Magic Sans Theatre

At least, good magic is. I’m a harsh critic of those who magic sans theatre… some people are more forgiving, but I just hate to see magic done for the sole purpose of doing magic. Seriously, why even bother? Magic is a branch of theatre. You are excluding the magic of theatre if you don’t make good use of the theatre of magic.

Magic should paint a picture and tell a story… as such, your magic must be motivated! Every single magical thing that you do must have a purpose, a reason. Otherwise, your magic becomes more or less “Look what cool things I can do with these tricky props!”

One of my favourite examples of such a magic act is that of Soma, who is world-renowned for his “Phone Act”. There’s a reason he keeps raking in the awards and prizes. I like to consider his act essentially a one-act play with magic incorporated. It begins with a businessman walking on stage reading a newspaper. Accidentally, he tears his newspaper and, seeming to have an idea, goes with it and tears the paper to shreds. He even drops a couple of pieces by accident. At this point, he does what any person with magical powers would do in this situation… rewinds time and restores the newspaper! Like, literally rewinds time… the music in the background begins to run in reverse, the pieces that fell fly back into his hands, and the paper is restored in a flash. This sets the stage for what’s to come… Soma’s cellphone begins to malfunction in the middle of a phone call, but luckily, there is a payphone right near by. So, Soma begins producing endless amounts of coins to pay for his phone call! I won’t describe the rest of the act, because I’m sure you get the point.

Think about this when designing your magic: Why does your audience care? Magic is NO different than a play… the audience must have reason to invest themselves emotionally in what you’re doing. They have to care. For them to care, you magic must tell a story... and within your story, you, the performer, must be fighting for something. Done properly, the audience will care and invest themselves into wanting to see if you win or lose.

An easy way to design magic in this fashion is to consider the following each time you are constructing a routine or act: “I’m a person. I have a problem. I also happen to have the ability to use magical powers. Considering this, how would I solve my problem?” The best magic comes from a root of problem solving… it’s the bare basics to designing magic that people will care about. Of couse, that’s only Step One… now that you have your problem that needs to be solved, you need to make your audience care about it. That doesn’t come naturally.

It’s not easy… but who ever said it was?

Methods Spectators Have Already Guessed

1. Levitation. "There's a string!"

2. Coin Vanish. "It's up your sleeve!" or "It's in your other hand!"

3. Ambitious Card. "There's two cards there!" and "You just did a double flip!"

4. A Multiple Outs Effect. "Well, you had a one in three chance of getting it!"

5. Thought-of Card Effect. "That's just gotta be the one card EVERYONE thinks of!"

6. Memorized Deck. "That deck is just in Si Stebbins, and all you did was a couple of false shuffles and cuts, then when I picked a card and put it back you just looked for the one card that was displaced from it's usual position from the stack. So OBVIOUS!... Then again, maybe it's in Aronson Stack, I didn't get a good enough look."

The Re-Charge Phase

I haven't been posting often. Why, you ask? Two reasons... Firstly, I have a life. And, secondly, I'm in my "re-charge" phase.

You know how you can love a band's music for the longest time, then suddenly grow sick and tired of it and stop listening to it? But, a few months later, you pick it up again and it sounds just as great as it did before? Yeah, that's me right now. Only not with music, with magic.

I figure I've been working hard for 10 years on this stuff and I need and deserve a break. I put down the pasteboards for a while, ever since the beginning of February really, and haven't picked them up since. When will I get back in the game? Hard to tell. All I know is that I'm going to pitch myself to some restaurants in the next week or two and hopefully land a table-hopping gig. At that point, I'll be back full-force. Until then, I consider this a much-needed break.

I've done a lot in this break. I directed my first ever play... one I wrote in fact. Ended up landing the show in the Sear Ontario Drama Festival, had an excellent premiere performance, and ended up winning The Award of Excellence for my Writing and Direction. Also been frequently attending rehearsals for the musical Grease, which I have the good fortune of being in the cast of, as well as working with my high school's amazing Glee Club, belting out the tenor section of our four-part harmonies on a constant basis. So yeah, I've been a busy bee.

Magic's not dead to me. Just gotta re-charge those batteries. Then I'll be back studying, practicing, and generally getting pissed off at the ignorance of some people in our community.

