Where would I like to go with my magic.

So I figured I'd get on here and talk about where I'd like to go with my magic. Do I want to be a corporate or restaurant magician and do the strolling thing. Do I want to be a busker, and stand in one spot doing the same thing over and over again all day. Do I want to be a stage magician with huge illusions surrounded by half naked assistants. Well part of that last one sounded good.

OK so here is what I would like. I want to get together a performing troupe and take them on the road performing cabaret size shows (35-50 people in the audience). I want to get some juggler and hoopers and other performance artists together and they and myself would do short little pieces, 5-10-15 minutes long for the first hour and then a 15 minute intermission followed by my 45 minute bizarre stage act. Looking for a sort of dark cabaret burlesque feel to the whole production and I want to call it Magnus Asbjorn's Bizarre Bazaar.

A paper on the Cups and Balls

A few months ago I had a class at school that required me to write a research paper. I choose to research a classic effect of magic know as The Cups and Balls. For any that may be interested in the result of my research you can read the final paper found at the link below.

My Paper on the Cups and Balls

Magic Makers's Jeff Maxwell's Jack to backs.

So I don't remember what I paid for this but I think it was somewhere in the $20 range. What does this DVD teach well it teach one effect and a bunch of random moves. You take four jack square them up into a packet and fan it back out ones turned around back wards, you do this again and again till all four are reversed. Its a nice visual effect I should probably learn but meh. It's too darn complicated I can do all the moves but I don't feel the pay off is worth all the practice required when I could just do Dai Vernon's Twisting the Aces. What I did take away from this video were a few of the random moves. So while Jack's to backs isn't worth it the moves to accomplish it and some other are.

I do have one problem with one of the moves taught. On the box and in the video they call it a "Bittle position" but its quite clearly the "Biddle grip" This just seem like a glaring oversight to me.

Overall this is a dvd I'm glad I got. It has a false cut called the Play Boy Cut which I like to use to set up for card forces. A move called the Orbital Spin which is a nice flourish for packet tricks and I use it in Twisting the Aces. The Snap Change and the Gamblers cop which I use but not often.

If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.

Magic Makers Inc.

I just wanted to say that I think I have more reviews up for Magic Makers Inc products and almost no traffic on those pages, which is weird to me. I dunno it seems to me that Magic Makers Inc is very hit and miss when it comes to products and I could have used the sorts of reviews I'm doing here back when I got the products I have. If you're wondering why I have so many Magic Makers products when I have such a spotty view of them then allow me to explain. When I decided to seriously pursue magic I went to my local brick and mortar magic store for supplies and material. Well my local magic store should be a licensed Magic Makers Inc dealer. I'd say 80% or more of his magic related stock is from Magic Makers Inc. Nothing wrong with that, I mean I'd like to think I learned a little something from each Magic Makers Inc item I've bought. Chances are that I will be getting more of them in the future. I still very much want the Rainbow deck trick which I think Magic Makers Inc produces. I know this post is kind of random but it's my blog and I can post what I want.

For those that are curious the most read post is my review of Bicycle's Dragon backed cards.

SfS Perfect Pea

Well if my last post about them has not made it clear I am a fan of the School for Scoundrels. The last time I mentioned them was for their Introduction to the Shell Game DVD. Now though I'd like to talk about their Perfect Peas and why I will only be using another type of pea if it came with a set of shells (yes I'm the sort that wants every style of shell ever made) and I want to be reminded of how much better the perfect pea is.

So what type of peas have I used? Well there were the Peas that came with my MagicMakers DVD, a pea I made from a pencil eraser, and finally the SfS Perfect Pea. So not an expert on the topic but this blog is about my experiences and not my expertise. The worst by far is the one I made from a pencil eraser. It barely work at all. In the middle is the MagicMakers, it has a very noticeable mold line around it. It lacked the functionally of the perfect pea also I got two in the package. Now the Perfect Pea costs about $2.15 per pea but you get them 5 at a time (an you need them in batches cause they get lost fast) It has no visible line around it and performs awesomely.

But here is where School for Scoundrels insured my future business. I had stored the pea loose in a silk bag and when I woke up the next day the pea had visibly discolored and no longer performed properly. When I took my problem to them they were ready to replace it no questions asked. I imagine that most any other company would have claimed that it was my fault for improper storage of the pea.

If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.

My very first trick.

