Any magicians out there?

[kekiev15]

Being a teenager that lives in the middle of a hot Arizona desert with nothing to doduring the summer, I picked up magic during my freshman year of high school. I really bloomed during my sophomore year, and I just about reached the point of stardom junior year. However, my senior year, I had to drop it. The fame school wide fame was nice, but I hated being constantly asked, "Can you show me a trick?" I now only perform during special occasions, such as parties, dances, and graduations. I was just wondering if there are any magicians out there, performing or not. And if you do know the secrets, remember, please respect the Code.

 

[Robert B. Marks]

Count me in - my mentor is even a FFFF magician, and I'm a member of the local magic club in good standing.

(By the way, have you seen that Magic: 1400s-1950s book? I just got the abridged version, and that thing is a proper tome...I think it's a full 15" tall...)

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

"Can you show me a trick an illusion?"

A trick is something a whore does for candy.

OT: Alas, I am not, but one of my professors was, he had some pretty neat tricks that he made up himself (A lot of which used randomized properties that just had a very high chance of success)

The one that stumped me the most was a trick where he folded up a piece of paper, unfolded it most of the way, told a student to write a word on it then fold it back up again. Ripped it to pieces while his eyes were covered, then told the student to give him a piece of paper with no writing on it. Somehow, that was enough for him to properly guess the word.

 

[Total LOLige]

I'm a bit of dabbler in card magic. Haven't been able to put much time into practising lately though, need to get back into the habit. I don't really perform for anyone really, nerves get the better of me alot of the time.

 

[FPLOON]

I used to do a lot of ball-related illusions... but, those years have long since past...

Nowadays, I just watch Wizard Wars on Syfy... and any recent movie that delves in anything magic-related, I guess...

 

[Fox12]

Sure, but I don't usually perform during parties. People seem to get upset when I draw a pentagram on the floor in pigs blood and whisper the name of Nyarlathotep. I'm not sure why. I certainly wasn't asked to perform at graduations (well, maybe one) and I didn't achieve school wide stardom.

Oh, wait, you meant tricks.

....

How embarrassing.

 

[Guffe]

No I am not.
But I love to be on the magic side of youtube, Penn and Teller Fool us is absolutely amazing!

 

[TranshumanistG]

Not a magician, but I still have a chance of becoming a wizard.

 

[kekiev15]

nerves get the better of me alot of the time.

Just get out there and perform for people. That's the only way to beat those nerves. If you get caught, just tell them they have a good eye and thank them for their time. Or if you mess up, pretend it's part of the illusion and keep going with it.

 

[DocJ]

All my tricks involved playing cards. Sleight of hand was my strong suit (See what I did there?) and I still almost always carry around a deck of them with me. If it's a boring day I'll just find somewhere to play solitaire. But I could do the "Pick a card, any card," trick after a while and a few others as well.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I remember exactly one card trick that is basically all carefully chosen mathematics.
But, on the upside, if you do it right, and remember the appropriate numerical relationships and the steps to do, it is pretty much foolproof, and requires little effort.

But, that's all I know. Never really tried to learn much beyond that...

 

[beyondbrainmatter]

Yeah, though I wouldn't call myself a "magician". I mainly focus on cards, so I get to use the "card shark" angle.

 

[Robert B. Marks]

Yeah, though I wouldn't call myself a "magician". I mainly focus on cards, so I get to use the "card shark" angle.

So, do you do gambling demonstrations, a la Ricky Jay?

(I've played around a bit with the second deal and the middle deal, but not enough to make it look like something other than trying to awkwardly pull a card from somewhere other than the top of the deck. Both are sort of neat, though. Mind you, I find Hugard a lot better than Erdnase for describing those two...)

 

[Robert B. Marks]

No I am not.
But I love to be on the magic side of youtube, Penn and Teller Fool us is absolutely amazing!

Oh, what the hell - I've already spilled the beans about this elsewhere.

I'm going to be covering the new season of Fool Us for the Escapist this summer. Right now the working title for it is called "Fooling Garwulf," and the introductory installment goes up the week before the show starts. It will basically be a Garwulf's Corner about magic.

 

[renegade7]

"Can you show me a trick an illusion?"

A trick is something a whore does for candy.

God dammit, got ninja'd.

No, I wouldn't call myself a magician, but back in college when we did demonstrations for high school students visiting the physics department I did this thing with a Tesla coil and a pair of (GROUNDED AND INSULATED!!) metal gloves to shoot lightning out of my hands.

