Yes, that brilliant line was uttered by the master comedian, Christopher Titus. I feel it is something we can all really learn and benefit from, especially in magic.


If you dislike reading performance stories, move on to another thread, fair warning.


In January it will be officially 1 year since "The day the earth stood still". No, not the movie, that's what I call my performance at a party last January.

Having done some magic for a girl over Christmas, her parents asked me to perform for her birthday party in mid-January. Wanting to perform more and more often, I gladly accepted.

Leading up to the party I was miserable. I didn't want to perform in the slightest. I didn't even put together a routine until the night before.

As you can imagine, I bombed. The effects were poorly done, to technical for youngins (I'm southern, I can say that) to understand.. bah... it was horrific.

I left there feeling horrible and, over the next week of thinking, decided not to perform any more. I put my full heart into music and my drumming, something I thought I was much better at. I figured magic performance was done for me and for good.

Earlier this year my drum instructor moved away and quit teaching. Finding much more free time on my hands I began working harder on magic and my performance ability.

This next January, one year from the performance that nearly ended my magic career, I'm starting over.

My website is up, I'm doing my graphic work now and, when I launch, will have newspaper adds as well as flyers anywhere I can find to put them. I am going to do everything I can to make magic my part-time job. In there, in the trenches, where we should be.


The moral? Failure is not an end, it just shows us what doesn't work. Whenever you fail in life or magic choose to learn something from it. Also understand that times change, who you are or what you do today might not be the same in a year. I most certainly know I am a changed person from who I was just one year ago. Work hard, take your failures, and never give up. If I hadn't given up then, who knows where I could be now. Learn from your failure, and learn from mine.


C
(For anyone who cares for any reason, this is also on T11)

I’ve read that a tolerance for mistakes is a creative characteristic, mistakes should be seen as ‘portals of discovery’ or an ‘opportunity to begin again more intelligently.’

Eugene Burger talks about giving yourself permission to fail. I think this is important, as well as taking a break when you’re frustrated with things. I’ve been back into magic for about a year now, my goal is to at least polish some of my ‘skills’ as I was not happy being a dilettante whom butchers tricks he never learned well.

C,
Your feelings and experience in bombing is one that I too encountered early on.
I felt the same way and learned that I had a way to go.
I still blow a routine occasionally but have learned to laugh it off and learn from it.
It's not the end of the world and if it can happen it will.

What really hinders us from being creative? What is it about ourselves or the world around us that inhibits us from trying to be more creative in the magic that we do and the magic that we share with our audiences?

One word came screaming to the top the more I started thinking about it as I read this post. That word is simply “Fear”. It is funny how a simple 4 letter word can be one element that hinders us so much that it stops us dead in our tracks and prevents magic from reaching higher levels of creativity. It is amazing how such a simple concept of fear can really be so damaging to the magic that we do.

But why is this? What is it about fear that affects us so greatly? For starters, I think the initial fear stems from the idea of wanting to be and feel safe. Let me explain if I may. As a magician the easiest thing I can do is to copy or mimic another performance I have seen or to use a routine that I have seen done before me. We know this is true and that this happens because we all have seen it or some may even admit that we do it ourselves.

But why do we do this? Why do we take the easy way out when we could be creative and create routines that are as unique as the individual performing the magic? I think the answer is that of safety. Perhaps utilizing a routine we have seen done before, or a routine we “borrowed” from someone else, allows us to feel safer on that stage. We feel that if the act or routines bombs then it is not us that is the problem but the routine itself. It becomes less personal to us and we often can handle that type of failure easier. It is not us who failed but the routine we used.

In this manner the blame is never placed on the performer. It is simply displaced onto the routine we used. Sure this is a safe way out. It allows one to deal with failure in a way that perhaps is easier to get through. However, does this really make us better magicians and better creative thinkers? I say, “no it does not.”

It is the easy way out. It is the safe bet in a gambler’s hand. But it does not make us better thinkers of magic. It does not make us better performers. It does not allows us to start thinking for ourselves by learning to create magic that takes out audiences on journeys they have not experienced before.

To be a better magician and a creative thinker of magic one must first get over this fear of fear itself. We must be willing to venture away from what we know is safe. But how does one do this with the magic that we do? Well I think it starts with the understanding of the word “fear” itself.

So many folks have the notion that fear is a bad thing. It must be looked upon and viewed in a negative way. We must not allow ourselves to have failures cause it makes us less of a person. To many, fear is defined as an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, real or not. But in that definition lays the answer we seek. Fear may not nor does it have to be real. Nor does it have to be seen as a negative thing at all. Fear does not have to mean failure.

To many of us when we fail on stage or in or magical performance we fear trying anything new. It hinders us from advancing our art. We become stagnant because fear of failing prevents us from trying something again. If we were creative and if we tried and failed, why would we want to try it again?

So how do we allow ourselves to be creative and not let the fear of creativity stop us? Well that lies in changing the way we view failure in the first place. I now view failure in a totally different way that I personally feel has helped change my magic by leaps and bounds. I would like to share my quote with you.

“Failure is only failure if you fail to learn. If you learn even one thing from any failure, then isn’t that failure really a stepping stone on the path of success?”

Think about that for a minute. How powerful can our magic become if we viewed failing in this way? How creative could we be if we simply allowed ourselves to view failure as a mere stepping stone on the path of learning? I would like to think amazing things could happen to the art of magic we love so much.

So take these words and think them over and apply them directly to your magic. Do not fear creativity. Do not fear the notion of trying something new with your magic. Everyone is bound to fail the first couple times out, but then again some of the best things in life came out of people willing to take the that risk. Are you willing? I hope so.

Kyle

“Failure is only failure if you fail to learn. If you learn even one thing from any failure, then isn’t that failure really a stepping stone on the path of success?”

Wow...

Thanks.

A person that succeeds is one that gets up one more time than he falls down.

Let me be another to encourage you to keep working, you will get it. Your unique blend of skills and talents are yours only. The world needs to see them.