I don't know about anyone else that reads my blog but I still remember the first bit of magic I saw, the first trick I ever learned, and the first one I performed for other people. Its kind of easy for me because all three are the same trick. When I was but a wee lad (around 10 maybe) I went to a friends birthday party and there was a clown who did clown things but also did magic and by magic I mean one trick and I'm pretty sure he got it from the Dollar Tree (I don't know if they have those every where so if they don't the Dollar Tree is a store where nothing in it cost's more than one dollar) If you haven't figured it out by now he did the Ball and Vase. I saw it and it was the spark, I had to learn it and did. And I performed it just like it said on the box and then I eventually set it aside and moved on with my life. But now I still have a special love for it and most recently I've been trying to remove the gimmick and do the effect completely through sleight of hand because it seems that every one I know is aware of the gimmick which is not surprising when you consider how many magic kits come with one.

Any way I'm going to leave you with a clip of a pro doing this 'beginner' trick.

So I got ripped off

I was at a local brick and mortar to get an Invisible deck, and while I was looking around I found a trick called "Where's the penny?" for about four bucks. I figured what the hell a new secret for four bucks. I got it along with the Invisible deck and a new silk. Once I got the chance to check it out in the envelope was two weird backed cards, a penny and a dime attached to each other a few inches of invisible thread and a 3" by 6" piece of paper with "instructions" So here's why I'm mad its not the cheap gimmick its that after reading the piece of paper three time I still have no idea what the heck I'm supposed to do.

Idea for patter

So the effect is the classic silk to egg where the finish is the egg is cracked and the contents emptied into a glass jar. So my idea for patter comes from the book "My magic life" by David Devant. In it he relates the story of the time where a housekeeper thinking how embarrassing for him it would be if he dropped an egg and it splattered everywhere decided to hard boil all the eggs. And during the performance he was surprised by the eggs condition. The last line of the chapter is the perfect closing line. "To this day the people of this town believe the first step in producing silk flags from an egg is to hard boil it. They have no idea what you do next, but they know you boil it first."

So the the patter is relating the story and to finish you peel a hard boil egg during the last line and take a bite out of it. Fun tip if you wait a week after purchase before boiling an egg it peels easier. If you worry about it going bad egg will remain good for up to eleven weeks properly refrigerated.

Friday personal update

So had some tech problems, missed a post. Oh well.

Magic wise I'm experiencing a lull in my enthusiasm and the patter I'm trying to memorize is proving difficult. When I get to a certain point my mind just blanks on the next part. Maybe I need to try harder or something.

I think maybe a job would help, it would certainly pay for materials till I can get out and perform for monies. But a good old fashion suck job would motivate me more to follow my passions.

What I learned from karaoke

So I agreed to be designated driver for my brother, not a big deal since I don't drink. But this did mean I had to go to the bar. Anyway it was karaoke night. So I decided to sing a song or two. I flipped through the book of options and picked one. I thought I knew the song I thought it would be easy. I was wrong, way wrong. For my first song I picked:



The first problem was I didn't realize that I was going to have to all the characters and the singing. So I stumbled through the first 3rd of the song. And I had the stage fright. Not hard to get singing for a room of drunk strangers. Like usual my stage fright manifested through a shaky hand not a problem while I'm singing, but a pain when I'm doing close up magic.

For my second song I picked.



The second song I picked I was more familiar with the words and the rhythm and what have you. So during it I had no trouble. Also just as the song started a guy came up and asked if he could do T-pain's part, I was like sure. So that was cool.

I had a good time.

So what did I learn? I learned that when you're performing sober in front of strangers it really helps to know what your going to be doing before hand. It helps a lot.

What Have I Been Up To

Magic wise I've been mostly trying to memorize the patter for the 3 shell game routine I'm learning. Its a lot of patter to memorize. Its a whole routine, it has to have more than "Look the pea jumps around" and it does. But I hope to have it done in the next week week and a half.

I have to memorize that and my brother is getting married and I'm performing the ceremony so I have to write and memorize that script. I'd like to also incorporate an effect into the middle one thats touching but not too distracting.

In addition to that I just got introduced to the hobby of geocaching. So I've been looking into that. I don't know if I will talk about my non-magic hobbies here yet or not. Magic's important and a big part of my life but its also my chosen career and that means its going to get monotonous. So having hobbies will help break that up.

