Discourse in Magic

Our guest this week came across our Instagram feed and we knew we had to have him on the podcast.  His work as a cardist is truly awe-inspiring.  John first got into magic after his family got him a magic kit when he was 8 years old.  He learned the boomerang card throw at age eleven and from that point on cardistry became his obsession.  Finding tricks was difficult as he fell into the generation where magic stores started to close but online stores were not yet common.  That forced him to develop his own magic and his own style. There is a debate in the community about whether being skillful with cards takes away from the magic.  John disagrees with that assessment.  He feels strongly that card flourishes adds a lot of value to his magical performances.  He understands the old thinking which states that being obviously skillful with the cards detracts from their magical quality.  Nevertheless, modern audiences already know that a magician is going to be good with a deck of cards. We are in this golden age of cardistry with incredible content being posted online.  Magic is all about creating a series of moments to achieve an incredible experience for the audience.  You have to think about how all those moments add-up to a great show.  Being creative in magic is all about thinking of the final trick and then developing the show backwards from there.  When it comes to cardistry, his inspiration comes from allowing the cards dance themselves.  What do the cards want to do?  Once he figures that out he starts to develop his moves. Then we asked him about releasing what he does. Specifically why he charges to release magic tricks, but not cardistry moves? He feels that charging for cardistry doesn’t feel right because so many of his moves were developed from others.  But John does charge for magic.  He does that because of the differences in the communities.  Caridstry has a culture of sharing which is much different than the magic community.  He also charges for his magic tricks because of the level of work that he puts into developing his magic as opposed to his card moves. The John Stessel Instagram presence is incredible. Tyler and Jonah are baffled about how he achieves his shots.  John says that his DSLR mount is his greatest secret and he is not going to reveal it to anyone.  But beyond the shots John has focussed on creating a great brand.  He created some videos with a full film crew.  They were super high-quality but they did 20-30% less in views than his stupid little personal videos.  He realized his audience loved the personal content.  So, he decided to focus much more on that kind of content. He feels strongly that building an online brand is critical to young magician’s careers.  He got more people stopping him on the street after appearing o What do you want to ask the audience? Can you describe the kind of brand can you build around yourself? What do you want to tell the audience? Ignore everyone’s opinions and work hard! Who should we invite onto the podcast? Frank Sung B Smith What did you like about the episode? Tyler liked hearing about John’s process for developing new material. Jonah really loved hearing about how John developed his online brand. John wanted to reemphasize that everything he does is intentional What do you want to plug? https://www.instagram.com/johnstessel/ The post Cardistry, Magic, and Getting Noticed with John Stessel appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Welcome everyone to Episode 92 – our first episode of 2018! We both had a good New Year’s Eve. We relaxed with friends, some hors d’oeuvres and champagne. Last New Year’s we challenged ourselves to come up with some magical resolutions. Jonah resolved to work more on scripting his magic performances in 2017 – something he managed to achieve. Tyler, meanwhile, can’t remember what his resolution was. Though, he may have promised himself that he was going to perform more. This year Jonah resolved to perform at least one show that he is truly happy with. When he performs now he is usually only happy with 60% of the show. Tyler agrees with that assessment. When he walks off stage he is rarely happy with his performance. In that vein Tyler resolved to create a one hour show in 2018. He wants to craft something that his scripted and story-boarded. Tyler thinks a year should be more than enough time to accomplish that. Recently Jonah had some listeners introduce themselves as “those old magicians you make fun of on the podcast.” Jonah wants to clarify that your age has nothing to do with their criticisms. Specifically, we don’t like it when people think that magic is a private social club and not an art form to be shared. Please don’t accuse us of being ageist! 