Sign here...

Still no winner on our contest yet, but you still have time. (Hell I lost a day somewhere. I thought it was Thursday. If I keep this up, you may have PLENTY of time.)

So... four years hunh? I think I am one of, if not the, oldest magic journal (I don't like the word blog. Hell even Blogger's spellchecker doesn't have blog in it's database. Go fig.) left since MCJ threw in the towel. He started a revolution I tells yah. We stepped forth from the green primordial ooze that is message boards and found a place where we can say what we want without the jeers of detractors and the cheers of sycophants.

With that in mind, here is another mind numbing line of thought by yours truly.

So I was sitting at Eric Buss' lecture the other day (Creativity and character. Good stuff.) and he talked about his "Signature Piece". In the past, many magicians have had a routine or two that was theirs and SOLELY theirs. I realized this was a common thing of well known magi early on and developed my infamous eyeball routine because of it. The likes of Jeff McBride and Rudy Coby showed me the light.

In today's world however, the stage is taking a beating and even a unique dove routine or card manip act can seem mundane as so much has come before it. Creativity and original material is the holy grail of magic, but yet so many... choose poorly. Even a guy producing CD's like doves seems commonplace in today's magical world.

I tend to find it's even worse in the close-up world. Too many people cull together three or four tricks that belong to others and call THAT their signature piece. Hell some even do someone else's trick verbatim and say that is what they are known for. Some might be content with that, but I say NAY!! Rise up against your former masters and find the stuff that's you.

I have had people read this thing and assume I might not like them cuz' they DO the stuff I bitch about. I don't judge anyone on what they do, it's who they are. So if yer a hobbyist who is trying to better yourself and maybe turn pro, congrats. It's a long hard road. If yer say... I dunno, I'll pull a name from the ether... mmmmyabe... John Lovick... well then you can eat a dick.

So go forth and look deep inside yourself. Be honest with who you are and what you do. Your strengths. Your weaknesses. It's an uphill battle all the way to stray from the heard.

And it's a long hard road to Taco Bell.

Bizzaro.