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Do You Practice Magic Tricks Like a Hobby or a Business?

Do you practice magic like a hobby or like a business?

By Paul Knight

Magic is a wonderfully fulfilling hobby. Learning magic is exciting, fascinating, educational, and develops confidence, social and motor skills. The process of learning practicing and performing all contribute to the sense of reward magic brings. Magic as a hobby can soon become an obsession, but a healthy one that brings pleasure to you and others. But what distinguishes the difference between magic as a hobby and magic as a business? Asking this question, I do not mean the paperwork, overheads, tax returns side of things. I refer to the actual point in time you are ready to take the step from ‘hobbyist’ to professional performing magician. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of running your own business in this post. What I will try to do though is approach the hobbyist in us that wishes to take the next step, or shall we say the ‘first’ step. That first step is your mindset.

Frustration.

Correct me if I am wrong, but if you are reading this then you are more than likely already into magic, and have been for some time. At a guess, I’d say you try your best to get at least some ‘practice’ time in each day. By practice, what I actually mean is time spent watching magic DVDs, playing with your props, learning new moves and perfecting what you already know.

Personally, I get at least two hours of magic time into my day. The amount of time you spend of course is dictated by the lifestyle you live. Although I am fortunate that I have this free time, I still get frustrated. Frustrated that I have spent my time practicing, with the foresight that my act is getting better with every new trick or move I have mastered, yet the reality is that no progress has actually been made with regards to the progress of my ‘career’. Why is this?

‘How often do YOU practice? Do you manage it a few times per week? Maybe every day? That’s great, but how often each week do you sit down to write to new venues or business’s? How much time do you spend EACH DAY on getting gigs? It bet it’s no way near as much time as you spend learning more and more new magic tricks. Isn’t this work just as important as the mechanics of your act? The reason why we all do this is simple. Learning magic is a kind of play. Marketing and promoting yourself is business, and that’s a little bit too much like hard work to be fun.’ – Dominic Reyes

Practice and play.

As lovers of our craft, we often blur the lines between practice and play. What we call practice time should realistically be called playtime, as that is what we are doing. We are playing with our enjoyment for the art, and this is absolutely fine. It was the play aspect of magic that initially hooked us. The magic played with our minds, we played with figuring it out, then we played with learning it. Its fun, fun, fun, all the way, but we shouldn’t think, just because we are learning and trying things that this is practice. To practice you need to know what it is you need to achieve, a goal. And if you wish to practice magic as a business, the first goal is to know what it is you are selling. One way or another what you will be selling is yourself, which in turn is your act.

This is where the real practice begins. First thing you need is an act. 6 or 7 magic tricks is a good example of a solid act. I won’t go into detail as to how to create a strong act, as this is such a personal aspect (plus also visit this blog ).

Once you have this you will need to change the way you think of practice. Sure, play with your magic tricks as playing this is the seed that got into magic originally.

You also need to practice selling yourself. Making people know what you can offer.

So, if I spend two hours a day playing (that’s fifty six hours a month on average), what have I achieved? A lot of play.

DO THIS: Spend one hour a day on promotion, and immediately reward myself with one hours playtime. That’s twenty eight hours of promotion a month, and twenty eight hours of play a month.

Just a few things to do in that hour of promotion:

Write to some companies to introduce yourself.
Follow up leads
Work on a promotional website
Go through footage for a show reel
Scout out new venues
Work on promotional materials

Don’t think of it as work either. This can easily be done around your daily commitments. One extra hour in the morning and one extra hour in the evening. Remember you entered the world of magic to enjoy it, seems a shame to deprive others from the fun you can share. Shout it out and let them know your there.

What do you think are important ways magicians should market themselves? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below:

Are You Trying To Learn Magic Too Fast?

by Merchant of Magic 3 Comments

When you run so fast to get somewhere

You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,

It is like an unopened gift…

Thrown away.

Life is not a race.

Do take it slower

Hear the music

Before your song is over.

– David Weatherford Source

By Paul Knight

It’s not a race.

Personally, I often find myself frustrated that I still do the same magic tricks I have been using for years, despite having loads of new tricks stacking up indoors. Yet I’m still always looking out for the next big new card magic trick that will be that ‘reputation maker’. Why does this happen? Here’s the reason……..

I’m trying to run before I can walk.

Essentially, I’m ‘grazing’ on tricks. Buying new magic tricks with full intent on putting it into my act, learning it quickly, thinking ‘yeah, that’s good, I know that now’, then off it goes to the stack of tricks I’ll add to my act. I’m running too fast. Let’s just stop a moment and think back to when we all first dipped our toes in the world of magic. We happily spent hours studying a trick, sleight, move or script, and enjoyed the learning experience. The thrill and enjoyment were the learning. Then, alas, we experienced the joy of performing and the buzz of the reactions, which in comparison, was much more satisfying. So we instinctively chose to chase the buzz of the reactions rather than the content pleasure of practicing and learning magic. We are moving too fast. Stop. What really is the rush?

