Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by DeceptionInc, Oct 14, 2009.

  1. Hey people,

    I have an interesting question. I was doing magic once and somebody asked my why I did magic. I just said that I enjoyed it and did it as a hobbie. He asked "can you go to college with this stuff?"

    I was stumped. is this possible to go to college.
  2. If your question is if it is possible (in general) to go to college then the answer is yes. It is really up to you and how motivated you are. Anyone can do anything they want if there is enough motivation and drive.

    If your question is if it is possible to go to college because of magic, no. There is not a university or college where there is a "magic" major. But if you really would like to make magic your career there are classes and majors in college you could consider such as Psychology.

    Magic is deeply routed in misdirection, misdirection and psychology go hand in hand. Psychology is the study of why we do what we do. Misdirection is the ability to make someone look at point A when you are hiding something at point B. Why will people look where you want them to?

    Psychology is an area of study you may want to consider if you are interested in questions such as the above mentioned one or if you are interested in other aspects of life. It will greatly help you in magic as well as general day to day living.

    Perhaps you would want to take a theater class or become a theater major. For obvious reasons, this would greatly help a magician.

    I suggest doing what any professional magician, parent, school teacher, or any other authority figure will tell you: Go to college. Even if you want to do magic for the rest of your life, one can take classes to enhance their magic, and if anything have a degree to fall back on if magic ceases to interest you or you cannot make a career out of it successfully.
  3. College is good. I dropped out of college and even ended up quiting my job... wonder if magic would get me anywhere? :rolleyes:
  4. psychology and theater is good because it will help you be a better performer, but This is a business also. If you want to get jobs you will need to know how to market yourself and conduct a business.
  5. psychology may help. but im a psych major and i havnt learned alot that i can join with magic.
    theater would be better for magicians, but then again im not a theater major. theater isnt all about acting tho, its also about managing, which would help too.
    but i went to college for bio, didnt like it. enjoy psych better.
    but thats just me.
    my parents still say i go to college for magic, because i do learn alot of magic while im in college.
  6. This is slightly related to our other thread, "Is school needed to be successful?"

    I am not going to start that argument again, but if you have the chance to go to it. You won't regret it. You will make some outstanding friends. You will mature a ton (when you aren't drunk per say). You learn a lot of life's lessons. And hopefully you will come out of it with a better understanding of your role in society and how you are going to fit in and be successful in a career.

    Now, that is not to say that you cannot become a successful magician if you do not go to college. I never said that. The percent though probably isn't in your favor.
  7. Becoming a successful magician, with or without college, is all about hard work and determination.

    With that said:
    College is a good experience regardless of what you're there to learn. Studying theatre would probably benefit you more than anything, as well as some areas of psychology.
    Marketing and statistics won't hurt either.
  8. I'm in college and I've taken theater, art, and psych classes.
    Psych isn't really helping out too much with magic, but it does give me some presentation ideas for effects though. That's about all it does really.

    My advice is use college to fall back on something if you want to be a professional magician. Don't major in theater for magic, because if the magic biz doesn't work out for you, you have nothing to fall back on. You need a plan B.
    I've been taking business classes, and that may be my new major to tell you the truth.

    So there are classes that you could take to help you out with magic, I just wouldn't major in them unless you have another aspiring career you would like to take up.

    Classes I'd recommend reading about:
    *Public Speaking
    *Business classes
    Art classes
    Theater classes

    That's all I got for now.

    P.S. Sorry if this sounded too cluttery, it's just that my mind thinks faster than I can type and I don't have the mindset to proof read right now.
  9. It certainly can't hurt to go to college. It helps you become a more well-rounded person and if the magic thing doesn't work out you have something to fall back on. A lot of successful people in life change professions from time to time so there really is no harm in having multiple talents.

    Besides, you get to party hard and have a great time. Who wouldn't want four years of that?

    l u k e
  10. If all one thinks is that he can use his "talents" to make a career and not need to go to school they will end up with nothing 30 years down the road.
    Eddie griffin has absolutely nothing to fall back on.He's going for broke.
    When Mickey rourke played the Wrester,is also a perfect example.
    All he knew was wrestling and look what became of him after his "talent" wore off. You cant be a one trick pony.
    The question "can you to college with that(magic)?". What is that even mean?
    There is no major in magic in any university I know of so...
  11. It depends on how you define "successful". You could be perfectly happy raising a family in a three bedroom home working a blue collar job. Many of the people in the Forbes 500 aren't there because of their education alone, but how it complements their natural savy and understanding of human beings.
  12. Its the same thing either way.
    If all you want to depend on is magic,acting,modeling or any of the job that these people are implying that dont need a college/university education farther down the line it will all backfire on you.Your talent will be useless and you will not get any job because your talent was all you ever depended on.
    Get me?
  13. The thing about magic is that it helps you in all sorts of social and mental aspects. Much like martial arts training it gives you the tools you need to deal with society.

    Good luck with college.

    BTW you had better work on grammar before you get there.
  14. You don't NEED an education. But it does help and really life is too short for just one career. But having a AA or some level of a college Education will help you out in the long run (depending on what you focused on in college.)
  15. I actually remember a Magician talking about a college that offered courses in Magic History and such....I will see if I can find it.

    Until I do:
    This guy made it work for him:

    While you may go to college and not Major in Magic, you can find many courses that apply to what you want do.
  16. Try living well in this world without one see where it leads you.
    Christopher McCandless lived off the land and without a career but the only reason he survived one day was because he EDUCATED himself on what he needed to know. Unless you want to live without the love of a woman and a family,or friends or last ,but certainly not least for people these days,material possesions,you need an education.
  17. you NEED an education. Where you get the education is the other question. It doesn't have to be college in order to be considered an education. And you can't use "street smarts" as an excuse for not going to college. Being educated in whatever fashion you so choose, will lead to success. Know what you want and know how to get it. Be realistic at some point in your life. When you're in elementary to... mid high school, you can dream the impossible dream. But when you're beyond that point, dream the impossible dream all you want, but if you want any hope of getting anywhere, KNOW your dream and what it entails. and what to compromise and what not to.
  18. Tell that to my 91 year old Great Grandpa who dropped out of School and joined the Army Air Core back during WWII and then right after, went to work for Ford for around 20-30 years. He didn't have an education and he was able to live comfortably and put food on his families table. Along with having a good retirement plan and other such things.
  19. Times have changed
  20. Oh please do you think everyone has that kinda luxury or chance nowadays?
    Dont kid yourself.
    You wanna try that plan go for.Ill see you packing my groceries in a few years.

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