2017 also marked a big milestone for us. Earlier in the year we tried to start the #DiscourseAt1000 hashtag which almost nobody used but us. Nevertheless, we managed to cross the 1000 followers mark on Instagram this year! Now we’re just hoping for the swipe up to listen to the episode function on Instagram. Next up: 10,000 followers! Five years ago Jonah wrote down a list of questions about the philosophy and practice of magic. On the last solo episode we talked about the first half of the list. Today we tackle the rest of the list. First off young Jonah asked himself the following: Does making a plot or purpose to magic add value to the effect or distract from the effect? Why would one happen and not the other? Tyler answers this by saying that the key is about the magicians intent. If you’re setting out to baffle your audience than a bare bones effect is the best way to accomplish that. But if you want to hit the audience on a more emotional level than a grand story might work better. Jonah agrees with that answer. Though, it might be more difficult to do magic without a big presentation. The next question asked: Are all impossible things equally impossible? Why are some more than others? Tyler answered quickly that all impossible things are equally impossible by definition. The amount of difficulty required in the audience members head is what’s important. Jonah thinks that there are levels of impossible. It’s more impossible to disappear a car then a coin. Tyler thinks that’s a logical impossibility. Next up: Does the audience’s prediction of the magical result before verifying it strengthen the effect or weaken it? Is surprising them a good idea? Tyler thinks that a surprise ending still has to make sense inside the logic of the story your trying to tell. Sometimes you want the audience to follow along the whole time. But there are other times when you want to throw a twist that the audience didn’t see coming. Jonah says that his favourite thing in magic is when the audience realizes whats about to happen moments before it occurs. Finally young Jonah asks: What is the claim of the magician? Are we claiming to have powers or just the ability to fool you? Tyler thinks that’s it’s often unclear about claims a magician is making. There isn’t always a claim being made. In his own magic he always makes it clear that magic isn’t real. Jonah says that he wants the audience to know that it’s not real but he wants it to feel real. He will use props like potions on stage to get the crowd into the illusion. He likes to find a way to show that the trick isn’t real without saying that it isn’t real. We have some big plans for 2018 including more big guests and some Discourse branded products. Thank you so much for being with us over the last year. The post New Year, New Magic appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Felix Bodden has appeared on Fool Us and has created a really popular Instagram feed.  He first became interested in magic when he was eight years old in 2001 – the same year that the first Harry Potter movie came out.  But Felix became frustrated when he realized there was no such thing as real magic.  His Mom took pity on him and bought Felix his first magic kit.  When you’re a kid everything is magical. Felix has been one of the main proponents of the #Ihatecameratricks hashtag on Instagram.  He thinks there is a real problem of people using CGI effects and edits in online videos.  It’s hurting magic.  Posting illusions that are totally impossible to achieve in real life makes it very difficult for real magicians.  The hashtag is intended to let viewers know that the effects they are watching were not created using camera edits or animation. Felix started using Instagram in 2013 when the magic community on that platform was really small.  He got a lot of positive feedback from people like Jeremy Griffith which encouraged him to continue.  He likes to use Instagram as a catalogue of his tricks.  It helps him to visualize the material he has produced. After years in magic it’s hard to be fooled.  That true even with the huge influx of new magic on Instagram.  Felix searches hard for new tricks that stump him.  That recently occurred when he was given a sneak peek at a new card trick that left him baffled.  Felix believes that magic occurs when there is a real connection with the audience. There is a lot of debate right now about whether or not revealing secrets online is good or bad for the magical community.  Felix thinks there are good and bad things about that practice.  He says that revealing methods takes away from the awe of popular tricks.  That said, he likes when secrets are revealed in a tutorial, where the history of the trick is discussed along with the secret.  If you’re going to do it – do it right. Many of the people performing magic on social media are doing it wrong, in Felix’s opinion.  People look unprofessional with long or dirty nails, bad clothes and a lack of charisma.  But beyond appearance and comportment, people are making technical mistakes too.  Using unlicensed music that will get your video pulled or not incorporating real people are rookie mistakes. Felix recently appeared on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us and really enjoyed himself.  From the production crew to Penn and Teller themselves, everyone treated him with a lot of kindness.  The reaction to the piece that he performed was really positive.  He focussed more on the presentation that the trick itself.  Felix wanted to make sure that he overcame the language barrier.  But he made a small mistake while on stage but he was still quite happy with how it came out.  His purpose was not fool them.  