Saturday Night Contest - Resolutions for 2018

[kmphoto]

2017 was yet again a fantastic year. I managed to delve further in to cardistry and expanded my card magic repertoire. With Osteoarthritis starting to set in to my hands this year, card play has become an integral part of therapy bringing relief to my joints. So guess you could say that Theory 11 is my physiotherapist in a way. As a truck driver I've had many chances to performs tricks across Canada and USA. In 2018 I plan to do a few things. Such as get my YouTube channel launched and start performing for audiences and for pay. Another goal is to get at least one of my created tricks sold.

 

[FiliS]

2017 was the year when I first encountered with magic. In the january I saw videos on youtube by Chris Ramsey, and others. I knew that I have good hands for card magic, and firstly I tried to learn double lift and other moves like creating a card out of the air.

Than I bought first cards from theory11, NPH and Citizens. They were amazing and they actually pushed me to want more. And so I was practicing daily.

My first biger gig was for a lot of children and that is when I realised that it is harder to impress a child with card trick, because they actually belive in magic. But that did not affect any of my determination to become even better.

And for the 2018 I wish I will remain as entusiastic about magic that I were in the past year. I hope I learn some new trick, methods, even with coins so I extend my repertoire.

Filis

 

[TylerScottIllusionist]

2017 was a pretty crazy ride in terms of magic. In March I got to meet Michael Ammar and attend his live lecture. In May I got to attend a magic dealers event and sell some of my products physically which was a cool experience. The big unfortunate thing that happened was the venue I had for my headlining stage act dropped and it delayed the show for four months as well as all the stress that came with it. But in September, I was finally able to complete my hour and a half show that sucked all the energy out of me since I wrote, directed, produced, and starred in it. It was a big success in terms of feedback, attendance, and the returns I received in the end. With the publicity of the show, I had people contacting me wanting to book me for gigs and I started doing paid gigs for the first time this year. I also had my first attempt at busking this year which was crazy but a fun experience overall. Lastly, I was able to put out a card project I had been working on for well over a year called Joker's Heist. I am quite proud of the thought that went into Joker's Heist because I was able to come up with seven routines that are all based around one principle.

For 2018, I'm going to slow down things in terms of magic. I'm still actively going to be performing gigs and trying to get more paid gigs but I will not be as active in the magic community as I was in 2017. I am focusing more of my energy now into a short film that I am writing and directing in hopes of getting into more film festivals. My main goal is to develop the company my friends and I started up a few years back and really get the ball rolling with it. At the end of 2016 I had already been working on Joker's Heist for three months and knew that at some point in 2017 I wanted to put it out. I don't really have anything that I've worked on that I feel that I want to release for 2018 so I don't think I will be releasing any new magic releases on the scale of the ones I have previously released. I still want to develop my YouTube channel more and find out more what my personal brand should be and what people like about me as a performer and what they don't like. 2017 was the year I set out to be my own accomplished performer (which I believe was my resolution last year). 2018 is the year I take a step back and try to figure out who I am as a person and what that means for me as an entertainer.

Despite all the trials of 2017, I would say it was a fantastic year! I have made more Theory11 friends this year than any years that I have previously. I have watched this forum grow tremendously this year where it seems like everyday there is some new hot topic that is being discussed which I love seeing. The small YouTube community that I have has been awesome and I love getting their feedback. If there is any one way I could wrap up how 2017 affected me as a magician, I would say my promo reel sums it up quite nicely:

 

[Lord Magic]

Hey guys, hope everyone is having a great weekend! Had some troubles posting the contest, but we finally have it up - apologies for the delay! As 2017 comes to a close, we are reminded of everything we have done over the past year and where it has gotten us heading into the new year. It's always exciting to begin a new year, so first and foremost, happy new year from all of us at theory11!

We want to know - in your own words - what you feel you have accomplished over this last year (2017) in magic and / or cardistry. Some of you may have performed your first professional show, others may have come up with a cool idea or concept that found its way into your repertoire, or maybe you just discovered the art and want to share how it's impacted your life. The contest tonight is simple - tell us about it.

In addition, we want to know what your resolutions are for this next year - 2018. What are your goals? What would you like to see yourself accomplish in magic and / or cardistry over the coming year? We want to hear about it!

Because this is a written contest, everyone of you is free to participate. Submissions should be posted as responses to this thread - and all entries must be in by tomorrow, Sunday, December 31st at 11:00pm EST for judging. We will review the posts and announce the winner (selected at random) once time is up. Note that submissions can vary in length - but are limited to 500 words, maximum.

