Organization: College of Engineering, Clemson Univ.
Lines: 38
QUESTION:
>Dear mr. Peal,
>I am a 15 year old amatuer magician and am making my way up in magic. I
>do not have lots of money to use on magic, so I find myself being limited
>to smaller close-up tricks. Can you give me any advice on how to expand
>my range of illusions.
>
ANSWER:
G'Aye ,
I have many illusions such as the magical doll house, burn a woman alive, cut a woman in half(with a buzz saw ontop off a table), etc. I hope to construct and build the water torture illusion where I am placed upside down in to a large tank off water, with handcuffs and feet irons, and blind folded, with the top locked from the outside. That's going to cost a lot off money and time though.
As for how you can grow in you pocket-magic (orginally called vest-magic)? Well, the best source of information is the books. I have found the older books to be of greater value then the newer ones. Seems now a days any Joe Smoe can write a book on magic, but they usual do a bad job of just repeating what is in the old books. You can find these books sometimes in various libraries. Try a local high school, then a university. The universities usually have an exchange program with other resources. Th
e benefit of the books is that the devices are describes in blueprint form. Thus you could build it yourself. You will find that after you see several gemicks, you will be able to design new devices for other "homemade" tricks.
The next best way to learn is to go to a magic shop. Ask them to preform a trick for you, then go home and try to figure out yourself. This is sometimes a better approach, because it makes you think. You may design a better way of doing the trick.
The next way to grow in knowledge is through fellow magicians. You could join a local, national, or international guild. You could also subscribe to various magic mags. This usually gets you on a mailing list of somekind. Though these cost money there is still one more way to learn.
I used to preform for Six Flags Over Ga. when I was 15-18. Today, I believe every park in the world has somekind of magician on hand. You could also, try calling various hotels and comedy clubs to see if any future magicians are coming.
If I was coming to your town to do a show at a hotel and you wrote me before hand and introduced yourself, I would most likely exchange somekind of knowledge with you. In exchange, I would just like some hospitality, gets pretty lonely on the road. You know, like show me around town or something.
All in all, I am sure there are otherways to acquire knowledge then the ones that I mentioned. But pay close attention to the alt.magic. This will increase your base of fellow magicians. However, I am very reluctant to freely give out tricks or gimmicks on the alt.magic but I will gladly e-mail to someone if in time they have proven there loyalty to the art and/or have something to offer back.
