Magician Puppies

Recently I've come to realize just how spoiled I am as a magician.

Most of my contact with the magic industry has been through groups and organizations who feel that the first, most important aspect of magic is the theatrical aspect. Knowing how various tricks work is important, but ultimately secondary to a good quality theatrical experience.

I have begun participating in a relatively new magic forum on-line. I won't reveal the name of it, but let me just say that I feel in a very real way that I have stepped back into high school when I read messages there. People are concerned over techniques and tricks and which video to buy and which book to read and they are all trapped in the thinking that there must be some "holy grail" of magic which will make them all stars.

Repeatedly now I have seen posts from one particular individual who keeps asking variations on the question: "What is the best X trick?" where X can be 'cards' or 'coins' or 'rope' or whatever.

Well, I'm here to tell you that there is no "holy grail" of magic. At least not in the sense that these kids (even the ones older then me) think.

No one ever walked into a magic shop and said "Give me the trick that will make me the next David Copperfield" and actually got it!

But I'm realizing that I have both a responsiblity and an opportunity to make a real impact here. Already I have been posting messages in fits of frustration which basically keep saying "who cares what the best X trick is? Work on your character and your presentation and you'll be able to take any trick you want and make it into the best X trick there is!"

But slowly now, my fits of frustration are turning into the light of realization. If I keep putting this message out about being a good theatrical character first then hopefully I'll be able to get through to these kids and make them realize that they could be doing so much more then every effect they learn from the "easy to master X tricks" video library.

Yes, we all seem to start out in the same place, absorbing as much material as we can. When we first get into magic we suddenly realize, like wide eyed kids in a candy shop, that the secrets of the universe are now at our finger tips. We become utterly obsessed with the accumulation of 'secret knowledge' as if we were spelunking the depths of some ancient temple of wisdom.

My own library stands in mute testimony to that beginning stage in my own magical career.

So how do we improve this situation? By turning to the knowledge presented to us by the "old masters." The ones who have "been there and done that."

Then suddenly I find myself in the place of being one of the "old masters." I didn't particularly consider myself to be one of those guys yet. Figured I had a long way to go before I got there. It may just be a symptom of the circumstances. After all, I wandered into this new on-line forum of my own free will and I made the decision to stay instead of turning around and running screaming when I realized what it actually was.

I certainly don't consider myself to be on par with the big name pros, but when you get right down to it, the view is relative and what I see standing in my place on the spectrum is different from what the real "old masters" and the real "young kids" see.

So I guess it's time to flex some of those "old master" muscles and offer my "boundless wisdom" to another generation of wizards.

Hopefully I'll have something more to say to them then "buy magician X's latest video/DVD/book. It's cool."

Santiago
Enter a World of Elegant Magic
Santiago's Magic