WHY!?

Here's a list I've compiled of completely useless, meaningless habits magicians have adopted over the ages.

WHY do magicians always riffle the deck with the tension of breaking a bird's neck?

WHY do magicians have the annoying habit of looking smugly into the audience after doing something impressive? We get it, you're good and you know it.

WHY do magicians make stupid noises with their mouths when something magical happens? Particularly smacking their lips or cracking their tongue when something vanishes.

WHY do magicians like to show off crazy finger maneuvers and exercises during their acts? Combine this with the smug look into the audience thing and you've got the perfect was to non-verbally say "I'm really amazing at pleasuring, meet me at the stage door after the show if you're single, hot, and female"

Here's a full WHY story: I once saw a young magician who spent 5 damn minutes (no exaggeration) pulling random shit out of a Square Circle Production prop. Silks, bottles, coins, you name it. Nothing was justified... not to mention the kid had the absolute worst magic soundtrack I've ever heard. At one point, he produced a length of rope from the Square Circle, and in displaying it briefly lifted it to his throat with both hands and, for a split second, pretended to strangle himself with it. It was the whole works too... bulging eye balls, tongue stuck out at the side... had he started to turn blue I would have jumped up to rescue the poor lad from committing suicide on account of his awful magic act.

WHY DID YOU DO THIS? Doing stupid things like wiping your mouth with silks you produce and strangling yourself with rope serves NO DRAMATIC PURPOSE WHATSOEVER. It's not clever, interesting, or funny... just confusing. Everything you do in an act or even just an effect must be motivated. The whole act I described served no purpose... the magician produced a random assortment of pointless items, none of which were clever in the slightest. If you're going to produce objects for no reason, at least connect them logically.

Although, the most powerful theatrical use of making something vanish or appear in terms of justification is, simply, purpose! Produce things because you NEED them. Vanish things that you no longer need or want. Consider Soma... he has a positively brilliant, award winning act involving, primarily, the need to make a phone call. At first, all he has for himself is a payphone. So, for good reason, he produces coins! Coins to pay for the phone call! Logical and justified. Earlier on in this same act, he restores a torn newspaper. Not just for the sake of doing a magic trick like many, but because he accidentally tore it and wants it back in one piece!

So, in constructing an effect or act as a magician, consider this: "You have a real, human, logical problem. If you could do magic, how would you solve the problem?". Ask yourself this question and you'll have the key to creating connecting, strong, interesting, justified magic.

The "Taking Things Too Seriously" Phase

As magicians, and even just as performers and artists in general, we all go through what I like to call the "Taking Things Too Seriously" phase. You've either been there, or currently are there... or even approaching it. Let's assess exactly what this phase is and why it's bad.

In middle school, and the first year of high school, I had my "Taking Things Too Seriously" phase... I was the serious, passionate sleight of hand artist. And I still am.... but with one big difference. I cared too much.

In this phase, you take yourself too seriously, take your effort too seriously, and take the craft in general too seriously. Although this seems like a positive attribute for an artist, it is the opposite. When I went through this phase, there was a difference in the way people looked at me. Audiences, peers at school, they all respected me... but they didn't LIKE ME.

Not to say that they disliked me, but I gave them no reason to feel anything but neutral toward me because, simply put, I wasn't real. Nobody knew who I really was because it was always about the magic. Everybody knew Michael Kras, but nobody knew Michael.

Word to the wise: LOOSEN UP! Stop caring so much. When I finally got over myself, got the 12 inch magic wand out of my ass and started being who I really was, people liked me. Now, everybody knows Michael Kras, the entertainer, and Michael, they laid-back, playful guy who loves horror movies, golfing, music, acting, singing, and just being with people. Now, all the people who thought of me as nothing more than a magician are all my friends.

Learn to laugh at yourself... learn to laugh at your craft. Learn to not take it so seriously. I don't mean stop caring and completely disregard magic as an art by spitting on it's name, but don't cradle your cards everywhere you go. That was me 4 years ago, and it was awful. I spent time with people at school and I built positive relationships with my peers, but these weren't the kind of people who would call me after school and meet up with me at Starbucks. I knew plenty of friendly people, but few friends.

