In past years, I have been helping other magicians create their acts and shows, and one thing stood out to me: they do not seem to be organised. When they have a show date, the panic starts. Rush into the magic garbage room, search for the props, decide what to perform, get the stuff together and head to the location exhausted. We know all of that for a long time.
An endless array of books, eBooks, notes, DVDs, props, tricks, gimmicks, and name it populates their closets, basements and garages. They seem to be lost under the pressure of the information overload. Most of us have already lost track of what we have accumulated.
So I started with this mini series on the aspects of getting organised in magic: how to select material, archive it, validate it, improve it, learn it, rehearse it, and built it into an act and perform it.
Here we will go through all the steps to get some order into the chaos. When you join me (and it only takes a few minutes each day, which you would otherwise waste on Facebook or Social Media), it will surprise you about the progress within the next month.
After that, you will be organised, you have a clear plan of your act(s), and have all the material ready to use. You will have more enjoyment with your magic, for sure.
I do not intend this little series for seasoned professionals who have their organisation already. I aim it at the “helpless” amateurs, most of of which have a demanding job, family, friends, another hobby, and a social life. They cannot spend the full time on magic. It is the ultimate “magician’s hacks series” — a crash course on how to make your magic life easier without scarifying the magical quality. Saving time, money, energy, and frustration is the goal.
What Has to Be Organised?
Collectors are organised: They know what to collect, where to put it and they have their collections archived somehow already. No need to tell them what to do. For the casual hobbyist performer, things look different. Too much stuff available in the magic market, too much already bought and got, too much to sort out. I believe that in getting organised in magic, one has to think about the following topics:
1. select
2. get
3. validate
4. archive/store
5. change
6. practice
7. rehearse
8. perform
It all boils down to build an archive that you will use as an artisan would use his toolbox. In this archive, there will be sub-categories: literature, video, audio material, moves, techniques, and props. Information concerning the presentation of your routines.
I will cover every aspect of that and will give you suggestions, tips and hacks that will make your life easier in no time.
The First Step
The first step with all changes is to know such a change is necessary. So you will have to acknowledge the fact that your organisation so far is crappy and you are living with an in a magical mess. And you must have to have the desire to change that. That is your decision, but you are reading this so far, and I suppose that you plead guilty and have done the change.
And here is the first advice: stop buying any magic (books, ebooks, downloads, DVD, tricks or whatever) now. This doesn’t have to be forever, but for the next time, until your archive is finished and you have learned the techniques to select, and until have your organisation system installed.
As the Chinese proverb says “You cannot fill a cup that is already full”. Don’t make your cup spill over with useless material, it is too full already. You need an empty cup to install something new in there.