This week I'm on holidays with my family, we've packed up our car and taken it interstate from the city of Sydney, New South Wales north to the beaches of Gold Coast in Queensland.
I fully intended to switch off and not write something this week but then I read a post by Marc Randolph about being consistent even if the work is not up to your standard or you don’t think you’re capable of putting something out that’s good. Which then got me thinking about the work we do as writers, magicians, artists and creatives and how we are often putting out work that we are never fully happy with but have to put out anyway to meet a deadline or because we need it let it go to live.
I have a few creative interests that I would like to share with you in this post and how I approach them based on consistency and a view for perfection.
Magic
The passion that got me into most of what I’m doing creatively these days!
Magic is not something that can be prepared haphazardly and then presented with the hopes that audiences don’t recognise that you delivered something with half efforts. If you don’t practice, script, rehearse and refine then you’re likely to flash, stumble, hesitate or perform inadequately. So, I’m always striving to be as close to perfect as possible, to get my sleights, routines and script to a point I am happy with to perform for others.
Being consistent with magic isn’t a problem for me as a close up worker, performing each week I have many chances to do the same routines over and over building that consistency. My problem comes with stand up shows, which I don’t do as often as close up. How I make up for the lack of stand up consistency is by performing them in close up settings where appropriate.
Perfection and consistency go hand in hand with magic, and my residency allows me to keep on top of it, otherwise I’d be lagging behind.
Writing
I’ve always had a love of putting pen to paper, clacking the keyboard or creating a literary feast for the eyes.
This Substack newsletter has been a great way for me to be consistent, and I’m so glad it’s been going on every week for 6 months now. Not always knowing what I’ll write forces my mind to be creative, which seems to work best for me. I can’t plan ahead of time or batch write posts because it just doesn’t feel organic to me, although I would like to so I can take proper breaks when I need to.
Since I’m writing my posts each week, the posts are never going to be perfect, as I read over previous posts I’ll see sentences that could be written better, ideas that could have been expanded upon or lines that should have been culled. But, if I tried for perfection each time, I’d never post, hence why for writing, done is better than perfect. That’s not to say I’m fine with putting out bad writing, if something doesn’t work, I’ll scrap it and start from scratch to make it work.
Each time I write, I hope I’m getting better at this craft and I would like to get to a point where I can write for a living, one can only dream!
YouTube
For the longest time I wanted to start a YouTube channel, and in December of 2020 I took the plunge and uploaded my first video, but the rest hasn’t been history.
I initially aimed for one video uploaded per week, and during this initial run I was doing tricks, so either taking one I knew already or learning a trick, practicing it, filming it, editing the video and then uploading it with a title and custom thumbnail. Very quickly I discovered this was a lot of work on top of my full time job and family duties so my consistency dropped. I saw flashes of growth here and there and I’m still trying to work out my angle with the channel, so right now it’s got a mix of content for magicians (reviews, theory) and content for muggles (trick performances), but it’s not consistent so I’m not growing as much as I should or would like.
On top of that is the quality of the videos. Depending on the type of video I was making there would be varying levels of quality as a result. Performing tricks for the camera was taxing as I would need the perfect take so that nothing flashed or gave away a method, so that could take several takes, but the editing was faster. Then I had other videos talking about magic, reviewing something and while I would leave it as my talking head the whole video, I like to edit in clips to keep the video as interesting as possible, so the filming is fast, but the editing takes a long time. All this to say that with every video I make, I should be getting incrementally better in some way, so every previous video will have something I would want changed.
I have so many ideas for YouTube, but so little time to devote to it, despite the enjoyment I get from working on my channel.
Leathercraft
This is a new hobby I picked up in the past year, primarily as a means to support my magic gigs.
The art of leathercraft is the creation of something using leather, in my case it was wallets, card holders and key rings. It’s a very inconsistent hobby for me, as I am very much still learning and I don’t have a proper workshop space so my pieces come few and far in between each other. But I greatly enjoy the process of creation each time I make something with my hands.
As a beginner, none of my works are anywhere near perfect. In fact, I see many issues with my pieces if I were to scrutinise them. But with each subsequent one, I get a little better, whether it’s refining a technique or learning how to put a different piece together.
Leatherwork has allowed me fill in gaps I have in my magic so that I can accomplish certain effects or hold more magic!
A recurring theme among my hobbies and interests is that with consistency and repetition, I’ll continue to get better and better.
And with so many things that I’m working on, it’s going to be a slow progression, and I’m completely fine with taking my time.
It always amazes me to see people successfully juggle a job plus 3 or 4 hobbies. I only have time for writing and Magic. Once in awhile I still manage to ski! 🎿 ⛷
We’re launching our video platform website in early spring, and making videos can be time consuming. Kudos to you David for doing all the things you love! 🤗💖✨