It was to reach as wild an audience as possible. Felix lives and works in the Dominican Republic which, he says, is a difficult place to access good magic.  There are maybe ten good magicians in the whole country.  There are no magic shops and there is no way to learn magic without the internet.  Adding to the problem is the fact that the Dominican Republic is very religious.  And that sometimes means many people confuse magic with Satanism. What question do you want to ask our audience? Why is visual magic so important right now? What do you want to tell our audience? Just be happy.  If you don’t love what you are doing than you’re wasting your time. What was your favourite part of the episode? Jonah liked hearing about Felix using Instagram to document his own work for his own use. Tyler loved Felix’s introduction to magic story as a young kid who first saw Harry Potter. Felix really enjoyed meeting Jonah and Tyler Who should we have on the show next? Shin Lim What do you want to plug? Instagram Cortana trick In a flash The post Inner Secrets of Instagram Magic with Felix Bodden appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

We’ve been trying to get Tony Chang on the podcast for a long time and it’s finally happened!  Jonah and Tony spent some time together and NYC recently.  But this is the first time we have had the chance to talk to him about his history.  Tony first fell in love with magic when he saw a clown magician as a kid.  He got curious and he went to the public library in Idaho, where he grew up, and found some books.  They were incredibly discouraging.  So he turned to some magic rooms on IRC in the early days of the internet.  He ordered a Hank Lee book and read it repeatedly.  His goal with magic is to create something incredible with imperfect means.  You can create an illusion using blunt mechanics to achieve something impossible. Tony has always worked at his magic to make it look perfect.  He once spent nine months trying to figure out the push-off double lift.  But he thinks that too many people work on improving on a popular move.  That is far to limiting.  You should always look at moves to learn the maneuver – so you know it’s possible.  That’s the only thing you should be learning from someone else. There was a point in Tony’s career when he would try to change a trick.  Trying to brute-force his way to a trick.  He had a very engineering perspective on learning new moves.  Now, he tries to focus on coming up with a unique approach to his tricks.  Achieving a really surreal effect is much more interesting to him. There is a huge glut of new magic on the market.  It’s really difficult to wade through the garbage.  But Tony says you learn more about magic by picking out what is wrong.  And it’s also about being a worker.  You always want to be a student and you always want to keep working.  That may be why magicians are so gullible for the latest and greatest trick. Tony work’s as an editor of TV commercials and he thinks that job and magic have a lot in common.  In ads you have to tell a story in 15 or 30 seconds.  It relies on editing to achieve its effect. What question do you want to ask our audience? Why are there so many versions of the double-lift? Who should we invite on the podcast? Noel Stanko What do you want to tell our audience? Stop learning magic by buying the latest trick.  Think about your magic seriously. What was your favourite part of the episode? Jonah liked the emphasis on making a trick as simple as possible. Tyler enjoyed hearing that Tony started by learning to palm because he didn’t know it was hard. Tony re-emphasized that it’s really important to continue learning. Plugs Be Kind Change with Theory 11 Cherry Control with Ricky Smith The post Making Good Magic Great with Tony Chang appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Geraint Clark runs one of the most popular magic blogs on the web and we’re super excited to have him on the show this week.  His entrée into the magical was a unique one.  He was early for a job interview one day and wandered into a local bookshop.  The night before he had watched the British magician Dynamo on TV.  It just so happened that Nicholas Einhorn’s book The Practical Encyclopedia of Magic was being sold at the shop for a mere $8.  He bought it and learned an easy trick which he parlayed into impressing the boss at the job interview. Geraint completed a multimedia degree at University and learned the basics of web design and Photoshop.  He landed a job as  a marketer but continued doing magic at night.  Then he started doing some residencies and weddings but eventually grew to hate those kinds of gigs.  Chasing payments and working as a glorified babysitter soured him on that kind of magic.  Eventually, his work gravitated online and he started developing marketing plans and illusions for magicians. Geraint’s advice for a magician who wants to begin to sell illusions depends on what you want to accomplish.  Some people just want to make as much as possible.  But others want to be known and respected for creating quality magic.  Networking with the magic community to create something of value is hugely important.  But, he advises that once you conceive of a trick you should sit on it for a while.  