Realize magic isn't the end-all passion of your life. Realize you probably aren't going to become the next big sleight of hand superstar. Just relax, and enjoy the ride. The more you push your magic, the less good it will do for you in many aspects of life... don't push magic, let magic push you.

Magic Clubs

Ahh the magic club... that one time of month that we get to kick back with a bunch of like-minded individuals and spend the night making smug attempts to fool each other.

Let's not kid ourselves here. That really is what magic clubs are... it's where a bunch of magical entertainers congregate and each magician sets out to prove to all of the other club members why he is better than them. Apparently, fooling a room of magicians with boring, procedural magic designed to fool magicians is what seperates the men from the boys. Here's how a standard night at your typical magic club will occur:

7:30 to 8:00- Magicians meet in the church recreational center or house basement they do every month and begin idle chatter about how much they're gonna "fool the boys tonight".

8:00 to 8:15- The club president, a stocky man in a tucked-in polo shirt, gathers everyone and asks them to seat themselves. A bunch of announcements and bits of news are made, which nobody is listening to as they all sit and focus on remembering the convulted counting and dealing procedure of the routine they will leap up and perform later on.

8:15 to 8:30- News wraps up. All of the members in the room attempt to hide their excitement by smugly raising their hands (fast but not too fast) when the president asks who among them would like to perform their miracle first.

8:30 to 8:35- Steve Johnson performs his version of the 21 Card trick using a full deck memorized stack, a deck switch, a shiner, a double backer, a double facer, and a PK ring. The magicians in the room applaud, attempting to look unimpressed when in reality they are baffled by the pointless and ridiculous method.

8:35 to 9:00- Al Brennan takes the stage and performs an overlong and uninteresting set consisting of The Vanishing Bandana, Strat-o-sphere, and The Egg Bag, all the while actually thinking he's being totally entertaining. The members all check their watches in anticipation of break time, but find all of them have been stolen by Steve Johnson who had subtly hooked a pull through everyone's watches during his competition-level card routine from before.

9:00 to 9:30- Break time. Cheap coffee brewed in the church kitchen by one of the magician's wives is served with the Krispy Kremes left over from last month's meeting. While the members indulge in their tasty diaretic treats, they huddle in small groups and discuss methods for Steve Johnson's twist on the old card classic. They finally reach a mutual method solution and decide they are correct. This is all to help them sleep at night.

9:30 to 10:00- The members guzzle the rest of their now-lukewarm coffee as they are called back to their seats. One of the members talks on magic theory that all of the other members gush over except for that one seasoned professional the club has, who stands in the corner behind all of the seats of amateur hobbyists and relishes in his knowledge and excellence (without verbalizing it of course, that would be arrogant). Steve Johnson smacks himself repeatedly in the forehead, now realizing he could have just fooled these people with Six Card Repeat or something.

10:00pm to 10:15pm- Members congratulate themselves on another successful meeting and files out into the church parking lot, climbing into their cars with the MAGIC4U and MAG1C1AN license plates and puttering off to their bungalows to begin working on their show-stopper for next month's meeting.

Goshpel Illushionshs Part TWO!

My friend gave this to me the other day. It's a set of those optical illusion boomerangs. You know the ones... those curved piece of cardboard that, while identical in size, when held next to each other appear to be quite different in size. That's not the fun part. The fun part is what's printed on the back. It really does speak for itself.

"Our eyes are often fooled by optical illusions. Speaking of eyes... would you sell one eye for $1 Million? How about both eyes for $20 Million? No one in their right mind would. Your eyes are priceless, yet they are merely the windows of your soul. Jesus said that your eyes are worth nothing compared to the value of your soul. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes and being cast into Hell fire"

You really couldn't make this stuff up. But wait! There's more!

"There is nothing as important as your salvation. So, do YOU think you'll go to Heaven when you die?"

Deep stuff. But it's far from over.

"Check yourself by going through the Ten Commandments. How many lies have you told in your life? Have you ever stolen, committed adultery, or murdered someone? Have you loved God above all else? Be Honest. You know you are guilty, and on Judgement Day, you will therefore end up in Hell."

I'm starting to get scared. Dare I continue?

