Edwards, Mamet and Jay

This past weekend, Bob Edwards interviewed David Mamet and Ricky Jay about movies, magic, and life. Enjoy!

Notes on Practicing

I am reminded of a dispiriting moment in a cello lesson with my teacher, Mr. Herbert Withers. He was eighty-three years old, and I was eleven. I tried to play a passage, but I couldn't make it work. I tried again, and it didn't work, and a third time, and I was no more successful. I remember making a frustrating grimace and putting down my bow. The elderly Mr. Withers leaned over my and whispered, "What? You've been practicing it for three minutes, and you still can't play it?" - Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility

I was caught by this passage this morning. How often do we give up on a magic effect or routine when it does not come easy in a few tries? When we haven't allowed ourselves enough time to develop the skills required?

Maybe it's time to give up the notion that magic is easy to perform.

A Quote

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity. - Christopher Morley

How To Be Creative

Since I found this essay or as it is called, manifesto, I have been sharing with anyone who will take a copy. It is a delightful piece on how to be and live creatively. I didn't agree with it all and wouldn't expect you to either. It did cause me to think about my relationship with my work, my magic, and other facets of my life.

Its from a site called Change This. The idea behind Change This is simple: to share ideas openly and freely. The site does not have an agenda - just the spread of ideas. If you like a manifesto, you are encouraged to share it. You just can't sell it or change it.

Follow this to: How to Be Creative. Enjoy!

Adding while Subtracting

Marketing author, Seth Godin, has a brief post, Long slide to gone, about hobby shop that kept adding services until they lost track of what they were. From hobbies, trains, and remote control models to coffee and lottery. Soon they would be another convenience store.

When I read it, I began to think about how quickly some of us add balloon animals, face painting, juggling or any other "associated" talent to our resumes. We use the logic of how it adds to our marketability.

But as Seth asks....

Is this what you set out to do? Is compromising everything going to get you to a place that was worth the journey?

In other words, did we become magicians to do these other things? My guess is no.

A Little Pablo

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order
that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

Both/And

Do you need to choose between these two? Could you
try both? - Unknown

Like many across the US, I spent a week suffering with the flu. During times of wakefulness, I read books and watched DVDs.

I had the chance to revisit one of my favorite magic books, The Books of Wonder. I followed this up with pulling the Visions of Wonder DVDs off the shelf. It occurred to me that this was the perfect learning set. You have the text detailing the effects and theory while the DVDs show it all in action plus the conversational explanations with Tommy and Max. Not to mention the hidden easter eggs that are an absolute delight.

I don't know if the creation of this package was intentional or not. It was a great gift to the magic community.

The only other set that comes to mind is The Magic Of Paul Potassy book and The World-Renowned Magic of Paul Potassy DVD set.

Perhaps more performers, publishers and DVD producers could consider this in the future.

Blog Notes

• Over at Rebuilding a Mystery, Gordon has given us some food for thought on naturalness from an unlikely source - the meteorologist. Its worth a read and contemplation. Finally, I have an excuse for watching the Weather Channel.
• When searching the web for another topic, I found the Art of Magic Series Web Journal by magician, Mitch Williams. It has a handful of posts worthy of consideration. The downside is that it only ran from February to August 2007.

A Little Mingus Magic

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird--that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple complicated is commonplace--making the complicated simple, awesomely simple--that's creativity. ~ Charles Mingus