Last time I spoke about the progression from buying tricks to making them your own by using the 'Bus, Taxi, Car' analogy, and rather elegantly introduced the ‘Bus wanker’. (The In-betweens TV show reference).
This week I have shared some tactics showing how I have implemented this in my own work to help you get there quicker.
"Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own."
Bruce Lee
Bus, Taxi, Car | 🚌 👉 🚖 👉🚗
To refresh your memory form the previous riveting read:
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.
Moving from Bus to Taxi
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 time and energy.
Choosing to take an audience on a journey means we get to make choices.
🚎 We can go by bus; the easist vehicle to take, buying a whole routine with props included, method, beats, patter, delivery and style all figured out for us, all we need to do is copy, 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 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.
If you have the time but dont know what or how to start chipping away then consume more knowlege about magic read books, articles, watch videos, keep your magic diet nutritious and varied. Exposure to new concepts and ideas will lead to new ideas of your own.
BUT 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.
Personally, 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, the feel, the magic, words, style, delivery, a show where everything is complealy and authentically 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 brave and ambitious
… we’d all be sat on a bus.
In the next issue I going 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! Also the newsletter is changing its name for something a little fun and memorable.
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!
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