Magicians That Practice But Never Perform - Shopping Vs Practice Vs Performance
Today…………
It's been a month of hard work practising your new skills, and you have really enjoying the progress. It seems that you have finally cracked it. The trick feels like second nature, and you are confident enough to take it into the world and begin showing it to people. That's exciting! They are going to love it! Today is that day to go for it!
Four months later……….
Whist watching TV, or reading a book, a tiny sad voice comes from your bottom drawer. “Hey! pssst!! Remember me? Yes, it’s me, that, brilliant life changing trick you flooded so many hours and hard earned money on. I thought we had a long and happy future together. You promised me so much, and now I'm here, forgotten, unused and abandoned. I thought you liked me! You’ve changed.... I deserve an explanation!”
Are your magic tricks upset with you?
If you're not performing, you are only practicing.
We've all been there. a few years ago I decided to have a big clear out of magic tricks I didn’t need anymore. Nine times out of ten I found myself revisiting each trick as I searched through my magic storage boxes. Several hours later I had made no progress at all and had just played with each item.
If you're not practicing, you're just shopping.
Without performance, very little progress cab be made and all that comes to you is a short lived thrill of obtaining something new, then a slowly growing sense of disappointment and frustration. The only way to shake that off is to repeat the process and add another new trick.. Essentially, you have collected a box of magic tricks that will be unlikely to see the light of day after a few weeks.
Without performance you are left with nothing more than an expensive box jam packed to the brim with lots of nothingness. You had just as well pop down to your local convenience store and spend fifty pounds on all the items you will never eat and leave them in a bag in your cupboard to go stale.
Your performing persona is the key to clearing out the magic clutter
It's vital that you know who you are as a performer and the style you perform best. If you are not sure how to find your performance style, don’t panic! You already have it.. the best style should be natural.
DO THIS: Ask your friends and family what the main qualities of your personality are. Take note of what they say and then whenever you're performing, magnify these qualities. You will feel more comfortable as this character, and enjoy the performance. Spectators will notice this instantly, and then feel better watching you.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, it was built stone by stone.
Once you understand your style, you are ready to apply that as a strict filter on all the material you will spend your time working on. Grab that box of unused magic tricks, take out one item that you know fits your persona, and start practicing it. Make sure you act out what you will be saying as you practice it. This is an important step towards the actual performance, as it will then become a part of you. Practice it two or three times a day over the course of a week, speaking out loud as you practice. It will begin to feel like second nature. Then, quite simply, go out there and do it!
Enjoy and exaggerate your qualities!
I hope you find this of help in you magic practice and performance
Good luck with your magic
Dominic Reyes