Wanna see a trick-commonapp EC essay

"1 2 3 and this card" I flourish out the Ace of Spades. "Wow, how did you do that?" the girl asks me with her mouth agape in surprise. I reply with the familiar "A magician never tells" and start moving towards the next group of people. As I take in their appearances, my mind furiously begins to evaluate them. Which trick to perform on whom? What to do and what to avoid?

As you might have guessed, I am a street magician. I perform tricks for random people in the city and I love every bit of it. The thrill of approaching a stranger, the coolness of being able to one-up them and the sheer fun of the trick draws me towards this 'art'. Its hard work practicing the upper card force or the vanishing coin but the class and style of the end result is worth it. The look on the faces of the audience is worth it. And although it may be a cliché to say that magic taught me hard work, it really honestly did. Where else can you see the result of your late night shuffling pay off in the form of awe and applause? I can't. Not anyplace else.

My mind humming, my evaluation complete, I get to that group and start with the usual "Wanna see a trick?"

I like it. It's unique. But the part about it teaching you hard work is very underdeveloped. don't just say it did, talk about how. I know this is probably the 150 word one so I'd try to cut out some of the anecdote if you need to.

also, i don't know of how good of an idea it is to point out how cliche your response is. i would rephrase it to make it sound less cliche.

rgudz26, thanks a lot. I'll change the hard work part and try to shorten the anecdote. Will post an edited one soon. Any idea on how I can 'show' how I learned hard work? It would be very helpful. Thanks again