Free Your Mind

Remember the day when the world was all abuzz with murmurings of that David Copperfield guy making the Statue of Liberty vanish? I wonder how that brainstorming session went. Did his team think he was crazy? How did he come up with the idea? Did he have the method or the effect first? Was it inspired by another effect? So many questions come to mind when I think of something like this.

Root:

Let’s Remember Our Roots. The Root: Any effect is possible. As magicians, we are creators. We create miracles, illusions, effects, moments, feelings, wonder, etc., etc. Even if we don’t literally “create” (i.e., design and build) an illusion, we still “create” illusion when we perform the effect. On top of all the things we “create” during a show, we also may create other things outside of our show.
We create relationships, customers, shows and maybe even products to sell. As a creator, we should insist that we do not limit ourselves. Don’t get stuck in your paradigms. Remember that with magic, anything is possible. I remember an old episode of Amazing Stories back in the day called Mr. Magic. The basic premise was that a washed up has-been magician was about to get kicked out of his venue when he comes across an old deck of cards that have magic powers.
The cards came to life and would animate, and fly around the room and all kinds of crazy stuff. When watching that as a kid, it was so magical and beautiful. Now as a grown adult, it’s even more beautiful and magical because the story’s beautiful, and the effects are beautiful. But most importantly, the effect is possible. Remember, anything is possible with magic. Any effect is possible. I have no clue what the method would be, but one exists.

Branch:

Let’s Build Our Branches. Your Challenge: Create an impossible effect. Take some time, even just 30 minutes and think up (and write down) as many crazy effects you can think of. Don’t think about stuff only in your genre. Don’t think about methods. Simply think about effect. You might be only a close up coin worker. But that doesn’t mean you can’t think of a crazy illusion.
Give yourself no limits. How ’bout “make the moon disappear.” Why not? How ’bout raising the dead in a cemetery? Sure it’s morbid, but it’s possible. The point of this exercise isn’t, necessarily, to come up with a method. It’s simply to come up with an effect. Think of the most outrageous and impossible effects you can imagine, and write them down.
Then, every so often, re-read the list. Think about the effects (not possible methods). Just continue doing this for the rest of your magic career. Every few months, read the list. As you do this, ideas (not necessarily methods for the list of effects) will come to you. Write them down. Write down everything. Let it soak into your subconscious. Force yourself to think outside of your boxes to free your mind. Remember Neo’s first jump across the building. Free your mind. Eventually, you will be almost completely free, and ideas will flow freely. You won’t be able to stop them.

Now got study the classics and go discover your true magical self.