Everywhere you go in magic circles at some point or another you’ll hear magicians utter the word ‘Jam‘ or ‘Session‘. What exactly is a ‘Jam‘ and why do we ‘Session‘?

A ‘Jam Session‘ when talking about magic,  is usually when a group of magicians get together to share ideas or work on new routines. Mostly just to hang out and be around the thing that they love, magic. I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by amazing magicians my entire career and the jam sessions I’ve been blessed to be in are nothing short of amazing. It’s almost like being at a convention when ever I hang out. I know that this type of thing doesn’t happen for everyone. But that doesn’t mean that ‘Jam Sessions’ aren’t worth the time.

When I do go to these sessions topics of all types are brought up. Anything from sleights to theory of why you should place an object somewhere.

The sessions go much deeper than just tricks. It’s about improvement all around. I’ve even had discussions as to why a suit jacket should be buttoned or unbuttoned while performing, and even how to comb your hair.

Early in my magic career I thought topics like this were ridiculous and not needed. I believed that attention to such ‘trivial’ detail was nothing more than ‘old’ guys listening to themselves talk. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

As I quickly learned, everyone has something to learn and you can learn something from everyone if you know how to listen. ‘Jam Sessions‘ are a wonderful way for magicians to meet, connect, share ideas and invent new ones. Some of which we use today because the people who we know as ‘Legends‘ did just that. Don’t be afraid to go out and go to magic shops, meet other magicians, and most importantly don’t put others down. Don’t discourage anyone and be open to ideas. You may create the next amazing thing by just listening and working out ‘kinks‘.

The bottom line is for me that I’ve noticed a trend in the magic world lately of hiding ‘secrets‘ from other magicians. There seems to be less ‘comradery‘ in our gild of the magi. Let’s get back the days when we shared and helped each other grow. Start a jam session and help each other out. Share ideas, and most importantly grow together.

-Xavior

• Ray Cosby
• Tony Clark
• Dan Harlan
• Jon Racherbaumer
• Nathan Kranzo
• Paul Gernter
• Mike Vincent
• Richard Osterland
• Carl Cloutier
• Doug Conn
• Gaston Quieto
• Marcus Eddie
• Akria Fujii
• John Gustaferro
• Rich Aviles
• Woody Aragon
• Kainoa Harbottle
• Caleb Wiles
• Pit Hartling

Why am I listing all of these magicians?

Because this is your opportunity to ask them anything you want. In the upcoming weeks I’m going to be interviewing these well known magicians and more. I know there are questions that I’ve always wanted to ask them and now you can too. Submit your questions below and have your chance to be answered by some of the great thinkers of our time. All questions must be submitted by April 27,2012 at noon EST. This is going to be EPIC!

-Xavior Spade

Do all the hard moves you like!

For a long time, I’ve practiced many card moves in order to have an arsenal of techniques to help me out of many situations. That being said, some of the moves are not the most “practical” but are useful in certain situations. Some of the moves are very difficult but allow for minimal obvious movement and others require a good amount of misdirection. Regardless, it always seems that someone has a move that’s better, or a reason as to why the move I’m doing isn’t the best choice. 

To be honest, I believe that every move has a purpose and also everyone has a move that they can do very well in almost any condition. There are so many tricks, moves, controls, steals etc. that it’s almost impossible to learn them all. But just because you have a move that you’re comfortable with does that mean that you shouldn’t learn any others? If the move is hard, does that mean that it’s useless because there is an easier way? Should we always look for shortcuts?

I’ve found that sometimes the best way to reach my goal in a close up effect is to use moves that can be considered “difficult” or moves that “can be achieved with a double lift.”

This is usually spot on, the end result is the same but sometimes using a difficult move can create moments where seemingly nothing has happened and I can do things “away from the heat”. This is why I practice those moves, especially with cards. When doing card effects I try to make the effect as streamlined and “hands off” as possible. My goal is to make my audience think that I never touched the deck.

Too often  most people say that moves are too difficult or are not needed don’t take the time to really study the move and its possibilities–by saying that something is “too hard” you’re putting up blocks in your learning and in your performance.

