I went to school today and found out there was a magi!

He was doin a trick to like the whole class. I couldn't watch because I was in the next P.E class.

Should I introduce myself because not many people at school know I like magic because I barely perform and if I do it's only to about 3-4 people at most.

I hate telling random people I'm a magician because they say"show us something" Yeah right.

Atleast I'm not like the only kid magician in my city.

I say just start showing your tricks a little more and gather a crowd. Just don't tell people you do magic, RIGHT AFTER a magician came to your school. I’d let that die down a little, then just do stuff for more people than you do normally. But before you start performing more, make sure you're flawless in your routines; one mess up and a bad heckler will never let you live it down. Let your reputation build and play off that. That’s basically how I’ve been getting noticed around my school.

I don't understand...what you mean by "yeah right" you're amagician right? so you should be able to do some tricks right? so don't tell someone unless you have something on you...

If all you know is gimmicked tricks then keep those gimmicks with you at all times. When I was in highschool there were some effects that people talked about that people wanted to see me perform on almost a daily basis, and they were gimmicked, so I kept those gimmicks with me at all times ready to perform.

No offense, but I think that's really stupid. I carry cards, a TT, occasionally a quarter or half dollar, and I just keep an Invisible Deck in my backpack if I'm in the mood for showing that to someone. Notice there's only one gimmicked trick? And I don't carry it because people ask me to show it to them, I carry it because it's one I want to see. I choose what I perform... my performances are not "democracies"... the spectator does not get to pick and choose what they do and don't want to see. Hey, maybe this is the wrong thing to do, but I'm the magician, I'm not going to be bossed around while performing my art.

My views on school magic have changed. You should of seen the reactions I got from a modified pen vanish that I learned from ITBTWC.

I didn't say do gimmicked tricks now did I....
And if people are talking about certain effects and are not about others then performing the popular ones for people that have not seen them is only going to increase your reputation because it will get them talking about it too. If they see something no one else is talking about then chances are they won't talk about it either. So I think its best to perform what people want to see like half of the time unless its something they have already seen, and what you think is best the other half of the time.

If I had only done what people asked me to do through school, the only things I would know how to do would be predict sports events, make fireballs, and levitate lol.

I agree with this absolutely. A long time ago I read an interview with Stephen King, and the interviewer asked him one of those asinine questions about where he gets his ideas or how he writes such good stories. His answer was that he writes the stories he enjoys for himself, and if others enjoy them too, then so much the better. Looks like it worked out for him, so why not other artists?

If you do the tricks that people want you to do, you will lose audience control. The spectators will get the false impression that they control you and your performances... which is not a good thing.

Yeah but if he had to tell his stories to people in person, and they told some other people about the story, and then they wanted to hear it should he tell them the story that caused those people to learn about him or should he tell a new story and risk not spreading his reputation?

Thats the situation with performing magic. I think we should perform things that audiences enjoy, but also perform what we like to remain unique and artistic.

Back when I was in school I performed something different about every week, and performed it for as many people during the week as I could. But, during that week I would also be prepared for my most popular tricks in case someone came up to me and asked to see me perform that particular trick. After they asked I may or may not have done that trick, that would depend on if I wanted to or not, or if I thought I should or not. If I didn't want to then I would just show them whatever I was doing mainly that week.

I see your point, but I have another point I would like to add:

If the spectators personally request an effect, and you consent to showing it to them, they are going to know what's going to happen. This will weaken the reactions. Why? Because they know what's going to happen, and therefore will not be surprised when it does. Granted, 90% of the effect, IMO, is the presentation, but no matter how great your presentation is, because they know what's going to happen, it will take away that little bit of reaction.

All IMHO, of course.

I said yeah right because I don't want to show them a trick. I don't just go up to people saying I'm a magician, but like when were doing a class presentation about ourselves I said I'm a magician. I couple obnoxious kids said "show me something" not in a polite way like they wanted to see some magic, but in a way like I was lying and just wanted to tell me I suck.

I say, let that kid do his magic and have his credit. It will give you a chance to see what a magician in school looks like from the other end.

I'm with you on not wanting to perform during school. I just don't like how people can see me doing a trick, and not know me personally, and then all they know about me is that I do magic. I'm don't want to be known as a magician, I want to be known as a person. Which has suceeded since I don't do magic at school anymore.

Yeah I agree, and I thought about that as well. Some effects I wouldn't do, or I should say most, if they were affected by that. There are a few tricks out there that it really doesn't matter too much if they know whats going to happen, like making a fireball. I mean thats over in like a second anyway. And then they may not know what you did specifically, or you could just do something kind of like it. For example, some people knew I had predicted some sports games, but they didn't know exactly what happened except that I wrote down the scores ahead of time and was right. So if they asked about that, I could do any kind of prediction or mindreading effect, and in their minds they would have seen me do something like they had heard about.

Its not like people dictate what you perform if you go with what I'm saying, its just that you alter your choice of material slightly to hopefully appeal to people a little more. Even Angel and Houdini have done that regarding the public. The public loved Houdini's escapes and transpos, so he performed those a lot in public to try to appeal more to the public, but he still did other things he liked like tying needles in his mouth. Now people want to see levitation, so if you notice Angel does this more and more on mindfreak. But Angel seems to like escapes because he does them pretty often, so he still does that too even though its probably not as popular as some things with audiences now. I just think there needs to be a balance between performing what you want and performing for your spectators to ensure that they enjoy watching what you do.

I would say it needs to lean 85% towards your preferences, and maybe 15% towards what the spectators want to see, give or take some.