The winner takes home 1,000 Elite Member Points and ANY 6 Decks of your choice (of those that we have in stock).

We look forward to reading through all of your accomplishments, aspirations, thoughts, and goals!

2017 was a humongous year for my magic-self. Well, I had been practising for years...and every time some teacher asked me to show something to my class and I would think that "Yes! Now everybody will be talking about me! Everybody in school will know I am a magician! They will refer to me as such!" The day I would perform everybody would be like "Oh!!!! You are AMAZING!" and the day after that, it'd be like I never did anything at all (and the reason why performing magic was supposed to be even more 'talked' about was because here no one usually sees close-up magic and DOING magic is unusual)!! But then, when after all these years of practice and performance and praying, I was asked to perform in front of the WHOLE school, I was apprehensive. Long story short, my performance went amazingly. And then--when I thought everyone would forget that as usual--people were suddenly like,
"Hey! You are the one who did magic, right?"
"Hey! Can you tell me what I am thinking of right now" (jokingly)
"Your performance skills are so amazing! You are so talented!"
"You are a dark horse aren't you! How well you spoke! Do you take some course in public speaking?"
"It felt as if you are a professional magician! I am your fan now!"
And it was so exhilarating! I was asked about my performance by teachers and seniors (in India, people even one year elder to you are respected and important). I loved all that. And knowing how much practice all that took, surprisingly kept me grounded enough and encouraged me to keep practising! 2017 was also when I signed in here, Theory 11. I can't tell you guys how happy I am to be FINALLY discussing magic theory and ethics and stuff. Or else, there's no one here to talk about all that with me. It feels great to know that there is a whole forum filled with people who understand what you have gone through and are ready to help. 2017 was also when I managed to learn the classic pass, something I had been putting off for years, and also bought RRTCM and Practical Mental Magic, amazing additions to my library I must say. In cardistry fronts, I learned the Anaconda, Cyclone, Hubble, Judo Flip. Sweet, because it covers ALL the 'areas' of Cardistry.
2018?
Who knows?
Resolutions as such?
None specific (I wanna grow taller, irrelevant, I know).
But I have a whole list of sleights and flourishes I need to learn and a host of books I wanna buy. I think 2018 will pass like a flash, seeing I need to devote myself to so much! And 2018 will bring excitement as well (*FIFA*).
It helps to know that for whatever I will plan in my 'magic-life', I will have the assistance of some greatest magicians. Other than that, let's see what 2018 does for me, but I rest assured that I can face whatever boulders fall in my path and can reach whatever check points I need to.

 

[MJavor]

For me 2017 was the year I discovered magic and card tricks. I actually started watching youtube channels last month, and I quickly discovered theory11 and other magic sites. So far I have been practising with Bicycle cards, but I am planing to buy some from theory11 as I see they are all so beautiful.

For 2018 I wish I will not stop practising. I want to discover more tricks, more methods and I would love to perform before a crowd. Eventually I would like to be able to have a repertoire that is about 30 minutes long, so I can start performing for real. So I am looking forward to starting a new year as I have a lot of plans to accomplish.

 

[Kuba Czyba]

Finally after a few years of my magic laziness (lol, I think I wrote exactly same sentence year ago, but now it's definitive ) I bought my first magic books (although I read sometimes these free classic and not so classic books on my computer) and a magazine, also some DVDs (Ok, I had two DVDs earlier, but not books) . It's a huge amount of material to get through, and I'm doing it now, at Christmas break. It's a time of my magic development, I bring my own ideas. Now I'm proud of my latest version of under the spread force that I couldn't learn properly, so I developed my own handling.
In 2018 - further development, first professional performances, gain bigger confidence. And hope, laziness won't come to me again, but I doubt it will ever come again

 

[Gabriel Z.]

Good Luck Everyone!!

I have accomplished much in 2017. I learned a couple of new effects, and am still pursuing the Up The Ladder Cuts. Everyday I wake up in the morning and practice across the table from my loving stepfather Walter Timmerman. I find that shuffling has really helped me out with my diagnosis of Schizophrenia. Coming into 2018, I will continue to push myself and put in more hours at the card table. Aside from this I really want to lose weight so that I can improve my image and self confidence. I also made a quick video to enter in 2018 hope you guys like it.

Happy New Years!!