Geraint has created tricks that he perfected over years before bringing to market. Geraint thinks that there is a problem with the flood of magic on the market.  You have to test these illusions in front of a real audience.  A lot of people damage their reputations by rushing a product out that isn’t ready.  People tend to get into magic they become obsessed with it and buy everything they can.  But as they get older they become much more discerning.  If you want to create a best-seller work out all the kinks for a long time before trying to sell it. What was your favourite part of the episode? Jonah liked hearing about the finer details about how something gets accepted on illusionist. Tyler loved the words of encouragement for young people to start performing the magic they know.  Don’t worry about buying the latest new thing Geraint liked hearing the Jonah and Tyler are putting value into their audience before they try and monetize the podcast. Who should be have on the podcast? Lloyd Barnes Gary Jones What do you want to ask our audience? Can you name your five core values? What do you want to tell our audience? Stop performing Omnideck.  The deck does not vanish! Plugs Instagram Blog The post What Makes a Great Magic Product with Geraint Clarke appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

We are long overdue for a catch-up episode!  Tyler has been jamming a lot by himself over the last two months.  His landlord has been giving him nothing but grief and that’s been taking away from his magical mind.   He successfully performed at the Fern Resort and has continues to collect a Noah’s Ark of pets.  Jonah, meanwhile, has been getting a lot of shows for the Christmas season.  He is going to be doing several table shows, which he always enjoys.  Toronto Magic Company continues apace.  That has allowed Jonah to workshop several new effects.  He loves performing and has loved the recent episodes of the podcast, especially the Xavior Spade and Garrett Thomas episodes. Recently we asked our listeners to submit questions for us to answer.  One person asked us: Can magic exist without sleight-of-hand?  Tyler answered emphatically  ‘yes’ because not all tricks require sleights.  Jonah agreed with that answer.  It’s a reminder that there are many methods including mathematical and psychological.  If you’re struggling with technical moves you should remember that there are many other things you can pursue. We had another question from Joel Greenwich who recently released Catalyst, an amazing card colour change.  Joel asked: If magic is an art form and art is intended to inspire and challenge, what does magic challenge the audience to do?  We loved this question.  Tyler thinks that the focus of magic is to make people questions things.  What you want the audience to question is up to you.  Magic is a subjective thing and you can make people question whatever you want.  Jonah thinks that art is meant to make you reflect on the world.  It should affect the way the audience thinks about the world. About five years ago Jonah created a list of questions about magic that were puzzling him.  The first, in a rather lengthy list, was the following:  What is the base requirement to make and effect magical?  Jonah and Tyler struggled to come up with a proper formula for this.  Tyler thinks the audience should have an understanding of what should happen but the proof will be the opposite.  Jonah think it has to do with the confidence in the improbability.  It has to be impossible or highly improbable. The next questions Jonah asked himself all those years ago goes like this:  If everyone knows that it’s the magician causing the magic, is the magician restricted to openly saying he is the puppet master?  Why would people think otherwise?  Jonah and Tyler think the magician has to be the person responsible for the effect.  You can’t fool an audience into thinking this is just happening outside of the magician’s control. Next Jonah asks this question:  If everyone knows that the magician is causing the magic than why should people not feel deceived?  Tyler thinks that people can feel deceived but will not necessarily be made to feel stupid.  If the magician does it right they should feel enlightened and entertained not humiliated and deceived.  Jonah still struggles with this question.  He worries that there is always something inherently deceptive in magic.  It’s really hard to not make people feel stupid. Finally, young Jonah wanted an answer to the following: How is a magician different than a programmer?  Both are doing something that would have been impossible otherwise.  Tyler thinks that they aren’t different.  Both have structure and rules that are pliable.  The general public doesn’t understand it but they accept it.  Jonah thinks that a programmer isn’t trying to deceive.  The magician is intentionally trying to bewilder the audience. We love getting your questions so keep them coming for future episodes!   The post Questions for Your Magic Mind appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Sean O is a master of cardistry and has achieved a lot at a very young age.  Sean is only twenty years old but has been honing his skills since he was in grade school. He did his first paying gig was when he was nine.  