chanceofmagic

[chanceofmagic]

Why I love magic.

I've been immersed in the world of magic for almost 10 years at this point. And my interest has never faded. But what is it about the art of magic that made me fall in love with it? Well, there's a lot of reasons for that. You could say I'm layered. Like an onion. When I was younger I was very shy, due to being afflicted with eczema and first had experience with the harsh judgements of young kids. So growing up, I always yearned for a way to connect with people. It was the reason I got interested in art and music, because I saw how people connected to those people. So when I found magic, it was kismet. I mean, that's what magic is all about. Connecting with people. But not only that, but connecting with the best part of people, their child within. See, when we're kids, we see the world as being full of magic. We believe that true magic exists. That people can fly. That we can dance in the clouds. That somehow, if we just try hard enough, we can move things with our minds. But then we grow up. And we slowly start to lost that view of the world. The bright, saturated, magical world that we knew gets shrouded in a veil of cynicism, doubt and frankly, reality. Magic lifts that veil. However briefly, when someone watches a magician and gets completely baffled, that veil rises and the world is full of wonder again. Anything is possible again. That's why I love magic. If someone's having a bad day or week, and I can make them forget that, if only for a few seconds by sharing some magic with them, that's worth it to me.

[chanceofmagic]

My Story

Hello tumblr-verse. My names Chance Acuna, and I'm a magician. I've decided to create this tumblr to share my thoughts and insights on the art of magic. I do not claim to have any ground breaking theories on the subject, just an overall passion and respect for the art. I love performing magic everywhere I go and anytime I have an opportunity, but I've had to focus on my day job, so I haven't had much time to officially perform. So I decided to share my magic in another way. I will not be exposing magic on this blog, so don't hold your breath for anything like that. As I said, I'd just like to share my thoughts and insights on the art of magic. So, if you've made it this far, I'm going to hope that you will start to follow this tumblr and join me as I get lost in the magical, mystery world that is my mind. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I thought that I'd take this first entry as an opportunity to introduce myself. As I've mentioned, my name is Chance and I'm a magician. I live in the Bay Area in the great state of California. The question I get from a lot of people (aside from "How'd you do that?!"), is "how did you get into magic?" Well, I've always been fascinated with magic. I remember being very young, sitting with my parents and watching old David Copperfield specials on TV and being absolutely blown away. But back then, I had the misconstrued idea that the only kind of magic out there was the big flashy kind that I saw on TV and not to mention that these performers obviously had to have some sort of supernatural powers on their side, right? So, I never thought that someone as ordinary as me could ever do anything like that, so I didn't even think of it as an option. I also remember, years later, finding that spark of fascination once again when seeing David Blaine's first TV special. Again, being completely floored. But OF COURSE there had to have been camera tricks or super expensive props that I'd never be able to afford, so I let the bug pass me again. It wasn't until I got into college where I was studying theatre and had just started the run of a production of MacBeth that I had been cast in. All of the actors and technicians brought things to keep themselves entertained between scenes or other downtime where we're just sitting backstage with nothing to do. Some of us brought coloring books, some laptops, portable DVD players, magazines... and I decided to stop by the 711 down the street before getting to the theatre one day and purchased a pack of cards. I just thought that it'd be fun to play some card games with my friends, which is just what we did, We played poker, blackjack, gin... and then a friend of mine, Dan, took the deck and asked if we wanted to see a card trick that he knew. Dan wasn't a magician, this was just a small trick that he learned some time before, but what he showed us completely bewildered me. And then I realized how wrong my younger self was in assuming that I could never afford to learn magic or that it only had to be big and flashy. My friend did something super simple, right in front of me, like it was nothing. So from that point on, I was hooked. Most magicians start practicing sleight of hand at a very early age. Like, single digits. But I didn't start until I was already almost 20. So, needless to say, I had a lot of catching up to do. But I like to thnk that my passion for the art and my drive to perfect my skill makes up for time lost. So, that's how I got into magic. I hope that wasn't too long-winded or hard to get through, haha. I also wanted to talk a bit about WHY I love magic, but I'm going to do that in a separate entry so that I can kinda keep things organized in some way.