Hello Café members!!
Just a quick Q for all; how do/did you overcome performance nervousness/anxiety? I look forward to the responses!!
Thanks,
mch64961

Never perform an effect that you have not not practiced to "automaticity." Anxiety comes from uncertainty, fear that you will mess up or forget what you are doing. Solve that first.

If your concern is more of the "will they like me" variety then you need a different type of magic. Focus on creating the condition s in which magic will happen in the mind of the spectator. You are subservient to that. Any particular spectator is subservient to that. The chose effect is subservient to that.

Then, when technique and ego are in control, go to "non-judgement" setting like hospitals and Senior Centers and perform -- even a park. Just do it!

The only way to over come performance anxiety is to keep performing for new people.
I also do stand up, mostly open mic nights, nothing too serious, but getting up on stage and doing my set used to be a big deal, and I would get really nervous. nowadays, when I have my "working" bits that I know I can count on, I don't even do any rehearsals before going up. I don't mean that I don't get anxious anymore, just that after you keep doing something and you realize that even if people don't laugh (happened to me) or if you flash a move and people catch your trick (also happened to me) life keeps on going, the skies aren't falling on your head, everything is as it was, then what's to be afraid of?
Just keep performing and the anxiety will go away eventually.
That, and alcohol.

As the pro Actors Use To say! " If your not Nervous Your not good Enough" Johnny Carson was that Way!

But After you do it long Enough AFTER You get Out On stage That should go away!

Though I think the alcohol comment was tongue in cheek, I would like to add that alcohol is not a good long term solution.
As an addiction counselor I have met great magicians and musicians that have learned the hard way about alcohol.

By the way, I'm not against alcohol use.

After performing since the 70's I still get a bit anxious before and during the first minutes of a gig.

Harris

The only way, as already stated, is to get out there and perform. However, you can do simple things during practice to prepare for that feeling of anxiety:
- work on your routines until you can do them blindfolded...literally.
- practice in places where there is a certain amount of 'danger' involved (wrong word, but it gets the point across). e.g. when everyone's asleep, set yourself up in the hallway outside their bedrooms, or a public library, or church!
- tell yourself you must work on a particular slight a specific number of times correctly, or you will have to start over from the beginning, e.g. drop a single coin from two held in CP. repeat 25 times. If a mistake is made before all 25 are done, start over.

Hope this helps

Another way of getting out there is to skype with people and show them some effects. I do that with a few people and it has helped them a lot. It can be fun and you know you will get some decent advice from good people.

Overcome... remember the audience is there to be entertained. Not sure stage fright can be eliminated though.

Live with it. It keeps you on your toes.

I also include prayer.

That's included in my experience related to fear and anxiety.

Something that really helped me was to think everything that could go wrong in the act, trick or routine, and then think how I would recover from it.

RJH

I suffer from pretty severe anxiety. It took me seemingly forever to take the plunge and actually perform a trick for someone outside of my immediate family and girlfriend. Performing is the best solution. Perform first for your camera, then for those close to you, and finally for people you've never met. You are going to mess a routine up in front of someone eventually. It happens. When you do you will realize that most of your spectators were happy enough just to see you try something so unique. They want to see you succeed.

Performing is definitely the key. However, you'll find audiences vary widely, from those who are friendly and encouraging to those who are outright hostile. After 30-40 years, you may be able to handle them all.

I practice while watching TV.

Moves that won't be too noisy, as I have to respect my beloved and supportive of my arts, wife.

After you can drop one coin from your hand with the other still in classic...
try doing it with 2 coins, then 3....

AND remember one doesn't have to do difficult stuff to entertain.

In practice, it is difficult to start over the entire routine when a mistake is made.
I hated it when my harmonica teacher made me do it.

Now I appreciate his patience and getting real.

One of the reasons, I've gotten better on coin magic (versus cards) is I practice and use it more.
It's the same with my harmonica playing versus guitar or ukulele.

I've been working on my fear and perfectionistic tendencies on guitar, by playing during hall duty at the high school.

Question?

Have you gone out and shared in the last few days.

What has helped you lower your anxiety in other areas?
It might be helpful with your sharing coin magic.

Harris
still too old to know it all

I still feel that surge of energy before each performance and I love it. I feed off it.

In my stage shows, I used to overcome the initial anxiety by opening with a piece that is done to music, is easy to do (I had rehearsed it to a point), and gets a big response.

By the time I needed to address my audience I had already received a good round of applause and been on stage for 1 1/2 minutes. I'm already there, they are already amazed, and there is nothing left to be anxious about.

You can easily apply this to close-up magic by opening with quick modular piece with little narration, one that gets a big reaction and allows you to 'settle in'.

Thank you everyone for the insight! I like all of the different suggestions given!!

@ Harris, I performed pontas winged silver for a co worker, and he was very impressed, but I stayed anxious the entire time...but I am just going to have to keep on performing and work through the nervousness.
-mch64961

Ben Salinas' post reminded me of a Jerry Mentzer lecture I attended once. He said a friend of his used a self-working card trick (which he happened to be selling) to open his shows. The idea was that because the trick was self-working, he could concentrate on presentation and get past any initial anxiety he might have.

I think that if you are performing things that you have practiced till it is second nature you will still be nervous the first few times you perform. The thing that gets rid of the jitters the best is to perform over and over again in front of real audiences. When you have done the routine about 100+ times then you will do it without any nerves at all.

Howard THURSTON would atand backstage,just as the orchestra was playing his overture, and jump up and down a half dozen times (to get his heart pumping a bit faster!) and say to himself: "I love my audience"! Not practical in someone's living room, or the Rotary Club dining room! --but, you get the idea, I'm sure.

All the suggestions above are good, sound, and come from experience!

As a teenager in the '40s, performing in a side show (12 to 15 times a day)I soon got over anxiety! Working high schools during Vietnam War days, also helped! I survived all of them!

You, very likely, will not book yourself into mental hospitals for the criminally insane! You wont book yourself into prisons, or "teen age" reformatories for kids who have killed their mother. You wont book yourself into high schools where the administration has chained the exit doors shut to keep kids from leaving the auditorium to vandalize the school! I've played all of those! --and survived!

So, a nice little group in a senior citizen nursing home, or a 5 year old's birthday party, or the Rotary Club Ladies Night, should be a "picnic"!

If you've practiced--and rehearsed--(practice and rehearsal are two different "things") so that doing a trick is like putting on your pants! (your don't need to "think" which leg goes "in" first!) you should do fine.

Always have an "out" planned, practiced, and ready. I wss visiting the late Gary Bontjes, an old friend and ex National President of the SAM, about 30 + years ago. He had a Santa Claus breakfast booked for the next morning. I went along. Gary was setting his card sword. He said, "This prop scares me to death! I'm always worried that the 'motive power' is going to break, and leave me standing there..." I asked, "Don't you have an "out"?" He said, "No." I said, "Mandroop's Insurance Policy"!!!" (--Any "flash revelation of a card" prop (like rising cards, card sword, card on ceiling, ETC.) needs a back up. The insurance policy, an Inv. Deck, etc., can "save" you. Gary bought an insurance policy!!!

The moral of the story is: PLAN AHEAD! (Fail to plan, and you plan to fail!)

Break a leg!

I think your emotions and body language can help to alleviate the stressful aspects in performance. I notice that when I am positive and my thoughts are just about entertaining my audience, I believe they can sense that and will actually play along with me as if wanting me to entertain them. My smiles and laughter help me to relax and they always seem to produce positive responses from my audience as well. Win-win!