FREEDOM!
Finally have time to myself. The last month has been HECTIC. Christmas involved much driving and sewing of presents. New year was taken up by sewing, I had to make over 25 costumes for the Wivenhoe Panto. This left very little time for magi which made me come to a realisation. I need to move it up my list of priorities. I REALLY want to make a living through performing, and this I have to treat magi with the same level of importance as sewing. The card handling practise has retuned (in the last 3 weeks I haven't had time to watch television apart from oddly enough the weekly magic show on BBC and Penn and Tellers special one off show). I am getting even more happy with my basic card control and handling. I personally haven't been fussed with fancy flourishes but have decided i really should learn a few. Not so much to perform with but just to really get my hands comfortable with the cards and to give me a little more grace. All this time i HAVE been performing a few tricks. The WEE WEE Mentalist may not be all that I love in card magic HOWEVER people love it, and I do mean love it. This is one of the times when I need to think long and hard, should I perform tricks for me, or for them. I think at this early stage I need to respond to what people like and work on tricks that people enjoy provided I don't actually hate them. I find we wee mentalist cute and fun, just not serous (as Derren Brown would say 'Rich resonant magic') . I'll look at more visual transformations in the coming weeks and see if I can adapt the presentation to work with my preferred style. If I can't I wont discard them, i'll just create a few different magical acts to my repertoire, leaving me to work on effects that move me personally and to learn to move others in the same way, BUT still perform some effects beloved by audiences that pay the bills.

some new tricks and the years wrap up

Well as December closes to an end I have begun to think about my last year in magic. At the beginning of the year I knew OF some tricks and slights, i knew HOW they were performed but could do very little magic itself. Now 12 months later I can confidently perform 3 or 4 different 10 minute routines in close up magic and free style a few tricks. I've learnt how to captivate children with Guy Hollingworth's 'Once Upon a Time'. I have performed 3 gigs for 3 very different audiences and enjoyed many evenings in the local goth club honning my performances as well as magic geeking with some great freinds. So what made htis year different to toher years when I toyed with magic. As stupid as it sounds I think getting a pluck foam case was a great start. Being able to store my props and get at them easily made it possible for me to practise for just a few minutes a day if need be. The other factor was taking opportunity tp perform when it was thurstupon me. I could have bailed, I could have chickened out, but I didn't. I think having friends involved in magic and a very supportive girlfriend all contributed to this. So in short. Keep at it. stay involved have faith in yourself and the universe.

preachy bit over. now it's time to talk of my gig. The gig was with my great friend and partner Harvey. The clients were a support group for people with autism and aspergers and their families. I think Harvey was better prepared for our audience than myself, but I think we both did a great job. The main thing as to not have ambiguous instructions where they could do the wrong thing via a simple mis-understanding of language. The other was to not enter a competition with the participants. I think this is true with all magic to be honest, it's not about proving we're smarter than those around us. it's about entertaining people, and maybe making them think a little more about the world around them, certainly it's also about giving them that pleasant belly flip of surprise. Here then There went down well, as did Do as I do, Four sight, and aces High. Out of This World proved popular however some people found it too incredulous and insisted a trick deck was used even after examining the pack. I have experinced the strnage phenoma of being 'too good' before. When explaining how I made my own waistcoat to a lady in the fabric shop I work at she insisted I was lieing, she said it was too good to be home made. I explained that as a tailor if my work wasn't as good, if not better than the shops then I was in trouble she still left calling me a liar. This it was with this trick. It's a simple almost self working trick and i's all in the presentation, but the parent of one of the children insisted it 'looked like something from the telly' and thus was fake. it seems he would only be satisfied that something was a REAL MAGIC TRICK if he could work it out. I asked him if it was not a magic trick and if it was not a truly phsyicic event then what was it, he simply replied 'cheating' so there you ave it folks you can't please everyone, either you're not good enough, or two good and force someone onto a mental 'cul-de-sac'

Ambitious card was a lovely trick for someone who was shy and maybe needed a little coaxing to be involved. IT works well as a one on one trick and made the participant realise I could be there just for her. A new trick was 'The Wee Wee Mentalist' taken from 2wo Faced by David Forrest. This DVD centres on new uses for classic gaff cards such as double backed and blank backed. The effect is the spectator chooses a card and writes their name on it. A simple stick drawing of a mentalist reads her mind and is seen thinking of the card. It has a lovely reveal and uses only basic slights. The response was impressive. It's a departure from my normal choice of magic as it can't be dressed up as gambling skills or advanced psychology. By having a stick man thought bubble reveal the card it's obvious classic card manipulation is a foot. However no-one has worked out the method and they seem to enjoy the physical transformation of the card. Defiantly a keeper.

i'm not dead....

or worse, giveing up on magic. I've had a wonderfull magic filled month, just no time to blog it. Expect a big catch up up-date soon

