Energy, or Discipline?

Which is more important to you? The energy and ambition to study every piece of knowledge you can and to always be moving, or the ability to focus intently on one specific type of thing (even at the sacrifice of constantly being energetic about it).

The great Eugene Burger was once asked "How many magic tricks do you know". He would always famously reply along the lines of "Well, when I started I knew 20! Then I knew 10, I now know 8... and I'm hoping to get to 5".

This concentrated form of focus and discipline is what has allowed people like Eugene Burger to excel in their craft, their person, and their businesses.

We magicians have several forums, Facebook groups etc online which allows us to exchange ideas and even sell/trade magic tricks/props. It is a mixture of seasoned, full time professionals who have been performing their acts for YEARS, and amateurs new to the art for less than a year. I have seen one particular magician on there frequently, who is always looking to buy x, looking to sell y. I have seen his show, and it is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT show EVERY TIME! In theory, this sounds like it would be great! Except, the routines are not always complete. There is always a shallow depth to each piece, as if it were just bought and performed that month.

On the opposite spectrum, I have seen performers come to nearby theaters, clubs etc. that perform the EXACT SAME show EVERY TIME! It is very well performed, well polished, and it is apparent that they have done this a while. The only problem is, there is often a lack of soul or energy in each performance, and we end up with a show that is (as someone once called it) the "canned magician effect".

At the top of the food chain, we see great performers like Mac King, David Copperfield, Penn and Teller, and even the recent Derek Hughes on Americas Got Talent. Each of these people has absorbed both ideas, but without an extreme on each end. It's also worth noting that many perform acts that don't require buying several tricks online. These people are able to perform their craft perfectly tuned, perfectly polished in a way that does not lack the energy or ambition of a new show! They are able to innovate without losing their long term consistency.

I believe that this is the strongest mentality to have with dealing with anything - A constant desire to learn and improve but with the proper amount of focus and discipline. It is what allowed companies like Apple with leaders like Steve Jobs to succeed in a world where the pressure was always to move in every direction. And like what Jobs said -

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

Think about which direction you are moving, and move fast and break things!

-Hayden "Haydini" Childress

The Greatest Magic Trick EVER!

I'm going to start off today's blog post with a pretty bold statement: Most card tricks suck. I'm not saying that they won't fool you or impress you, but I don't think the typical card trick truly represents what people want to see in a magic trick.

Magicians, in my opinion, are supposed to be conjurers of magic and wizardry, disguised as normal everyday people. There is something truly amazing about a normal everyday person doing something extraordinary. The best example I can think to give is with superhero movies! I think what makes us so intrigued by superhero movies is that these heroes look like everyday people, yet possess extraordinary abilities, and use those abilities in a world where those abilities are not normal. It is much more interesting to see superman fighting a bank robber than to see him fighting an alien in space.

The other day I had the amazing pleasure of performing at a rooftop college pool party (My job is great I know). I was performing my close-up walk around magic which consists of Cards, cell phones, mentalism, and coins (in this case beer bottle caps!). I am very experienced and skilled in card magic, because it is the standard most magicians learn from at first. I can control any playing card to any position in the deck, I can manipulate your choices to give you a full house - but still that is not the embodiment of a wizard in a world of muggles.

I was getting pretty decent reactions and amazement from the pool guests from my card magic, but the trick that absolutely set everyone off was one I hadn't performed in a  while. I noticed an empty beer can on the side of the pool and I asked if it belonged to anyone. Someone raised his hand, and I had him wave over the dents of the can - suddenly: the dents had healed!

Next, i waved over the opened portion of the can, and the can sealed back into a brand new can of beer! I opened it, and poured the beer into a cup and gave it to my awesome volunteer. He did not care so much how it was done, he was amazed and thankful he had just been given a beer for free by magic! He even referred to me as Jesus a few times.

Just using this photo again, just cause.