"Jesus showed how much God loves us by dying on the cross to take our punishment, and then rising from the dead. Today, repent, confess and turn from your sin, and trust in Jesus Christ. Then read the Bible daily, and obey it"

Yes master! Well, that's all they say, but it's enough. I'm packing to move to a convent now, so until next time... assuming that convents have wireless internet.

Rant Delays

Sorry there haven't been many rants lately, my friends... Christmas makes me nice. Plus, I'm nearing the end of a semester and I'm up to the eyebrows in school work. Trust me guys, very soon, I'll be back up full force!

Until then, ladies and gentlemen,

Michael Kras

Things Magicians Should Stop Saying: Part 1

"This is the oldest trick in magic"

"This is the world's fastest trick"

"Fair?"

"...So, it only makes sense that..."

"Um..."

"I'll just sprinkle my hand with some woofle dust"

"The Jack of Spades! That's a very ambitious card. It loves to be on top!"

"See this? It's a piece of nothing. But with a rub, this piece of nothing becomes a coin!"

"Name a number from one to six. Five? We'll spell it... F-I-V-E. We've arrived on Red! Fair choice, right?"

"Red cards and black cards are like oil and water... they can't mix!"

Hand Care

Let's create a scenario shall we? You're performing your star quality magic for a few people surrounding you. You`re the center of attention. Things are going well, your magic is strong, your sleights are imperceptible... but your spectators barely take notice. They look beyond the magic, beyond your finger-fliging, and just see this:







Nice visual eh?

It's astonishing how many magicians I see who have the ugliest hands imaginable. This is even more frequent amongst teen magicians, many of which who, let's face it, couldn't care less about hand care. And that's a problem.

As magicians, our hands are our number one asset. They are what the spectator will be staring at 90% of the time you're performing. So, why go out there with Crypt Keeper Claws? Nobody likes to see it. For some of the more OCD spectators you may encounter, it could ruin their experience. We want to create an attractive, pleasing image with our magic... the way we dress, the way we handle our props, the way we speak, the way we carry ourselves. Having hands that are cracked to the point of bleeding isn't helping.

The thing about hand care is that it's so EASY... and it's one thing I happen to know a fair bit about. I'm probably one of the few teenaged guys out there that has bottles of Hand Lotion on his dresser and actually uses them for their intended purpose. Let's go over a few tips.

First of all, wear gloves in cold weather. I know this is a given but many people neglect this simple precaution. Your hands will dry up in no time if you leave them to the mercy of the chilly winter's day. Get a nice, warm, insulated glove. If practicality is an issue for you in terms of gloves, don't get those gigantic puffy ski gloves... they prohibit major finger movement and are next to useless. Get a nice, thin, warm leather glove.

Next, MOISTURIZE. I don't care how feminine it sounds, it's so important. Every night, before you go to bed, just rub half a squirt of hand lotion into your hands and let it soak in over night... not only will this keep your hands looking great but will keep them moist and tacky, which is ideal for sleight of hand close-up magic.

Third, for the love of God, take care of your fingernails... they are so important and the condition of your nails is always noticeable. Get a cuticle push done and get rid of the excess skin that grows above your cuticles... Clean your nails if they are dirty and cut them on a regular basis. Don't even give them a chance to grow the least bit long... trust me, this is SUCH an unattractive look.

Another point... get Manicures on a monthly basis. Again, this may seem feminine, but it's so helpful... they'll get your hands looking their best. Just pop into your local spa or salon and they'll give you a quick manicure to make your hands look and feel amazing. Remember, you can't spell "Manicure" without "Man".

And finally, my own personal secret: Crabtree and Evelyn's "Gardeners Hand Recovery" solution. This stuff is a miracle. It's not cheap (anywhere from $15 to $20 a bottle) but it works wonders... one scrub of the hands with this stuff once or twice a week will keep your hands looking and feeling amazing. It leaves your hands smooth and moist without being oily or sticky. The solution has thick sea salt in it that exfoliates, scrubs deep and removes all of your dead skin. It's a brilliant product and it's my secret weapon. You're welcome.

That's all I have on that! Hopefully you take something away from this and keep your hands looking as great as the rest of your beautiful self.

