The Financial Side

[Justinquill]

Take theater classes. It will teach you directly how to move properly on a stage. It's something very few magicians do well. It also teaches how to direct attention to certain areas. We're actors playing the part of a magician - we should learn how to act.

Once again ChristopherT giving information that is priceless. Take it from me Maaz, I have a bachelors degree in theater, and what I learned there has directly transfer over to every performance I've given thus far in magic. It helps you learn how to read an audience, how to engage them just by eye contact and natural flow of conversation *patter* and it will give you, what is in my opinion, one of the greatest tools in performance, improv. The ability to go with a surprise during a performance without missing a beat, making it feel like part of the show.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Take theater classes. It will teach you directly how to move properly on a stage. It's something very few magicians do well. It also teaches how to direct attention to certain areas. We're actors playing the part of a magician - we should learn how to act.

Once again ChristopherT giving information that is priceless. Take it from me Maaz, I have a bachelors degree in theater, and what I learned there has directly transfer over to every performance I've given thus far in magic. It helps you learn how to read an audience, how to engage them just by eye contact and natural flow of conversation *patter* and it will give you, what is in my opinion, one of the greatest tools in performance, improv. The ability to go with a surprise during a performance without missing a beat, making it feel like part of the show.

Thanks guys. I'll think about it. The only problem is that I have been a part of 2 or 3 theatre classes (the largest one being a semester long thing that my English Class ended up doing with the school's Drama/Theater class. I really liked working stuff backstage and props and stuff (even got put into the role of the set design lead.... without wanting to be in it >.< because I apparently new what I was doing, though I would disagree with that last statement). However, I honestly hated the whole thing put together because
A) I hated Shakespeare,
B) Everyone wanted to do their own thing, no one was really doing what we needed to do
C) it was a really slow process. I just wanted to get my job done and not have to stop every 2 seconds to learn about why the people who had a 5 sec non speaking role were not walking emphatically enough.
D) The Theater class teacher was a complete A-Hole, and for whatever reason, he hated me and the other 5 guys who were in this class. And yes, I will admit, we weren't the quietest group, but we didn't do half the stuff he called us out for. I'm sure not every theater teacher is like this but he really gave me the wrong impression.
E) Finally, when we did have a plan and were half way through building the set, the team would want to do something else, so they would brainstorm for 2 weeks while me and 2 guys worked on the set. Then they would get rid of our idea.

Sorry for going off on a rant there, but you can see, I really didn't enjoy the entire experience. I'm sure that if I didn't have really good friends in that class, I would have hated it 100%.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I'm specifically referring to acting lessons, here. Set design is good, too - learning what lighting can do for you, and different methods of building sets is a lot of what goes into stage magic if you ever want to go that direction - but acting will improve your performances immediately. And very few magicians can act - they think it's easy, so they don't take it seriously.

The good news is that college level acting teachers, or if wanted, acting tutors, are generally much better than high school level drama teachers.

 

[Timewise64]

Many of the classes that I disliked the most, turned out to be the classes that provided me with the most knowledge that I would use throughout my career! Don't judge from one bad class, if you truly want to become a performer, why not learn how to perform as part of you education? If you have a passion to become a magician, you will have to learn to do things that are a bit uncomfortable, like standing in front of an audience of complete strangers and performing.....! If you find something you love to do for a living, you will never 'work' a day in your life!

 

[Josh Burch]

So, I haven't read a lot of this thread but I'll give my advice.

Your first goal is probably to make magic a self sustaining hobby. Are you in the red or the black at this point? To figure this out you need to add up all of the magic purchases you have made including cards, gimmicks, supplies etc (not including gifts). Get a total in dollars of what that is.

Now add up how much money you have ever made from magic. This includes sales of tricks, shows, if you have sold gifts etc. If the money you have spent on magic exceeds the money you have made from magic you are in the red and you need to work on getting this number in the black.

This is easier than it seems. It starts with funneling any money made from magic back into magic. If you want a new book tell yourself that you can get that book until you have earned the money with magic to get that new book. This will help you not to add to you magic debt. The more you do this the more you will chip away at your magic debt.

If you don't think you can do these first steps then you need to re think.