To me, I think that is an example of a nearly PERFECT magic trick. Imagine this scenario: You are walking with a friend and you tell him you could really go for a Snickers. He reaches into the air, and with a puff of smoke, a snickers bar appears in front of you! Now you might be curious of how it was done, or you may be concerned for your friend wondering why he walks around all day with a candy bar in his sleeve, but you are not going to feel like you were "tricked" or "fooled".

Compare that scenario to this one: You are sitting down at a party relaxing having a great time! A guy walks up to you and asks if you want to see something amazing. Ignoring the creepy vibes that were given off with that comment, you agree and watch. The guy pulls out a fancy looking pack of cards and starts manipulating them in every way possible - one handed cuts, flips, giant fans, spinning packets going fast (the point is, this guy can do ANYTHING with cards!). You pick a card, and it goes back into the deck. You shuffle them, and deal down a random number of cards. Once you've dealt down a random number of cards, you memorize a second card that you've dealt to. You square up the cards and shuffle them, and then VOILA! The magician has those two cards in his pocket!

I won't deny that card trick was cool, but despite its complexities and years of skill it would take to master, it will never live up to the snickers trick. From the moment the magician pulled out the fancy magic cards and juggled them all around you knew he could do ANYTHING, and where's the magic in that?

I think we as magicians think too much about what WE want to perform that we don't take enough time to think about what our audience wants to really see! Sometimes it isn't about adding more details, but taking it away.

Magic is about sharing a moment of wonder, not deceiving and showing off. I am not hating on card magicians - I still love my fair share of them :). And I think audiences genuinely enjoy them. But nothing will truly live up to the snickers trick!

-Hayden

Humor at Another's Expense is Bullying

Happy Monday to you! (Or if you happen to be reading this T-Sun then happy *day* to you!)

It has been a really crazy past week for me, I have travelled through multiple states which means a ton of driving that I don't always enjoy. I also got an airbrush tattoo of a card on my arm while I was at the beach. Hardcore I know.

The other week I was watching another magician on stage (I was tempted to put quotation marks around magician) who was pretty decent at the "tricks" he performed, but was seriously lacking in the humor and/or getting people to like you factor. As many of my entertainer friends know, one of the first things you should do while on stage is make the audience like you. If the audience likes you, they will like what you do, as the saying goes.

So with this piece of knowledge in mind, you can understand why half the audience and I felt pretty uncomfortable when this guy's opening trick was making his middle finger appear under a scarf and flipping the bird to everyone.

Ouch.

While that may be a funny gag to do in the middle of an adult only comedy club event, it is a sure shot way of making a room of 100 hate you if you do it as an opening "trick" (see I used the quotation marks there). The second he established himself as an A-Hole, every trick he did after that was perceived as "HAHA LOOK WHAT I CAN DO AND YOU CAN'T" to half the room.

Aside from the middle finger, there is one other practice of "humor" that I believe to be the rudest, worst kind of all, and that is humor at someone else's expense. I will give you a brief example.

Magician brings audience member on stage. Magician asks "what is your last name?" .... "Oh! that last name means very attractive and beautiful. What is your first name?" .... "Oh. That means not very!" Tehe it is a funny joke. But it is funny only at the other person's expense. As a volunteer on stage, that person volunteering is probably as nervous and uncomfortable as all can be. It really takes a lot of courage to get up on a stage in front of a crowd of people, especially for a magic trick. The worst insult you can possibly do to someone assisting you is embarrassing them so that you can get jokes. Rather than creating a moment of magic on stage with another person, you are using that person so you can gain something. And that is wrong.

I would be lying if I said I hadn't done those tactics in my younger days performing. It is an easy, hack tactic that many performers use int heir first few years performing, but as I gained more experience growing older I learned treating an audience member like a "sucker" or "victim" is just plain wrong.