Someone Who Does Things RIGHT

Fabulous routine, isn't it? David Regal is everything great about magic... he's technically skilled, likeable, and entertaining as hell. He knows how to make us CARE about his magic, as his scripting and presentation is extremely engaging and relateable (No doubt helped by the fact that he is a writer for television shows such as Rugrats and Everybody Loves Raymond). I mean, the man made me invest myself in a five minute Ambitious Card routine... to make a magician care about Ambitious Card is no easy feat, especially a routine that's five freaking minutes long. I could watch Mr. Regal perform for hours. I just did myself a favour and ordered myself his DVD set "Premise, Power, and Participation" (Which, by the way, is on for a ridiculous deal at World Magic Shop... Can't beat a four DVD set for $70!). You know you love a magician when you buy his DVDs just to watch him perform.

Long live Regal. May others follow in his footsteps. The man's got it right.

The End-All Visual Reference For Erdnase

An expert on Erdnase? Finally!






Look at this. The style! The grace! My god, I cannot possibly fathom the sheer amount of minutes put into these techniques.





First of all, kudos to whoever made this spoof trailer... it's freakin' hilarious.

Now, let's get into this... Wesley James, three-time First Place winner of the International John Malkovich Look-a-like Competition, decided he was passable enough at the techniques taught within perhaps the single most important work in the art of card technique to create a visual reference teaching the technique.

Honestly, when I saw this trailer without knowledge that this DVD actually existed, I thought it was a joke. But it does exist. And it still is a joke, but one of the unfunny kind of jokes.

I've never seen someone claim to be the end-all expert on ANYTHING without being able to practice what they preach. Sure, Wesley James can technically do the techniques, in the sense that he can complete a move from start to finish. That is, unfortunately, the extent of what can be said of his work. Isn't that a wonderful Charlier Cut?

The fact that ANYONE should try to enhance or adapt the material within Erdnase is an insult... those of us actually working hard, busting ourselves in an attempt to learn and perfect the work within the book don't appreciate half-assed attempts at making DVDs teaching the technique we're diligently attempting to master. Especially from a man like Wesley James.

Ugh.

Time To Get Tudor-ed

Brian Tudor - Boy Wonder. Let's see what kind of shenanigans he's up to now, shall we?




Wow. Let's begin.

First of all, he reminds me a little of something...





Neat eh?

Mr. Tudor seems like quite the angry fellow... I imagine the only way he is given gigs and lecture bookings is through the fact that he frightens clients into submission. Can he speak a single sentence without swearing?

Silent, still reactions are better than people clapping and cheering for your magic? Yeah, okay. Just because you've never had the latter reaction, it doesn't mean the unimpressed silence that you mistake for awestruck bewilderment is better. "Make no mistake 'bout it."

The Charlier Cut sucks? Really? Okay, whatever you say. I don't want you to fly out here to battle me in card magic and flourishing... because, in the event that you lost, I wouldn't want the Tudor Thunder brought down upon me. I'm sure I'd be Zipped, Snapped, Inversion-Somersaulted and called a Dumb Motherf***er.

Isn't it fun to go on angrily ranting about stuff you have no clue about? At least most people as untalented as you know they're untalented. Brian Tudor, I can't imagine what could possibly possess people to think you're any sort of magician or performer. You're like the school yard bully who frightens the lunch money out of his peers. Well, there's no room for you on our playground.

For The Love of God...

... Who does this guy think he is?






Where do I begin with this?

This man clearly doesn't take magic seriously. From what I gather, to him, magic (Sorry, "Goshpel Illushionshs") is merely a gimmick to "illustrate God's truth"... mediocre effects that he makes sure EVERYBODY knows is "just a trick".

I mean, my God... half of his advice in this little video contradicts his intentions! He makes a point to tell us to "practice practice practice!" and gives us excuses as to why we can't repeat a trick (The one about the batteries running low is going straight into my act, let me tell you). So, we're going to practice our magic to make it deceptive? Why should deceptiveness even matter when you're trying so hard to make your magic NOT look like magic.

This guy is everything wrong with our art. In the video, he advises us to "pray about magic". I think that's the one legitimately sound piece of advice the man has.

Nice shirt, by the way.


(Thanks to Roland's "Weekly Magic Failure" blog for bringing this video to the attention of the world. I just wanted to share my own thoughts on it.)