I’ve been luck enough to be surrounded by some of the most amazing slight of hand professionals of our time and I’ve never heard them say that something is “too hard“, instead they say “I’m gonna have to practice this for a while” or “let me play with this and see if I can use it“.

Test your limits and try something you’ve never done before. Practice hard and develop a solid practice routine and before you know it people will be telling you “that move is way too hard.” It’s actually a really good feeling because usually that person can’t or won’t take the time that you have and will not get as far as you will go.

Tell me what you think of “hard moves”. And tell me what are your thoughts as well.

-Xavior

I wrote this post because I wanted to share some of my practice regiment. These are some of the steps I take in order to accomplish my goal when performing. I hope that you can take something out of this and apply it to your magic.

-Xavior Spade

Magic is something that is more than just a hobby to me. It is a way of life. I constantly strive for perfection. I work constantly to improve, not just my technical skill but my performance as well. It takes much more than just practicing in front of a mirror.

Step 1

When I first decide I’m going to practice something the first thing I do is make sure that I understand the details of what I’m doing. I read, re-read, or watch and re-watch and try to follow along.

Sometimes I get frustrated as we all do. At that point it’s time to stop and take a breather. Once you get frustrated it becomes hard to retain information because instead of paying attention to what you’re doing you feel like ripping apart your book or destroying your cards.

Don’t let the anger take control of you.

Take a step back and take your mind off of it. You’d be surprised how much you actually learned when you decide to go back to practicing.

Step 2

Now that I’ve gotten the moves down it’s time to stop looking and practice again. When you first practice it’s ok to look at your hands. However when performing if you’re looking at your hands it’s not a good sign. It will tell your spectators that you’re doing something. If you have to look at your hands to do a move chances are that you don’t know it well enough.

Everything you do in your performance should be “automatic“.  You shouldn’t have to think about your next action. So after I feel that I’ve gotten the “tech” side of the trick pretty much down, I begin to think about how I’m going to “deliver” the trick. What meaning am I going to put to the effect or vice versa. Just doing a trick is just doing a trick. I’m a professional magician and because of that I don’t just do tricks. I perform miracles. I want people to walk away with something they’ve never experienced before.

I NEVER want to hear the words “That was a nice trick!”

Now comes what I consider to be the most important part of practice. Practice performance. This is the part that I feel SO many magicians leave out. They go from practice in the private straight to the show! There’s no rehearsing or practicing or figuring out if it’s even good for a show.

I can always tell when a magician has really practiced and rehearsed his routine because he has more to say then “Ok so we put your card in the middle. And now it’s on top.”

To me the difference between a trick and routine is how “complete” it is. Is there purpose to what you are doing? Have you taken away possible solutions to the effect? How engaging is it?

There are countless effects that are beautiful to us, but are just too confusing to a lay person. Is this effect one of them?

In my professional set I do mentalism. Mentalism in practice is technically much easier than a lot of magic because there’s almost no slight of hand. The true art to mentalism is routining and scripting. However it is just as important to EVERY type of magic.

Step 3

The real world.

Just because you’ve gotten the trick down and you think it’s up to par doesn’t mean that it’s quite ready. This is the point that I take my practiced routines and do them for real people and use the experience to tweak the routine future. I try to pay attention to what the spectators are looking at and when to help me develop better misdirection and to see what if what I’m saying is helping to generate the reactions I’m looking for. It can take me up to 6 months before I decide to put a routine into my working set.

Don’t take shortcuts, don’t settle for anything but what you want. Being the best takes time.

Below are a few videos. Both of the same trick. One is a video of what I believe is a complete routine and one is not. Watch them both and tell me what you think. Also share your practicing tips.

Videos

This is Tommy Wonder who to this day has one of my favorite Ambitious Card Routines.

This is an ambitious card routine that need some work

-Xavior Spade

If you haven’t seen Liquid Metal or Liquid Metal 2, then you haven’t seen one of the great thinkers of our time. Morgan Strebler is more than just someone who released a trick. He helped spawn a whole generation of magicians who shop for forks as magic props now!

Perhaps you didn’t know that aside from doing amazing close-up magic, Mr. Strebler was lined up with a $10 million contract to perform in South Carolina with a theater built just for him!