 

[ThomasL11]

In 2017, I accomplished many things in magic. I also started cardistry this year, I now start doing a bit of cardistry now and I really enjoy it. In magic, I have performed my first real show to a group of people outside my family. I have understood the barriers and fears needed to be overcome when I perform. This has enabled me to become smore confident and less nervous when I'm performing. From now on, I now understand the feeling when I step up and perform to people. I'm usually a very shy person, but I found that magic gets me out of my shell, and this year, many people have seen that for the first time and loved seeing my magic for the first time too.
In 2018, I hope to perform to more people and more opportunities to arrive to show my magic. I also am going to my first Blackpool magic convention which I am very excited for. There, I can gain more advice, explore more magic and improve my repertoire. Furthermore, I would like to delve into more coin magic as I have not really looked at coin magic yet. Finally, I would like to film myself when I do tricks to build up a library of mymagic effects so I can look back on and see where I go wrong or not and also so I don't forget all my tricks I have learnt. I hope everyone has a safe, healthy and happy new year!! Thx Theory11 for a tremendous year too!

 

[theSunnyG]

2017 has been an interesting year - I can't say I've learnt anything new magic or cardistry-wise but have just been very casual with both. I'd still have a deck of cards on my desk but would just practice old moves.

In 2 months though at work I'll be giving a talk about cards actually, so this has reinvigorated me to think about performance, technique, mystery!
And talking about mystery - this year I finally understood what JJ Abrams was talking about when he said 'sometimes mystery is more important than knowledge'...after being greatly disappointed by the 'reveals' in The Last Jedi. (No Spoilers don't worry!)
After all the mystery boxes that was set up in JJ's The Force Awakens, and 2 years of pondering, theories and thinking about the movie, nothing could have lived up to expectation, and so that statement finally rung true and I understood it!

So my resolutions are how to bring more mystery to the work I do both outside of magic and in.

Be good everyone! Stay safe in the New Year and have an amazing start to 2018!
x

 

[Stratego]

2017 started as a really really bad year on my personnal life and card magic helped me a lot to focus on something else. Actually I used to do a little bit of magic a long time ago but I have rediscover it this year and started really seriously. I improved my skills at performing to people, finding good patters, editing video and a little bit of cardistry. For the next year I hope to perform more to people because that's what give me the best personnal satisfaction. Sorry for my english.

 

[Desert Cool]

I am actually 14 yrs old and it's difficult to do both studies and magic...
I started doing magic almost in beginning of 2017 with very beginner magic tricks..
Later on i understood what advanced sleight are and i was completely amazed and wanted to learn them..
Eventually i learned many new and intermediate- advanced sleights.
Some of them being the →Clipshift (which i learned on my own)
→Classic pass
→Pullback pass
→Longitudinal swivel steal
→Panaromic shift
and many more controls,colour changes, forces
I actually came with my own force and effect..

Late in 2017 I came to know about cardistry...and i was just fascinated by it and i wanted to learn something and ended up learning beginner moves..like waterfall, Hot shot, Maverick,pincho,werm,etc.

Goals of 2018
In 2017 i mainly learned sleights and no routines..
So this year I would concentrate more on routines (and probably make a couple of them too )
And of course cardistry is not gonna lose my attention..
So I will practise more cardistry and coin magic too.(it is difficult for me though..,)

 

[Theory of Relativity]

2017 has been a very interesting year. For the longest time I was a move monkey: I loved working on knuckle busting moves that I often tried to squeeze into effects. All that really did though, was challenge me during performances. After watching some lectures from Joshua Jay, Dani DaOrtiz, and Lennart Green, I realized an interesting mantra: the method should never get in the way of the effect. That is to say, just because I could do a classic pass here or a pinky count there didn't mean that I needed to. They were so often extraneous moves that I really only included because I felt that I had practiced extensively, so I must make them useful.

This year, I shifted my magic around a bit to focus on effect, not method. For example, gone are the hold outs of palms and cops or constant control of shuffling. Suffice to say that I haven't stopped palming or practicing my palms altogether, but I've adapted the stuff I do to not need them, and adapted a more carefree, relaxed attitude. I've focused more on telling the story and painting a picture for the audience, instead of trying very hard to hide a card or two.

I performed my second show for a large audience this year, and plan on doing more in the coming year. I hope to continue working on my card and coin work, and I hope to work on some larger illusions better suited for the stage. It's scary to think about putting down cards and picking up something new, but it's also extremely exciting.