But I owe it to myself to have the best act I can.

Of course, you do. And it’s commendable that you want to progress and reach that point. However, my belief is there is no such point of arrival. You never get there as there is always another hill to climb. If you have the hunger to better your act and tricks right now, you will always have that hunger, so no need to rush.

A good meal is made, not by half cooked intentions, and such a meal wouldn’t satisfy any hunger. A good meal is made from well balanced and well cooked ingredients, and to use these ingredients you need to have a complete understanding of their possibilities and workings.

To be great magicians we need to understand our tools fully if we want to get the full benefit from them and in turn satisfaction. The problem is we live in a world now where everything is instant. Instant food, instant movies, instant shopping, instant music and now instant magic downloads too. The list goes on, and we easily forget that quality takes time, and more importantly focus.

Magicians are made one trick at a time.

Going slightly off subject, but my father used to be a very successful builder, carpenter and architect. I grew up in a world where I’d see a blank piece of paper become a detailed house design. Then I’d see that building grow brick by brick over time. Inevitably, the result would be a beautiful individual home, one of a kind. The main point I learnt from this is that my father insisted on only working on one house at a time from start to finish, despite what work was offered. If we truly wish to gain satisfaction from our magic, we need to apply this approach. One effect at a time, and slow down our urges to learn the new. Truth be known you already know enough, as my father did. It was how he applied his knowledge that moved him forwards.

Learn one trick at a time, nobody is chasing you but yourself.

Not seeing the wood from the trees.

If you find yourself sat staring at all your magic tricks wondering where on earth to begin. All that temptation is staring you in the face. It’s hard to choose where to begin. Can’t see the wood for the trees? There is only one answer. Pick up just one single trick, and put everything else out of sight.

DO THIS: Turn off this device right now, pop some music on and enjoy that learning process all over again, just like you did when you began learning magic. Learn to love learning again. It’s the best part of the journey, scenery, and destination you want to find.

How to do the Muscle Pass – 9 Quick Tips

by Merchant of Magic 7 Comments

Scott writes:

‘One thing I am having trouble with at the moment is the muscle pass. I have tried to learn it to make my coin magic more interesting, however, I can’t get the hang of it. I can palm the coin OK and make it ‘pop’ only very slightly. How would you recommend I go about mastering this technique, as it’s something I think would look really awesome as part of a routine.’

Scott, you have to keep going with this move. Don’t quit. It is commonly regarded as the most difficult sleight of hand coin move to master, taking around 1-2 years to master completely. However, you will start to see some results after just a few weeks work. The real secret of how to do the muscle pass is not to give up.

A few tips for how to do the muscle pass more effectively.

The muscle pass was originally known as the anti-gravity coin. It involves shooting a coin up from your palm anywhere from a few inches to over two feet. Lets look at how to do the muscle pass easily.

1) Which coin to use.
Start practicing with a poker chip at first. It’s lighter than a coin and has well defined edges.
Large coins are easier than small ones. A UK 50 or £2 coin makes good practice coins, or a US Dollar coin. The aim is to develop your hand, so the larger coin will help to speed this up.

2) Practice.
The key to this move is to practice every day, as you need to build up the muscle tone in your hand. Committing to 10-15 minutes a day will bring on very fast progress. Remember to stop if your hand starts to hurt, as you want to avoid straining your hand. Short, frequent practice sessions are what you should aim for.

3) Stages of development.

Stage 1: A redness forms when you have the coin in position and are trying to make it “pop” up.
Stage 2: You may find that the coin just flops out of your grip. Keep going..
Stage 3: You notice the coin pop out of your grip and simply flip over 180 degrees.
Stage 4: Over time the calluses and muscle ache will go and you’ll find you don’t need to grip as hard as you thought in order to make the coin jump.

4) Popping to the left.
At first, the coin will start to slide to the left. That’s a good sign you are on the right track. Keep at it. Over time you will be able to make the coin flip over, again a good sign. As the muscles in your hand develop, you will start to be able to make the coin jump a little as you move out of the flipping stage of practice.

5) Callous
Over time you will slowly develop a small callous on the edge of your thumb muscle. This makes a huge difference to the move and reaching a good height. Because this takes a while to develop, many magicians give up, assuming that they will never be able to ‘pop’ the coin move than a few inches.

6) Go horizontal.
Many magicians find performing the pass horizontally rather than vertically easier at first. Making the coin jump from one hand to the other.

7) Clean and Dry.
Ensure that your hands are clean and dry. Moisture will make the coin to slide out of the palm grip and it will be much harder to make the coin jump.

8) The little finger
Remember not to allow your little finger to move. The only point of force should be from your thumb muscle.

9) What you are aiming for.
Your goal should be to reach a height of around a foot from your palm. At this point your other hand can be in a position to catch the coin at the top of its assent.

We recommend the following DVDs for a complete guide on how to do the muscle pass the correct way: