There is a huge difference in a hobbyist and an artist. Firstly, is the love. The hobbyist performs to ENTERTAIN himself and others. He enjoys the reactions he gets out of tricking and deceiving others. The hobbyist usually go for material that have a sucker ending or a double kicker finish. This is not to say that everyone who does perform these style effects are just hobbyist.
The artist simply performs for himself. He does it out of love for the art. His attention is focused on creating an experience rather than a trick. The artist lives for the moments in which he can connect with others on a one on one basis. He strives to decipher what it is that makes his spectator tick.
I was once asked why I thought people of society did not view magic as an art. This, first off, is no one's fault but our on. You can never blame the spectator for not understanding an effect or not being able to "keep up" or comprehend what is going on. I think people do not view magic as an art, because in many cases it's not.
Art is an expression of one's self. There is no expression of anything within bringing a signed card to the top of a deck, other than slick hands. We mustn't blame others for not being able to view our magic with as much love as WE have for it. It's our job to express WHY we do what we do. It's our job to share the love that we have with those that don't understand WHY we have so much love for this. If you wish for this to be viewed as an art you must convey more than just a card trick. You must teach people HOW to look beyond the cards. The cards are merely a metaphor or a tool to help express our love.
I often like to compare magic with different types of arts, (martial arts and music in particular). I think if we look at music we can see a similar situation.
When an amateur musician begins learning how to play, he is concerned with all the new songs that he wants to be able to play. He desperately learns as many songs as he can in the quickest amount of time. In the process of doing so, he "half asses" all of his music. He can play many many songs to the point that you can just recognize them. When he's finished, the natural response from someone is something along the lines of..."That was cool man...play another" or "Cool...what else can you play?"
When you take a professional musician, you'll notice that once he's done playing just one song, no one ever asks him to play another. There's no need for him to. He's already proven himself as an artist. Through a process of trial and error, time tested performances, and experience, he has created art with just one song.
I think a huge problem in magic today is that people are becoming too concerned with the next "thing" that is going to be coming out, much like the martial artist is with learning the next move in a kata, when the ones he's working on now are not yet perfected.
All you have to know is just one or two effects, and be able to perform them flawlessly. I used to be concerned with performing as many different things as possible in the shortest amount of time. I would walk into a room and my goal was to do as many tricks for as many different people that I could. Today, I much rather do one thing, for one person, and put all my heart and soul into it so that I can create an ever lasting experience.
When I began performing, I would do about twenty things within thirty minutes. However, the more experienced I became, the more I began to notice something. For the same thirty minutes, I no longer had to do twenty tricks. I was down to around ten. I had chopped my entire performance in half. I stepped back to examine why and how this had occurred. I came to the conclusion that my spectators were living in the moment more. I would get done with something and they would talk and conversate about it for three or four minutes before I did something else. I had subconsciously began to slow down. I was letting my audience breathe for the first time.
Today, I can perform one piece of material, and that is simply all it takes. I give the time each move and each action deserves before going on to the next thing to learn. In the end, they are left with an experience in which they will remember for a lifetime.
The difference between the Hobbyist and the Artist is that the artist makes use of what he has in front of him at that given moment in time. He paints with his finger and mud rather than a brush and paint. He plays with buckets and his hands rather than drums and sticks. If you wish for people to one day view this as an art above the ground, then I strongly urge you to consider these words before all is lost below the ground. With much love.
Matthew Sims
PS. I could not get it to indent
The artist simply performs for himself. He does it out of love for the art. His attention is focused on creating an experience rather than a trick. The artist lives for the moments in which he can connect with others on a one on one basis. He strives to decipher what it is that makes his spectator tick.
I was once asked why I thought people of society did not view magic as an art. This, first off, is no one's fault but our on. You can never blame the spectator for not understanding an effect or not being able to "keep up" or comprehend what is going on. I think people do not view magic as an art, because in many cases it's not.
Art is an expression of one's self. There is no expression of anything within bringing a signed card to the top of a deck, other than slick hands. We mustn't blame others for not being able to view our magic with as much love as WE have for it. It's our job to express WHY we do what we do. It's our job to share the love that we have with those that don't understand WHY we have so much love for this. If you wish for this to be viewed as an art you must convey more than just a card trick. You must teach people HOW to look beyond the cards. The cards are merely a metaphor or a tool to help express our love.
I often like to compare magic with different types of arts, (martial arts and music in particular). I think if we look at music we can see a similar situation.
When an amateur musician begins learning how to play, he is concerned with all the new songs that he wants to be able to play. He desperately learns as many songs as he can in the quickest amount of time. In the process of doing so, he "half asses" all of his music. He can play many many songs to the point that you can just recognize them. When he's finished, the natural response from someone is something along the lines of..."That was cool man...play another" or "Cool...what else can you play?"
When you take a professional musician, you'll notice that once he's done playing just one song, no one ever asks him to play another. There's no need for him to. He's already proven himself as an artist. Through a process of trial and error, time tested performances, and experience, he has created art with just one song.
I think a huge problem in magic today is that people are becoming too concerned with the next "thing" that is going to be coming out, much like the martial artist is with learning the next move in a kata, when the ones he's working on now are not yet perfected.
All you have to know is just one or two effects, and be able to perform them flawlessly. I used to be concerned with performing as many different things as possible in the shortest amount of time. I would walk into a room and my goal was to do as many tricks for as many different people that I could. Today, I much rather do one thing, for one person, and put all my heart and soul into it so that I can create an ever lasting experience.
When I began performing, I would do about twenty things within thirty minutes. However, the more experienced I became, the more I began to notice something. For the same thirty minutes, I no longer had to do twenty tricks. I was down to around ten. I had chopped my entire performance in half. I stepped back to examine why and how this had occurred. I came to the conclusion that my spectators were living in the moment more. I would get done with something and they would talk and conversate about it for three or four minutes before I did something else. I had subconsciously began to slow down. I was letting my audience breathe for the first time.
Today, I can perform one piece of material, and that is simply all it takes. I give the time each move and each action deserves before going on to the next thing to learn. In the end, they are left with an experience in which they will remember for a lifetime.
The difference between the Hobbyist and the Artist is that the artist makes use of what he has in front of him at that given moment in time. He paints with his finger and mud rather than a brush and paint. He plays with buckets and his hands rather than drums and sticks. If you wish for people to one day view this as an art above the ground, then I strongly urge you to consider these words before all is lost below the ground. With much love.
Matthew Sims
PS. I could not get it to indent
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