Welcome to the Café 61…

Good question and some real good, real life responses here.

"Nothing to it, but to do it!" Uhhhhh, let me explain that…

Anxiety calms itself down behind your doing the work. The more you try things out on people, the more comfortable you become, the more you learn. Within the concept of doing magic, there are a few things happening all at once, though you sorta learn them one at a time. First you must practice the effect and get all the moves down. Typically pattering is a part of this, so timing is something to consider in your delivery. And then a big element is your audience, you must understand THEM, what they see, how they see it, how they comprehend. You must learn to lead them, lead their thinking upon the moments.

Once you put all this together, it still takes a few times out to start to feel the appropriate dynamics of it all merging together in you. Sometimes you hit it, sometimes you don't until you learn to recognize the moments and meld all actions together smoothly toward the goal. Lot of explanation here (sorta like explaining breathing, which most people do well by simple reflex), but it all happens behind good practice and understanding of what you're doing. Once you get it, you will feel it and receive the appropriate response from specs, and most importantly, from within yourself.

I know it's a little scary but just take the plunge and learn from every encounter, good or not so good. It get's easier and before you know it you're doing it pretty much. All the while, learning a lot about the psychology of people and about yourself as well. It should be consoling to know that most all of us here have been there (big, small & all), and now we're here. It'll happen about that way for you too with due diligence upon a great and worthwhile journey.

Again, "Welcome" and Keep Moving Forward!

-Mb

Yes continual performing helps so much.
And confidence in yourself.Which only comes
with time.I think we all get that rush before
every show.But like Ben said above I feed off of it.
And enjoy that rush I get from every performance.
Todd

Along with performing,

working on basic moves
Practicing effects
practicing routines
rehearsing
rehearsing
re-blocking
rehearsing

and taking our performances serious even if they are sometimes played for laughs
while taking ourselves lightly.

When nervous, amateurs let the trick speed up on them. Pros are able to slow it down.

Start a small set (whether impromptu or planned) with something that you consider "foolproof"; such as a simplified effect with a scotch & soda set. Even if you simply make it the vanishing of that copper coin, this will level all that adrenaline in your body with confidence and a positive (however small) response. After that, the ice is broken, the spectator/s are smiling and you have time to take control of your internal and external situation with an easy but open ended jumping off point

In a shot post M. R. Has brought up a great point of
s l o w Is sometimes the way to Go.

Getting Nervous? Who me?
Sure! Here are a few things I do. Know your routines inside out. Have fun. Make it clear, you are happy to perform for your audience. Do not think about being nervous. If I mess up, I just carry on. Sometimes if I forget a move, I actually add it to the routine and make it part of the show. The more you perform, the better you get and the less you will be nervous. Good luck to all. If all this fails, just imagine everyone in your audience is wearing UNDERWEAR! Cheers!

Great advice! One thing that will also help you to slow down, is to talk slower. I know that you've practiced your patter until you can probably say it in your sleep. But remember, your spectators are hearing it for the first time, so make sure they can understand what you're saying and have time to process it. Master pitchman Don Driver once told me to deliberately speak much slower than you normally would. You may think it's too slow, but it's going to be perfect for your specs. You can also insert short dramatic pauses in your patter to help emphasize a point, which will slow things down as well. The slower tempo also helps you, because it gives you more time to think ahead to the next move or the next phase of your routine or show.

As you have probably noticed, many people on TV, especially newscasters and weather men/women, speak very quickly. That's because on TV it saves time, and time is money. But you're not on TV (at least not yet!).

Watch Dean Dill perform on Johnny's Carson's "Tonight Show," and see how slow and relaxed he is -- which makes his effects all the more amazing. Here's the YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNeFfOFJqEE

Suggestion number two: (the first being to use video to record and review practice/rehearsal)
Use a metronome* to pace your speech and actions. Later this will help when it comes time to pace your audience.

* As with video recording - this is available on your smartphone.
* Not that you should perform in 4/4 time or keep the same time through a routine.
* Good counter example: find a video of modern school debating and recoil from that sort of delivery

Good suggestion about the metronome. I think I first read this in a Gary Kurtz publication.

As a Brubeck fan, I’m partial to 5/4 or 7/4.

So *that's* why I like Brubeck! (Among other reasons.)


