Hi,

I performed card tricks at a friends wedding and everyone loved it! I did is as a friend and because I enjoy magic
A few said I should do it to earn some money from.
A photographer there said I only need a few minutes worth of tricks and go from group to group at a wedding and perform and get paid for it.

Any tips for doing this?
I am not a pro magician but have a few good tricks

Your thoughts would be much appreciated
Whats a good way to begin?

Get "The Approach" by Jamie D Grant, it will guide you from amateur to working pro.

Dani

Awesome - thank you

Try performing anniversary waltz, a great routine and they get to keep a souvenir of your performance .

Personal opinion - wait a bit before doing paid gigs.

I did my first paid gig outside of my university (I had previously done some paid work for society balls and stuff at uni) a few weeks back and I'm glad I was already experienced. When you know you are being paid, you feel more pressure to perform well and get even more tempted to rush things.

Performing for strangers is also very different.

So my advice:

Find a free gig that you can do, such as a charity event, local fair, perform for a local scouting group etc.
This will get you experience approaching strangers and performing. Once you get that down, you'll be ready.


This is the route I've taken and its really starting to pay off

Thank you for your replies!

Also I wanted to ask, have you ever been found out how you do a certain trick by someone at a gig?
I guess without enough practice this can happen?

Even with practice it can happen. Or they make a guess...it may be incorrect but if they are convinced they are correct it makes little difference.

But...practice to minimise the risk.
Structure your routine to minimise the risk.
When it happens, smile and move on (either literally or next trick). No one died

A line I use is "Shhh....remember the magicians code. Never tell the secret...sell it to them later"

Hope this helps,

Danny

Don't just go in armed with a small set list. Most people agree that three or so "sets" of tricks is better as you can rotate through each set and it's not as likely that any one person will see the same thing twice.

There is a lot to learn before going out into business with magic. The tricks alone are half the effect. You need to have strong entertainment - something that is an art on it's own. I recommend a book by Ken Weber "maximum entertainment"

Thank you everyone - Great tips for me here

The approach is a great book
It came yesterday and I have read it all already!

Great info and great tips in that

I have to share
One great effect that happened at a wedding was this:
Earlier in the day I did a signed card from shoe trick with the Extractor.
Everyone loved it!

I saw that the card was left on a chair nearby. I left it and a few minutes later my friend was with me looking at the card.
A mates jacket was on the chair so I said to my friend, put the card in a jacket pocket.

I didn't think anything of it.

Later at Dinner, I performed a few more tricks and the lady who I did the signed card from shoe trick, said that she left her card but would like it as a memento.

I said hold on..... waved my hands around...... shazam....... whos jacket is that?

Have a check in the pocket......

Purely Magical Moment for everyone at the table!
Lol
Had to share

Nice use of opportunity :o)

I'm really new in the magic world (mostly cards magic since early 2014 but since a few weeks I'm working on bizarre magic - tricks where it's easy to tell a story and where you can use great props). I started by learning some moves (cuts, breaks, etc...) and some tricks (with or without gimmicked cards). It was something like 10 minutes long. Not a great magic, but some tricks I worked on to master them.
Then, I went to a wedding (as a cousin of the bride) and borrow some decks with me. I started to do some tricks at my table (I was feeling a lot of stress), then some children asked me to go to their table to show them some tricks. Then my parents and my grand parents asked me to go to their tables to, and that's how I showed to 20-30 ppl some tricks. Somebody told me that one day, a corporate magician came to his firm and did some poor tricks (a lot of flashs) and he found that my tricks were "better" performed. I don't think I could have been paid for what I have done, but if I want to, I'll try to learn a lot of more tricks. To be honest, I don't think 10 min of tricks are worth to be paid.

I think Im addicted to learning and performing magic!

I am annoyed though because I am currently lacking funds to purchase more tricks :-(
Hopefully I can get a paid gig soon, and I can use the money to buy more tricks!

Any recomended routines to make a really strong performance at an event?
I am up for buying some really good strong modern/street magic as I really want to totally wow! Everyone at an event!


Im still getting my act together but I have....

Set 1 - Table needed
- Make a bet - they select a card, I end up turning the cards face up one by one on a table, going past theirs and then saying, I bet the next card I turn over will be your card. They expect the next face down card but I turn over theirs!

- Copy me - with two decks, I have a deck and they have a deck - we both shuffle, switch decks, select a card, switch decks, find selected card, mine and theirs are the same

- Rainman from Lennart Green, the cards are mixed face up and face down, I guess the amount of face down cards, red cards and what types of black cards there are with a twist at the end

- Prisoners - the jokers find a persons card (special deck)


Set 2 - standing
-Inverted card (flip) - their selected card has flipped over in the pack
-Jumping card - their selected card goes into the centre of the pack (tilt), jumps to the top, goes back into the centre and jumps back to the top
-The jumping aces/queens - two aces turn into queens in their hands

set 3 - Standing
- Invisible pack (Ideally would use something different and keep invisible pack for backup)
- Card in persons hand switches to their chosen card
- Signed card from shoe (the extractor)

Set 4
- Card in wallet (signed card)
- Card from mouth (signed) - I need to work on more methods for controlling their selected card)
- Floating Note (Defiance) Will need a backup trick in case it goes wrong


other potential tricks

Their Card in a bottle (forced card and set up needed, may be awkward to do many times at an event such as a wedding)
Brainwave - I misplaced it somewhere and need practice
Four blue backed aces are found, the rest of the deck turns red (table set, more practice needed especially the patter)