Have any advice?

[Guest]

Hello everyone,
I am a fifteen year old and I absolutely love the art of magic. I have been doing magic since I was five and have been doing small gigs for a couple of years. I would like to maybe preform some bigger illusions and i have lots of design ideas in my head,but it seems like since I dont have alot of money these things are out of my reach. Does anyone have any advice for me?
--Majikman

[Jeff Haas]

Hi,

Doing illusions gets you into doing theater...how to move onstage, what your character is like, what kind of music you use to enhance the presentation, and so on.

If you're serious about it, take some theater classes. While you're in the class, drop the magic and just learn. The acting skills will help you later in your magic. Also, learn the technical side of theater...lighting, set and costume design, makeup, etc. It all goes into a show.

For low-cost illusions you can build yourself, take a look at Andrew Mayne's stuff. http://www.weirdthings.com Several build-it-yourself illusions that are rather effective.

If you have access to a laptop, I have a system that allows you to trigger music cues in Winamp. Go to http://members.tripod.com/remotelaptop and read up on it. The remote I use can be swapped for one that's less expensive while you're starting out.

Jeff

[Guest]

Majikman,
You might want to look into the old Grant's Victory Carton Illusions.
It's a booklet of illusions made of cardboard instead of wood. It's still in print and still carried by bigger magic dealers.

[Guest]

Thanks alot both of you. I have been looking at a few of Andrew Maynes things already but i will be sure to check out the "victory carton" books. Also i will look into some acting classes over the rest of the summer.
Thanks for the tips,
--Majikman

[Guest]

I know you have probably already looked through it, but Mark Wilson's complete course has a lot of easy to make illusion that work great if you are using an assistant! Good Luck

[Pete Biro]

Take a tip from Jay Leno. He tells young performers: "Every day you don't perform, you go backwards."

So, that in mind... WORK WORK WORK WORK.

The advice about acting is very important.