Nothing ventured...

I was looking thru my link tracker for my website and came across an old post on a forum about razor blades (I have a book and DVD about it remember?). On there someone had talked about performing the effect at school and this was someone's response: "Why would you be performing this at school? You could get caught with razors and be either suspended or worse expelled."

Let me tell you why young puritan soul. It's because taking chances is what makes you evolve!

If you don't push your boundaries and find out what you can get away with you will never discover what might lie beyond your safe little walls you hide yourself in. To create art you have to challenge the world and yourself. Do things that scare you and maybe other people. You have to step outside your comfort zone to see what's out there. Don't worry tho'...

You can always come back.

Band together....

I started doing magic in bars and live music venues when I was 16. It's a whole different world. One that you need to be at the very least interesting to keep their attention.

All of that aside, the music scene, like most of the live entertainment world, has rules. The funny thing is these rules can apply to a lot of things, but magic is at the top of that list.

Read On.

Ruminate upon this...

Turd on a wire...

For those of you who may not know about it, T11 has an area called "The Wire". It's a place to upload your creations (after they are quality checked which is good) and sell for a bit of cash. About a month ago I put an effect on there as an experiment. I can say it's not going to make you rich but it's nice to make a small bit of cash while doing nothing.

Regardless, while on their forum I saw someone post this nugget of info, "all my trick will go for 0.99cause that how much i will pay for a trick". That, ladies and gentlemen, is the mindset of the current generation.

In a previous post I mused about how this kind of direct access and saturation would drive the value and price of magic down while increasing the demand for unpublished material.

I'm not going to say I told you so but...

Quick like a bunny!!

The first person to film themselves doing 6 card repeat for a REAL audience and ending it with the line, "And that's 1, 2,3,4,5,6 minutes of your life you'll never get back" will get free stuff from me.

Here's a watermelon and a gun GO GO!!

Twats...

Something I saw on my twitter. It reminded me of EVERY magic forum I have been on.

"REMINDER: If you're about to tell someone why you don't like something they made and aren't going to buy it, stop. They DO NOT CARE."

Some settling may occur...

The straightest path between two points is a straight line... but damn that straight line can be boring. Sometimes you want to take the scenic route.

I have been working on a good way to switch a folded card for a while now. The methods ranged from so very simple to the overly complicated. Each had their problems as I had a list of parameters I needed to meet. (There is a big difference between clever and practical)

This is one of the keys to creativity: Getting what you want.

When you are working on a routine or creating something new there will be people who say "Why not just do it this way or that". These suggestions might make sense but do not fulfill the requirements you have in mind. It's your magic, therefore it needs to make you happy (as well as the people watching too). There is always an answer, however you sometimes have to just go with what works so you can get the routine out there and eventually the answer will present itself.

So my advice to you is the next time you are trying to create something make a list (mental or physical) of the things you want to get out of it and that has to happen (end clean, certain card in this position, certain prop being in this pocket for later, etc) and make it so...

make it just so.