Gig Rant #1

We all have our ups and downs when performing in public. Sometimes things go just as planned. Other time, Murphy's Law kicks in. And also, sometimes there's an in-between. Everything goes fine, but one little incident grinds your gears. Such a thing happened this past friday.

I was hired to work a Christmas Open House for a store in a small town in Ontario (No, I don't understand why there was a Christmas Open House on November 5th. Then again I apparently don't understand much of anything).

I'm mingling in a store packed tighter than a sardine can, doing my thing with the pasteboards for all the simple small-town folk wandering about and sampling wine and cheese. Suddenly I approach a group of three ladies and start up my set.

I'm about to begin Ernest Earick's "A Flippant Triumph", one of my favourite Triumph routines, and I'm standing around shuffling and springing my cards. Suddenly, one of the women says to the other two "Christian (her son) is doing all this kind of stuff now!". So I began the effect, and at the climax, two women are in awe, but Mrs. Christian's Mom pipes up and says "Christian can do that too!". I politely reply with "That's really great! How long has he been interested in magic?"... she said "A few weeks... but he's already doing all of the stuff you're doing!"

In my mind I was thinking "@%&$$&*&^&" but I merely smiled politely and nodded. At the end of my set the women walk away, and as they walk, Mrs. Christian's Mom pipes up again... "Yeah, Christian can do all that stuff! He just goes straight on YouTube and learns all kinds of magic tricks!"

Had I possessed a weapon, a murder-suicide would have followed... instead I kept my cool and continued mingling. This woman insulted my intelligence, my craft, and myself. She implied that all magic can be found for free on YouTube and learned easier than making rice. And on top of that, she implied that I must have found these effects on YouTube then, while also implying that everything I was doing required little practice. I hope to God she doesn't take this and push her son to be doing gigs.

Had the woman remained in the store for a little while, I would have given her my email address to give to her son, offering to point him toward some excellent resources for someone starting out in magic. However, she was gone.

My question is, how would YOU have handled the situation?

Attack of the YouTube Magicians

Okay, before someone else says it, full disclosure here... I myself am a YouTube magician. I have an existing YouTube Channel with nearly 60 videos uploaded of me performing magic, acting, etc. Perhaps this fact will also add credibility to my argument here.

What the HELL is with music in magic videos? I don't particularly appreciate clicking on a magic video only to have heavy metal blasted in my face. To you, the YouTube Magician who films his magic with awful music in the background, I ask a question... What do you do in the real world? Do you carry a stereo or iPod docking station around for when someone asks to see a card trick? My guess is no. And if you do, what the heck is your problem? It would take much less effort to come up with some decently engaging patter as opposed to carrying around a 10 pound sound system when you're "on da streets yo".

To those who DON'T use music during your Biddle Trick for a live audience... what DO you do? Do you perform in complete silence? Please don't tell me you just narrate your actions, stuttering every friggin' word that comes out of your mouth. Even silence would be better than that. How do you ever expect to be considered entertaining. Let's be real here... a lot of magic is only mindly entertaining on it's own. You aren't going to have people clammering to see you do magic in your school halls if you JUST do the trick. PERFORM for God's sake... magic is a performance art. It's so simple. Without it, magic is just a puzzle, and quite frankly, boring in many cases. Nobody is going to CARE that you can make a signed card rise to the top of the deck repeatedly unless you give them reason to care. That, my friends, is what seperates the men from the boys.

Anyways, I suppose I'm digressing a bit. Why post a YouTube video of Twisting The Aces unless you give me reason to? I'm not going to sit and watch a video where a guy makes cards turn over as I get deafened by the Linkin Park soundtrack. Perform it for me. That's what magic is meant to be. It astonishes me how many people are unable to grasp this concept.

YouTube is great. I personally love posting magic videos... they are good for critiquing in terms of my performance, technique, and other finer points. But I really don't see any other purpose for magic than that. If you're just going to use your webcam to shoot a heavy metal music video with a poorly executed Cutting The Aces effect, the fact of the matter is that magic just isn't for you. You clearly have no interest in performing.

Extreme Card Manipulation... Why?

The Asian cardist emerges from the dark corners of the local magic shop, arms spinning like propellors. The light hits him. He's flipping, spinning, cutting, and puree-ing cards like no tomorrow. Dramatically, he announces "I'VE GOT IT! I CAN FINALLY DO SICK AND TWISTED WINGS OF THE MOCKINGBIRD!"

