Sometimes magicians are asked to repeat a magic tricks for people that have seen it performed before. It’s great to have regular clients, and that our friends and family enjoy watching our magic, but this can cause a problem.
What should you do if you are asked to repeat a magic trick that you have already shown that person in the past?
Dominic Reyes filmed a few quick tips about this situation:
It’s usually not a good idea for magicians to repeat a magic trick to the same person. The expression goes ‘Once a trick, twice a lesson’. However, sometimes you will be in a situation where you have no choice. This may happen:
- You join a new group and start to perform a magic trick, suddenly a member of the previous group joins, and they have already seen the ending to your trick.
- A spectator calls you over and asks you to show his guests a trick you showed him earlier.
- You have a limited audience and perform for the same small group often.
If you are already performing a routine and a spectator joins, that has seen it before you need to handle this differently.
1) Involve the spectator. Make them your assistant in any way, even if one isn’t really required. This will often give them a new perspective on the trick, and cause them to focus more on helping and ‘being on show‘ than on noticing something they shouldn’t. You change their experience, and context within the trick, from audience to participant, and this gets in the way of them studying your method.
2) Switch to a new variation of the method. If you can, move or change one of the phases of the trick, use different sleights or better yet, morph the trick into a wider routine that they have not seen before. A great example is The Ambitious card. There are many different phases and stages, so it’s easy to simply switch to a different path. A traditional Ambitious card, could transform to end with an Omni Deck, or by adding in FAX by Loki Kross, it can even switch around altogether so it happens in the spectator’s own hands.
Sometimes, there is no escape, the trick is half way through, and can’t be adapted. If that happens, it’s not the end of the world. Just relax and preform the trick as normal. Most people don’t REALLY care about the method as much as you think. They just want to have fun and watch other people being fooled. If a spectator spots something they missed the first time, they may work something out, but generally they will be enjoying how ‘clever’ it was that they missed it the first time, and how everyone else didn’t notice. This knowledge can be just as entertaining as the trick itself.
How do you deal with repeating your magic tricks? Share your advice in the comments section below:
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