Magic Maker's "Amazing Easy to Learn Magic Tricks" series Spongeballs

Magic Maker's "Amazing Easy to Learn Magic Tricks" series Spongeballs






What I paid: Nothing it was a gift from a friend but I believe it was ~$20
What I got: One DVD and a box of two inch sponge balls.

So the sponge balls were cheap, they feel cheap. When I took them out of the box the had flat sides. I spritzed them with some water like I would do for my one and half inch Goshman sponge balls and they dye ran out and colored my hands. They don't work very well at all.

As for the DVD this is hands down the best DVD I have gotten from magic makers. Well organized, well taught, good production value. Several moves and like 3 routines. The Benson bowl being my favorite. There is a lack of a real live audience which always annoys me. But for the most part each routine was performed with one spectator before going into the moves. After watching this DVD I feel I could with a little practice really amaze people with the spongeballs.

So would I recommend this DVD? I very much would but I would suggest that you go and get better sponges at the same time.

Would I get this for my character? Once again this is a no. I probably would not get this for myself unless I was performing for kids.

If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.

Magic Maker's Hotrod Instructional DVD

Magic Maker's Hotrod Instructional DVD



I'll be honest I feel both screwed and not screwed by this DVD I'll try to explain as I go along. First What I paid: It cost $15 so with tax I paid $16.12 Not a bad price. What I got: I got one DVD and two hotrod gimmicks (the second allows a replay for the same audience) The gimmicks themselves were cheap pieces of painted square dowels. They were smaller and lighter than most Hotrods I've seen or handled. But on the plus side these were something I could make my self with a trip to a craft store. That said I lost both of mine and have not made the craft store run because I would rather get the larger heavier ones with gems.
As for the content of the DVD. There were 2 routines where the instructor performed just for the camera. Unlike on the shell game DVD by the Magic Makers this didn't annoy me as much because the amount of participation in a Hotrod routine is very little and can even be done with no participation from the audience. I  got this DVD to learn a specific move and I did learn the move I was going after and so I consider anything else I learned a bonus. Heres the part where I feel screwed. I feel that a lot of the "Hotrod moves" on this DVD will only work with the smaller lighter Hotrods that came with this DVD.

One thing I did like about this DVD is how it showed that study in different types of magic is useful. According to the guy on the DVD several of the moves came from cigarette magic.

So would I recommend this DVD: I would. For the price its good for anyone looking to learn the Hotrod or expand on what they know. The effect itself is a proven stunner. I mean that. More than one person has just been wide eye speech-less after witnessing this trick. It packs small and plays big which is what most close up magicians are looking for. Though I do believe the effect is weakened by the Hotrods that came with this DVD. So go get a good Hotrod if you're going to do this trick.

A side note: I bought this before I knew where my character was going. I would not buy this for my character. But I would still want this at some point because people are going to ask you to do tricks whether or not you're in character. Carry around a small hot rod and you're ready to fry their mind and go about your day.

If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.

Bizarre magic

There are many types of magic out there at least from the magicians perspective. Not so much to the spectator it's all magic to them. But back to magicians, from our standpoint magic is broken up into categories based on performance location (Close-up, parlour, stage...) type of props (coins, cards, silks...) performance style (geek, bizarre, mentalism...). Today I would like to talk about Bizarre magic.

What is bizarre magic? That is a hard question to answer, every magician especially every bizarre magician has a different answer as to what bizarre magic is. There is kind of an underlying belief to bizarre magic but other than that you have to define it yourself and work towards it. I personally see bizarre magic as more theatre than other types of magic.

At its simplest its good strong story telling magic. William Ligon said ""If ya ain't got no story, ya ain't got no magic." I feel that's a perfect summation of bizarre magic. A few days ago I posted a video of Chrisitan Cagigal doing an effect called The Gambler and The Stranger. Lets take that for an example (go watch it if you haven't) If we take out the story about the gambler and his foe; what's left? An effect where three cards change faces and then one turns into an unexpected third card. Sounds kind of weak, cause it is kind of weak. Now add in the story, you're following along and as the gambler loses more  tension is built. Then the three cards are laid face down and the gambler bets its all. This is the climax and you're so focused on whether or not he picks the right card that you don't see the final surprise looming just ahead. So you see how important the story is in that effect.

