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Comment by gspencley | Hacker News Reader

I'm learning to tailor and fabricate clothing right now. My wife and I are part time magicians and I want to be able to make our costumes ourselevs. At the moment I'm making a longline underbust corset for my wife's costume and will work up to a woman's tailcoat and eventually the goal is to make my own bespoke 3-piece late Victorian / Edwardian inspired men's suit.

It has been such a rabbit hole because, much like software development, it is not just one skill but lots of different skills and disciplines that combine. From design sketches to pattern drafting to understanding the nature of fabrics and how to cut them properly for wear and durability to the actual sewing and fitting etc.

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I was literally just practicing a faro when I came across this post. Nice to meet another magician on HN! Are you more into stage-level magic or more parlor magic (card manipulations, etc.)?

Nice!

I would say that we mostly perform parlour with high ambitions of performing in 500+ seat theatres. It's not that we love box illusions and want to do a ton of them or anything. It's more that we like being in control of the entire experience, even down to what the audience experiences when they show up to the theatre before the show and leave at the end. This type of attention to detail is something that you can only achieve in a theatre setting. It doesn't have to be a traditional theatre with a stage... but it has to be a venue that you are entirely in control of.

What we're doing right now is trying to have the most of where we see ourselves in a few years, while working within our limitations. And we'll take a strolling gig or say yes to pretty much anything. But where we try to position ourselves right now is parlour because that's where we can do the type of material that lets us really showcase our characters and what we try to be about. We do a lot of material that plays just as well for a room of 20 people as it does a theatre with 1500.

How about yourself? Tell me your magic story.

oh yeah I get that - there's a lot more to magic then fancy flourishes. :)

In a way it's a return to the more classic era of magic (like Thurston) in so far as the magic is part of an overall experience.

Not much to tell for me, I grew up near a well known (and sadly mostly closed) magic shop, and used to while away hours there practicing sleight of hand. I must have read Henry Hay's Amateur Magician Handbook a hundred times over the summers - sweating over the hand-drawn illustrations and trying to parse how some of the more murderous figurations worked.

My professional magic experience consists of some a few live street magic performances back when I lived in Taiwan - before I spoke Chinese it was a great icebreaker that transcended language barriers.

I've mostly switched over to juggling (contact, and pin) because I like the fact that there's nothing to hide (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain), so I don't get nearly as nervous.

Good luck on your journey!

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