The Magic Network Community Blog

Since we have had a bunch of new members here lately, I first off wanted to say "Welcome" and also write this post to introduce you all to some abbreviations we have going on here.  As David Leon said so well, "Welcome to our little cult..." and here is some of our "cult" language:

TMN - The Magic Network - the great site you're on right now

V - that's me, your host

MO - that's Mike, username, molsen23, he is also a forum moderator and is a trusted communications, advertising and marketing consultant to TMN

KP - Kaos Pro - a member from New Zealand that you're sure to see around here quite a bit...one of our most active members

I was doing so work at a local resturant in my town when a girl from the local collage walked in and was watching me perform, after everyone settled down she walked up and said she did a paper for psyc. class about how magicians use there talk to mis-direct people from accually knowing what's going on. At first I was kind like really, right in the middle of my performance. I asked her if i could show her something and she declined saying she wouldn't be amazed because she would know what I was doing to her. I then asked her if I could showed her something with out speaking and she could watch my hand's the whole time, she said "ok but if it dosen't work on me I'm sorry". I wanted to do something right in her hands, this i thought would totally add to the end result because it gave her the feeling that she was in control of the trick. I started out with two card monte and the look she gave me when i asked her at the end what if was the best, kinda like you didn't do anything and as soon as i look your gonna do something. But when she turned over the two cards and had seen that they where two different cards she totally lost it. I mean gasped, then said her paper was all wrong, how did I do that she was watching me and holding on to the cards. It was One of those moment's that really make's it worth wild to be an entertainer.
She invited me to come and talk to her class and do some magic for them and there teacher, which i'm excitedfor.
Please tell me some of your story's of thing's that just happen to you while performing.

Wow, this monumental- for the first time in 2009 things are going GREAT in my life. First, I will be launching my newly re-designed website January 1st, 2010 . Second despite all the initial problems I have a booming business and have the honor of watching 6 men and 2 women astonish and amaze hundreds of people each time they hit the stage (such an inspiring feeling.)

Also recently the muse's have allowed me the inspiration to help make another person's dreams come true- Mr. Vincent Marra; through shear luck, I struck on an idea that just may help this 'little' site blast off in to a booming community able to gain the respect of it's competition. Which if that wasn't enough- in a three hour sitting  conceived, designed, and blueprinted three (3) mid-size effects to be used in a stage show- one of which is based on a virtual idea that I think I might just call "The Magic Network.com" (should be a lot of fun to let an audience member open up photoshop and erase the illusionist who's standing on stage!!!) More on that later.

Also by the way I get to stand beside some great minds in the magic world and judge TMN's new video contest and make someones dreams all come true- life is truly magical. Until next time

I was lucky enough to get David Leon's Intuition effect recently, and let me say up front that I like it a lot!

Here is the premise and how it plays out:  You put an envelope with a prediction card inside onto the table.  You can also just write your prediction on a piece of paper if you want and hand it to your participant folded up.

You then ask your participant to choose any number between 1 and 52.  You then hand the deck to the participant, and ask her to deal out the cards, stopping at the chosen number.  The participant then sets the card off to the side, and you ask her to deal out the remaining cards, to be sure that there is a full deck of cards there.

You then show the faces of all the cards in the deck, showing that all the cards are different.  Then, you put the deck aside, so you have the chosen card and your prediction side by side.

You then reveal that the prediction matches with the chosen card, and everyone cheers and screams with amazement, declaring you the chosen one and erecting a statue in your honour.

Well, I have never written a blog before, but I will start with a brief autobiography of my starts in magic.
When I was very young (and this I can barely remember) my parents took me to a parade where there was a juggler on stilts. Even though I could barely walk, I was fascinated by this man. This probably was the spark for things to come. Then in Kindergarten I distinctly remember a magician coming to the school and performing. These two influences led me to my first magic kit (one of those cheap ones with a magic wand and a vanishing box and a swords through coin trick).
Nonetheless, I remember performing tricks for any adults who came over. I got good reactions, but they may have been being nice. I also remember my grandfather teaching me a simple "Pick a card, any card" trick using a deck with an asymmetric back.
Throughout grade school I bought a handful of magic books ranging from escapes, to hypnosis, to coins. I read most of them and have taken a few tricks from each book and put them into routines.
In 7th and 8th Grade, I started to perform at birthday parties. I mostly advertised within my school (K-8th grade) and was able to book 4 or 5 shows. I also was asked to perform at a Mardi Gras party that a church was putting on. I performed there in front of about 40 people, but was focused on the ~15 children in the front row. Once I got to high school, paid shows stopped and I just did little card tricks at parties. This is also when I picked up juggling, but I will not get into that story now.
After every show, I had a computer document where I would self-rate different aspects of my performance. I would note which of my acts I used and how long the act was. I noted strengths and weaknesses, reactions, and how much I got paid. It helped to weed out bad tricks and weak parts of my acts. I think that this was a big help and recommend it to others.
In high school I discovered ellusionist.com and have bough most of my stuff from there since. I bought special cards and a handful of props and DVDs to help me with smaller scale venues, but my passion is still with kids' shows. My focus turned more towards XCM and flourishes that I could do nonchalantly.
That brings me to now, where I enjoy both magic and juggling as a performing art. I hope to perform more frequently and possibly become a part-time magician when I get into the real world.
Well, if you took the time to read this, thank you very much and I hope you enjoyed the story and maybe learned something about you own magical history. That's all for now!