People's suggestions above are great, and after a long teaching career in which I stumbled on many of them, I can attest that they help. But -- I was eventually diagnosed with chronic anxiety disorder, and boy, did that explain a lot! After lots of talk and experimenting with meds, I'm a lot better, but it will clearly always be a problem. All the good ideas in the world won't help as much as I wish they might.

I bring that up because *sometimes* -- and I'm not saying this applies to the OP -- you have to just forgive yourself and decide how important it is to you to do more than perform for a few understanding friends and family members. In other words, if you pay a high price for the reward of performing, you may have to decide whether the price to too steep for the reward you get.


Bob

Nerves is part of it. Go into the mindset where you are not performing but making frineds haha

I actually feel better about doing magic if I can just get to do it in real time out there, once or twice. For me, I get the feel of things and how people respond to this & that. For instance, I was in the supermarket just yesterday and walked up on the Deli Mgr and asked him where I could get one of these…a half dollar. He smiled as I said oh, not one of those, but one of these…a dollar size Chinese coin with a hole in it. I do magic for him and people as the store all the time and he is always so amazed. This time he asked if I would do it for a couple of people in another department and I did. You can tell so much from how well you’re doing things from the specs, they give you all sorts of good information as to what works and what don’t as well. Yesterday when doing if for a young woman and young man, I could tell that she was underwhelmed when one coin changed into another. So, instead of finishing the trick as I usually do, I went right to the final phase where a ring comes out of nowhere…and that she understood and her amazement was unleashed! They were both stunned, and the Deli Mgr just said, “I told ya!” What fun! The point is that there is a lot to it, but getting to do it is what helps to smooth it all out.

Good journey!

It's easy and fun to do magic for people who appreciate and enjoy magic -- which is probably about 90% or more of your audiences. It's also helpful if you view your audiences as friends who enjoy being entertained, instead of as adversaries who are trying to catch you. You should also view each performance as doing something special and wonderful that you are sharing with other people, rather than as a contest or test (in which you need to get a perfect score).

Unfortunately, there are always a small percentage of "wise guys" who can make life difficult for you. I found this advice from Curtis Kam in his booklet "The Pocketbook" to be heartening and helpful:

"People try to catch you when you’ve given them nothing else to think about. Engage them in a weird idea, give them something else to worry about or make them laugh. The more they want to see what’s going to happen, the less they’ll want to stop you along the way. If all you’re presenting is a puzzle, they’ll assume that their role is to try to figure it out. You can’t blame them, that’s what puzzles are for. . . . All that said, there will always be spectators who are convinced that magic is just a battle of wits with no rules. You still can and should perform for them. However, you are under no obligation to do anything but fool them. Forget entertainment value, imaginative plots or 'artistic' presentation. It’s all the same to them. Ask them how many coins you have in your hand, and be sure they’re wrong every time. It’s not much of a show, but it’s the one they asked for."

I think it also helps to have confidence in what you're presenting. The best way to achieve that confidence is 1) lots of practice and rehearsal, to make sure your moves are ironclad and automatic, and that you know exactly what you're doing and where you're going. In hindsight, the times I screwed up a move or a trick were always ones in which I wasn't really prepared and "ready for prime time"; and 2) presenting the same effect several times before different audiences, so you can iron out any problems and make any needed small improvements. I forget who said it, but it's true that "Amateurs do many different tricks for the same people; pros do the same tricks for many different people."

Hope this helps, and good luck to you! SETH

I think it’s also helpful to consider what cardman Al Leech said in his booklet “Don’t Look Now!” that was first published in 1948:

“We must not say by our attitude ‘Look how good I am’ in a conceited way. People might resent it. The best magicians are those who sincerely like people. They want to entertain and make friends, not to show off, show how clever they are or impress their victims with their skill . . . . Making people like you is the easiest way to sell your magic. If people like you, they may even overlook or forgive a minor slip . . . . If you incur a spectator’s antagonism, he will question everything you do or say. When you ostensibly deal the four aces on the table, he will grab them and turn them over face up to accomplish your undoing. [That’s because] by your attitude you have challenged him. He wants to prove that you’re not so smart. Few magicians can win in such a contest, and none can entertain.”

This advice is now over 75 years old, but it’s still very good and timeless advice. SETH

Have fun. This year I returned to competitive intense ping pong.
At 71 my coach insist I first have fun.
The same is true of sharing magic and music.

Harris
Still too old to know it all.