 

[RealityOne]

2017 included shoulder injury, spinal fusion surgery and being very busy at work. I did get to do a lot of camping and some kayaking as part of Scouting. I also got to spend an amazing week sailing in the Florida Keys (three weeks after surgery). Magic took a back seat. I did enjoy reading the Aretology of Vanni Bossi, Drawing Room Deceptions and a couple of other books. Unfortunately, the hard drive on my computer with the scripts for my show crashed -- fortunately, I knew the scripts well enough to be able to recreate them.

Work looks like it will continue to be very busy for 2018. I guess that is good since it allows me to buy more magic books! Scouting will continue to take up a lot of my time. As for magic, I have a lot of projects that I will continue working on. I think my first priority is to get the remaining routines for my parlor show performance ready -- accommodating tea kettle, billiard balls and needle swallowing as well as reworked linking rings and cups & balls routines. I've been doing a lot of research on short cards, strippers and scratched cards -- maybe I'll finally write up my lecture notes - "Scratch, Snip and Strip." I have another project that I'm contemplating doing... but more on that later.

As winning two SNCs were the magic highlights of 2017, throw my name back in if it is drawn at random. Someone else should get a chance at winning.

 

[Nick Does magic]

Well this year was a huge jump in magic for me. I went to Tannens magic camp in the summer which was a huge deal for me. I gained lots of great advice and learned tons of magic. I also made some lifelong friends. Also one day exactly after camp I did a 15 minute show for my cousins 11th birthday, so you know that was fun. I also grew my deck and book collection. My favorite deck are the gold rarebits and my favorite book is 13 steps to mentalism by Cordoba. Overall this year was probably the most important year for my magic career with me growing and learning in magic like I have never done before.

Going into 2018 I have a few goals in mind. My first and most important to me is to try and get a gig and then not fail at it. This is important to me because of how it would provide me with more experience and also help me with my shyness talking to strangers about giving me money lol. On a more serious note it would also give me more motivation to practice and learn more. Another one of my goals is to get a 20 minutes routine to do for my shows as described above. I will end up doing this first because you can't book a show without having any material. My last goal is to get some great books on magic and mentalism and just completely read and learn everything I can from them.

That's basicly everything that happened to me in 2017 and what I plan to do in 2018. Happy New Year's to everyone

 

[Romeroj93]

This year was the year I actually started performing for people. Let me explain, at parties my family would have they always knew I was into magic but every time they wanted to see a trick I would just make up an excuse for why I couldn't perform. Anyways this year I did a litle trick and got a good reaction.

So this upcoming year I want to get better at being able to do tricks without being to stiff and shaky. I want to be smoooth.

 

[Gabriel Z.]

As winning two SNCs were the magic highlights of 2017, throw my name back in if it is drawn at random. Someone else should get a chance at winning.

That is really thoughtful David , Not many people would do that.

 

[JonathanSim]

In 2017, I invented my own card flourish and auditioned for AGT in front of producers.

In 2018, I plan on learning a few more effects, becoming a more advanced magician, and perform in front of a crowd again, since I haven't done it in a while.

 

[DantetheMante]

This year has been great for me. I just started doing magic three years ago and this site helped me become more experienced. My magic resolution is to be less nervous to preform in front of crowds. Also to learn new tricks and audition for shows like AGT.

Happy New Year to you and your Families

 

[marielleabe]

Honestly, my magic status this year has declined. I don't practice anymore because I focused in my studies and a bit of cardistry as well. But I can't say I quit magic because I love it so much. Hopefully this year I can go back to magic.
I thought of what I achieve this year and I came to realize I didn't achieve anything big except for mastering some flourishes and making more friends in magic/cardistry community.
I hope I can go to magic/cardistry convention, meet my idols in magic/cardistry, perform in stage and win an SNC. I hope for the best this year coz its already 2018 in our country now. Happy New Year Everyone

 

[CWhite]

To begin, I re-read my resolution from last year. I'm not sure if it was too ambitious or not, but I fell very short of it.
This past year was very up and down for me. I quit practicing for quite awhile. Just to frustrated with not being able to show anything to anyone.
I had numerous chances to perform some tricks but I just didn't have the confidence to do it.
Reading some your posts this year from starting your first stage show, to trying out for AGT. I found it very inspiring.
To close out 2017 I've kinda found my groove again. My love for magic has been renewed. I'm re-reading Royal Road and taking my time with the sleights and false shuffles. I feel my double lift looks more convincing than my single lift lol.
I would just like to thank you all for inspiring me to keep going. I'm looking forward to next year and seeing what I can get out of it.
Good luck to everyone on their goals for 2018.. Have a Happy New Year!!