Now there are some themes that repeat themselves through out bizarre magic. The occult and macabre make big appearances. Various world beliefs pop up here and there. Monsters show their faces now and again. But it not about those, bizarre magic is about touching people and its easier to touch people with those. But its possible to have upbeat and uplifting bizarre magic as well. For instance David Parr has a wonderfully touching effect called "From the heart" Its a heartwarming effect about the transcendental nature of true love.


I hope this helps those interested in bizarre magic understand it a little better. If not I want you to know its a hard subject to write on.

Character, why its important, why you need one.

Character, every magic blog out there has a post about character. And they should, your performing character is the most important part of being something other than that weird uncle that does a few card tricks. If you want to be serious about magic establishing a character should be one of the first things you do. It  doesn't have to be a huge project just a sentence outlining the character can go a long way. For example my character is a flamboyant con-man that may or may not be the devil.

Why do you need a character early on; because there are a lot of magic effects out there. A whole lot. Having a character helps you decide what kind of effects you need to learn and what tricks are a waste of your time. To use my character as an example; I'm focusing on magic based on cons and gambling. Things like the three shell game and three card monte, poker and blackjack deals. I'm not going to learn the linking rings because I can't see a con man doing anything with those props. So once you has an idea of your character you can ask questions like can I see my character doing that effect, If the answer is no then you don't need to waste time or money on it.

Later on your character becomes important in pattering (Which you should hold off on till you have some real experience under your belt) and routining. If you can't see your character doing something then neither can your audience. Incongruence in your act will be jarring, it will remove spectators from the moment and lessen impact of the magic you're presenting.

Some of you will say. I play myself. Then I would have to ask 'Who are you?' If your response is "I uh.. I'mm uhh.. I'm a magician.." Then you need to sit down and work on it till you can answer with something more like "I am an upbeat magician specializing in close up magic." Cause let me tell you, you're boring, you're tricks will be remembered but you will be forgotten. Because people will remember a character. If you don't have one then you're just a vehicle for your tricks. Which is OK if you're doing tricks for friends and family. But for those who want to do magic for a living thats a problem because when you go to a prospective employer what you are selling them is your character not your tricks.

Every Professional magician out there has a performing character. Every last one. So what makes you think you know better than the pros?

My shells for the three shell game.

So yesterday I mentioned that I had made my own shells. Well here they are beside my Magic Makers. Also in picture is a 50 cent piece for size reference. I made my shells by hand with no power tools it took about 2 hours and the hardest part was not breaking the shells when separating the halves. After that I took a razor sharp blades and rounded the bottoms so they's slide around without snagging on my pad.

Magic Maker's Street Monte Vs School for Scoundrel Introduction to the 3 shell game

So I knew I was going to learn the Three Shell Game and like many things in magic I had options. Now before I describe the two products I'm going to compare let me tell you where I stood three shell wise. I knew the moves and overall secret I made shell from real walnuts I got from the store. They sucked and they were too tiny for my hands. I made a practice pea out of polymer clay and it let me practice the basic moves. So I was no master but I did know what I needed to advance my skill. Enter Magic Makers (MM) and The School for Scoundrels. Magic Makers is a producer of magic tricks and DVDs of extremely varying quality. The School for Scoundrels (SfS) is what I like to think of as the Whit Haydn school of magic. Basically he feels that a lot of magicians approach magic from the view of the card mechanic, and that the con-man would be more beneficial to magic. I wanted the SfS videos a lot but they are only available to be bought on the internet which is a mark against for me. The MM three shell set up was available from my local brick and mortar. I eventually ended up getting the MM Street Monte three shell game because MM hasn't screwed me over every time in quality. I regretted it and made to get the SfS Introduction to the shell game volume one as soon as possible. Well it came today. In an effort to help my fellow amateurs I bring this review and comparison.



Magic Makers Sal Piacent: Street Monte Three Shell Game

Cost to me, it was marked for $35 but I spend a lot of money in that store so the owner knocked off $5 bucks so with taxes I paid $32.25 For that price I got a DVD, 3 shells and 2 peas of indeterminate plastics. I was happy enough with the shells and peas. I intended to get different peas as soon as I could but the shells will work till I'm ready to drop the big bucks and get something really better. But the DVD I felt was the real hustle. I felt that not only that it was poorly put together but that it also failed to deliver what it promised. It was basically a video of poorly organized randomly selected moves. The closest it came to teaching me a routine was Sal performing his routine for the camera. After watching the SfS DVD I do believe that Sal is mis-performing at least one of the moves on his dvd. On a personal note I just didn't care for Sal himself I did not like the character presented to me..

