Working out better than tutorial?

[Albert]

Originally Posted by Kieran Oloughlin

Sorry if I am posting this in the wrong place I am not sure where I am ment to post this sought of stuff.

I recently worked out Mark's Dear Mr.Scientist trick!!! I can do the full routine with no variations and I belive it is the correct method.

What I would like to know is that in your opinion (I would like to know Mark's the most) is it better to work out a trick then watch a tutorial of it? It is better if the trick is taught through a dvd or personal lessons but if there is none avalibale, is it better to work out a trick then watch a free tutorial?

Hi Kieran! Welcome to MTG! This is the right place to post this kind of question

Regarding your question, there really is not right or wrong answer, but there is a better answer in my opinion. I say the better answer doesn't really lie in the options that you gave however.

Working out a trick by watching it is an extremely good thing! It provides you with a wider range of perception of magic and improves your insight on magic as well. DVDs, however, have the advantage of teaching you techniques you have never thought of or learned, which helps you build your repertoire far more easily.

If working out a trick or learning from a professional gives you the same result, it really depends on your objective. Do you want to learn more faster or do you want to experiment and have fun that way? It's really up to you. But as I have said, working out a trick independently has its own benefits of building your imagination.

As for the best answer, in my opinion, is personalization. Regardless of where you learned the trick or how you learned it, if you can take that and make it your own, you have truly have done a great job. If you are wondering what I mean by personalization, I mean that you should take a trick or a sleight or technique and you want to tune it up to fit YOUR needs, not necessarily other people's needs. There are several benefits of doing that:

1) It improves your magic since you constantly practice.
2) You will be creating a variation of a trick that no one has ever seen before. This doesn't mean just simply change up the patter, but how you perform the technique. Just change the hand position of a certain move will be personalizing it. Of course, it has to work for you the best to be effective.
3) You will be improving your scope in magic. You will soon realize in no time that if you continue to do this, there are endless possibilities that are so obvious, yet people didn't bother doing.
4) You have probably heard the statement "magicians are easier to fool than others". That can be very true, especially if you personalize your own techniques. Mark is an amazing example of this. A lot of his techniques are fine-tuned to fit his needs and it works amazingly well. They are deceptive and effective.
5) If you personalize it to make it work for you, your handling of the cards will automatically become smoother and more natural since you are handling the cards the way it is comfortable for you.

So all in all, learning something from figuring it out or from watching a DVD really gives you the same result, but each has its own ups and downs. I hope this gives you some insight about this question. Now let's let Mark have some additional input on this. I'm interest as well

[la0o9]

Personally, i believe that you should do a hybrid of both, first looking at the trick, try and guess the handling of it, and then if you think you need to, watch the correct tutorial for confirmation.

If you ask which is better, i think Albert already said what is necessary, working it out makes your mind and eye better( and to an extend, your hands), and the paid tutorials( the ones you have to pay to get) gives you the magician's experience with it as well as the technique, which saves you around a month or more of messing around with it to master it( but sometimes the month of messing around with it isn't that bad, it sometimes give you a variation or application of the technique(s) that no one really ever thought about using).