Advice to a new magician:

Your hot on the scene you have a arsenal of magic at your disposal many illusions learned maybe even learned well but do they flow? will one illusion lead in to another or are they a flurry of card manipulations without direction? No direction gives you no impact. you will forever be known as that guy/girl that does tricks.

Which leads me to my second point. I have even seen veteran magicians do this, Shame Shame. And now I bet you will be suprised how much you see it now that you know what to look for.

Okay, you have practiced an illusion or slight to the point where it is done perfectly with little thought needed any more and your excited to astonish the next person that comes along. Here they come and you casualy stroll up to them and say "Hi I'm magic me can I show you a trick?"

In that short introduction you have diminished the effect of your illusion without even showing the skills of your magic. Their image of you at this point is amateur at best. Why? Simple, a trick is what their uncle will do at a reunion, or what they get in a cracker jack box. to a layman a trick is somthing that has a simple solution. It doesn't matter if they know how it is done or not.

Remember the word Trick=low impact. What you want to do is add mystery add impact, peak their curosity say somthing to this effect, "Hi my name is magic me and I have learned to do the most amazing thing. It's hard to explain why this is possible would you like to see?"

Now you have peaked their intrests and not diminished your self as a "Trickster". Good luck to you.

Great advice,

I would add to that as well, that for many reasons, it is best to let audience feel like they are part of the magic, not just someone that you are fooling. DO NOT act like you are better than them. All that will do is create hostility, and likely turn the audience into hecklers. Of course, they will also enjoy the magic more if they are treated with kindness. After all, are you doing the magic to make people feel stupid (in a sad attempt to make yourself fell smart), or to actually make people feel good, and entertain them? I choose the second choice, and I get back many good "vibes" and praises in response.

Lincoln

A well put addition I agree Thanks Lincoln

I hate the word trick to describe magic.
When some people ask me "can you do a trick" I always replay "No! But I can do magic!"
The word trick just the denigrate real essence of magic

For what it is worth, I like to tell a story, using the magic as an illustration. I just tell the story as I do the trick (storypatter?). There are many such effects in magic shops and books (and many more that are not stories).

I usually do not ask to show them something, I just begin telling the story. It is a powerful hook, and those who are genuinely not interested are not obligated to watch.

This also has an advantage that really boosted my confidence when I was a beginner: I have not claimed to be a magician. If the audience figures it out, I have simply told a story. If all goes well, at least they were entertained!
:cool:

Just ask can I show you something I find kinda strange?

-Blake-

If I was just a guy on the street and you said that to me I'd probably expect you to show me a weird skin rash or something...

Anyway, I usually have a few halves or a deck of cards and I generally might pull out my props & just do a couple flourishes all the while talking in my regular way and this gets me a feel if they are into it or not just by the way they react to a few flourishy 'eye candy' things. I know a lot of people don't like them for being 'un-magical' but I find something as simple as springing the cards can be a great interest grabber. In my limited experience people kind of expect it, & as long as you can isolate the effects from the flourishes I don't see a problem.

So after you have them hypnotized with either deck cuts or 4 coin roll outs, THEN say now check THIS out

If a guy came up to me and asked "Can I show you somthing" I would most likly slap his face.

Mind you if it was David Blane he would not need to same anything before I slapped him.

Does he need a carisma transplant or what.

Mind you his Baldichi / fork lift was OK.

IMHO

Paula

Hi PaulaJayne,

Your reply made me chuckle - great post!

I agree with the other posters I've never liked the word "trick" myself, it much better in my opinion to start with patter that allows the viewer to get caught up in a story, then the magic follows.

"hey wanna see a trick?", only allows two answers..no and they walk away or the two of you are then left in an somewhat uncomfortable situation or yes. If the answer is yes ,then the other person then has an expectation already established that you are going to try to fool them or "trick" them. I don't find either alternative very enthusiastic..I think it's better to engage them in conversation and draw them into a story, then perform the magic.

I always think "hey wanna see a trick" can be anything from standing on your head to watching your dog eat a bisquit after it's placed on his nose. Maybe that's just me.

I like astoundingbruce's style! It's not imposing and there's a flow that gently brings you to the magic.

Rannie

p.s. I never did like the word trick myself!