Obviously I was not happy with this purchase but there is someone to whom I would recommend this to. If you are what some people  call a hobbyist and the only people that will see you perform is close family and friends. This is a good set for the price if that's your audience. But if you are a professional magician or amateur looking to go pro do not get this.







School For Scoundrels An Introduction to the three shell game.

Cost to me $35 plus $7.50 shipping and handling. I also ordered a set of Perfect Peas for $15 so I'd say it cost me $38.75 for the DVD. What I got, one DVD. One super awesome information packed, well organised, well produced DVD. The first thing on the DVD is Whit Haydn explaining different types of peas and shells. And here he could have easily tried to sell you his company's peas and shells over any other but I didn't feel like he was doing that. Next is video of Bob's Sheets performing simple basic routine at the Magic Castle for real people. Then he shows you how to do all the moves and some audience management. If the DVD ended there you would be well enough introduced that once you had practiced and got it down you could go out and start performing the three game; $35 well spent. But the DVD is still going and teaching more complicated moves that can be added to the basic routine. If you master all the moves on this DVD you'll go from introduced to intermediate. After the complicated moves is a video of Whit Haydn lecturing which I feel is well worth a few dollars alone. So you have all of that and then you take your DVD over to your computer and open the DVD as a disk and there you find 11 PDF files on various topics to do with the shell game including a more advance routine. So for $35 buck you get all of that.

If you are a performer then this is the DVD you need to get to get you started on the road to the shell game. As for shells there are plenty out there to choose from but cost wise I hear Vernet makes some good cheap ones.

If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.

Christian Cagigal The Gambler and The Stranger

Tomorrow a regularly scheduled post will appear as if by magic one minute after midnight. It will be comparing Three shell game DVDs but as I call my self the card king I figured I'd make a post with some card magic first. So here I present to you Christian Cagigal's The Gambler and The Stranger. Christian Cagigal is a great magician and a pretty nice dude. I just love this effect.

Pro-Condom Commercials featuring Magic

So I have no idea whats really going on in the commercials. I think they might be from Italy. I'm pretty sure they want people to use condoms but I'm not sure how that supposed to be displayed in the commercial except for the fact that they use condom shaped props. Also I stole the vids from here

Discouragement

This post is mostly for the people out there that are amateurs with aspirations of going pro. I'm going to talk about the most disparaging, dis-hearting, discouraging thing I had to deal with. Was it all that I had to learn? Was it the start up costs? Was it all the practice required? Was it the timeline I had planned out?

It wasn't any of that. It was the overwhelming lack of support from my friends and family. It seems that the performing arts and magic specifically are not real jobs. They all said there was no money to had in it. It was bad because when you have doubts yourself you need the support of those around you. But what really annoyed me was that it seem to me to be an insult. It was as if these people thought I had not done my homework. It was like they thought that I just decided to be a magician all willy nilly.

I know its going to be a lot of hardwork. I know its going to take a lot of time and dedication. I know I'm probably not the next David Copperfield. I also know stuff that they don't know. For starters I know what I want and how to get there. I know theres more to magic than huge stage illusions and kid's shows. I know its possible that I can do whatever I want but I got work for it.

So to all the other performing artists out there, make sure you want it and are willing to work for it alone because everyone else would prefer if you got "a real job"

Another Update

So I added a Links bar to the side.

Bizarre Magic Forums. I really debated adding this site because its so good I wanted to keep it to myself. Its a small forum with only handful of active members but those members know their stuff. Access to the good stuff is by approval only so going there and acting a fool will do you no good.

Brian Brushwoods Scam School This is a series where magician Brian Brushwood teaches you various magic tricks and scam to help win free drinks at the bar. Its all good information and well shot.

Ellusionist This is a webstore focusing on Cards and Street magic. Good products and nice custom decks. They also have a forum I check regularly and turn to when I need card advice.

My Youtube Channel This just my youtube channel no uploads yet.

School for Scoundrels This forum could be considered the Whit Haydn school of magic. If you do magic about cons or The Three Shell game, Three card monte, or fast and lose then you need to be there. Also you can find a link to their store their for the best props for those games.