What happend to it? Where did the lights and glamour go?

The story is deeper than you can imagine.

When Morgan first told everyone about his contract deal at the Pat Boone Family Theater, I was surprised to say the least. I had never known that Morgan did stage shows. Turns out Morgan is more accomplished then most people think. How else would he be offered such an amazing deal, right?!

Soon after he got this deal I spoke to him about it and I don’t believe I ever heard someone so excited and proud as he was and should be, but things took a turn for the worst.

Morgan disappeared and I lost contact with him for a few months, when I got to speak to him again he had resigned from the show with vague details. A few days ago he told me everything and asked that I share it with all of you.

Liquid Metal Productions was how it all started, run and owned by Mr. Strebler. But as times changed so does the need to change business types, so with this wonderful opportunity he and his father started Liquid Metal Holdings in order to allow for outside investors. Morgan maintained 55% ownership and his father was next in line. Morgan was to head up the entertainment and his father alongside Morgan would handle the business end.

Sounds like a match made in heaven, having someone you trust by your side supporting your dream. If only it stayed that way. Soon after everything started they called in Franz Harary to help design the thearter and to get the show up to par. Franz has a special place in Morgan’s heart as he is Morgan’s mentor.

Things seemed to be going great until Morgan’s father lied to the press and the leasing company saying that they had over $1 million dollars capitol when, in fact, they had just under $500k. Morgan didn’t agree with this action but it was already too late, the deed had been done.

Shortly after Morgans father began squandering money, buying a $50k  vehicle out of company funds which was used solely for personal use, taking the entire staff out to dinner and drinks every night on the company card and leasing a mansion in Grand Dunes, SC which if you didn’t know is one of the most expensive developments in that area. All of this paid out of the company dollars.

As business progressed, the staff cared less about the show and more about who worked Morgans father in his old company. So much so that anything Morgan suggested was almost always voted down by the board. This included using Morgans stage manager that has been with Morgan for years and hiring one of the local stage managers, who according to Morgan, just didn’t have a clue and even doing the same with Franz Harary.

This goes deeper than just professional relationships as Morgan suggested hiring a close cousin to help with the finances being that he was an IRS employee. Going as far as to offer him a job and having him move to South Carolina. He was so good that 10 mins. into the first meeting he spotted a $13k accounting error, and shortly after that he was as well let go. Even family wasn’t safe. When the issue of misuse of company funds and issue of his cousin being let go was addressed by Morgan he was told by his father that he could easily find 10 other magicians to do the show, he wasn’t needed and if he’d like to quit to submit it in writing. Which was done:

Dear Glenn,

Per your request on August 22 2011 . I’m submitting to you my written resignation from Liquid Metal Holdings LLC, and relinquishing my 55% ownership within the company. You said that I could easily be replaced by ten different magicians, and that you didn’t need me. That being said, I wish you and the rest of the team at LMH a long, happy and prosperous journey!

Best wishes,

Morgan Strebler

That sent a chill down my spine. I began thinking about Morgan’s attitude during this whole ordeal and realizing that he continued to be a very plesant and helpful person and never having anything negative to say. This shows a great deal about his character. It made me grow a great deal of respect for him. Would anyone else have handled this so graciously?

So what is going on now?

When Morgan left and gave up his share at LMH the company had less than 100k in funds

The show still hasn’t opened

There is no word of when it will open.

What is Morgan doing?

Morgan Strebler has been in talks with other thearters in Myrtle Beach to perform.

He has also been pushing for a reality television show that will be aired here in the United States. He’s at the top of the list and we here at Ellusionist would like to help him out. All you have to do is vote for him at the link provided below. You can vote once a day so please show your support and vote for him daily. He’s given so much to the magic community. Let’s help give him a push.

To vote for Morgan Strebler click the link below and vote for him daily!!

VOTE FOR MORGAN STREBLER

Strebler2012

I hope this article gives you some insight as to how things may go wrong, and how best to deal with them. Be confident, work hard and things will go well for you. Never let anyone hold you back!

I’d like to thank Morgan Strebler for talking with me about this situation, and for allowing us to post it here for all of you. I am lucky to consider Morgan one of my friends. Thanks again.

-Xavior Spade