Yesterday in my college intro psychology class, my professor put up a slide detailing the differences between Scientific and Non-Scientific Psychology.
Scientific-legitimate studies w/ blinds and control, etc.
Non-Scientific-astrology, palm reading, etc.
He then asked this question: "Why do these non-scientific approaches still exist?"
I rose my hand and replied, "People want to be able to believe that these practices truly exist and continue to support them. Also, people so not want to admit they have a legitimate psychological problem, so they go to a palm-reader as opposed to a psychologist for help."
My teacher loved the response and I just wanted to share that with you guys to see what you think.
As magicians, we are lucky because most people want what we do to be real, therefore making our work more believable and impressive. This is a concept I focus on in my routines and stage presence because it makes you more accessible and popular to your audience.
So what do you think?
P.S. I made this a forum post too.

Blogging at The Magic Network just got a whole lot better!  Now we have kick-ass blogging that is fully featured, including comments, images, and even video embedding.

So, I really hope everyone will use this and start blogging here more and commenting on other people's blogs.

If you have a Blogger blog already, feel free to post your blog posts here as well.  Your blog posts also have their own RSS feed, so others can subscribe to your blog if they like it.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Testing out a new feature here at The Magic Network called "Tweetboard"

You'll see it on the left hand side of your screen.... a little bubble called "Tweets"

It is basically a way to sign in to your Twitter account right from TMN, and tweet right from TMN.  The cool thing is, you can have Twitter conversations with other TMN members using it, without ever having to leave TMN to go to Twitter.

Give it a try and let me know if you like it.  If the feedback is good and members use it, I'll keep it.

If you don't like it or nobody uses it, I'll get rid of it.

Most of you have probably noticed that we had a new chatbar for awhile, then we had the old one again, and now we have the new one again.

If you don't see any chatbar when you login to The Magic Network, clear your browser cache and refresh your page, and it should come up.

Here are some of the new features:

1) You can start your own chatroom - to do this, simply click on the left-most button on the right side of the chatbar (the button that looks like a box with a blue arrow in it).  Then, click on "create chatroom."  You will be asked to name the chatroom.  Enter any name you want, and press OK.  Let others know about your chatroom by shouting it out in the shoutbox, or sending one-on-one chats to others that you would like to join in.  The chatroom will be removed after 10 minutes of inactivity.

2) Now you can see the avatar of the person you are chatting with.

If any of you follow @themagicnetwork on Twitter, or have read my status updates here, you'll know that I recently got the book "Paralies" by Joshua Quinn, and also recently had a lot of time in planes, trains and automobiles to read it.

I obviously haven't performed any of the effects yet, but couldn't wait to give a review. So, this will really be a review about my impressions of the book itself and not so much about the effects, since I can only speculate about how well the effects will go over with audiences.

So here goes:
The book is a softcover book, 255 pages long. It contains explanations for 21 effects. Most of the effects are mentalism effects, and there are a few card tricks thrown in there too, from Joshua's former days as a card junkie. The card tricks are a couple of colour changes, moving a hole in a card, and Joshua's version of the colour monte routine, which he calls Quantum Monte.

Of the mentalism effects, most are explained in really good detail, and he goes into the routining, presentation tips, audience management, etc. A few of the "effects" are not as detailed, but are rather ideas that can be incorporated into a routine or further developed into a routine.

The effects that he describes in detail range in the performance situations that they cover. Almost all can be applied to stage performance, and some would only really be suitable for stage. Some require a small group of people to participate, and many are also suitable for one-on-one and close-up. There are a few that would be best suited for two to three participants as well.

Hey guys, here's something fun for you -- now you can challenge other members to a game of rock, paper scissors!

Either choose "Play - Rock, Paper, Scissors" under "Your Menu" on the left sidebar, or, when viewing your profile, select the "Challenge" link under the "My Rock, Paper, Scissors Stats" section of your profile.

Then, just choose your weapon - Rock, Paper or Scissors.

Other members should check their challenges when they login, to see if anyone is challenging them to a game.

If you have received a challenge, you need to choose either Rock, Paper, or Scissors.  Then your choice is compared to your challenger's weapon, and you will see who won the challenge!

The Magic Network has a new feature - Classified Ads.

I added this feature mainly because I wanted to give our community members the opportunity to post and search for job opportunities, and also to post and search for magic products that are for sale.

There are a few rules that members will need to obide by when using the classifieds functionality, and ads that don't follow the rules will be removed.  So please read the rules before posting.

Mainly, you are not allowed to use the classifieds to sell products that you are not authorised to sell, nor to sell used products or illegal or counterfeit products.

You can use the classifieds to sell new products in their original packaging, if you are the creator of the product you are selling.