Is your magic collection dragging you down?

Is it time to throw away your magic collection?

Although this advice is aimed at readers that are thinking of becoming professional magicians, it could help anyone feeling they are drowning in material but making little progress..

I’m going to assume that you are reading this because you want to move into magic further and start the progression to become a working magician. If that is the case.. It’s time to clear things out!

Part of the process of becoming a working magician is a commitment to ‘weed’ or ‘prune’ the amount of material you work on and collect. It’s a change of mindset. It’s time to look at the magic you collect in a new ‘commercial’ way.

It’s time to move away from seeing magic as a fun hobby

Up until now, your reasoning for collecting new magic was probably that the trick was ‘cool’, the props were interesting, or that it fooled you when you watched it being performed. These are all reasons to collect magic as a HOBBY. You need to start assessing magic for its value to YOUR audience, YOUR style, and YOUR act. Magic needs to be chosen for its commercial qualities.. How well you can present it, how easy it is to transport and carry, the impact it has when YOU perform it, how practical the gimmicks are for regular set up and reset etc. Chances are, 90% of the magic you have collected up until this point, simply will not make the grade.. Why are you storing it?

Begin a process of CULLING your magic collection

Yes, I know… It’s your beloved magic collection… Your pride and joy.. Perhaps how you have actually come to define yourself.. But is it time to move on? Turning professional is about a change of mindset, uncluttering your material, and becoming very selective. I’m not suggesting that you give away your magic book library, or DVD collection.. I’m referring to all the props and gimmicks, the packet tricks and contraptions.. All the stuff you purchased, played with and then put away, with the nagging feeling that one day you will return and take the time to master it. These boxes and drawers of ‘stuff’ that you don’t perform are clutter.. It has no place in helping you reach your GOAL of becoming a professional magician.. Clear it out.

I don’t want to throw away my beloved magic collection!

You don’t have to get rid of the magic you already own if you don’t want to. Just stop adding to it.. BECOME SELECTIVE. You can still keep the parts of your magic collection that are not involved in your income as a magician. This is your ‘collection’.. A fun pastime. You are not throwing away everything, just trimming down the distracting clutter.

The magic collection a working magician SHOULD build.

There are two types of magic that are of real value to professional magicians:

Working Material & Potentially Working Material.

Working Material – These are tricks that you can perform well, they fit your style and you get great reactions when you perform them. Chances are, they are already in your regular performing sets or act.

Potential Working Material – Tricks that are a work in progress, but WILL become working material. These are the effects you are working on with a practice and rehearsal drill. This material is definitely going to be in your working act

Everything else is junk or collectable items you own just for the fun of it (designer decks of cards, posters etc). It might be ‘junk you love dearly’ but it’s still junk. If you can’t bring yourself to dump it, make sure it’s stored away and you don’t make the junk pile bigger. Feel free to surround yourself with your ‘collectables’ it’s part of your passion for magic, but these things should not take up much of your energy, focus or time.

I know this is hard.. Most magicians that read this will not be able to bring themselves to clear out their magic collection fully, because they are so emotionally attached to the magic props they love. But:

YOUR PROPS ARE NOT THE MAGIC.

THEY EITHER HELP YOU CREATE MAGIC, OR DISTRACT YOU FROM IT.

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Every magician is a magic trick collector. FACT. We all have a drawer, case, box, or even just a corner of a room, where all our magic tricks get stored over the years. As magicians, we feel drawn to a beautiful magic prop, and sometimes we crave them even if we have no intention of performing the magic trick. Over the years, our collections build up to become a treasure trove of magic secrets.

Imagine if you had a room in your house, totally devoted to magic tricks. What would it look like? Steve Chmara know’s because he has just that. An Aladdin’s cave of magic going back past the turn of the 20th century.

“Magic apparatus is a unique collectible because it’s not something that just sits there. People come over and say, ‘What’s that?’ But instead of going into this long-winded explanation, I simply show them.”

Collecting magic is a fascinating hobby. Unlike many collections, each item is more than just a display piece. The magic tricks you collect over the years cry out to be played with, to be performed and shared with an audience. It may be wonderful to sit amongst your collection, but it must be hard to not feel that the items are ‘waiting’. If magic tricks were alive, they would be performers and showmen. Each magic trick patiently sitting there, for it’s time to come again, when it gets to express it’s purpose for being. A room like Steve’s must be such an exciting place for a magician, and also one of the saddest.

DO THIS: How long has it been since you looked through your draw of magic? The reasons why you abandoned a magic trick years ago may not be there anymore. Old magic tricks become alive with the new techniques you have developed over the years that you can bring to them. Props can be re-purposed, routines that were too technical when you were a beginner are now full of possibilities. If you were to go through your collection now, would you find magic tricks that you had totally forgotten about?

Image Source: Winnipeg Free Press
Video Submitted by Monty Witt