it should be understood i am not calling myself a master by any stretch..lol
but this artical is good as a goal to try and be one..........
any shmuck can get an amp a table and two generic tricks and clap and cheer an audience into paying a big hat.
believe me, i've done it many times.
it's even easier to just clone a show that works.
they can do this and call themselves a magician and if they make enough money the "magic community" will follow them around and honor them like lap dogs hoping for crumbs to fill their egos.
but this don't make it true.
the fact is.....it's difficult to be a real magician.
first off, you have to be one.
no really.
and being one has a whole lot more to do than just having chops. skills alone don't make a magician.
how are you gonna convince laymen your a magician if you don't believe it?
second, you have to just suck it up and embrace the fact that you are one.
and stop trying to be something you're not, to "please" the people around you.
you're not doing any one any favors.
third, you have to devote your life to it.
being a magician is a state of mind, life style, a practice, and a real person.
being a magician is a like a disease, the victim can't be anything else.
it literally consumes him.
i believe we were born this way.
i believe merlin was from the same stock as us.....only better.
ask yourself, if there was such a thing as a real magician, what would he do for a living?
what would he look like?
what and where would he eat?
how would he commute?
the fact is a magician is a wise man, worldly, theatrical, eccentric, with extensive knowledege of the sciences, the occult, spiritual, supernatural, and bizaar things.
he is a master of ESP and psycology. he can conjure with his hands and if he's any good no one will know this.
society relys on him to entertain, educate, give hope, and protect them from charlatains.
and to fill in many other holes that the modern world just can't fill.
being a magician is a lot bigger than all the things i've listed here, but i am limited in space and in time.
the point is, to try and master this takes commitment and disipline....even if you were born one.
any body can buy a gimmick, but in the hands of a magician it becomes real.
because to him it's not a sneaky trick to decieve people, it's an ancient real magic device to make stuff appear and vanish etc. it's a tool to make magic happen.
it's real.
an amatuer or a layman can't grasp this, they think magic is a trick and or superstition....they don't really understand that magic is a real thing.
whether it's trickery, illusion, or assumption, is irrelevant....we're talking about magic remember, not empirical science, different subject.
is a nightmare any less frightning, because it happened in a dream?
is a movie really not real...than what were you doing for two hours at that theater?
movies, books, and other art forms are real. they time travel and create real moments and dramatically change the world.
this is why real magicians are artists, - NOT craftsmen.
a carpenter can make a chair, but an artist creates one....this is harder.
....so, when your out there on the street representing us magicians remember this.
i know it's easier to just listen to those "get rich quick" buskers who call themselves craftsmen, who tell you to forget about magic.
they'll tell you to just clap and cheer them and stay focused on the money and treat it like a sales presentation.
they will tell you people like sheridan or cellini's style wont work now...but just remember sheridan and cellini and the many other masters could do it because they had talent and didn't need to rely on cheap gimmicks or extortion to make their living, they didn't have to.
their work spoke for itself and got the people to stop, stay, and pay.
there are plenty of performers doing creative quality shows out there right now, making a great living.....it's just harder that's all.
try and remember who we are and how we represent ourselves and our art.
don't sell out, show a little dignity.
after all the streets are an escape from conforming to the business machine....don't make them the same nightmare we ran away from in the first place.