Bicycle Dragon Back Playing Cards from US Playing Card Co.

I don't know about other card workers but I've been know to drop a pretty penny on what is basically just a deck of cards. Specifically the decks produced by magic makers. I've been know to spend $13 at my local brick and mortar and I'm interest in one that cost $35 it comes with a dvd but still. But at those prices they are not really practical for the working magician. I mean I wear a deck out in like two weeks with just practice. If you only do stage or parlor magic then you can afford to have an expensive deck. But for for a strolling or busking magician thats not a cost effective solution. So when I was in Target and found the Bicycle Dragon Backed deck for ~$3 I was very interested. I really like this deck. The back has a medieval feel. The colors are a little deeper and richer than in a normal deck. The back design is also subtly one way. In addition to the regular 54 cards. Mine came with a card advertising the other brands of cards produced by the US playing card Co. I like this card because it has a the dragon back so I can use it to make gaffs. It also came with a double-backer which is unusual for a regular deck of Bicycle cards. I also like that the regular sized Joker is colored in. As for the smaller joker that has US Playing Co.'s guarantee  I used to not use those at all but now I make breather crimps out of them which I find useful. Besides the look they are of Bicycle's normal high quality and handle well.

All in all this is a good deck and if you can fit it in with your character at $3 a deck you can't go wrong with it.

If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.

Stolen from weekly magic failure

So I found this in my blog feed today I got it from here

I like this vid. I know I said I'm not against exposure and I'm not but this vid isn't giving the original a hard time for being an exposer. He's giving them a hard time for making such a slack-arsed video. If you're going to make a video where you're going to perform a trick and then reveal how to do the trick. Learn to do the damn trick well first. If you can't do the trick then just skip to the reveal because you suck so much we know how its done from your performance. And for Freya's sake get a real camera and take two steps back from that thing, you can ignore the first one but the second one don't. Being right in front of the camera and doing the trick inches from the lens looks bad and is annoying to the viewer.

Updates to the Blog

Well I have made two changes to the blog, first I added a blogroll. Featuring blogs I find to be truely usefull. Not every blog I follow just the one I thing are really good.

Ye Olde Magick Blogge. This is the best one on the list. It give valuable information useful to all level magicians. I recommend going through his archives and listening to his talks with Tyler Erickson. And if you're new to card magic his posts annotating "The royal road to card magic" are good ones. (Sadly this blog is no longer with us as the author closed it after receiving some disturbing personal attacks he decided to pack up his things and leave.)

Itricks This one is full of magic news but half their posts are sponsored posts which are like commercials. But thats the cost of doing business I guess.

The Weekly Magic Failure This blog points out what the author feels to be Jackassery in the magic world. His 'ways to not be a magic failure' is good advice. You don't have to agree with him (I don't always) but at least he gives you something to think about.

Online Magic News This blog is the blog for Ellusionist a web store focused on "street magic". Really big on the cards but they do have good info to share in the blog. Sometimes the posts are just to sell their wares but thats business. They also have a good forum.

The Pit and The Pendulum This blog is focus on Bizarre magic and is currently on hiatus. But it has a good backlog to read through.

I have also added a Youtube video bar. I wanted to link it to my channel but that didn't work. So I just plugged in a bunch of magic keywords I will work on fixing it but for now thats what you got.

I have also added a poll; self explanatory.

I will also be adding a links list as soon I work out what links I want to share, it will have its own post.

Fear

Andrew Musgrave from the Ye old magic blog recently brought up the topic of tricks that are scary to perform I will talk on that in a bit but first I want to wax poetic about fear and stage fright.

Fear is a good thing. It keeps us alert and on our toes. It keeps us from making silly mistakes. That said you can't let fear stop you. As for stage fright I think magicians have more potential for stage fright than any other performer. We have all the same bits of stage fright as say an actor; "What if I forget my lines, what if I drop my props, what if I trip, what if they boo...etc" We have all that then we have to attempt to do something sneaky in front of people that lets face it sometimes just want to see you mess up. Some people just can't accept magic for anything other than a puzzle. But that's what you got to deal with, you practice, train and rehearse, then go out and do it.

Now for tricks that frighten me. I can't think of any trick that I'm afraid to do. But there are moves that scare me. The bold moves. The moves where you say you're doing one thing and then you boldly and sneakily do something else. Tell me that theres a slight that has poor angles and requires you thumbs to pass through separate dimensions, I'll practice the heck out of it set up with the correct angles and breeze through it. Tell me I have to do a Marlo Tilt and my hands start to shake. True story.

