The best magic
10/1/2024
Are you showing the audience the best magic you could perform?
I think this is one of the most important questions you should ask yourself, regarding your magic. Are the best effects that you know in your repertoire?
To preface this a bit, let's go back in time. Many years ago, before I took a long break in magic, I used to value convenience too much. My card trick repertoire consisted of 8-12 effects, which were all impromptu material. The tricks could be performed with basically any shuffled deck. It was easy, I could just carry a deck of cards with me and decide on a whim, which effect to perform and when.
I had couple of hard hitting effects, some good ones, and then the rest of them were throwaway people pleasers, which I felt bad to perform.
Many of the routines were really short, and the overall performance was more of a "Let me show you bunch of tricks." than "Let me show you real magic."
I had a nice Ambitious Card routine, and I had success with reading the spectators mind by forcing a card. If I wanted to really leave an impression, I would perform Paul Vigil's Diplopia (still one of the best card effects). But then there were tricks like Dr. Daley's Last Trick, which people liked, but deep down I knew that they were not the ones I really wanted to perform, nor they were the best tricks I could perform. It's telling that I have forgot most of the effects I used to perform at that time.
I avoided material that needed stacks or setups; tricks that required advanced sleight of hand, maybe in a fear of flashing, or getting caught unprepared, or most likely because of laziness. Then there were a lot of material I would have wanted to perform, but I couldn't get myself to really put in the time to learn it. After all, I had bunch of "good" tricks which didn't require any extra effort from my part.
I took almost a 10 year break in magic from 2010 to 2019. I had two reasons. The first and the more important one, was that I wanted to pursue a career in filmmaking, which had been my dream since I was in my early teens. I wanted to distance myself from being the "magician". The second reason was the fact that I wasn't happy with the tricks I was performing. Although, the audiences were entertained, I wasn't. The routines weren't aligned with my artistic vision of magic, and I couldn't see a way forward without drastic changes to my material.
I put together a list of card tricks that I wanted my repertoire to consist of. Realizing that it would take so much effort to get them to a point where I would have been satisfied enough to start showing them to the audience, I quit magic altogether.
Quite dramatic... Right?
After I came back from the break, I decided that I would only perform the best and strongest effects from that point forward. Nobody was expecting to see me perform any more at that point, I didn't have to have a bag of tricks to resort to if somebody asked to see some magic. So I started from zero. I decided to built my repertoire around the strongest effects I could find. I made a list of effects I remembered liking back then, and then started seeking new material. During that process, I started to come up with my own routines and ideas, as my focus was in challenging myself with this new direction I was heading in. I could start putting together my soon to be repertoire, piece by piece, completely on my own terms and pace.
Of course, I selected and created effects that are according to my taste in magic. We all have different preferences when it comes to effects. I like tricks, which are mostly based on clever principles and cunning stacks. You might like knuckle busting flashy card tricks. These preferences give a frame to look through when deciding on which material to choose.
But the most important thing I had in my mind was, and this is independent on the style of magic you like, I questioned myself with: is this the best magic I can perform? Are these effects the strongest that I know or can come up with?
Depending on who you are, you might be performing magic for a lot of strangers. To people who see you and your magic only once, and if you do a good job, you might get a second chance. Do you want these people to be lightly amused, or maybe merely pleasantly surprised, or do you want them to remember you, your magic, and the moment as something so powerful they think it cannot be surpassed. And equally importantly, do you want to feel that you have fulfilled your potential, and have shown them the absolute best you can offer. Do you want to leave knowing that there is no way to top that.
Or do you want to feel that you left something on the table.
- Max Arcanie