I believe the term for this is a watershed moment. That moment when someone like Michael Jordan first touched a basketball, when Dale Earnhart first touched a steering wheel. When Rick Wilcox first touched a carrot. :) I know right, they’re good for things other than your eyesight though.
This week Rick talks to us about the first trick he performed for people. I am sure like Jordan or the Intimidator, he couldn’t actually tell you the first time he touched a trick and knew that would become his life’s work. People who give themselves to a discipline on that level typically have those talents as part of their cognitive development process.
You will see Rick in the video say “I think it was….” Because the truth is he actually doesn’t remember what his first trick was. I would wager that he was rubbing coins on his elbow in his baby crib at some point.
Spider Man had his spider bite, (back in my day it was
radioactive, today it is genetically modified) Super Man had Krypton,
even Goku had planet Vegeta. Somewhere, however you slice it, we all
have an origin story. Origin stories are important. They are the
beginnings of our individuality, the fabric of our moral fiber, the
first steps in our walk of life.
In ancient times I
imagine that magicians were seen as heroes. Special and not like us.
Some were gifted with slight of hand and some like Archimedes were just
completely technically adept. Our own Les Paul was called the Wizard of
Waukesha because he could envision things that others simply couldn’t.
From
my standpoint, this is the class that I see Rick Wilcox in. The
illusions in the show are massive in scale. The amount of determination
that it takes to master a trick for “up-close” magic is impressive. Rick
showed me one up close trick that he said took six months to perfect.
That amount of discipline for one trick is impressive. Some tricks take
two years worth of practice and development before they are implemented
in the show.
It led me to wonder; What was Rick’s Origin
Story? How did he begin? Who did he look up to? Well wonder no more
because we now have the story from the man himself! Here it is! Please
share for us and just a heads up our next show is Saturday Oct 1st!
I asked Rick Wilcox what he looks for when he selects an audience member for participation in the show. He said the biggest thing was making sure that whoever participates doesn’t feel like they're being made fun of. Rick is a master at making a participant feel like a star by the time they leave the stage. Their dignity and self-esteem is intact, and they know they contributed to a magical, memorable moment. Hopefully after watching the video and hearing Rick speak about it himself, we all will feel comfortable enough to raise our hands.
We all know that moment, the moment when that person on stage takes a look at us and asks us to participate in a moment on stage. For some of us it’s a moment of excitement, hand held high while yelling “me me me me”!!! For others this is an opportunity to practice our evolutionary prowess and see if we can’t conjure the genetic markers of a chameleon.
I think I am like most people, I fall squarely in between both extremes. I don’t go out of my way to be selected, however if I am selected I swallow my butterflies and I give it the old college try. I have been asked to sing, I have been asked to dance, but never had I, like a lot of people, been asked to participate in a magic trick.
That does a lot to spark a person’s interest. By nature magic and illusions are spectacles and have their own level of scrutiny attached to them without me fumbling around in the middle of a magician’s act. Which brings me to the video that we have this week.
Mind you I just listed all of the insecurities that I face when I attend a show and his response told me that he understands those complexities of audience participation. That’s a big thing because in the end, I think that’s what prevents most of us from raising our hands to participate.
Don’t forget we have a show tonight! Thanks for watching and please share!
Greetings and happy Labor Day. Today is a special day for us because we’re going to do something that we haven’t attempted before so hopefully it goes well. Today we’re going to put the magic in your hands with a trick that we’re going to teach you.
Rick WIlcox has his 25 Amazing Card Tricks Video that is available at www.rickwilcox.com in the magic shop. We thought it would be a killer idea to teach you all a trick so we created a series of “How To” stills that are available on our Pinterest page.
The best part is that all you’ll need is a deck of cards and a few minutes to learn the trick. This is excellent for someone who wants to try their hand at magic or just wants a quick entertainment talking point for their friends and family. Give the trick a shot and let us know what you think!
