OK, First of all I apologize for being cocky. I guess, as you said, my ego might have surpassed my talent/abilities.
I will tell you my story, then you will understand:
So, I started learning magic from YouTube:
I learned RetroRepro, Double Lifts, Colour Changes, Classic Triumph, and some pen magic (flip stick).
I early realized that YouTube isn't that a great place to learn simply because there aren't that much good tricks out there on YouTube imo.
After 2 months I did Jazz Aces, Retro Repro, a Sandwich Routine and 1 Coin Routine and some rubber band stuff (CMHC). So I really like close-up magic but NOT ONLY card magic, thats way too boring. But we will come to that later. I discovered T11 and I was so wowed that I spend nearly 150$ on this page and in total 700$ in magic. It might have been not the best idea to buy all that stuff but now I know methods I won't use (heavily setup or just a Five Gum Pack where it takes 5 minutes to make one gimmick for one presentation.) I bought the metal trilogy but soon I realized that I am not already ready for that. Then I went to the magic circle and performed for the boss: he told me that what you are telling me. So then I started to really work and invent great presentation and plots people can relate to. I worked so long on an effect until I could present it.
After that I went to another magic circle where they told me that the boss of the other magic circle was a perfectionist and they asked themselves that he thinks to scare off young people. (After 1 month off practice I was able to do the backpalm quite properly.) The other magicians told me that they are surprised how far I am with my presentation style (plots,...) and the level and variety off my tricks. Of course they weren't all perfect but it was quite a good experience.
So now to the important part:
I make myself paragraphs:
I look into ring magic for a month and when I think I've seen enough (I just google: "important ring magic dvds" (only ring) and then there are 3 DVDs and 2 routines (Divorce and Reflex) I could found after long research.) I found then I move on to the next paragraph rubber band magic and then pen magic. (btw I really enjoyed ring magic). So I take out my favourite, always impromptu effects and I keeped practising. They weren't perfect but good enough to present them to sprectators. I wanted to eg. something about mentalism becuz I do a simple evivoque and a prediction effect, a book test and an ESP test. I present it in a proper way and everybody goes nuts. So my point is here: I search the best/most fitting effects for my style, doesn't matter if it use keys, cards, pens, rings or something else as long as I think the magic is entertaining. So far I have maybe 20 trick in my "working repertoire" (effects I consider as funy and so good that I present them to spectators. I maybe know 200 tricks but I simply don't like them.)
My last paragraph was the 3CM plot and I really put a lot of work into it (6 months is half of my magic "career" and for me a heck of a lot of time) and I really thought I invented something great to share with you. Now it isn't like that but I still learned much about the plot and I created my own routine (every phase of the 10 phases were "original" or I just invented them new) and I can profite from it. I never really saw a need to really go deep into card magic but that will be the thing I will do from now on.
But only because I am studying card magic, that won't keep me from learning other stuff too
Cheers
Phil
