When you try to do something for the first time, you will make mistakes. Or perhaps you will be unlucky and not make any mistakes. I say UNlucky because you cannot learn anything through accidental perfection. You should welcome your mistakes and use them as indicators to put you back on course. Do not fear failure. If you do, you may never try. Just be prepared to identify and correct your mistakes. Don't try to explain them away as unimportant or they will come back again and again. A much wiser person than me once said "If I had it to do over again, I'd make the same mistakes, only faster."
--Dan Harlan

With the million plus that I have made in my life, I should be as wise as Solomon!

The only one's I DON't make, are the ones I see other people making all the time. I try to learn from them, rather than learn first hand. Prime example: DRUGS!! Douger has never done it, # one, because when I was a kid, if I did, my dad would have beat the living p*** out of me, and # 2, I look all around and see people going down that stupid path, and ruining their lives, losing their families, losing their self esteem, their careers, and, well, losing EVERYTHING, and winding up in jail. It's all around us, and you don't have to look far to see it.

And, yet, there are still kids and grownups who fall right into the same stupid trap every day, some how thinking that "It won't happen to me," as if they are somehow immune. I say, just turn on FOX and watch COPS, and you will see how much "fun" that garbage is.

To me, it takes a real chowder head to see it happening to others, and think that you will be immune. Duh!! "Why do you think they call it dope?"

Anyway, I'm sorry, I got kinda off topic, and I'm off my soapbox now. But Dan, you did leave the post kinda open ended.

We were talking about mistakes. My worst one was my first marriage. It's a lot of rot, and you don't want to hear it.

The average person make 8 mistakes a day. I've always been above average, with about 14.

Ah, Doug you are onto me. My open-ended post was a clever ruse to encourage responses. Hey, wait a second. It worked.
I've owned up to a few mistakes in other topics here. I've even left some on my videos. That bothers Louis a bit, but I like to show how to deal with them and keep going. Plus, I'd never want other performers to think I'm infallable (or is it infallible?). Here's another old saying you might like "It doesn't matter how good you are when you're good; It matters how good you are when you're bad." Mistakes, and learning from them, make it easier to be good the next time a mistake comes up. I see performers "choke" all the time just because some little thing isn't quite right. I think the audience would never notice or care if the performer would just fix it and move on.
--Dan Harlan

Reminds me of the time I caught my hand on fire during a show. I put the flames out, and finished the rest of the show in extreme pain, but did my best to not let it show on my face. Again, that's my acting training kicking in, plus my unfaltering belief that the "show must go on!"

(Still, I don't think I will ever repeat that mistake. I DID learn from that one, and I learned quickly. Pain is a FINE teacher!)

DaffyDoug wrote:
"Pain is a FINE teacher!"

That is exactly what I say when I teach/coach boxing!!!

It is a very good incentive to learn FAST!!!

Lucky for us (or most of us) there is not much of it in magic.

Ronnie Lemieux
Montreal
Canada

Didn't you get a rubberband slapping into your eye?

Yes, hmmm, mistakes. . .drugs, check, over it. . .first marriage, check, over it except when I find my stuff being sold in an antique store four years later but I'm not going to go into that. . . But the worst, far beyond any of the other stupid mistakes I've made, was dropping my key ring in the middle of a farmer's market. There's nothing worse. That ringing echoed through my head for months. But I think I'm over it now.

;)
Mark

Hey, it could have been worse.
How, you might ask... just be glad there wasn't a runaway vehicle with an elderly passenger behind the wheel crashing through the whole place as you were looking for your dropped key ring!

By the way... Happy Cinco De Mayo to everyone!

GlenD

True, Glen, true. So. . .do you speak from personal experience?

My lesson was. . .on a hot day, always dry your sweaty hands off before doing really cool new tricks with your rings.

And a happy Cinco De Mayo to you, too!!

Mark

Mark--
Did the dropping key ring happen in slow motion? I absolutely love that when time becomes altered in such a way to allow one to fully bask in the glory of one's embarrasment.

The farmer's market incident referenced was a tragedy that happened in Santa Monica not too long ago. You can never be prepared for everything.
--Dan Harlan

Thanks for answering Marks question, Dan. You beat me to it. And, no thankfully I was not there and probably should not have mentioned it in a joking manner. I hope I did not offend anyone, it was a terrible tragedy.

Yes absolutely slow motion. And the voices too. Very freaky.

So there must be something about famer's markets and linking rings. Maybe the lesson should be that they don't mix.

;)

Mark

On the whole positive failure note, I had the distinct pleasure of helping a cordial, female member of higher economic station realize the importance of stone-setting by fine jewlers everywhere.

And she helped me put my Ring Flite in the drawer.

Ah yes, the tragically expensive Ring Flite lesson. All too common and one I managed to avoid by listening to the horror stories of others. Take heed.
--Dan Harlan

Mistakes in magic...it was the last time I performed the Zombie on stage (1979)...imagine the gimmick peeking up over the top of the cloth, in front of an audience of over 300...the only time I have ever felt my blood turn literally COLD!

That mistake made me quit doing stage stuff for a long time. The next time I got in front of an audience, I was much older, and more rehearsed, and had a MUCH simpler act!

I shiver when I think of the sound of those people laughing...brrrrr!

Doug

I can beat that Dougini.

Try doing the Stigmata effect and forgetting what side the 9" NAIL is hidden on! I threw my hand down on the bag and felt the tip of the nail, talk about RED FACED!

How can you save yourself from something like that? Well, I did, luckily.
A little girl in the front row yelled out "I told you it was on the left side". We continued a little blame game for a few seconds which had everybody hysterical because she was so strong willed and so darn cute. She ended by just shaking her head and said " if you would have just listened to me!"

I let it end there and after the show her dad came up to me and asked me when and where did we find time to rehearse that.

Tim

Try having someone take forever looking for their dollar bill in a bag of chips and then getting so nervous you thought you were missing rings in your linking ring routine and made a fool of yourself! I mean, for a twelve year old...that's the worst that's happened to me. Haha, it was only a couple of months ago too. Just hope nobody talks about it in school! Haha, anyways, may not be all that bad but at least Mr. Taylor found a way to interpret it into part of his act!

Daniel Santos

The important fact, like I mentioned above, is to take notice of the error and learn from it. Fix it so it doesn't happen. Think about how to handle it if it does. Anticpate other problems that may be related to it. Mistakes can be your greatest teachers if you will let them be.
--Dan Harlan