Are you inspired by things around you? I am … but only when I actually spend some time thinking about the things I see.

It’s a common misconception that inspiration for magic ideas will just jump into your head while you’re going about your daily business. For most people, this simply isn’t true. Instead, you need to think about and read into the things that inspire you. Here’s an idea that I’ve played around with in the past: use current affairs to inspire inspire you. I’m not talking about creating topical effects, but by using headlines and ideas as inspiration for new effects.

As I’m writing this, I’ve randomly picked three headlines and buzzwords from recent news reports, newspapers and news websites. I have no preconceived ideas of what I’m going to write and will spend no more than ten minutes thinking about these ideas. Let’s go …

Those truly were made up in the last couple of minutes. They’re my best ever creations, but they’re a start. I often focus these sessions on creating tricks for certain situations. Right now, I’m working on some informal impromptu tricks and some MC bits (don’t ask!), so it turns out that the credit crunch and hijack tricks may actually be useful.

Now it’s your turn: what tricks can you create by using current affairs as a starting point? Do you have any ideas for the three headlines that I listed? Let’s turn the comments of this post into a session! Me, Tyler, Rich and Luke will be on hand to share our ideas too. Over to you!

My recent post urged you to slow down a little when learning sleight of hand. When I made that post, I wondered whether I’d receive responses from move monkeys like myself who were concerned that they would get bored of learning just one move. And that’s exactly the response that several people emailed me.

But, there’s something I deliberately didn’t address: the difference between practice and play. I play with moves, tricks, concepts and ideas on a daily basis. However, along with those kind of play sessions I also sit down and practice. A practice session for me is when I sit down and focus on one thing in particular. I block out everything but the move or trick that I’m working on. This last week, for example, I’ve been practising the One Handed Top Palm with my other hand as I think it’ll be useful to learn it with both hands. I play with ideas for hours, but I’ve only been focusing on that one move in my practice sessions.

Just like practice, play is essential. As you get more experienced in magic it gets harder to do, but I urge you to try to play with ideas as often as possible. Playing with lots of moves, for example has its uses. As does playing with old apparatus (unless you’re Rich Aviles).

I recently lied to you. I told you that there are no facts in magic. There are actually lots of facts in magic. For example, here are some proven facts for you:

I’ll be back with more facts soon!

A lot of serious card magicians that I talk to are in a rush to learn too much too soon. They want to learn every sleight possible: first the Classic Pass, then the Dribble Pass, then onto Charlie Miller Cascade Pass before continuing with a Second Deal and a Bottom Deal. All of this in a few months.

I have a different point of view though. I take a single sleight and I work on it for a good few months. This gives me time to explore lots of descriptions on the move and ask lots of magicians for feedback and criticism. Most importantly, it allows me to concentrate and focus my practice sessions better than if I’m trying to learn too much at once.

Then, when I’m ready (normally when I’m getting proficient with the move), I start to fully research tricks that utilise the move and start playing around with my own ideas too. I think of this as the Royal Road to Card Magic approach; learn a move and then learn some applications.

If you’ve got a lifetime in magic ahead of you, I think this will be the best long term approach for learning magic effectively. Slow down, focus, experiment and enjoy. The end result will be an arsenal of effective, perfected moves as opposed to a large repertoire of poorly practiced and ill-used moves.

What will your chosen move for the next few months be?

Where are the facts that the best effects can be described in one sentence?

Where are the facts that being natural is the most convincing way to perform magic?

Where are the facts that people most name the number seven when asked for a number between one and ten?

Where are the facts that you shouldn’t open with a card trick?

Where are the facts that mentalism and magic don’t mix?

There aren’t any: these points are only observations made by magicians about their own performances. I hear too many magicians touting these ideas as facts, but while some of them give good advice, they have never been proven to work for every magician in the world. Because of this, we shouldn’t be afraid to take them, play with them and prove them wrong.