He first saw card magic when he was given The Trilogy by Dan and Dave.   He would also watch XCM battles and was obsessed with it.  Both of Sean’s parents worked in IT and he had many computers in his house growing up.  He has combined his interest in the web and magic from the very beginning. Finding a community online was critical to his early development.  But Sean has started to use the medium to further the live performance element of his career.  Sean recently did a live stream on Facebook where he taught his girlfriend the moves to one of his card tricks.  There is often a lot of judgement about magic tricks and a lot of secrecy in the community.  Sean thinks that the cardistry community is much more open to sharing. There are some people that sell cardistry moves and that has fueled a lively debate in the community.  Should moves be sold?  Sean doesn’t have a problem with it.  It takes a long time to perfect a card move.  It has value and it is completely justified to attach a price tag to that.  We are never going to run out of new and interesting content.  Originality prevails in cardistry – much more than in the general magic community.  There are some moves that have taken a person’s career from 0 to 100 really quickly.  Finding original moves is not easy but those that do will find success. When Sean performs live he doesn’t just perform cardistry for lay people.  But Sean thinks given time cardistry has the potential to become a potent live performance.  It’s incredible that someone could win a major TV talent show using a trick that is 200 years old.  There is a bit of a learning curve with audiences who tend to conflate magic and cardistry.  Anthony Whitford is a close friend of Sean’s.  He has a routine where he explains the entire history of the medium in a highly entertaining routine. Sean loves making things that can make someone think and feel something simultaneously.  It’s that reason that he has gravitated towards Instagram.  A two dimensional image can evoke a visceral emotional reaction and that makes it a perfect pairing with cardistry.  Instagram also allows for the creation of incredible communities by simply using the hashtag. There is, unfortunately, a divide between the magic and cardistry communities.  But Sean says everyone should have a much more open mind.  The division is meaningless.  He can help but lose respect for anyone that dismisses the entire art form.  It’s a community that is going to grow regardless of what Jay Sankey says about it. Sean thinks that cardistry is a culture.  It affects the way you live your life and the way you carry yourself.  It’s a form of pop culture that is participatory – not just something you consume. What did you learn from the episode? Tyler was surprised to learn just how important it is to find your identity online. Jonah liked chatting about the importance of creating great content and sharing that with others. Sean agrees that the need for identity has been hugely aided by the rise of social media. Who should we have next on the podcast? Patrick Varnavas Chase Duncan What do you want to tell our audience? It all boils down to having fun.  It’s all about entertaining yourself and others! What do you want to ask our audience? What is a different way to use social media to open up a new set of opportunities for yourself? Plugs Instagram Facebook Modus Operandi The post Instagram and the Cardistry Subculture with Sean O appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Xavior Spade is making waves as one of the highest profile YouTube magicians.  He is using live streaming to connect with an every-growing audience.  Xavior found magic as a young person while growing up in Jamaica, Queens in New York City.  But it was magic that helped him to escape the ghetto.  It was incredible eye-opening experience to be treated as an equal in the magic community.  Eventually, Xavior gravitated to new platforms like Twitch and Discord as a gamer.  Some magic discussions took place on those video streaming services and eventually ended up on YouTube. Xavior thinks that just being yourself on YouTube is the best way to gain a following. He makes sure that his channel is not just for tutorials.  He likes to add vlogs and interviews to make the content more diverse.  He thinks that it’s often hard to not feel stupid while recording himself alone.  But to do this you have to get used to being on camera. The hardest part about being in front of the camera is realizing there’s no judgement.  But you don’t have to put on a grand persona on camera.  In fact, if you do that you are going to come off fake.  Editing is your best friend.  The flow of the video is as important as the flow of a show.  The music, lighting and editing all create the effect.  So he always starts by finding the right piece of music and editing to that.  It’s all about creating the right tempo. Magic has the potential to change people’s lives.  Xavior was profoundly moved recently when a fan of his YouTube channel was helped during a rough patch in his life.  That fan drove seven hours to one of Xavior’s lectures to personally thank him for helping him to turn his life around.  