A kids gig with a difference

I meet all sorts of people in Colchester. Sometimes through art events, or the day job in Fabric8, or at the random strange little things I like to go to to show support, such as a picnic in a secret part of the park.  As a result I became know to the local Home School group. Many of the kids have an interest in magic, and one of the groups leaders asked me to put on a magic show. The  idea was to show a little magic and then teach some magic. I didn't want to give away any of the deep dark secrets of the art though. I decided to split the groups into two halves. Older kids would be shown some science magic and then taut 3 card tricks you can find in ANY library. No slights, total self working tricks. The younger kids would get longer show of kids magic and then tautt my own version of the miser dream. It's based on a method on a kids TV show, so I don't think I've given anything away then. As well as teaching them the trick I turned it into a science and engineering lesson by getting them to try different methods of constructing the props.

This worked very well. I was happy with my performance  even without taking into consideration how bad my ankle is. I was not quite as slick with the props as I would have liked, but the routines worked together and made sense. With a little more practise, and some thought given to additional props I think my kids set can become something fantastic. One note, I need to have compartments in my magic box custom built for each prop, and a list of  each prop to check in and out.
I was warned about two kids who were good magicians. The parents worried they'd take over. I arranged to meet them both first and explain the code of the brother hood, explaining they needed to be patient and help me out, which they both did. One  lad was 15 and had a good grasp of magic. I'd say his abilities of actual slights was about the same as mine in fact, he just needs some encouragement and patience in the delivery of material. A 9 year old  blew me away. Typically of younger kids he had a LOT of flourishes, BUT he also had some amazing slights. This kid can do a pass! I did my Erdnase which is always well received, he then did a blink change.

Both kids liked my magic and my flourishes and sleights. Where both kids need work is actually routining the magic, the younger boy can do impressive stuff, but can't link it together, YET, he's 9! byt the time he's 11 I predict he'll be on tv. A while back I would have felt fooling demonstrating magic infront of these two. BUT I know performing is more than slights. That said, I'm going to sit down on Monday, after my next gig, and work on MORE colour changes, and maybe a pass. Slickness is impressive, BUT not essential. But as Maskyline, Devant and I all agree, "good enough isn't good enough".

I've still not heard from the Circle, I suspect I didn't get in. IT sucks but I wont give up, I just plan to hit the books even harder and to improve mightily every week now.

An incident on the bus.

This week was a sociable week, not great with a damaged ankle, but fun. On Monday and Tuesday I rested and read some of "Strong magic" by Darwin Ortiz, as recommended to me by Chris Wood. It's a captivating read with some very powerfull points, more will be written on this at a later date.

On the Wednesday I was preparing for a long day. The morning was to be taken up by a photo shoot for a gig in April. The afternoon  would be spent by watching Poi and juggling before hitting the beer festival in the castle. The photo shoot didn't happen, but Darren and I may have a possible gig at a posh restaurant where went for breakfast. 

On the bus into town for the afternoon I was working through some flourishes and slights listening to the above music. A lady came on the bus with two kids and a pram, Smartly dressed, oriental speaking Mandarin if I had to guess.  I decided to  perform some impromptu magic, to the music only I could hear. A card spring, a fan, noting the queen of hearts and spades, two one handed cuts bring both to the top, a double turn over, and Erdnase, a double turn over, the queens, moving through the deck, losing each other, finding each other, changing into each other. The kids as it turned out spoke English very well, I kept hearing "cool", "Awesome" "it's Real magic", "I've never seen a real magician". It made me realise the importance of what we do, a simple bit of fun will now stay with these girls all their lives, the day they walked onto a bus like normal and suddenly saw the impossible. It felt good. We entertain, we baffle and confuse maybe, but once in a while we enchant, and let people glimpse a world they normally can not see. And for this we can never think of our art of magic as trivial.

Gig night

Still no word on the Magic Circle. It's been 5 weeks now so we have no idea what's holding things up. In this time I've redecorated my studio and shaped it into the arcane study I've craved.  I've also come up with a new filing system for organizing magic effects. I've also been thinking more about if I fail to get into the Circle. The big danger is a feeling of uselessness. Gigging is the natural solution to this. Whilst many Magic Circle members of gone to great lengths to tell me and Darren that we deserve to be in and we're good enough, you can't beat a moment of wonder in participants eyes to make you feel like a magician.

