Friday, August 5, 2011

housekeeping and catching up

It occurred to me that I've been serious about magic fr just over a year now, and if I learnt at a steady rate of one effect a week I'd now have over 50 effects to call upon. Many effects do not make you a good magician of course, BUT it makes it more likely that you'd have a strong effect suitable for any occasion. It made me realise I've not been practising and rehearsing as much as I should. I perform weekly at work on any young kids who need entertaining whilst their parents shop, but even then I'm just using the same old effects time and time gain. Basically I've fallen into a rut. I decided to take a good hard look at the problem. The solution has been remarkably easy.
1) My magic practise area always had junk on it making it hard to sit down and study

2)
My magic case was frankly a disgrace with props and cards just shoved in out of the way. I've now sat down and re-labled custom decks and packs of gaffs to make it easier to prep in a hurry

3)
Time, I've been busy with many things in my life, and magic has been put on the back burner

Points 1 and 2 are just matters of housekeeping ad I feel much better for sorting them out. The 3rd point is more involved. DO I just make magic more important and push aside all other aspects of my life? or is it better to become more organized in all ways myself, freeing up time for magic whilst not letting other matters build up in my head to become insurmountable obstacles later on? Slowly I'm putting all aspects of my life in order so on days such as today when I can't walk I can instead colla[pse in my chir at my desk and study and practice and rehurse. on that matter. I'm trying to dedicate at least 1 hour a day to dedicated magic work (as well as my usuall practise in front of the TV when watching things with freinds. this can be 4 different things

Research:- finding out what effects are out there, what slights there are or learning more of the history of our craft and those who have come before us.

Study:- Actually learning new effects and slights. Also making any gaffs or other equipment.

Practise:- Going through the motions of slights and effects (this often takes place whislt doing something else such as watching TV)

Rehearsal :- Running through a complete set from start to finish speaking allowed any patter and recovering from any mistakes and not just starting again from scratch. This is very important, often I like to just speak naturally and unrehearsed when performing however having a mental script made up of highlights can ensure no verbal misdirection is missed out.

I'm trying to go through all of these stages in all my levels of disability. I want to make sure I can perform any effect when I'm in pain or impaired in any way, whilst sitting or standing, be it at a desk or a bar or even on the floor. And if I can't rework an effect so I can perform it in any circumstance I need to note where and when I can and cannot perform it. WHY am I so concerned with practising in different states? If I can work out WHAT I can do, WHERE ever I am and to WHO ever I am performing to and in WHICH physical state I may be in, and then organize myself so I know WHEN I'm meant to be doing all this - I should be on the right road

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