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Close-Minded

When I write about magic, I always try to cover topics that I can't find much information about elsewhere. Surprisingly, although it's one of the most fundamental elements of what we do, I have yet to find a great deal of information on practice and rehearsal. Being the thoughtful British chap that I am, I decided to take up a few minutes of your time and, once again, brutally force my opinions into your mind. Enjoy!

I've been at my computer for over an hour now, and all I've managed to write is the few lines that you see above. I made the mistake of picking up a deck of cards in a moment of lapsed concentration, and seem to have been stuck in a time warp while the last fifty minutes flew past. Not all is lost, though, because I think this is the main observation I aim to make: the key to practicing is passion.

I sometimes wear out a new deck of cards in a day; I carry a deck with me everywhere I go; I've been to conventions and not gotten a wink of sleep because I wanted to share and learn as much as I could about magic. I just can't help it. I have something inside me that tells me that I must do magic; it's a passion, the so-called "magic bug".

Is just having a passion to practice enough, though? Surely not, but it does help. You see, I hate to set specific times to do anything, so saying, "I will practice for an hour at four o'clock," wouldn't be right for me. Instead, I practice whenever I have the urge. This, I believe, is why many children with 'pushy parents' fail to succeed-they are forced to practice whether or not they are in the right frame of mind. This does mean that I could go a whole week without practicing, but that time will probably be spent around people, practicing another important aspect of our art, socialisation. Then again, I can sometimes practice for three or four hours a day and manage to not interrupt my work schedule or fun time. Being flexible enough to practice at different times and places also provides a nice variety that makes practicing a different experience every time.

I do know people who take the other option and practice at a certain time for a designated period, but I think that this approach turns magic into a military-like exercise, instead of the fun, exciting activity that it should be. Many people who do practice in this way also tend to spend far too long practicing and learn a lot less than they intend to. It's been scientifically proven that the brain learns much better in short spells than it does over a long period of time. Working for a long time will do you no good.

I'd recommend that you aim to make each practice session last between ten and twenty minutes long. If you practice for any longer your brain will slow down and you will stop learning as efficiently. When I refer to a practice session, I am talking about concentrating all of your attention on your magic, not just fiddling with a few coins as you watch television. I often practice for ten minutes, take a twenty-minute break, and then return to the table for another ten minutes of practice. Thanks to the break, my brain is in top form for both mini-sessions.

This brings us to a distinction between what I call formal practice and informal practice. The idea of practicing for ten minutes at a time is formal practicing. You have proactively decided to work on your material and concentrate fully on it whilst doing so. Informal practicing is when you sit in front of a television or on a bus and basically play with magic to pass time.

In some cases I seem to get better results from informal practice than I do from formal practice. I normally reserve informal practicing to master new moves, and in this time I often come up with a lot of my own ideas for new effects and moves. Formal practicing allows me to bring all of the moves together into a polished performance piece.

When practicing formally, I sometimes work on new routines, and sometimes rehearse my restaurant act(just because I perform a version of the act perhaps thirty times a night doesn't mean that I can stop practicing it!). Other times I will work on a series of effects that I have created specifically to help perfect new moves. In a similar manner, I have a couple sequences that allow me to execute a large number of sleights in just a few minutes (an example would be executing a vanish into Tenkai Palm, followed by a production and then Lennart Green's Snap Deal as I place the card onto the deck).

The idea of working on a string of sleights is an important one, as I am able to work on getting the move perfect in context, instead of repeatedly practicing it and not caring if it's a hit or a miss. I also find it helpful to perform a move once and stop, then come back a few minutes later and execute the move once again. This is another fantastic way to get into the habit of getting the move correct first time, which is what you will need to do in performance.

In practice sessions like these, it is also worthwhile to not always use the newest props possible. Here I point mainly to card and coin magicians, as it is extremely likely that you will at some point be forced to work with worn cards and coins, unlike the brand new deck that you are probably used to. True mastery of an effect should be entirely independent of the props that you use.

On a similar note, location and venue is also important to consider when practicing. If you are practicing in front of a mirror on a routine that will play surrounded in "the real world", you are creating a problem for yourself. It is dreadfully hard to practice as if you are surrounded; the only alternative that I can really suggest is to have someone move around you with a video camera as you practice. Don't try to follow the camera, but imagine that you are looking your spectators in the eyes as you move around to perform for them.

Another common problem that appears when using a mirror is that, unless you use a long mirror, you are forced to have your hands at different heights depending on how and where is the mirror is hung. I try to use this to my advantage by practicing my routines in three or four different mirrors around the house. Each is at a different height, so I am able to work the routine in many different situations. It would be an extremely bad idea to work solely with a mirror that is too high or low, of course, as your hands will end up fixed in that position when performing.

Another method that I sometimes use when working on new routines and moves is to record them with a digital video camera attached to my computer. Then I can playback my recordings immediately, and I won't be able to squint or blink and miss the execution of a move like I would do in a mirror. The picture also comes up on my monitor, so I can use the computer as a mirror if I really want to. Be careful that you don't come to rely on looking at the monitor or mirror as you perform, though, because when you attempt to perform without it you may start to have a few problems!

There is also another neglected form of practicing: previewing. Just last night I was out with a group of my friends and, although I perform for them very infrequently, a good friend of mine had brought his cousin along. He had seen me on television before, and was interested in seeing something live. Instead of jumping into one of my standard acts, I tried out a few things that I had only practiced at home. This rehearsal time allowed me to see whether or not my jokes had worked, if my misdirection and timing were correct and finally if the routine itself played as well as I expected it to. Of course, everything was thoroughly practiced so that there was little fear of me making a mistake with the handling, but I was concentrating of finding the best presentation for the new effects.

The one tip I can give for previewing routines in this way is to not be afraid. Don't be scared of failure, and especially don't be afraid to improvise and try something new. This is the main way I create material, by taking other effects and practicing them in front of acquaintances.

Before I leave you to explore this for yourself, let me leave you with one thought. Practice isn't everything. Instead of spending ten hours practicing a week, get out into the real world for five or six of those hours and work on improving your people skills. They are worth one thousand times more than the best magic trick you can perform. Whoever said, "Practice, practice, practice," was wrong. It should be, "Informally practice, formally practice, rehearse, and enjoy yourself!" Please drop me a line with any thoughts of your own… you can catch me at andi@andigladwin.co.uk.

Andi Gladwin