This gig was  quite different form any other. Darren and I would be performing alongside other members of the Mid Essex Magical society. We would be assigned a table and  were told to perform for 12 minutes.  So much like the Magic Circle audition I would have to have an element of structure. Normally when I gig I feel like a mercenary of magic, I didn't have to answer to anyone or do things in a set way, I just got the job done as I saw fit. This was more like being in the army. I had to be regimented. To help with this I designed a new filing systemf or my card magic so I could see what effect followed another effect. The esult of this was a stacked deck primed for many effects

Panic! (the deck vanish)
Wee Wee Mentalist
Twilight Angels
Do as I Do
Out of the world
I was then able t go to
Dierect Mind Reading - IMPOSSIBLE or Ambitious card  or any other impromptu effect.

I also had an invisible deck on me.

I got as far as Direct Mind Reading before running out of time.
Overall every effect was received well, and whilst this isn't my preferred performance situation I'd do it again. However next week I'm back to my favourite style of magic, intimate close up :)

Magic Circle audition

Well I had my entrance exam. Did I get in? No idea. I performed all the effects well, and the effects I chose fulfilled the criteria they asked to see.  What I can be marked down for is presentation. This is where we many people lose points. My routine was based on science, talking about dimensions.  Each effect built on the last, leading to two big finishes (ambitious card and professors nightmare). I thought initially it went ok. BUT I received some negative feedback straight  away from a guy I respect. Typically of him he said it in a constructive way and offered help on fixing it. I felt like I had a knife run through my guts. For the next 2 hours I was convinced I had failed. Then in the bar I was told by many people that they liked my routine. Even one person who said he found it too science based  told  me he would have still passed me if he had examined me. So this is how I see it now. Mechanically i did fine, i fulfilled the brief of new and original presentation that was tied together. It's possible I had too many words and not enough magic however.  this shouldn't matter though. So if i get in, great if I fail then it wasn't because of lack of practise or thought or skill, just simply going down the wrong path of presentation style, a decision I made over 6 months ago.

 So the plan of action. If I get in, great. If I don't examine the feedback. The biggest danger is I will feel foolish for believing I could become a magician. This is mental. I've performed very well in a professional setting. I need to keep my confidence up, and my Love of magic. I KNOW if I fail I'll feel bad studying more magic, I also now this is insane, and must fight through it.

So now a 3 week wait, I'm now a lot more hopeful than  was last night.

Prelude to the Magic Circle.

As I type this back I've just returned from the Mid Essex Magical Society. Tonight was important to me, not because of the lecture (which was very good) but because I was due to show some material to two of the senior members. I have shown people what I planned to perform before and they would say "you'll be okay" in a very unconvincing way. They then gave me some hints on my Elmsley Count.  I was performing it too fast due to nerves, snatching at the cards. Working with Darren  we also realised that I had to change the angle of the cards. I've not done as much work as I would like, but have practised a little. My girlfriend  told me my arms were spreading to far apart as well. I demonstrated the "Four Card Trick" with my 2 dimensional routine. It was much better received this time,. both members were very positive, and agreed with my gf's observations. I then showed PANIC a new deck vanish, and "the Wee We Mentalist"  along with my Ambitious card. They were both VERY positive this time. When they left they simply said "Do that next Monday and you're in" I was also complimented on my ability to draw people in to an effect, I was even compared to a Ricky Jay by the way I could take a simple effect with simple moves and build it up and up.

So I'm feeling better about my audition, though still intend to practise for a few hours a day

100th post, and Big Things

Numbers, the more you look into them the more links you find. it is just random chance that post 100 involves possibly one of the biggest decisions in my magic life. It's random chance that a year and a day after me and my friend first entered the Magic Circle we will be giving our audition performances to be considered for membership.

