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.