As I write this I’m sat in a garage in Cambridge while my car is having a health check, which falls rather neatly in to todays topic, transport.
When performing magic there are so many ways to approch it, I hear magicians say “I want to get the loudest reactions”, “I want to make them laugh”, “I want to impress them with my skill”, etc… there are plently to choose from, and yes, we have a choice. In fact the decisions we make before we get dressed and pick up a cup or a ball are the biggest we make towards impacting our performances.
Where does transport fit in all this? The first decision we can make as magicians is to choose what transport we’re taking, we can go by car, taxi or even coach if we want.
“He who is outside his door has the hardest part of his journey behind him.”
– Proverb
Choosing Your Vehicle
Going by bus
Getting on a bus means we turn up at a specific time with 30 other people, the schedule is pre-planned, we dont even need to tell the driver where we are going, the bus stops at predetermined locations and we arrive at the same destenation thousands if not millions of other people have arrived at. We bearly have to be consious and we’ll arrive at the right desination. It's cheap and easy!
Going by taxi
Getting a taxi costs more than a bus, we give the driver a specific time & location to pick us up, and drop us off. We get to decide when and where but the route we take is not up to us, as long as we end up at the right destination.
Last is the car
The car costs the most, it needs to pass its MOT every year, there’s insureance, and regular servicing to keep it working optimally. But we get to choose which one we want, and we can drive anywhere we want, whenever we like. The car gives us ultimate control over the journey, we can stop, change direction, go faster, slower, and choose the route we use to reach our destination, wheather thats the fastest or the more scenic.
What Has This Got To Do With Being A Magician?
We have choices. Before we could drive or afford taxi’s we took buses everywhere, eventually we could afford taxis, then a little later, we could afford a car. Change afford in terms of money to in terms of time and we have a new perspective.
When we want to take our audience on a journey we have choices
🚎 We can go by bus; buying a whole routine with the props, method, beats, patter, delivery and style all figured out for us, all we need to do is copy, it's the easist vehicle to take, the entire journey is predetermined, there are a set number of stops along the way all neatly mapped out for us we just need to show up. Hundreds of magicians are taking the same bus,doing the same routines, taking their audiences on the same journey, and arriving to the same destination.
🚕 We can go by taxi; taking an existing routine off the shelf and make changes, we can change the script to fit us better, alter the style to match our own, and change the props to fit us better. We get to take the audience on a journey that starts somewhere new and ends some where new but the route we take them on is out of our hands.
🚗 We can go by car; finding a routine that suits us and asking outselves what it is we like about it? We can then take it apart and decide we want to keep, change and throw away. We decide on the presentation, script, delivery, we can make it bigger, or smaller, adjust it to suit our needs, change the props, add bits of other routines to it. We can decide where we pick our audience up from, carefully plan our route with every twist and turn of the journey. Ultimately we get to share with them a beautiful desination with views no one has ever seen before, the views that exist in your mind.
This is what Maskelyn & Devant were talking about in Our Magic; Chapter one ‘The Three Degrees In art’ -READ FREE HERE
How To Upgrade From Buses?
Money or Time
We either have money or time. If we we are money rich we can hire someone to create a bespoke routine, come up with the concept, build and supply the props by hand, write the script in our voice, compleate with stage directions, make it fit us compleatly.
If we are’t money rich we all have time, even if it’s 5mins a day sat on the toilet we have time. with those 5mins a day we can have thoughts and ideas, write them down and start chipping away at a routine bit by bit.
I’m Happy Taking The Bus, Why Bother?
The vehicle determines the journey…and no one wants to be a bus wanker.
If we are happy sat on a bus there is absolutly nothing wrong with that, every person has there own reasons and motivations for doing magic. My hunch is that most of the readers of this newsletter are thoughtful, introspective, and enjoy exploring new ideas.
I want to have my own show one day, one were I transport my audience to a place no one has seen before, a place that exists inside my mind. I want to give them an experiance like no other, the look and feel, the magic, the words, style, delivery, a show where everything is complealy and utterly ME.
This is an ambitious goal but where would we be without ambition? I would’t be typing this newsletter on my macbook, sipping coffee from a machine while listening to music on my wireless earpods if it wasn’t for a string of people before me being ambitious… we’d all be sat on a bus.
In the next issue I’d like to cover the tactics I use to start making progress from bus to car. I enocurage you to join me on the journey and have fun while doing it!
Have a great week!
Matthew Le Mottée
Share the accountability - reply to this email with what are you working on, I'd love to hear what's keeping you and your magic dreams ticking right now.
🔁 If you know someone who might benefit from this newsletter it would be cool if you shared it with them, it would really help me out!
💪🏻 Workout Plan:
1) Think about where you currently are with your repertioure, be honest with yourself, are you riding in coach? By taxi? Or are you in the drivers seat?
2) Think of one thing you can do right now to level up, whether that’s as small a picking a routine to start chipping away at, or as big as finding a message you want to leave your audiences with.
3) Open your notes app/note book/computer and write down the goal to start chipping away at…You’ve got this! 💪🏻🙌🏻
🍎 Magic Diet
Book - Strong magic by darwin ortiz - This is the bible of magic theory, it expanded my thinking and changed the way I think about magic, being a magician and approching my work. It’s packed with stuff to get us going from bus, to taxi, to car!
App - Drafts - This is the app I use to capture my thoughts on the go, you can tag, organise and do all kinds of stuff with it. I use it for quickly captuing my thoughts on the go. When you click the app it opens stright in to a blank note so you can immediately start writing. Perfect!
You're receiving this email either because you have showed interest in reading my thoughts on the topic of magic, mystery, and performance OR you have signed up to a previous project of mine - If you're in the latter group and this is something not of interest please do unsubscribe.
