How to Approach Strangers – Self Confident Magicians Do These 3 Things

Magicians are a funny lot… We take the NUMBER ONE fear that most people have: Public Speaking, and do it for fun!?! Madness..

How do magicians overcome the fear and nervousness (often called Approach Anxiety) associated with talking to strangers?  They use tried and tested techniques to build their self confidence when performing. Here's 3 quick tips on how to approach strangers that will make a huge difference to your self confidence.

1) Take Small Steps when you practice how to approach strangers

It's best to start small. Don't jump into the deep end and pick a big crowd to perform too. Performing for a few friends of a couple of trusted family members can be much less scary and help build confidence. Although there are pitfalls to performing magic for family and friends, it can be a start, just to get the confidence that you CAN do it without everything going wrong.  Once you have tried that. Try doing some magic to some staff at a local coffee shop, or a shop that you visit often and isn't too busy. You want to find a very small audience, that will be polite but one step removed from your parents or close friends, so you get used to performing for strangers.

When you are used to that, contact a local retirement home, and see if they would like you to visit their day room and perform one afternoon. It's great experience, does the community good, and you will be very well received.. It's a great confidence booster and one that worked for me when I was starting out. I know from personal experience how beneficial this can be to a newbie performer's confidence.

2) Team up on learning how to approach strangers 

Go out and get experience with a friend. Perhaps another magician can come with you for a day and push you to approach people? If you don't know any other magicians, just go somewhere like a coffee shop or quiet bar with a friend and get them to MAKE you approach people. You can actually use this as an approach and say that your friend has dared you to show them a magic trick…

3) Stand up tall and have an open powerful posture.

Just before your gig, presentation, or approach to a group, stand up tall, push your shoulders back, and lift your head up! This REALLY works.Do it for a few minutes in private. REALLY DO IT. How you stand and hold yourself creates a chemical reaction in your body that will carry on through to your performance. Smile, think of something funny and give out a laugh.. You are on your own, so nobody will think anything strange about you. Doing this for a few minutes can totally transform how well you come over when you approach people. Try it and see..

I've just touched on a 3 things you can go as you learn how to approach strangers with confidence, but there's so much more you can do to improve your confidence. If you would like to learn more in detail about the 3 tips above plus a LOAD more professional techniques, I recommend reading the free ebook Confidence for Magicians

Download Confidence for Magicians – ebook

 

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any tips or advice for people on how to approach strangers? If so, please leave a comment in the section below and click the share button so your fellow magicians can discover this article.