Straight From the Sharks Mouthy by David Malek

How many times have you done a magic show or performance only to have someone come up from the audience and offer you a suggestion(s) on how to improve your act? If you perform at all and especially amongst magicians, the number of times someone has given your their opinion will be numerous. Most of the time it has probably been by another peer who had a good suggestion. The purpose of this editorial precept, is to possibly get you thinking about where you stand as a magical
artist.

I am totally convinced that with great showmanship a person can make a living from performing self-working card tricks. But this would only be possible if the person has excellent showmanship abilities. I am not so naive as to say that it would not take a lot of hard work and dedication to hone those performing talents. It is true that for some these talents are inborn and come much easier than to others. It is also true that one can develop the skills necessary to be a better showman. With showmanship the easiest tricks can be made into absolute miracles. With showmanship you can make an audience laugh, and cry, and laugh again. With showmanship golf claps can be turned into standing ovations. This editorial hopefully will provide you with the important questions you must ask yourself about the performance of magic and possibly guide you into an area and expose you to another way of thinking about the art that you have possibly not taken into consideration. I will compare magic in my own way to other more “main stream” arts and point out the similarities but most importantly the big differences that seem small. I will suggest ways and also challenge you to think of additional ways in which you can take what makes other arts appeal to the masses and incorporate those strong points into your magic. I am a firm believer that we learn far more from making mistakes and failing that we ever do from success. The person who is most successful is the one who has earned that success through failure. The only challenge as you have heard over and over is never make the same mistake twice. I do not consider myself an expert in the field and I seek no gratification for what I have written, in fact I don’t care what you do with this information. Many will never give these words a second reading, even though some of these ideas are worth more than every book on magic tricks you are likely to own in your lifetime. As Buddha would say, if I give someone a gift and they refuse to accept it, then it still belongs to me. This is my gift to you. If you decide to accept it for whatever it may be worth, then, enjoy!