Today I make sure that I show my audience that I absolutely LOVE them. If someone has the courage to help me on stage, I show my respect by making them feel comfortable, and an important part of the act on stage. It means a lot that someone would sit for an hour and watch me perform, and in many cases pay money to see me do it! The least I could do is show respect for them, because they are not there to serve me, I am there to provide quality entertainment and an incredible evening. Howard Thurston, a multi-million dollar magician and one of the greatest entertainers in history, would stand behind a curtain and repeatedly say "I love my audience, I love my audience..." Seems like a pretty good practice to follow from one of the world's greatest, wouldn't you think?

In the end those other performers aren't bad people necessarily, they just have not learned how to treat an audience properly. Like a young boy on his first date making inappropriate jokes and not paying for the food, those performers just need to gain experience and grow out of it.

Those are my thoughts! Hope you have a great day!

-Hayden

The Future

I absolutely love the back to the future movies. Anyone who has seen my full show (currently as of January 2015) knows I dedicate about 15 minutes solely to the first back to the future movie, where i travel through time! One of the most thrilling aspects of any time travel movie isn't just seeing how life may have been in the past, but what we predict life would be like in the future. In an age fueled by adventure, industrialism, and innovation, we pictured the next 100 years to be much like an episode of wacky racers, the early saturday morning cartoon show http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30513670.

In back to the future 2, marty mcfly travels from 1985 to 2015 (hey that is the year we are alive in. Far out!). Listen to any Buzzfeed article about the notion of living in Marty Mcfly's version of 2015 and they would make jokes about how we are so far behind, with no hoverboards or instant pizza hut. I however, would strongly diagree - I think we are living in the future right now!

If we had prioritized hoverboards and flying cars above all else I believe we would be pretty close today. However, those are not important innovations (at least for now). Though flying cars would be a nifty invention, imagine how long it would take to adapt! Not to mention imagine if one of the flying cars were to fall out of the sky rather than wreck into a streetpole like in a street car. Maybe I am just trying to rationalize not having flying cars, but you can see the idea!

Instead of prioritizing things like flying cars, we developed technology no one could imagine in the 80s. The worldwide web has grown and developed in every direction the past 20 years, and it has connected us in a way we could not have believed before! I think its amazing how we have connected with average people overseas, instantly sharing our thoughts the second they happen on microblogs like twitter. In the 1985 version of 2015, we see the future as if the 80s had cool technology. Instead we today have progressed as society and have connected globally like never before.

Just to prove we really are living in the future...

-You can make transactions all digitally through your cell phone

-We have modified organisms to produce billions of pounds of food affordably (although there could be negative effects...)

- You can have instant, intimate conversations with a loved one miles away through video chats like skype on your cell phone

- We have made education available for anyone who truly wants to learn something

And that is just the start! So stop waiting for the future to happen and appreciate this amazing world we are in now.

-Hayden

2015

I hope everyone is excited to begin a great 2015! Even though the world may seem amiss, there is a lot of great innovation everyday from normal people worldwide, and people everyone are being educated faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Seeing the news headlines with sad stories often reminds me of Grima Wormtongue in Lord of The Rings. It is as if someone has taken control of everyone's brains and only thinks of dark depressing news, yet Gandalf could come in and show the light and restore hope in everyone. I would imagine the conversation going something like...

Grima: Police brutality is at an all time high, the government is spying on us, the economy is failing, everyone is going to college but isn't going to get a job.....

A beam of light blasts into the room...
Gandalf the white appears majestically with a deep voice and a giant wizard staff

Gandalf: NIGERIA IS FREE FROM POLIO, POLICE DELIVER TRUCKLOADS OF GROCERIES TO WOMAN WHO STOLE EGGS, THE ECONOMY IS STABILIZING AGAIN, QUALITY OF EDUCATION HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY THE PAST FEW YEARS

YOU WILL NOT DAUNT THE HOPES OF MEN, GRIMA WORMTONGUE! AMONGST THE SHROUDS OF BLACK THERE IS STILL GOOD IN THIS WORLD!

