The joy of JUST doing magic as a hobby

I am writing this article as someone who has, in some senses, reached their goal in magic. 

It’s not a goal I consciously set myself but more of a goal that I realised along my “magic journey.”

I do not do magic as a job. Magic is one of my hobbies and always will be. It’s not necessarily been an easy journey though. Perhaps like some of you reading, I have felt discouraged at times as I read magic forums and some of the comments on there. Many is the time that I’ve read negative comments about tricks that I have liked as well as tricks that other people have liked, only to be told that they don’t know what they’re talking about if they like that particular trick. It might be that someone has expressed a positive opinion of the trick but they are then shot down for one reason or another.

Over the years, I found myself feeling discouraged at such comments, either made towards me or others. Often they were made by professional magicians towards amateur magicians. But suddenly, one day, I felt that I had discovered a liberating secret. Here it is.

It’s okay to be an amateur magician. It’s okay to just do magic as a hobby. It does not mean you are a failed professional (as I used to feel at times.) Once I discovered that, it changed everything for me. Maybe it can change things for you as well. Let me explain.

The world of the professional magician is one I don’t understand. Neither do I need to understand it. It’s not my world. I’m not in a position where I need regular shows and gigs to pay my mortgage and put food on the table for my family. It makes sense, therefore, that much of the magic that might appeal to me, may not appeal to a professional magician. If most of my magic is performed at my house when I have guests round, or at the pub, or with my family, then I don’t need to worry about some things professionals worry about. I probably don’t, for instance, need to be concerned about the reset of a trick. I’ll only be performing it once to my friends anyway. I may also not need to worry about pocket space. It might be that the trick comes out of a drawer or a cupboard if I’m asked to show my guests something. I completely get the need for a trick to have instant reset if you’re performing it twelve times a night, but it doesn’t make or break whether a trick is good or not. It just dictates whether a trick is or isn’t suitable for a certain performance environment. 

Going back to my magic forum days, when I read a comment like “this trick takes ages to reset. Anyone who likes it doesn’t know the first thing about magic” then I felt discouraged but I’ve come to realise that it doesn’t need to be like that. What a professional magician considers a good trick might not be the same as what a hobbyist considers a good trick. I’ve now come to realise that if a trick is considered a “worker”, I probably won’t be interested in it.

Once I realise all this, everything changed. It made such a difference to me. I’m not a professional magician, neither do I want to be and that is okay. It’s absolutely fine to just do magic as a hobby. And what a wonderful hobby it is too. It may be, of course, that a trick can fall into both categories. Ambitious card might be a good example. I’ve done ambitious card casually to friends but I’ve also done it at gigs where I’ve been paid. That is absolutely fine. But it’s also possible that a trick might be great down the pub, or at my dinner table, but just wouldn’t work well at a professional gig. Tenyo is a wonderful example of this I think. While I probably wouldn’t take a Tenyo trick to a paid engagement, I would have no problem taking one out in my house if someone asked to see a trick. I have about ten Tenyo tricks in my “collection” and I think they’re fab. 

Of course, there are times when a bad trick is a bad trick. But please, don’t dismiss tricks just because they aren’t right for every venue, situation or environment. In doing so, you might miss something that works well in your home. 

If you are reading this and only do magic as a hobby, good for you. Embrace your hobby and never, ever feel like you’re not as good (whatever that means) as a professional just because it’s your hobby.

Enjoy it.