - for the HR-lady while waiting for my papers :O

I rather stick to palming small objects, maybe a small paperball (those look inconspicuous enaugh for the most occasions)

that's indeed a good idea - Maybe it just depends on the situation and what kind of job one does...