Did I Pick the Wrong Hobby or What?

[Cain]

OK, question: Did I pick the wrong hobby or what? This is a standard rant, boring premise, tired argument, but I want to know. I'm youngish (mid-20s) and there's no question the Internet facilitated my interests in magic and enabled me to become the brilliant sleight-of-hand artist/hobbyist I am today. Still, one must admit, the Internet -- the accessibility of information -- runs anathema to secrets. Is this "art" suited for our time? This disenchanted world? The commercialization of magic, this silly _Street Magic Magazine_, the latest jackass on Youtube getting millions of hits for performing (and exposing) Chicago Opener, tends to drive me more than a little nutty.

Yes, I like magic. I'm obsessed with the pasteboards. It gives me an opportunity to avoid stupid conversation at social gatherings. It's a creative outlet. It offers a feeling of empowerment: "If I want, I could go up to that group of people and show them something they'll be talking about for weeks and remember for years." Still, I wonder if the last five or six years could have been better spent learning a new language or studying an instrument. Yeah, it's never too late, but the time has already been squandered.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

...It's a creative outlet...

That's the only reason you need.

Do it because you like to. Forget about all the maroons on Youtube, etc. The vast majority of people will never see those videos or care about them. You can always astonish "laymen" with the kinds of card tricks that their "Uncle Phil" never showed them or heard of.

Just don't ram it down their throats. I never do any tricks unless it's arranged in advance or I'm asked on the spot. Otherwise I just forget about it.

If you haven't already, get some classic card books. Expert at the Card Table, The Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert Card Technique and Bill Simon's Effective Card Magic are all available in paperback, by Dover, through any book store. Read and study them. Learn the history and techniques they describe. You'll have more in your arsenal than the hacks doing "street magic" and exposing methods on Youtube.

Sometimes it's a good idea to take a break from magic, too. When you don't feel like doing it, find some other constructive way to spend your time. You can still learn magic and have time to do some other things you mentioned.

[Stir]

DP has it right: "Do it because you like to". Could you have spent the same time learning and enjoying something else? Of course! Would that have been 'better'? 'Better' for whom? If you enjoyed learning it, it was time well spent. [My constant (and only) objective: to enjoy as much of the time I have as possible]

I've been learning and playing with magic for about fifteen years, and don't regret a second.

By the way, in my opinion, forget about the 'feeling of empowerment': it's an illusion. If you walk up to a group of strangers in a non-performance environment and do magic for them, it's almost certain that at least some of them would rather that you hadn't ... and you may leave them thinking they were pleased and amazed ... but it's equally likely they were interrupted, irritated, and unimpressed (but polite about it)!

[Bob Klase]

It offers a feeling of empowerment: "If I want, I could go up to that group of people and show them something they'll be talking about for weeks and remember for years."

Stir is right about the empowerment thing. There's a lot of immature geeks in magic that feel empowered but in reality they're being laughed at. That is probably not a good reason to have magic or anything else as a hobby. And while some people, some of the time, might still be talking about it for weeks and remember it for years, it's much more common they'll be talking about it for five minutes and remember for 2 weeks if you're lucky.

Still, I wonder if the last five or six years could have been better spent learning a new language or studying an instrument..

On the other hand, there are plenty of other reasons. If you want to learn a new language or study an instrument and you are so obsessed with magic that you can't do anything else then you probably could spend at least some of your time in other ways. But if it's not interfering with other things you want to do then it's a question of what you'd prefer to spend you time on- magic or something else.

[Cain]

Dinsdsale writes:
That's the only reason you need.

I suppose that's right. I've read _Royal Road_ and _Expert Card Technique_. I think the former is vastly over-rated_Royal Road_, though the latter is probably the very best value (for your money) in card magic. I still haven't read _Expert at the Card Table_. Frankly, the EATCT cultists slightly frighten me. More than once I've heard a devotee say, "Read this book from beginning to end, and then immediately go back to page one and read it again."

As for Stir and Klase with regard to the empowerment thing as being immature, I can see that angle, and it is certainly valid with regard to many people, but I think it's an over generalization. Those motivated in large part by ego are oblivious, obnoxious fools. I don't personally accost people on the street, or carry junk in my pockets in anticipation of doing some trick. However, I think its OK to draw empowerment from the ability to astonish (and the same goes for those with the ability to make people laugh, etc.). It's not something one self-consciously does in order to "prove" certain things to herself.