You have to care about what you share and that in turn will do incredible things. Xavior thinks the anti-technology bias in the magic community is ridiculous.  But people who think that you aren’t a real magician unless you perform for a live audience are dead wrong in his opinion.  Technology has always been a part of magic and the old guard who refuse to acknowledge that are living in the past.  Some magic deserves to die, Xavior says. Xavior has a lot of success with his business Lost Art Magic.  That said, he thinks the magic industry is, for the most part, a road to nowhere.  There are many people that are trying to start their own magic company but it’s a dangerous idea.  Creating a business is predicated on profit and that demands a certain kind of exploitation.  You have to create a different kind of brand.  It’s not just about chasing sales.  Most people simply don’t understand how important it is to create a great brand.  Strong beliefs and strong ideas are far more important that a great business plan. What was your favourite part of the episode? Jonah loved the discussion about the state of magic online, especially on platforms like YouTube. Tyler liked that this was the first time that we got some tangible YouTube advice – especially Xavior’s admission that it’s hard to get comfortable on camera. Xavior is very passionate about the topic of online magic and loves the opportunity to talk about it. Who should we have on the show? Allen Okawa Xavior’s Challenge. Xavior says that if this episode gets over 3000 downloads he will make everything on Lost Art Magic free for one day. What do you want to ask the audience? Why do you love magic? Plugs https://www.instagram.com/xaviorspade/?hl=en https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Aaysw0-njB9xH8uvNFvvg Lost Art Magic The post Modern Magic and Why it Lives Online with Xavior Spade appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

Garrett Thomas is an incredible magician, an opinion that was confirmed recently when Jonah saw him perform at the Buffalo 52 magic convention.  Garrett first fell in love with magic because of his father.  His dad was a huge fan of magic and was friends with the bar magician Eddie Fechter. Who had a brilliant way of teaching people.  Fechter taught Garret’s dad a few tricks which were then passed on to young Garrett.  That instilled an obsession in him at a very young age.  His family has a history of addiction and Garrett feels that he funneled that addictive personality into magic. Garrett believes magic is the act of shifting a paradigm.  The magic marker got its name because it allowed people to apply ink to materials like glass and metal that wasn’t possible before.  It was like magic.  There is a famous Asimov line that any science sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.  Garrett thinks that’s backwards.  Magic is any advanced skill.  We are all magicians today with our ability to read and write along with a million other modern advancements.  But because those skills are so common place they have lost their magic. Anything that isn’t done for survival or procreation is an act of art, according to Garrett.  Using that definition reveals that magic is obviously an art.  The real question is whether art is an art worth promoting.  Garrett doesn’t have an answer for that.  Because there is a big overlap between magicians and charlatans and common.  These are people that take from society rather than give back.  When you use magic as an abstract performance art it’s wonderful. But when you use it to deceive people that’s no longer the case. Magic is not the act of fooling someone.  It’s the art of astonishment.  Those are two different things, Garrett says.  And he argues that as show like Penn and Teller’s Fool Us puts the focus on the wrong thing.  It’s not about fooling someone.  It’s about allowing people to enjoy something that isn’t real.  Garrett calls it abstract performance art.  He thinks magic is advanced empathy.  A magician understands that the whole performance takes place on the audience’s mind.  You have to appreciate the entire canvas. Garrett believes that the future of magical performance is all about being yourself.  Copperfield and Chris Angel are playing characters.  David Blaine is the first major performer to be himself.  In an age where fake realties are everywhere because of technology, authentic reality is going to be increasingly in demand. What did you like about the episode? Jonah really likes Garrett’s emphasis on magic as the central part of any performance before adding things like comedy or music. Tyler liked Garrett sharing that his dyslexia being a central part of his creative life. Garrett says that combining art forms can be tricky.  But people don’t usually have ability to multitask.  You have to have a cadence to switch between magic and comedy. What do you want to tell our audience? Own it.  Whatever your definition of magic is you have to own it. What do you want to ask our audience? What is your definition of magic? Who should we invite on to the show? Tyler Erickson Plugs Garrett is a columnist at Real Magic Magazine. Much of his products are produced by Cosmo Magic The post Understanding Magic with Garrett Thomas appeared first on Discourse in Magic.

