Chair Lift & The Skill Demon

The picture above is our new chairlift.

If you’ve never seen one, it’s a motorized chair attached to a rail. It slowly moves the occupant from the ground floor to the second floor.

We had it installed for my mother-in-law who lives with us. She’s getting older and has some pretty serious breathing issues. The chair lift helps her get upstairs easily.

Right after it was installed, I immediately asked the techs, “Does it have Mrs. Deagle speed?”

For fans of the movie Gremlins, that reference ought to put a smile on your face.

The chair lift is a good thing for my mother-in-law. It’s going to make things easier for her.

But that chair lift reminded me of my battles recently. You see, I was recently possessed by an attack…from the Skill Demon.

The Skill Deon is my nickname for that nagging feeling that I’m not earning my stripes as a magician unless I’m doing technically demanding magic. You know, Faro shuffles, back palms, etc.

The thing is, I know my limitations. Like Eugene Burger in his later years, I have banished from my repertoire any sleight-of-hand move I deem too difficult.

And like Eugene, I don’t do any tricks that require a double lift.

I’m pretty comfortable with my skill level in magic. It’s been enough to earn a really good living for the last 20+ years.

But every once in a while, the Skill Demon rears its ugly head. It tries to surprise me. Or catch me off guard.

If you listen to the Professional Magician podcast, you know that I recently reviewed several Rubik’s Cube-based effects.

Some were dead easy. Some were more challenging, at least to me. For some reason, I thought that to earn my stripes as a Rubik’s Cube magic performer, I had to know how to solve the thing.

Truth is, I learned how to solve the cube about 13 years ago. I got fairly good at it, with an average solve of about a minute. I was proud of myself, but these days, that’s nothing. YouTube geniuses can solve the cube in just a few moments.

I didn’t stand a chance.

Yet I struggled to learn these new moves with cube magic, thinking I had to accomplish great magic.

Because the Rubik’s cube is a common toy, for some reason I didn’t equate the ability to manipulate the cube as the same thing as sleight of hand magic.

But it is.

The dreaded Skill Demon tricked me.

Now I have committed to just doing cube magic within my reach.

I feel that as magicians, we should each play to our strengths.

If you’re a world-class sleight-of-hand artist, and you can engage your audience with entertaining presentations while doing it, by all means, do the amazing knuckle-busting stuff.

Me? I can handle some sleight of hand. But what I can’t handle is memory work.

Trying to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded in front of an audience was one of the dumbest things I could have done. I only tried it twice. Yes, I solved the cube. But trying to recall the algorithms (prescribed series of moves) and talk to the audience at the same time was impossible for me.

What if your natural gifts don’t include amazing sleight of hand? Doesn’t matter.

You can still be an incredible performer. Comedy, drama, audience engagement, etc. Those are all worthy skills to develop and focus on as a magician.

And I want to stress, your comfort levels will be different compared to other performers. Maybe you can Faro shuffle all day, but the thought of double writing gives you a feeling of nausea.

Double writing scares a lot of performers. So does pocket writing.

I can do both all day, no problem. But ask me to use a rough and smooth deck and I’ll run screaming out of the room.

I have recently spent a lot of time watching Harry Anderson’s and Mac King’s Penguin Live lectures. They are two of my favorite lectures.

Both performers advocate a low-skill approach to magic. Harry called his favorite effects “cocktail proof.”

Mac King is proud of the fact that some magicians have described his Vegas act as a magic show with “no moves.”

Yet both are among the most charismatic and amazing magicians ever.

I think so many magicians place their focus on technical skill as a way of feeling strong self-worth. I get that. Some of those moves are amazing.

But to connect with your audience, you gotta focus on them and not what your hands are doing.

Everyone is different. And everyone will have different comfort levels with technical skill. I guarantee there are sleights that even Jeff McBride would shy away from in a live show.

How do you judge your comfort level?

For me, I listen to my gut. To this day, I’ve got certain moves I have to do in a given trick in a given show that makes me a little nervous. Not a lot, but a little. Even after thousands of performances.

But that’s okay. I can get through them without any trouble.

There are other moves, however, where even after months of work and outing them through several shows, I still felt really nervous. Like big-time fear that I’d mess them up.

Those are the moves (and the effects) I’d cut from my shows.

If, after months of practice and performing them in live shows the moves STILL made me nervous…Nope. Time to go.

Performing is stressful enough. With travel, setup, marketing, and a slew of other concerns when running my business, I want the actual show to be as easy and enjoyable as possible.

Are there moves that still cause you to feel that pang of fear? Do you still do them out of some obligation to the Skill Demon?

Go through your set lists. Find the effects that you have put in the work but still make you nervous. And again, this will be different for everyone.

Get rid of those tricks. Love the effect but hate the method? Find an easier one. Give yourself a break.

You’ll enjoy performing a lot more.

--Cris

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