The first time I ever did magic for a complete stranger was when I was waiting on my order at Burger King. I was listening to the advice that practicing your magic in public place will help you get used to the idea of performing. SO I'm playing with a deck of cards and one of the employees, notices and starts talking to me which leads him to ask to see a trick. So I started doing an ACR and all was going great I had done two or three phases and was going to end it by putting his card in face up and having it rise to the top. And I was going to do the Marlo Tilt to do it. My hands started shaking so bad I lost my break twice and then I lost his card. I put it in way too far down. I didn't know what to do I just apologized, told him I had messed up. Luckily he got called away to do his job and I used that chance to set up the deck the way I needed, and just started control shuffling till he returned. He walked up I ask him if he remembered his card, did my color change. Got my order and left.

I know that with time, practice, and real performances that eventually I will be able to do those moves as good as my others. But they still scare me. Its like I think they're too simple to fool anyone and that translates to doubt which leads to messing up.

Dan Sperry on Americas got talent.

I don't watch this show but this clip from another blog makes me wish I had caught this part when it happened.

The Royal Road to Card Magic

The Royal Road to Card Magic by Jean Huguard. I really wish that back when I was first getting serious about card magic, someone would have said to me "Hey before you spend money on anything else get this book first" There are plenty of books and dvd's that teach you moves and tricks. But this book is a course in card magic. It starts off with the overhand shuffle and then how to make it tricky and then it gives you a drill to practice then some tricks with it. All the while explaining about magic theory and how to work with the audience. Then it moves on to another move then another as you learn new moves you learn new tricks and by the end you have a good solid foundation in card magic and a collection of effects to wow anyone.

Exposure

First let me explain what exposure is to the lay people (lay people is a word used to denote non-magicians) In magic exposure is the telling of secrets and methods of magic to non-magician. Think Masked Magician from FOX. In most magical circles this is the sin of sins. And extreme lengths are gone to in order to avoid exposure. I think this mind set is detrimental to magic. There is only one place where I think it is as horrible as it is viewed, but I'll get to that in a moment.
Where does most exposure happen. It happens on youtube, teenage "magicians" expose the secret to most tricks there. Mostly as a way to boost their own ego. Thats sucks but BFD (big friggin deal) Heres something magicians don't seem to get laypeople don't care how a trick is done. They may watch exposure videos and think well thats interesting but they don't commit it to memory its just not that important to them. I have been known to perform an effect from fox's magic's secrets revealed for people that watched that show with me.
We sat on the same couch and watch it together. I remembered how to do the trick they did not. They are impressed when they see me do the trick and go "How did you do that?"
Harry Blackstone Sr. one of histories greatest magicians used to do a stage show, out side the theater were posters exposing the very tricks he did. The crowds were still thrilled and amazed and wondered how he did it.

IT IS THE JOB OF THE PERFORMER TO CREATE IN THE MIND OF HIS SPECTATOR THE BELIEF THAT REGARDLESS OF ANY INTELLECTUAL FACT WHAT THEY ARE SEEING COULD ONLY BE DONE BY MAGIC.

I'm an amateur and I all ready figured that one out. If your spectators keep trying to call you out and expose you and your sleights are good, then learn a some self working tricks and focus on presentation and audience management

Now for the inexcusable exposure. Smart phones are everywhere and at a certain point your audience get too big to manage, like at a club. In this kind of setting there may be a person that just doesn't wanna enjoy the performance and has to answer his inner call to be a dick and use his phone to search out the secrets.. This annoys me not because its exposure but because the only person getting hurt is the other spectators the magician is still gonna get paid either way. But the audience is out a magical experience.

That said I will do my best to avoid exposing currently licensed and copyrited material but I make no such promise about anything else.

Introductory Post

I suppose I should start with my name. I am Magnus Asbjorn and I am an amateur magician. Been that way for years. The oldest trick I can remember seeing and then learning is the ball vase. I need to get another one. I have recently decided to work toward becoming a full time paid professional magician. The part I'm working on now is learning magic; not just learning tricks but magical theory and thinking too. This Blog will be a place where I share with any readers I may have the various views and opinions I have on the varying aspect of magic and business.  With all that said lets get too it.