Over the years, I've had the pleasure of working with some of the most talented close up magicians in the world. By viewing these successful working magicians in action, it's possible to spot several factors that they all have in common. We can copy these 'habits' and add them to our own practice and performance of magic. Lets look at the 7 performance habits most often found in the behavour of successfull magicians:

1) Keeping control of the audience

It's important to learn how to control and direct your audience. Successful magicians take time to learn how to capture attention, foster interest, and control a group of spectators. Reading books on direct sales and showmanship just as much as you read magic books can help you learn ways to gain control of your audience and keep their attention throughout your performance. Discuss audience management with other performers. Take note what works well in a live situation. Successful magicians will often spend just as much time relating to their spectators as they do performing the mechanical aspects of their magic tricks. Time is taken to perfect posture, eye contact, and pacing, to control how a spectator reacts. Learning how to control an audience will ensure that you don't hesitate if a spectator suddenly asks you a question in the middle of you trick. You learn to keep your cool by anticipating this behaviour in advance, whilst not appearing to ignore the interruption that may have taken place.

2) Punctuality.

Successful magicians make a habit of arriving in plenty of time for their shows. Being on time is vital if you want to build a great reputation. In fact, being on time is not good enough. Arriving early to a gig gives you time to check out the venue, chat with the client and the event staff, and address any unexpected problems that may have occurred. If you are booked to start at 8pm, make sure you arrive by 7pm. An extra hour may seem excessive, but it pays off over the long term. Being relaxed, ready and prepared is far more important than an extra hour before you set off for a gig. That hour is usually spent in 'preparation limbo' anyway, so spend it at the venue instead. Being early means that you stay calm and relaxed.

3) Pocket Management and Resets.

Do you remember your first magic gig? I do remember my first time performing as if it were yesterday. I took way too much stuff with me, and loaded my pockets with as many magic tricks as I could carry. I remember laughing after the gig that I really only needed 20% of the items I carried with me that night. In fact, the gig was harder because of all the equipment getting in the way. Successful magicians know exactly what they will need for each gig and streamline their pocket management, so every item has its place. The magic tricks that successful magicians perform tend to be built into working sets. Each set is designed to have the right resets and the magic props have locations on the magician which allow him or her to move through the set without fumbling for pens, cards or any of the props needed for the set. Good pocket management will make your magic seem effortless and spontaneous.

4) Knowing when to arrive and leave.

The best close up magicians know just when to join a new group and when to leave. They don't just plough into a new group as they stumble through the room working. They look for 'in' moments, when there is a break in the conversation, and they can engage the group without interrupting a guests anecdote or joke. Successful magicians know how to leave a group wanting more. Their magic are constructed to:

Introduce
Engage
Create energy
Build to an applause.

Knowing when to stop performing is just as important as the choice of magic tricks that you perform. Successful magicians perform just enough to entertain the group, but not so much that they are taking over the whole event. The secret is to leave them wanting more. Perform a few tricks, and promise that you can return later if they request it.

5) Effective use of space.

Close up magicians don’t use a stage for their shows. The magic happens right in the thick of the action. That means there is little or no control over the performing environment. Successful magicians will have already scouted out the venue before they start performing. They know the blind spots in the room, the walkways, serving points and access channels around each table. When they perform, skilled magicians move around through the show, making sure that everyone is engaged and gets to see the magic tricks up close. Motion is life, and motion created energy. Standing in one spot though your whole set of tricks, doesn’t help build energy. It’s one of the reasons modern comedians tend to pace up and down the stage as they deliver their stand up comedy. Movement keeps peoples attention.

6) Simplification.

There are commercial magic tricks, and tricks designed for entertaining magicians. One of the most common differences between the two forms of magic is simplicity. Successful magicians understand that the magic tricks they perform need to be simple to understand. A general rule of thumb is: A magic trick should be easy to explain in a single sentence. When it comes to casual walk-around magic, effort= boring to the spectators. That doesn’t mean that the magician can’t perform magic that touches on complex concepts, but the presentation needs to be clever enough to reduce the complexity to it’s simplest form, so most of the thinking has already been done for the spectators. A great example of this in action is the work of Derren Brown. Many of these presentations involve quite heavy theories or concepts. However, his entertaining presentation simplifies this for the audience, so they don’t feel like they are having a mental workout.

7) Timing.

Probably the most important skill of successful magicians, yet one that is so often overlooked, is timing. Knowing just when to pause, when to speed up, and when to pass a cheeky smile to the spectator. Timing is everything, once the mechanical aspects of a magic trick have been mastered. Despite this, it’s often not discussed in the instructions for most magic tricks. Timing comes from rehearsal of the whole trick, including the patter and physical actions. It’s then developed through live performance and remains in a constant state of development though out the magicians whole experience performing the act. There are many courses and books for actors on timing, and it’s effort well spend, building up as much knowledge as possible on this key skill to becoming a successful magician.

