Hi Jon,

I guess many magicians have a day job other than magic that severely limits the time available for pracicing magic. Besides, there are a couple of others things that can be fun to do somethimes. So we have to maximise the effect of our practice sessions.
How do you get the most out of your pracice sessions? How much time to you spend to learn new moves and new effects, how much to hone your skills at old ones?
HOW do you practise? Do you look for new effects on a regular basis, or don't you start working on something new until the old stuff is polished well enaugh that you have to gain some performance experience before going back to it for refinements?
What is the ratio between your practice of moves and your practice of tricks?

Dominik

Paul Daniels said that magicians should set aside a certain amount of time every day to practice. It is just as important as anything else, maybe even more so.

However, I'm terrible and I can't put an hour aside to practice. If I have a new routine I am working on, I will spend short amounts of time over a period on it. What I do is go through the routine in my head. I can do this when I am driving, walking along the pavement, watching TV etc. By knowing what I need to do in my mind, it is somehow easietr when I pick up the props.

Also, by going through it in my head, I can distance myself from the mechanics and loko at the effect or routine overall, rather than from behind the props, as I would be if I had them in my hands. Looking in the mirror shows you what you are doing but is a bad habit to get into because you are watching yourself rather than looking at where you would in performance.

What I will do is get a feel for a routine or an effect and then five staight in to the big practice session..... a job. If I feel it is right, I will try something out to see how it fairs with real people. BY having an audience, I will get a feel for the timing, the misdiretion, the off beat moments, the angles etc.

It is tough to bring a new effect in to a repertoire. It means that something has to get dropped. If people have not seen a magician live before, I want to offer them the very best effects. After all, I am the benchmark by which they will describe magicians in general (a terrible practice but an unfortunately common one). This means that I have to choose which card trick, which coin trick, which borrowed note trick, which borrowed ring trick, which finale (okay tha one's easy!) etc. This does mean I limit myself but then it is up to me to choose what I feel are the very best effects to show.

I rarely put a new effect into my #1 act. I will use it when I have a lareg cocktail party and people are minlging and I need more material than I do on a job with 8 tables of 10. The last routine that wasn't mine that I put in was Chinese Coins Off Ribbon. I am still not entirely happy with it so every time I do it, it is another practice session for me!

As for the practice of moves over tricks, I will practice the moves much more. I see this as having an arsenal I can dip into whenever required. There are some moves I am practicing now and I don't know if I will ever get them down well enough to actually perform in front of laymen. Also, by practicing moves when I'm watching TV or reading or whatever then my mind is on something else, as it is in performance. If you concentrate solely on a move while practicing it then you are likely to have that same sort of mindset when perfroming it.

All the heavy stuff's coming out now! Phew!