 

[Guffe]

No I am not.
But I love to be on the magic side of youtube, Penn and Teller Fool us is absolutely amazing!

Oh, what the hell - I've already spilled the beans about this elsewhere.

I'm going to be covering the new season of Fool Us for the Escapist this summer. Right now the working title for it is called "Fooling Garwulf," and the introductory installment goes up the week before the show starts. It will basically be a Garwulf's Corner about magic.

Oh that sounds cool!
I'll have to check that out then
I haven't seen the seaon(s?) of Fool Us in any episode order or so, just bits and pieces, but I absolutely love it

 

[Robert B. Marks]

No I am not.
But I love to be on the magic side of youtube, Penn and Teller Fool us is absolutely amazing!

Oh, what the hell - I've already spilled the beans about this elsewhere.

I'm going to be covering the new season of Fool Us for the Escapist this summer. Right now the working title for it is called "Fooling Garwulf," and the introductory installment goes up the week before the show starts. It will basically be a Garwulf's Corner about magic.

Oh that sounds cool!
I'll have to check that out then
I haven't seen the seaon(s?) of Fool Us in any episode order or so, just bits and pieces, but I absolutely love it

It's a really great show.

We have a bit of a glut of magic shows right now, but I think Fool Us really is at the top of it. I never saw the original run of Masters of Illusion, but the half hour episodes that have aired leave next to no time for anything but the effect, so you almost never get to see the actual performance. And, Wizard Wars isn't bad, but the performances can be somewhat hit or miss (which is understandable when you've got magicians who have never performed together before having to invent effects and routines almost on the fly). With Fool Us, it's performers at the top of their game being given enough time to actually, well, PERFORM.

And that does make a huge difference.

 

[beyondbrainmatter]

Yeah, though I wouldn't call myself a "magician". I mainly focus on cards, so I get to use the "card shark" angle.

So, do you do gambling demonstrations, a la Ricky Jay?

(I've played around a bit with the second deal and the middle deal, but not enough to make it look like something other than trying to awkwardly pull a card from somewhere other than the top of the deck. Both are sort of neat, though. Mind you, I find Hugard a lot better than Erdnase for describing those two...)

Heh, no not like Ricky, lol. I mainly use a (in the hands) faro, cull and pass. With those moves, I can give anyone in a 4 handed game any hand they want. The pass, combined with a breather crimp is truly amazing.

My second, middle and bottom deal are all horrible though. The only thing I can get away with is a necktied second deal. Sometimes.

 

[Plucky]

More of a Magic Enthusiast, almost for 10 years. though i don't own anything*, in fact im kind of suppressed. it rarely comes out and i watch magic on Youtube and TV if its on. i remember watching Dirty Tricks on channel 4 and it was pretty impressionable, also an Origami Illusion during one of the BBC Proms. shows seems to come in waves over here in the UK, first it's BBC's The Magicians, E4 had Troy and another show, ITV3 had Penn and Teller: Fool Us...then BBC 3 had Killer Magic; except they tend to go for the weirdly edgy angle or just theme illusions around common places like swimming pools it might as well be called the Jasz Show; shes pretty much the breakout magician of the lot.

* i like using handkerchiefs, pens and coins. i try training my fingers up but my gross motor skills is pretty bad. but other than that, the online world looks pretty agressive; heard lots of magic shops outright steals content and new shops crops up overnight. kind of intimidating really.

 

[Robert B. Marks]

* i like using handkerchiefs, pens and coins. i try training my fingers up but my gross motor skills is pretty bad. but other than that, the online world looks pretty agressive; heard lots of magic shops outright steals content and new shops crops up overnight. kind of intimidating really.

The dexterity just takes time and practice. My mentor told me about this one move for controlling a card involving his little finger - it took him two weeks of trying to get the card to move at all, and another two weeks to dial it in. If you just try to practice the moves for a while every day or two, you'll find that it's sometimes only a month or two before you've seen marked improvement.

As far as being intimidated goes, if you're just approaching this as a hobby and an amateur, and you're not planning to invent or patent effects, you can more or less just ignore most of the hyper-competitiveness of the shops. Something like The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks and a normal deck of cards can give you dozens, if not hundreds of tricks. You will go through decks at a reasonable pace, but otherwise you're not stuck buying hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in props.