The Problem With Magic Clubs
By Scott Wells
This month I would like to get on a soapbox
for a bit and perhaps stir up the cauldron that
has been simmering for years. What I am about
to address is not symptomatic of any one magic
club exclusively but rather an observation on
the many magic clubs of which I was a member and/or
have visited.
Members of magic clubs come and go like the
tides in the bay. And like the waters, they run
hot and cold. Sometimes we have good years filled
with members who are on fire and shoulder all
of the work of the club serving on every committee
that needs them and even helping to create new
committees. We have contests, great lectures,
super banquets, high attendance, good monthly
programs, and many other surprises. Other years
we seem to get stuck in a rut and fear to venture
out into the unknown with programs, ideas, or
something that may require (gasp) a by-law change.
In those years we begin to tire of seeing the
same performers at each meeting trying to inspire
the rest of us to get off of our haunches and
do something.
Inflated ego is one main reason we see a division
in magic clubs that result in their eventual breakdown.
Instead of a meeting of the minds, it turns out
to be a battle of the egos. Everyone has their
own opinion and they want to direct the meeting
to their own way of thinking. As a result, we
see long, tedious, boring meetings getting hung
up on details rather than focusing on magic performances
and improving our routines. We see more and more
members getting disgusted with the bureaucracy
of it all and finally losing interest and dropping
their membership. We can only hope for an influx
of new magicians who have not yet been tainted
with the problems of "meeting-itis" (the plague
of loving meetings for the sake of knit-picking
details and dragging them out interminably.)
Itís all so incestuous that we are becoming
generic magicians. We seem to be feeding off of
one another until we all are doing the same type
of tricks using some of the same patter even developing
the same voice inflections, gestures and nuances
in the delivery of the lines. We are becoming
so much like clones of one another that originality
seems to be lost and itís hard to determine one
magician from another ("Open your hand . . . your
clean hand . . . oh, that was your clean hand."
[NOTE: actually it I understand it was Walter
Blaneyís original addition of "Oh, that was your
clean hand."]) I canít blame the pros who quickly
lose interest then drop out of the magic club
scene.
When I lived in Omaha, I was very active in
the local magic scene and served as an officer
along with some very innovative magicians who
approached the club meetings as a business. We
first identified the three basic types of magic
club members then tried to design a club meeting
to meet everyoneís needs. The three groups are
1) the beginner or new member, 2) the "hard core"
group of pros and/or semi-pros, and 3) the regular
or "backbone" member.
Often those same magicians who perform each
month intimidate the new or young members. They
begin to feel alienated more and more because
they are not part of the clique of performers.
Despite the invitation open to everyone to perform,
before long they become discouraged and eventually
drop out because they canít "break into the group."
Part of the problem is that they feel somewhat
inadequate with their level of ability. Perhaps
they came to the meeting because they didnít know
where else to go to learn magic as a hobby and
thought that joining a magic club would be a place
where the "brothers" would share their secrets.
There are no ongoing magic classes taught in the
Leisure Learning Institute or Junior Colleges.
I donít believe that any of the local magic shops
teach magic, per se.
As for the working performers who belong to
magic clubs, their interest wanes after they tire
of constantly "casting pearls before swine" as
Iíve heard it put by one of our illustrious members.
And I agree that it is frustrating giving away
your pet secrets to those who will either never
use it and just want to know the secret for the
secretís sake or they just might use it and make
it part of their repertoire.
The third type of member is the backbone of
every club. This member attends nearly every meeting
and event. They are the ones who sell tickets
to the annual shows, pull the curtains, set up
the chairs, and make the phone calls. They are
grand supporters of magic providing a great audience
for the performers. Although they are not usually
polished performers, they love magic and all of
its arcanum. Other members may come and go but
they will be around forever.
Having identified these types of members,
we constructed a two-hour meeting that seemed
to satisfy everyone. The first hour of the meeting
was split into two rooms. In one room there was
a teach-in where advanced members taught a magic
class from card sleights to dove steals. The class
was open to anyone who wanted to learn that eveningís
topic or to brush up on their skills on the subject.
Concurrent with this class, a video was played
in the other room for the hard core group who
wanted to learn the more technical or advanced
stuff. The videos came from Joe Stevens and were
the most recent releases from his ever-growing
library. In an effort to encourage members to
attend the meeting, the tape was only shown once
then it was resold to another magician outside
of the state at a reduced price. This prohibited
members from borrowing the tape and viewing it
outside the meeting. Again, the intent was to
encourage the "hard core" magicians to attend
the meetings.
Following the first hour, the two groups came
together for the second hour for a short lecture,
usually about 15 to 30 minutes. The topics varied
from phone room promotions, to restaurant work,
to children shows, and working county and state
fairs. The evening was wrapped up with member
performances on the eveningís topics. Here the
topics were broad so as not to alienate someone
who didnít have a favorite rope or card trick.
They were topics like "my favorite trick", "paper
magic", "childrenís magic", "holiday magic" and
the like.
By the end of the evening, everyone felt as
if they had been immersed in magic and had learned
something plus they shared some great fellowship.
In a city of less than a half million residents,
we regularly had no less than 60 members attend
the meetings. There were a few times when the
number nearly reached 100.
What do you think that your club could do
to make the magic happen in your city?
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