We first came across Allan Hagen on Instagram, which has become a gold mine for finding new magical talent.  Allan grew up in Norway which didn’t have much of a magic community.  At 9 years of age he found a Norwegian language card magic book.  After learning English he discovered magic websites in the early 2000’s and his learning took off. Allan primarily works in card magic.  He quickly came to understand that cards are just 52 pieces of paper and have to imbued with meaning by the people using them.  He thinks of a deck of cards as being full of limitless possibility. He says that young magicians should start out by learning from the masters.  It would be foolish to ignore the classics.  Work your way through Card College by Roberto Giobbi.  There is enough knowledge there to last a lifetime.  Eventually you will discover two or three pieces that resonate with you.  That will then help you discover what your strengths are. In order to make your magic resonate you have to make some decisions.  What is the plot going to be?  Are you going to connect the trick to something in your life?  For example, a disappearing card trick could tie into a story of you returning home.  Magic has to mean something and it can be transformative without being pretentious. Allen believes that the magic shouldn’t detract from the performance but conversely, the performance shouldn’t detract from the magic.  There has to be a balance.  Some pieces can be very story heavy while others can be very magic heavy.  Sometimes a great trick is just a great trick.  But also the story itself can be a trick.  Allen points to Derek DelGaudio’s blockbuster show on Broadway as being a great example of this.  It’s not exactly a magic show but it is magical. If you have an extremely strong calling or you feel compelled to create something Allan says you have to listen to that calling.  No matter what you are doing, whether trying to appeal to the masses or a niche audience you have to be happy with what you are creating.  Allan’s best piece advice for new performers is to be authentic on stage.  Find commonalities with your audience and connect with them on a human level. So how do you know what good magic is?  Allan thinks it really is a matter of taste and is pretty subjective.  Nevertheless, he has a few rules of thumb.  Is the magic deceptive?  That is to say does your trick fool the audience?  If the audience isn’t talking about the trick the next day at breakfast the trick has failed.  Make sure that your magic airtight.  The other questions to ask yourself is whether your trick is entertaining or not.  It takes practice and experience to know whether an audience is enjoying something or not.  Allan knows that when he is working on new material it’s going to be terrible at first.  Every piece takes a while to get the wrinkles ironed out. Allan has a very specific idea about how to practice magic.  Practice is a very original thing.  You have to find a regimen that’s right for you.  How you practice is as much as how much you practice. If you want to read about it you can check out his blog post here. Allan likes to practice late at night with no distractions.  He reads through everything to get an overview of how it should work – usually with cards in hand.  He then refines the trick and tried to shape it to his own style.  Finger placement and angles are usually worked out in this phase.  Then he tried to improve the trick through repetition.  Don’t do those sleights a thousand times in a row.  That’s going to be counterproductive.  You should cycle through multiple sleights rather than just one.  Then you should let the sleight rest for a day.  Let your mind catch-up with the trick.  This is how you program your muscle memory.  Then you have to rehearse the sleight, perform it and then refine it after each performance. The better a magician gets, the more you will be able to more judiciously pick the kind of audience you want to perform for.   What do you want to tell the audience? Magic, genuinely, has the power to change people’s live. What do you want to ask the audience? After, you perform for someone what would you want that person to remember about you a year later? Plugs Allan Hagen has been working a two phase poker system. He has a book called Serendipity about informal card magic. Allanhagen.com Instagram   The post Presentation, Effect Selection, and How to Practice with Allan Hagen appeared first on Discourse in Magic.