What and WhatWhat of the What?

Extreme Card Manipulation. A genre of magic. But I ask... why? How does XCM in any way relate to magic? I don't get it personally. I'm always seeing DVDs and such being released, with equal balances of card magic and these extreme card flourishes. There's a lot I feel is wrong with this.

Firstly, what do XCM (X-treme Card Manipulation) and card magic have to do with each other? They only have one thing in common... they both use cards. Big whoop. If that's the only thing they have in common, they shouldn't be a combined art. It's as simple as that.

And these people who, in the middle of doing a card effect, execute this drawn-out 14-packet XCM cut, what the hell are you thinking? XCM, whether or not you believe it, is BORING after about 3 seconds. So why do these huge cuts that take 30 seconds to perform in the middle of a card effect? There's so much wrong with this.

For instance, pacing. In wasting time with your cut that only you really care about, you've broken the timing of your routine. I know, personally, if someone were to do a card effect on me and waste 30 seconds in the middle of it trying to impress me with how many packets he can hold between his fingers, I'd yawn and lose interest pretty quickly.

Don't get me wrong... Extreme Card Manipulation is a respectable art. It clearly takes extreme amounts of practice and dedication and it clearly isn't close to being easy. But why combine it with magic? It's like putting icing on a cake that already tastes good enough on its own... and the icing is so cheap and sugary that it ruins the whole cake. It doesn't taste horrible, but it doesn't taste great either.

Some of the world's most successful card magicians are so successful because they DON'T exhibit fancy cuts, shuffles, etc. They are useless eye candy in the long run and, truth be told, nobody really cares. But more important, consider this logic... If you can do this fancy cut with the cards, then you must be capable of amazing sleight of hand technical wonders too in the spectator's eyes. The successful guys, Paul Vigil and Lennart Green immediately come to mind, are so succcessful with their card magic because they don't do ANYTHING fancy. In fact, Lennart Green deliberately handles the deck overtly in a novice way, to discourage the thought that he has incredible, devastating skills.

This doesn't mean your card magic can't have flourish to it... some small, neat, nice in-the-hands cuts and shuffles are great. They're small, cozy, are over in barely a few seconds. They do maintain interest and don't really raise suspicion. It's when packets of card are being tucked under your chin that the problem arises.

Want to be a card magician? Be a card magician. Want to be an XCM artist? Go for it. Just, please, keep them seperate.

Breaking The Cliches

How many times have we watched a Cups and Balls routine that DIDN'T begin with the magician stating "This is the oldest trick in magic"?

I can only think of one routine I've personally seen (granted I haven't seen every routine in existence) that DIDN'T include such a line. Yes, it's an interesting line... it gives the trick a bare significance, at least historically, that in theory raises interest. I'm guilty of using the line myself. But I stopped... as soon as I really started to see just how many magicians use it. It's tiresome. Imagine the spectator who sees a lot of magic... don't you think they'll notice and grow tired of the same old Cups and Balls lines?

Magic is riddled with cliches... whether in stock lines, routining, or even persona. I've been considered, in some regards a performer very much like Jay Sankey... while I personally don't see this in my work, Sankey WAS a large influence on my earliest years of studying magic, so perhaps he rubbed off a bit onto me. Aside from that, I've tried to break free of magic cliches, to some degree.

Some magicians tried too hard to break free of cliches. Results are, bluntly put, disastrous. Consider Criss Angel. He tried to push what David Blaine sort of pioneered to the extreme and the results were far from spectacular.

We can't be pushing ourselves too far off track here... don't become the extreme opposite of the cliched magician or performer, just try to raise yourself above what's considered standard. If you follow the magical standards, you become just like every other magician... nothing makes you stand out. If that's how you wish to conduct yourself as a performer, that's fine. But in terms of success, I can't think of anybody who wouldn't want to stand out.

The next time I see a magician with a top hat on, I'll shoot myself. I'd rather not see magicians fulfill the public's hokey perspective of our art. People that dress in capes and perform with Change Bags and Mirror Boxes are exact examples of what makes the public look down on magic as though it's the silliest waste of time.