I have to paint a poster. The poster has to show off many things I can do, it needs to be as wide as a table and 10 minutes long. I have brushes -sleights of varying sizes and shapes- and I have paints to dip then in -cards, cups balls, elastic bands- to paint with. It's the style of painting that is holding me up. There is the temptation to spew everything I know onto the paper ( I never elevated my painting to canvas standards) like some multi coloured finger painting of an overly enthusiastic  child . Here I would hope that examining judges could pick out a hue from the cacophony that they believe I managed to mix rather well. Then there is the temptation to the other extreme, to make a monochrome in one shade of delicate stippling. Here I would be challenging the judges to come closer, to see that I am doing one thing, incredibly well, and not giving a fig if it's the sort of thing they personally like.   As ever in my life I'm drawn to the middle ground. To paint a new narrative using the tools already at my disposal, but then I have so many other works which would demonstrate what they would like to see with only a little tweaking. Then there is the tired cliché about art. It is not what the artist puts in, but what he leaves out. I have a lot of material to draw on, it's becoming more of a burden than an advantage as I need to select my tools carefully.   I still have 12 days, in Dean days that works out at about a month and a half.  For the rest of today I shall sit and play with a new brush and paint that arrived in the post. Then tomorrow I shall sketch two completely different paintings, one on the new science basis I have been toying with, the other based heavily on my "Rapport" set. I shall play and ponder and then decide finally on Monday, where I shall have an unprecedented 7 days to hone my presentations.

I foresee much tea being drunk in the next week.

Art Gallery and pub, developing charachter IMPORTANT

Ok, I  HATE sounding arogant, hell I hate sounding confident a lot of the time. But this post is about finding my way in magic,. and the truth of things.
I've been reading Derren Browns "Absolute Magic" a book purely about presentation of close up magic. It's hard reading, not just because of the elegant prose, but because I find myself stopping after each paragraph to reflect on what Mr. Brown says and to try and shoe horn it into my own performance style.  He talks of not being a whimsical god figure, but of a hero showing people an ethereal world, letting them touch a universe that is next to our own. This has always spoken to me and something I strived to do.
  I attended the art gallery Slack Space to view the work of a friend. Her work was excellent, I was genuinely impressed. Another artist also exhibited, his work was actually moving. I sat down and chatted with people who I know reasonably well,  asking one chap about his trip abroad, then asking another about her time in China. When I was speaking, asking questions,  everyone got involved, I decided to let someone else lead for a while, and noticed the 6 way conversation changed into 3 two people conversations. The social dynamic broke down. I've heard it said that I often "hold court", this was my first attempted to pay attention to the subtleties of what was going on. The result it seams is I am good not just with engaging with people, but facilitating them to engage with each other. I was beseeched when I first entered the building to show a new effect (or an old one) I quickly performed a new effect I  was working on but put the cards away, this was the artists big night, not mine. Later we went to the pub, the cards came out...

A WHOLE HOUR of non stop magical entertainment. 6 people kept fascinated and enthralled with a regular vanilla deck! I only fell back to ambitious card once. I performed "out of this world" on request, I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E, card in hand, aces high, and direct mind reading. The group of six were fascinated, talking constantly about the magic, and I believe enchanted. Oddly enough this started in the gallery. My thoughts on the art, and a few  experiences with I shared with the group, both as a whole and individually seamed to genuinely intreage people. It has been said before I don't need to exaggerate an aspect of my being to get a performing character, I can just be myself. Tonight reaffirmed this. God I sound arrogant, a childhood of believe no-one could like me  has left me feeling dreadful and even pitiful for saying "I'm a likeable guy"

 The icing on the cake, I gave one of the young ladies a lift hoe, I asked her how the magic made her feel. I was prepared for "baffled" "confused" or just "entertained and happy". I got, honestly, no word of a lie "like you were showing us something that's there all the time, but we normally can't see it." I asked her to expand on this and she said it was like when I'm there SHE can do the magic, it's in her I just show her a path to using it. I actually had to choke back a tear, I'm that much of a sap, but mission accomplished I feel. I

So in summing up things I've learnt.

I can entertain a whole table for an hour with 1 deck

I seem to have an engaging personality and interest people

I don't need deep moody mentalisn to give people the sensation of resonant rich magic.

More effects and slights are always good, but what I have is already very good, and can give a deep powerful effect.

You don't need to script an extended metaphor type play to attach meaning to an effect, the emotional response to the impossible can inspire people to create their own meaning