Confessions of a Conjurer

After an ill advised attempt of dish washing I've thrown my back out. I had already booked today off work in an attempt to catch up on rest and then sort out one or two niggles in my life and maybe even a quick visit home to see the family. I'm now stuck flat on my back apart from brief moments of self imposed physio therapy (also known as tea making). This means I'll finally finish Derren Brown's latest work "Confessions of a Conjurer". This book is aimed at the laymen and doesn't''t reveal much in the way of magical method. Well maybe not physical method, but ethos and psychological handling is mentioned. IT is about 300 pages of rambling stream of consciousness. Initially it is set in the restaurant he first performed close up magic in, but takes a complete tangent every half a page. I'm currently on page 150 and he's JUST started performing a trick for a table. His description of his first approach to a table was perfect, and summed up my first ever approach to a pack of drinkers in a bar. Fortunately I still managed to get out and perform last Friday and Saturday morning at work. Oil and Water went down very well. I performed it for about 15 people in all, and only one noticed where something 'fishy' may have occurred. However much like Derren Brown himself says, the trick lacks reason, it lacks plot. it is purly showing off card manipulation there is no other explanation unlike other tricks where people can believe it was an example of mind twisting spiritual interference or just actual magic.

Gliding Away

I had meant to spend time this week working on the "Elmsley Count". However whilst reaching the slight in my now expanding Library I realised I was missing a wealth of effects by not working on "The Glide". This is one of the simplest slights, but it can be used to great effect it seams/ I am rapidly forming the opinion that you don't get points for being over complicated. Participants are impressed by smoothness and easy handling. That is not to say that complex slights are not to be ignores, merely that easier and more reliable slights can afford some wonderful reactions when you may not be up to performing something complex.

Oil and Water From Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic. Effect. The spectator is shown 6 cards, three black and three red, (ace, two and three in red, four five and six in black) they are shown alternating red black red black red and black but the numbers appear random. The magician shows the bottom card and draws it, placing the card on the top of the deck. this is repeated several times. The magician then hands the pack over to the spectator who then fans the deck to reveal the cards have separated into two halves, red and black, and are now in numeric order.

Reaction Amazingly positive. There is a certain subtle misdirection involved, and I have tweaked the presentation from the book slightly. However all in all this is a very simple method of performing a classic of magic. I Have managed a very clumsy attempt of the Guy Hollingworth version of this trick. Once I can perform it smoothly I shall try each version against each other.

More Card Cheating from Daryl. Well Daryl showed how to control four cards with the "The Glide" I simply used 4 aces and turned it into another " Magicians cheat at cards" again. This time the spectator can say "Stop" when they want me to draw a card into my hand and I still show 4 aces.

Reaction Yet to be used in the wild.

new trick time methinks

Well we are rapidly approaching another night at the Goth club. The last time I was there I had no real new material. Instead I used this time to actually chat and socialize for once. However I need to build up the repertoire some more and more importantly hone what I have and tweak presentation. I've come up with a way of organising my act. On small card I write the name of the trick, what sort of effect the trick is if it uses slights or not and if the card is stacked. I then in one corner on the bottom write the starting stack and on the other corner the finished stack. This way I can group tricks in to theme (eg psychological, card sharp etc) and then work out the best order to work the effects. I already have a 'Starting Stack' that enables me to go through 'Here then there' and 'Do as I do' followed very quickly with 'Aces High'. Hopefully I'll have time today to work though Mark Wilson's course and find some other tricks that work well with this crowd. (there are MANY tricks very early on in the course HOWEVER some build on earlier tricks and so would feel slightly repative). I may see if I can laminate Paul Daniels 'Age Cards' effect and try it out with a few different presnetation.

That awkward stage

I'm at that awkward age. You know when your in your early teens and things a growing too fast and your clumsy. And you suddenly have knowledge of things such as women, but no idea on how to go about doing anything with them? Much like many other things I have studied I've reached a place where I can spot my mistakes very quickly, and I spot a lot of them. I've not gotten any worse as a card handler, I can just see what I'm doing wrong. Wrong is a rather big word for it really, I can see where I need improving. It's at this point many people give up but it's a useful tool in improving. This has happened before with regard to some slights (I may have mentioned it in the past) and each time I work through it I become a better magician. So the 'old school' approach is called for. This isn't a case of buying new books or props, nor is it some sort of self realisation meditation. it's, you guessed it practise.
On the subject of books. Is it so bad that I crave magic books to look just like that, MAGIC. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW what's inside is what's important. BUT I am a very large 5 year old, I like my things to be pretty and shiny. I recommended to a young lady who has just started contact juggling that she take the shiny pretty ball as she's more inclined to practise with it. It's the same with books and e, I love opening absolute magic, it looks like a magical tome, whilst Mark Wilson's course (The definitive magic book) looks like something form the kids department. I'm working through the Mark Wilson book and just dealing with the fact that the first bunch of tricks are just a little too simplistic for my audience. At least without giving major thought to presentation. So I'm not going to buy a new magic book for a few months BUT I am going to buy Derren Browns Confessions of a Conjurer. Apparently it's not so much an auto biography and more a stream of consciousness.