If you have such a hard time being different, unique, creative, you're simply in the wrong artform. Magic's about doing the impossible... so how hard could it possibly be to be unique?

So, to the standard magi out there... burn your top hats, set your rabbits free into the wild, and trade in your Change Bag for a prop that's YOU. Choose your work according to who you are, what your performing persona is. And if you're going to do the same stuff as everybody else, please, for the love of God... do it differently.

The Internet Magic Forum

Okay, somebody had to point out the big green elephant in the room... What's the deal with magic forums? Who's bright idea was it to create an online community for magicians, when the LAST thing we need is an online community?

But why, you may ask, are magic forums such a bad thing? They are a place to get advice, aren't they? They are a place to discuss and debate topics in the art of magic, aren't they?

Yes, and that's what's wrong with it. Why the hell am I going to accept performing advice from a forum magician? Do you actually think the fact that he's logged in 8 hours a day dishing out advice means he has experience? The fact that people accept this advice as though it is credible appalls me.

Yes, magic forums connect us, and yes, they are a good way of sharing experiences and becoming somewhat of a distanced community. But if you actually think you're getting totally credible advice from magic forums, you are mistaken. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of forum go-ers that CAN give legitimately worthwhile advice... these magicians usually have a bounty of years of experience under their belts, and now take it easy in their magical retirement and help the young and less experienced magicians of the world. But let me ask you a question: How do you seperate the men from the boys here? How can you TELL who has said experience, or who can't practice what they preach? How much do you want to bet that half of these advice-givers are sitting at their computer with a worn copy of Strong Magic, typing advice directly out of the pages? Or giving their own crackpot advice?

Every minute you spend on a magic forum is a minute you spend NOT getting experience and NOT learning. I can compare this to playing a Soccer Video Game... you're not actually playing soccer! But it sure feels like it doesn't it? People play a racing video game, think it makes them experts at driving, then can't park a car to save their lives. Same deal.

To whoever pioneered the magic forum... shame on you. You've given an alcoholic a six-pack of Heineken. Nobody really needs it, but if they've got it, they'll use and abuse it. They'll drink and drink and eventually think they're capable of jumping off a 5 story building.

Well guess what? Splat.

The Epidemic of Beginner Ignorance

"You remember that trick you did before? By Sam Finch?"

This was the question. An aspiring magician, fresh into his journey to greatness, asked me something that baffled me. Who the hell is Sam Finch?

"Umm, what was the effect?"

That was my reply... hopefully his response would help narrow it down.

"Well, I named any card, you tossed the Ace of Spades high into the air and caught it in the center of the deck... and it turned out to be right next to my card."

Now I knew what he was talking about. The Robin Hood Card. By STEPHEN MINCH.

This wasn't a fist-time occurance either. I'm too often riddled with odd questions and remarks about "The Elmer Count" and "The Shizbo Vanish", having no idea what they are talking about. How on earth do these people live their lives? How did they get through school? How difficult is it, with an arsenal of 2 basic magic effects, to remember the appropriate names of the moves and effects, as well as the creators they study?

New magicians know of Frank Everhart's Chicago Opener by the name of "The World's Greatest Card Trick". They perform Triumph routines, thinking they are called "Renegade". Where these names come from, I shudder to think.

You may accuse me of nit-picking... but I'm really trying to embody a bigger picture here. Beginners are working with mis-information (usually from the internet) and it's our job as more experienced performers to push them in the right direction.

The bottom line is, if you know of new (or even old) magicians that make common ignorant mistakes, don't grin and accept it, HELP THEM. Don't be afraid of sounding "holier than thou", it's your job to guide and educate. These people are the future of magic once the rest of the Marlos and Vernons vanish, so we might as well get them started in the best way possible. Have them already beginning toward a road of greatness. They'll be plenty of steps ahead of the ill-informed. An example of this would be my good friend in magic, Reuben, who I met in my first year of high school. He had begun to study magic over the prior summer and was very much the kind of person I describe in this article. He's an exceptional magician and performer now, and he has often said to me that, if it hadn't been for me pushing him away from the crap he'd led himself to and pointed him toward worthwhile resources, he probably wouldn't be in magic still. There you have it.

Stop this epidemic. Educate a magic neanderthal today.