How important is proeficiency in sleight of hand to be able to earn money doing magic? Do you have to be like really good or does showmanship matter more?

Short answer: If you want to use sleight of hand in your performance, you do need to be good at it.

Being good at what you do is part of showmanship.

Would you try to make money as a car mechanic if you sucked at fixing cars?

Showmanship =willnot make up for 'flash'-'clank' etc. unless you want to be known as a COMEDY?? magician

Sleight of hand is what differentiates the "cookie cutter" magician that can only perform magic store magic according to the instructions, and a "real" magician who makes magic happen to ordinary objects, not limited to magic store props, but who can take the same magic store prop and make a monkey out of someone who knows how it works by unexpectedly slipping in some sleight of hand. Showmanship is what makes a magician out of a guy who does tricks. In my humble opinion, of course.

You don't have to use sleight of hand to be a good magician. It's just one of the available tools. However, if one is going to use that tool, they should be good at it.

Yeah, I agree with Christopher. If you're going to use sleight of hand, you have to be very good at it. Not even kinda good. It has to be flawless and invisible. It's fundamental to magic. I don't care if you're the best showman on earth, if you flash, you fail.

Ok Let me rephrase...is a lot of the commercial magic dependent on hard sleight of hand?

Well, yeah, a good bit of tricks out there depend on sleight of hand. I have no idea what kind of ratio, though. I do know that one could easily have a full career without relying on sleight of hand, though.

"Commercial" depends on the presentation, though.

Well, Lovekey...

The first thing that you must understand is that despite Dr. A.M. Wilson's statement, MAGIC IS NOT INHERENTLY ENTERTAINING.

So! back in the '40s, my mentors put it very simply: "It aint WHAT ya do, it's HOW ya do it!" (PRESENTATION! PRESENTATION, PRESENTATION.)

Magic is 5% sleight of hand skills, 5% perceptual illusion, 5% esoteric science principles. and 85% PSYCHOLOGY.

TRICKS are just "vehicles", or "tools". PROPS are just the "physical things" that magicians use to perform tricks.

MY props for my 45 to 60 minute show, fit in a 13" x 20" x 8" case that weighs 22 lbs. Except for 3 linking rings, an egg bag, and a "Demon Wonder Box", the props are GENERIC. (rope, silks, coins, etc.)

I depend ON my PRESENTATION to make the PERFORMANCE of TRICKS, E N T E R T A I N I N G.

You've been "here" since the spring of 2012! What books have you read? (Never mind books which explain TRICKS!!!!!!!)

Have you read, Maskelynne & Devant, Fitzkee, Tarbell, Hilliard, Weber, et al???