Always On Stage

When I meet new people who will be involved in my life in more meaningful ways, I try to warn them that I tend to have a big personality, and while the magic is new and exciting now, it will get old and boring because they will have seen it a LOT of times.  The reality is that as a solo performer, I am my own marketing, accountant, manager, agent, etc.  So, I try not to miss any opportunity to make heads explode with some effect or trick.  You never know who you'll run into. 

So, I keep a few items on my person at almost all times.  This includes two or three decks of cards, a few sponge balls, and a couple other things which fit nicely into my pockets.  Some of my day job coworkers like to make jokes about how my magic tricks are a super power which gets them free drinks.  It's hard to argue against that.  Its true, I haven't really had to pay for very much alcohol over the years simply because I was carrying a deck of cards.  

Even when I was in the ER last month, I had cards on me.  When I was made whole again, and discharged, I offered up some magic to the overnight crew for their care and quality of treatment.  They were shocked that I had coordination, even after the amount of morphine they had just pumped me with.  

Lots of times I'll ask people if they'd like to see some real magic, not just a card trick or two that most people know.  It's genuinely disheartening when people are dismissive of it or simply state that they just don't like magic.  Rejection is a part of this industry and lifestyle.  But then, you find the people who let you stay in their bar after kicking everyone else out just to show the staff a few things.  You run into the "barfly" who keeps asking "what else do you got?"  You meet a manager who just had a rough day and always loved magic.  

It's unquestioningly a labor of love.  And as I perform for these bright eyed people, I think about all the tomorrows when they'll tell their stories about how this random magician did some wild stuff.  I think about the joy it brought them that they would feel obligated to tell people the next day.  I think about the next time I run into them and how they will be the cheerleaders egging me on to show the next person some illusion, mentalism, or card trick.  What would life be like without a little bit of magic every now and then?