Man in the Mirror - Stone Cold Magic Magazine

Man In the Mirror
By Jeff Stone

Michael Jackson had a great song called Man In The Mirror. Believe or not, I had this title and rough draft of this article scheduled about 3 weeks ago. I mention this only because it was just last week that MJ passed away. A bit of a strange coincidence that I chose this title 2 weeks before his passing. So let us continue on with our regularly scheduled episode of Roots and Branches. If you don’t like that, then you can just Beat It. What! You Wanna Be Startin’ Something? Now Who’s Bad?!

Ok… that was awkward . . . So why the heck is this article called Man in The Mirror? Simple. I recently was watching a copy of Aaron’ Fisher’s Panic, and after watching it, I began reading a thread about it on The Magic Cafe. The thread mentioned that it takes a lot of mirror work to get the illusion to work correctly, but once you get it, it’s beautiful. As crazy as this may sound, I have not done mirror practice in a long time. Too Long. This thread on The Cafe reminded me of a very important root that I have neglected.

Root:
Let’s remember our roots. This month’s root: Mirror Work. Ultimately, mirror work isn’t entirely fool-proof or entirely angle-proof. These days with video cameras being so cheap, you can get a lot better feedback from a camera. However, mirrors are instant feedback. You can look in the mirror and get immediate feedback for many many sleights and moves. For example, if you are working on a pass, this is a great place to start. What about a retention vanish with a coin or a rub a dub vanish with a card. These are all effects that can be greatly improved by starting with mirror work.

As always, I try to keep this column simple and to the point. We all know about mirror work, but I can’t imagine that I’m the only guy who has let that slide over time. I used to spend hours in front of a mirror practicing Paul LePaul’s Invisible Turn-Over Pass and other moves. I haven’t done that for years.

Lately, I’ve been trying really hard to rekindle that student spirit that I had back 15 or so years ago when I really became a serious student. I read everything. I practiced everything. I performed (for myself) everything! I really believe that many of us have Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ when it comes to our roots, especially our roots as a student.

Branch:
Let’s build our branches. Your challenge for the month of July (even though this is the June issue) is to pick a move or sleight that you perform regularly and practice it in front of a mirror. Then take another move that you don’t perform regularly that you want to learn and practice that in front of a mirror even if you don’t perform it for a live audience. What I want you to do is see progress. Pick a move that you’ll never do for an audience. It doesn’t matter. What you need to do is continue improving your skill set and your ability to learn.

You (we) need to practice more, read more, study more, reignite that flame and that passion by studying and becoming a student of the art again. Now I am also aware that many of your are new to magic and you are still beginners and you have a passion for studying that some of us old dogs have let slip a little. So learn from us. Don’t let the passion die. Stop watching YouTube videos about magic. Cynicism is a place you don’t want to be, and YouTube will put you there. But beware young grasshopper. Cynicism will sneak up on you, the unsuspecting would be magi. She is a Smooth Criminal.

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

Please “like” this article and leave a comment below:

Tony Chapparo says:

July 2009 at 2:36 pm

Aw yes, mirror work… now where is that tri-fold close up practice mirror? Thanks, I needed that!

Jeff Stone says:

July 2009 at 3:00 pm

Awesome. It’s funny. I almost didn’t write this post because I thought that it would be perceived as too simple, too basic, or even too weak, but as it happens, a lot of people have forgotten their roots. See what I did there… ROOT as in Roots and Branches. 🙂

Mathias says:

July 2009 at 11:16 pm

Thank you for this article. Recently I felt that my passion was slowly diminishing, reading this gave me somewhat of a ‘wake-up’ call.

magicmind says:

July 2009 at 10:46 am

I prefer practicing moves in the car….wait…let me explain.
riding in the passneger seat on a sunny day, you can see the reflection of your hands in the window on the door….great perspective for cleaning up the moves that you know look good straight on.
After practice and with some audience managemnt, to get them in the “car door view” your moves will look much smoother and invisible.

Steven Dickinson says:

July 2009 at 12:50 pm

Great article, and a funny read and thanks, I thought I had Michael Jackson’s songs out of my head and now I will have to wait another week for them to leave again. 🙂

This goes great with the video article “Try This At Home” by Garrett Thomas in the latest REEL Magic Magazine (issue 11). I highly recommend it. http://www.reelmagicquarterly.com/

We need to break it down to the basics.

Jeff Stone says:

July 2009 at 3:12 am

@Mathias. Thank you. That’s one of my major goals with this column . . . get people to really search their souls when it comes to magic. Also, the reason I wrote it is because I had forgotten as well. I needed a wake up call too!

July 2009 at 3:15 am

@magicmind Thanks for that. It made me smile. 🙂

@Steven I definitely a fan of RMM. I’ll second your plea to have people sign up. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be.

PEto says:

July 2009 at 2:01 pm

As I have been helping one of my son’s with some new effects that he is working on, I was reminded how easy it is to let the excitement of a new trick get the best of me and want to rush right out and do it for the “public”. Patience “young grasshopper”…Need more time to “wax on, wax off”. It is the extra “mirror” time that will allow the performer to truly perform and not be thinking about the “moves” of the trick. Just like Michael Jackson looked so natural and smooth when he was dancing. Sure some of it was pure natural talent, but part of it was the dedication to practicing his craft.

July 2009 at 3:32 am

@PEto – Thanks for the tie in to Michael Jackson. It’s funny how the whole Jackson theme came out purely by accident. But man it fits or more levels than I thought it would. Speaking of Michael Jackson, if you haven’t seen the Moonwalk Montage on YouTube, go check it out. It’s incredible.

OldZombie says:

July 2009 at 9:26 am

Here is a thought, many laptop computers now a days have built in webcams that can be used to record videos. You can use that to video your hands while at the same time seeing them on your monitor like a mirror. I have done this while working on my Zarrow shuffle, worked quite well.

Jeff Stone says:

August 2009 at 11:28 pm

@OZ – What about producing an 8 ball from an 8-track.