On the other hand, there are plenty of other reasons. If you want to learn a new language or study an instrument and you are so obsessed with magic that you can't do anything else then you probably could spend at least some of your time in other ways. But if it's not interfering with other things you want to do then it's a question of what you'd prefer to spend you time on- magic or something else.

I recently read a collection of essays by David Mamet:

The circus, the vaudeville, and, indeed, performance art please through the presentation of individually complete, intellectually empty effects (tricks, turns), such that the progress, one to the next, mimics the emotional journey undergone by the listener involved in the progression of an actual drama.

The work of arranging the circus, vaudeville, or burlesque turns int he best possible order is called "routining," a most revealing term meaning "optimally ordering the arbitrary."

Routining is, rightly, prized as a showbiz skill. One wants to close the circus with the quadruple somersault, not with the farting elephant. and much of the work of current film production -- that passing as both screenwriting and directing -- is essentially routining.

I believe that the enjoyment of the dramatic and the non-dramatic are PHYSIOLOGICALLY different -- that is, that different parts of not only the viewer's mind but of his BRAIN are engaged in the two similar yet discrete experiences.

The dramatic experience is essentially THE ENJOYMENT OF THE POSTPONEMENT OF ENJOYMENT. The mouth waters at the prospect of a delicious meal; the palms sweat in anticipatory delight of sex. The enjoyment of the pseudodramatic entertainment has nothing to do with anticipation. It is, not only aesthetically but physiologically, akin to actual ingestion or congress.

Adding in a footnote:

Consider the difference between enjoyment and stimulation. One leaves the ballet feeling refreshed, as a promise has been fulfilled. One quits the videogame or pornographic film feeling empty and vaguely debauched -- for one has only been stimulated. The brain, here craves a REPETITION OF THE STIMULATION, as with any drug. One may sit in front of the television for five hours, but after KING LEAR one goes home.

I suppose creating an effect, writing in a theatrical twist, has a strong anticipation-related component (that is, soon performing it for real people). It's something I enjoy doing. C'mon, let's be objective here: I wonder if learning a new language opens up possibilities (apart from practical job opportunities, which is attractive to me from a financial point of view): You could read great philosophers and novels in their original form. Goethe, Hegel, Marx versus Erdnase, Hugard, and Braue.

Today I spent over an hour working on a new card trick, and my inspiration was magic lecture notes. Not Keats, not Shelley, not Shakespeare, just a regular dude who does tricks. (Here I suppose I should be on guard against any possible assertions about illusions of grandeur because that remark about empowerment was somewhat clumsy). But there has to be something to that. I mean, obviously -- obviously -- watching sitcoms or freaking game shows is a complete waste of time. Vegging out is understandable. You have one life -- don't you want to try to get the most you can out of it? I see how it's easy to slide into a nihilistic argument: Isn't just about everything pointless when you think about it?

For me magic is an engaging diversion. You get to work on these neat little puzzles that are designed to fool and enliven other people. And maybe that's a good enough justification. But still, my self-loathing, self-doubting nature wonders if the hours and efforts put in are a sign of dementia.

[Stir]

You have one life -- don't you want to try to get the most you can out of it? I see how it's easy to slide into a nihilistic argument: Isn't just about everything pointless when you think about it?

For me magic is an engaging diversion. You get to work on these neat little puzzles that are designed to fool and enliven other people. And maybe that's a good enough justification. But still, my self-loathing, self-doubting nature wonders if the hours and efforts put in are a sign of dementia.

Cain ... as you are 'youngish', I am 'oldish' ... and I, too, used to worry about being demented. But then I realized that even if I was, I needn't let that minor flaw reduce my enjoyment of life! And I decided that, for me, getting the most out of my one life meant trying to enjoy it as much as I could ... not measured by achievement or power or wealth, but simply by whether I was having a good time. That decision tends to be self-fulfilling.

If magic causes you not to enjoy what life offers, try something else. I try many things, including a large dose of magic.