End Scene

It's like what Bill Clinton once said...

Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.

Love to hear your thoughts!

-Hayden

Awesome

Barriers of the Universe

Today was a pretty great day to be alive. I don't mean that sarcastically, I do mean that genuinely. I just recently saw The Theory of Everything, an independent film about the life of Stephen Hawking played by Eddie Redmayne (If you have seen Les Miserables from 2012 then you know exactly who I am talking about!). 

Though it is late and I am mostly writing on my blog so that people visiting my website will see that I do regularly post things (aside from Twitter), I have to say it is always great to see life from someone who seems to have nothing and still perseveres to become a legend. I am currently going through finals week at my university, and I am also performing multiple shows a week due to the Holidays. (I say Holidays because I am including New Year's, and I am doing Christmas parties too). I like to tell myself that my life is hard sometimes, so that I can feel like the underdog in a hollywood movie. 

Knowing that a man is almost completely disabled, yet continues to diligently work on his studies is just inspiring. It makes no task seem impossible. I start to get a shrinking feeling, but in a good way. It is a great reminder that I, and many of my colleagues, are not as important as we would like to believe we are. Our lives are not that hard. I am a 20 year old middle class white male in the United States of America during 2014 - Not only this, but I am healthy and educated. I am most definitely in the top 5% of quality of living in the history of the world, and I should be more thankful for it. 

I know things aren't totally perfect. I still need to waste hours of my days studying for exams, and I practice and rehearse my magic relentlessly sometimes with no results, but I can't use these as excuses for not achieving something great.

What's holding you back?

See you soon!

-Hayden

4 Add-Ons that would make Haunted Houses truly SCARY!

Happy Halloween! And welcome to adulthood where you now have the resources to buy an endless supply of candy, but you won't because you don't want to get fat.

My favorite thing about Halloween isn't the candy, or the insanely awesome costumes like my wolverine impression 

I like the Halloween activities like the haunted houses and corn mazes because I like to simulate death by startling and death by possible starvation. (I guess you could eat the corn.) However, I'd say that a majority of these places only go halfway with their ideas and activities. There are a few ways we can make these haunted activities 10x more awesome than they actually are.

They Know Your Name

Nowadays nearly everyone pays through a credit card, paypal, or even through their cell phones (looking at you Tim Cook). The great thing about that is the customers name's are on record with the receipt, and that's where the fun begins. Imagine you are walking through a dark room and a zombie says "I'm coming for you!" Eh not too scary. However throw in your name and you get "I'm coming for you... KYLE!" Suddenly these monsters are getting personal. Even if the house can't afford resources to figure out everyone's names, they can just use a generic name like Kyle or Steve. For most people it's just meh, but for people named Kyle and Steve its TERRIFYING!

Credit History
You are running down a hallway with a spinning tunnel with crazy lights. Suddenly, several sheets of paper are scattered in front of you. It's your credit score, and its way lower than you imagined!!! (Print score of 95 on sheets and scatter them). Now they face the fear of not being able to lease an apartment! OOOOO!

Due Date
You are walking through what is essentially a classroom. Lots of desks, colorful photos on the wall. And suddenly you see a message on the chalkboard... REPORT DUE TODAY! A line of other "students" forms in front and behind you and everyone is turning in very elaborate, nice reports into the teacher at the desk. (Even the kid who you always compare yourself to saying at least you're not them). Bring back that school anxiety on Halloween!

The Crappy Prom
A girl begins holding your hand, and she is in a nice prom dress. She says she can't wait for you to meet her parents! You walk into a room that is ornately decorated. Her parents are nice people! But they are judging you slightly (you just sense it). They tell you to wash up before dinner, so you go into the bathroom. However, when you go to flush the toilet, the water doesn't go down... It RISES! It doesn't stop until her dad barges into the room in anger. I can't think of anything more horrifying than this.

And that, my friends, is how we can improve haunted houses.

-Hayden