I am just extremely happy that this whole presentation is over! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed performing and practicing magic, but I was soooo nervous for that presentation! Hopefully nobody noticed that my legs were shaking the entire time. I think that overall I did alright and here is the breakdown.
Visual Component: I did in fact have a PowerPoint for my presentation. I really didn't want to make it too flashy and I wanted to make sure that people were focusing on me, not my visual aid. I do think that it could have been a little bit more detailed while still not overtaking me.
Content: I hope that my lax personality gave the impression that I was passionate about magic, even though I know that I am not very good at it. I obviously showed my product with the card trick, and I explained how exactly I got there. I hope that the audience understands that my purpose was to get people to try something. Trying something has no bad consequences.
Organization: Looking back, I don't think that my hook was all it could have been. I probably could have refined it more and made it more interesting.
Delivery: I think that my delivery was the best part of my presentation. I went up without notecards and I don't remember stumbling at all. I knew exactly what I was going to say, and I said it. I did talk a little bit too fast though.
The TED Commandments
Dream Big: I really do feel like this was one of the best, if not the best talk I have ever given. I hope that the audience remembers my magic trick.
Show us the real you: I tried to talk about my failures as well as my successes, and I think that I got both points across.
Make the complex plain: Ehh, I did alright with this commandment, not as well as some of my other components.
Connect with people's emotions: I saw a couple of giggles.
Don't flaunt your ego: Don't really think that I need to talk about this. It was extremely obvious that I wasn't bragging.
No selling from the stage!: I had nothing to sell...
Feel free to comment on other speakers' talks: I asked a couple of questions, but I didn't exactly give advice or criticism.
Don't read your talk: I certainly didn't. I didn't even have notecards.
End your talk on time: My talk was right on the 4 to 5 minute mark.
Rehearse your talk: I rehearsed so much that I knew the speech from front to back.
Overall, I think that I did a decent job with my talk. I was certainly prepared and I think that for the most part it went well. I could have added a bit more substance in both my PowerPoint and speech though. I would give myself a 26/30. If you feel like I was too hard or not hard enough on myself, feel free to let me know.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Blog Post #5
Hello fellow magicians, welcome back to my mystical and magical blog. Today I am going to talk about my attempt at a very difficult card trick that I have been trying to learn. Here is the link if you want it.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTfzlcmEA5s
I have been working on this trick for about a week now, and I am proud to say that I can do the first part! Well, I guess i'm not very proud.... Anyways, I have watched at least 5-6 tutorials on how to do an "Elmsley Count", yet I still can't seem to do it. Just goes to show how difficult magic can be. I have watched this video over and over however, and I am still amazed at how this guy completes such difficult maneuvers. It is quite obvious that he has practiced this techniques over and over, and he is a master of card tricks. Unlike me, he actually knows what he is doing.
I really don't have too much to talk about this week. I would like to address something though. I know that a lot of you have been saying that I criticize myself too much, but I think it is time that I talk about it. I may be hard on myself, but in all honesty, I don't think that I am that great of a magician. That is just the fact.
Sorry that I don't really have much to talk about, but hopefully everyone is preparing and ready for their TED Talks! Good luck everyone!
Blogs commented on
Will: http://learning-woodworking.blogspot.com/
Jeremy: http://jspitt.blogspot.com/
Brianna: http://streetdancein7weeks.blogspot.com/
I have been working on this trick for about a week now, and I am proud to say that I can do the first part! Well, I guess i'm not very proud.... Anyways, I have watched at least 5-6 tutorials on how to do an "Elmsley Count", yet I still can't seem to do it. Just goes to show how difficult magic can be. I have watched this video over and over however, and I am still amazed at how this guy completes such difficult maneuvers. It is quite obvious that he has practiced this techniques over and over, and he is a master of card tricks. Unlike me, he actually knows what he is doing.
