Meaning, Vision, and Communication

6 posts in this series

Reading Order

1 of 6 — 8 min read

Magic Is Not Inherently Anything: The Most Liberating Idea in Performance

I believed magic was inherently powerful, inherently mysterious, inherently meaningful. Then I read six words that demolished every assumption I had.

2 of 6 — 8 min read

If You Don't Communicate It, It Doesn't Exist in Your Performance

I had a beautiful artistic vision for my card routine. The audience saw a guy doing card tricks. The vision was real -- but only inside my head.

3 of 6 — 8 min read

The Difference Between Bewilderment and Astonishment Is Meaning

Both responses involve not knowing how something happened. But one leaves the spectator reaching for an explanation, and the other leaves them reaching for words.

4 of 6 — 8 min read

Delude Yourself: Why Your Vision Must Feel Absolutely True

The most counterintuitive advice I have encountered in magic: to create something real for the audience, you must first believe something impossible about yourself.

5 of 6 — 8 min read

See Yourself from the Outside: The Mental Shift That Changes Performance

I spent years thinking about my performance from behind my own eyes. The day I learned to see myself from the audience's perspective -- literally, as a visualization exercise -- was the day everything about my performing changed.

6 of 6 — 8 min read

Magic Exists Only in the Spectator's Mind: Why a Trick Performed Alone Is Just Practice

Joshua Jay crystallized something I had been circling for years: magic does not happen in the performer's hands. It happens in the spectator's mind. A trick performed alone in a hotel room is not magic -- it is rehearsal. The magic only exists when someone is there to experience it.