We mentioned on our magic oriented Twitter channel that the pandemic lockdown is both benefiting our practice of magic and seriously hurting our enjoyment of the Art.
We have had time to read, practice, watch videos, shop and practice. We practice a lot. We now have dealing seconds down better than we have ever hoped. We can push-off and strike the deal in alternating deals. We can one-hand deal seconds from the bottom of the deck. We can palm just about anything and are even trying to master a Matrix routine by following the videos of Shoot Ogawa san. (@shootogawa) Don’t get us wrong. We are no where close to his mastery. His level of mastery and our level of mastery are like a brick layer and a fine sculptor. We just want to get to the point where we can not make noise, show things and not hit our hands as we cross positions. Ogawa san is at the level where the magic takes place and there is no explanation for how things could possibly be accomplished.
We’ve read through The Expert at the Card Table and watched the Ackerman videos taking us through the sleights a couple of times now. As with our first encounter with the bible of card magic, we skip certain effects that we see as beyond our abilities but work on the ones that are just barely beyond what we think we can master. We are currently working with the Mexican Turn-Over. Once we get that down, life will be good.
But will it be good? We have no audience for whom to perform. It is worse than an empty theater. Our poor family is trapped into watching us endlessly dealing seconds, attempting bottom deals and responding to our questions, “How did that look?”
The Magic Castle was our favorite location because it allowed us to meet and mingle with the true pros in our Art, see great shows and to perform downstairs in the amateur rooms. Sometimes the rooms would get packed, sometimes there would be only a few folks. But at least it was an audience.
We have thought of Zoom shows and admire those who have taken to this publication method. We watch the acts (usually a single effect) and see inspired and accomplished performers as well as performers on their way up — still in need of additional practice but really making a great effort.
When all of this over and we have a chance to reflect on what positives we can take from the experience, we know it will be the time we would not have normally had to practice and learn as well as our immense appreciation for real live audiences.
This isn’t news but it does qualify as current events.
One of the many inconveniences of the current state of disease and our reaction to disease seems minimal compared with the devastating impact of the pandemic. But for those of us who perform for our income or even for enjoyment, the lack of access to a real-live audience is tough. It is not tough enough to seek opportunities to violate good public safety guidelines, but it is tough enough to make us miss the days of performing downstairs at the Magic Castle. We can imagine it is even worse for those of our profession who depend on appearance fees and meal allowances for their work at the greatest platform for our art we know.
We have seen some wonderful Zoom magic shows recently. We realized we only knew about them because friends (we’re not bragging but we have some outside our family) sent us links or we read about them on our Twitter timeline (@insidemagic).
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Magician, illusionist and risk-taker extraordinaire, David Blaine was spotted in 
We are in a tough era of life and magic. One of the benefits magicians offer to society is a respite from tragedy or daily anxiety caused by war, strife, natural disasters and economic troughs. Unfortunately, there is remarkable difference in this time of world concern, the individuals looked to for entertainment and distraction are not immune to the virus and economic devastation.