I really don't have too much to talk about this week. I would like to address something though. I know that a lot of you have been saying that I criticize myself too much, but I think it is time that I talk about it. I may be hard on myself, but in all honesty, I don't think that I am that great of a magician. That is just the fact.
Sorry that I don't really have much to talk about, but hopefully everyone is preparing and ready for their TED Talks! Good luck everyone!
Blogs commented on
Will: http://learning-woodworking.blogspot.com/
Jeremy: http://jspitt.blogspot.com/
Brianna: http://streetdancein7weeks.blogspot.com/
Monday, April 1, 2013
Blog Post #6
With time winding down until my TED Talk, I have been thinking a lot about what exactly I want to teach in it. At first I wanted only to teach what I had done and what magic I had been working on. But, after really thinking about what I had been doing for the past six weeks, I have decided to talk about what exactly it means to be successful in magic, and what you have to do to become successful. By learning what it takes to become a successful magician, you can learn to master any trick. I felt that helping other people become magicians was more important than documenting my journey amateur magician to professional master. Actually, I still consider myself an amateur...
In other news, this week, I started off by trying to attempt disappearing tricks. These tricks require more stealth and you must posses more skill to pull these off. These are two characteristics that I do not posses whatsoever! Because of this, you can probably guess what happened, I failed miserably. After trying for what felt like hours, I decided to go back to card tricks, the one facet of magic that I was actually good at. I first tried out a pretty difficult trick, one that required three major steps. After not being successful, I thought, why not try to break it down into smaller, more manageable tricks? That was my epiphany.
The card trick itself was composed of three, minor, easier card tricks. I worked on one of them, and after about an hour, I seemed to have gotten it down. After that, I moved on to the next one, and mastered that one. I then moved on to the third. After I seemed to be able to complete them all individually, I moved on to putting them all together. Suddenly, the larger, more complicated trick didn't seem like such a daunting task! I put together all three of the tricks that I had learned, and I was able to accomplish it without much of a problem. Because I believed in myself and was determined to do it, I accomplished my goal!
After I complete my TED Talk, I will post the link here for you all to see. You might see some of it during my presentation....
One more thing I would like to point out is the lesson that I have learned while trying to become a magician, is that if at first you don't succeed, you have to keep trying. Most importantly, you have to believe in yourself, because if you don't how is your audience going to believe in you?
Blogs I commented on:
Jeremy: http://jspitt.blogspot.com/
Noah: http://noahgillygeniusproject.blogspot.com/
Will: http://learning-woodworking.blogspot.com/
In other news, this week, I started off by trying to attempt disappearing tricks. These tricks require more stealth and you must posses more skill to pull these off. These are two characteristics that I do not posses whatsoever! Because of this, you can probably guess what happened, I failed miserably. After trying for what felt like hours, I decided to go back to card tricks, the one facet of magic that I was actually good at. I first tried out a pretty difficult trick, one that required three major steps. After not being successful, I thought, why not try to break it down into smaller, more manageable tricks? That was my epiphany.
The card trick itself was composed of three, minor, easier card tricks. I worked on one of them, and after about an hour, I seemed to have gotten it down. After that, I moved on to the next one, and mastered that one. I then moved on to the third. After I seemed to be able to complete them all individually, I moved on to putting them all together. Suddenly, the larger, more complicated trick didn't seem like such a daunting task! I put together all three of the tricks that I had learned, and I was able to accomplish it without much of a problem. Because I believed in myself and was determined to do it, I accomplished my goal!
After I complete my TED Talk, I will post the link here for you all to see. You might see some of it during my presentation....
One more thing I would like to point out is the lesson that I have learned while trying to become a magician, is that if at first you don't succeed, you have to keep trying. Most importantly, you have to believe in yourself, because if you don't how is your audience going to believe in you?
Blogs I commented on:
Jeremy: http://jspitt.blogspot.com/
Noah: http://noahgillygeniusproject.blogspot.com/
Will: http://learning-woodworking.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)