Where the 7 habits of sucessful magicians come from.

What do all 7 habits of successful magicians have in common? None of them are found in the instructional DVD that comes with most magic tricks. They develop through performance. Not necessarily live to the public, as performance can be simulated in rehearsal, but they only develop through applying each magic trick into the environment that it will be presented within. To develop the 7 habits of successful magicians, I recommend getting as much experience as possible, performing your magic to strangers in a social setting. This doesn’t need to be paid gigs, you can do charity events, fund raisers or community social gatherings. The key is to get out and find out how magic is presented in the real world, with all the distractions and interactions that provides. The rewards you will gain, in the development of your magic performance will be limitless.

Adding Focus and Direction to Learning Magic Tricks – Review

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

We just received this feedback from magician Bill Richards about adding focus to learning magic tricks:

I must say that I am incredibly pleased with my decision to follow the sleight of hand for beginners training course, and even now after just four days of practice I can unequivocally say that although there is a far more left to learn and master than I could even begin to imagine, I do feel that I have improved, which I think is mostly down to the focus of my practice sessions; without guidance of course it is far too easy to pick up a trick, have a go at it, not be able to do it as well as would be preferred, put it down and reach for the next trick which sounds like it might be a little easier, or more interesting etc. This I think is the main benefit provided by such a course, focus, and being instructed by a professional as to what to do in those focussed sessions, how to go about practicing, how much time to spend, what to practice, etc.

I really like Liam’s presentation, his explanations are clear and concise, and his demonstrations are clean and precise. This first DVD set is, I think, something which I would not have selected to view and study had it not been presented to me.

Bill! You hit the nail on the head my friend. The course is all about focus. The truth is that nothing contained in the course is particularly unique. It's all material that is available individually on DVD's. In fact, you can order the individual DVD's that make up the course as stand along products. The value we add comes from attempting to slow down the learning and focus the student on working through the material in a systematic way. It's the follow up emails, coaching, and performance reviews that are offered over the 3 months that are the real secret to the results the course is achieving for magicians that take the time to work through it.

Every day the team at the Merchant of Magic supply magic DVD's and new tricks to hundreds of magicians all across the world. It's a constant stream of new material being snapped up by magicians hungry for the 'next new thing' in magic. Even though we are in our second decade of supplying magic tricks, it still amazes us, how quickly magicians move on to the next magic DVD to be released. They simply can't be learning all this new material, and it often feels like collecting more than magic training.

This first course, on sleight of hand, was an attemto to see if magicians would be prepared to work on a focused program, to learn the classic, core techniques in card magic. We hoped, with the right encoragment, we could get magicians to make a commitment to just one technique at a time, and really put in the work to master it, before moving on to something else. We know from the personal tuition that we offer to magicians on a one 2 one basis at the magic shop, that so much more progress can be made by slowing down the learning process. Once a core move has been REALLY MASTERED, thats the time to add applications for the move. In doing this 'directed learning program' a whoe range of new magic tricks open up to the student, once they have the technical movements mastered.

Keep up the great work Richard!

Best wishes as always

Dominic Reyes

Your One Year Magic Practice Goal – How to Make it Happen.

by Dominic Reyes 2 Comments

By Dominic Reyes

At the bottom of this page, you will find a form to complete. I'm going to ask you to set a goal for your magic practice for the year ahead. If you complete the form, the team at the Merchant of Magic will try to provide you with free help and support to achieve your goal.

There is a common reason that many beginners lose interest in practicing to become a magician. They become disappointed in their progress, which makes them feel like a failure.

Through the tuition that my team provides at the magic shop, I noticed that the best way to push magicians past the ‘quitting point’, is to teach them about setting practice goals for their magic.

First, I want to explain why setting a goal is so important to your development as a magician. Let's start with a question:

Do you do it?

Do you set yourself defined goals for your development as a magician? Most people don’t plan the future, preferring to work on their existing material, and building up their magic knowledge over time in a random undirected fashion. Most magicians start training with a distant, undefined aim of becoming a skilled magician some time in the future. That’s fine if you simply want to dabble at magic training, but if you want to get the most out of your practice time, then setting a goal can be a very powerful aid to your development. A goal gives you an aim, and a direction of focus.

It is an expression of your WILL to make something you want really happen.

Goals provide direction. Without choosing a goal, you run the risk of never setting your sights on what you actually want from your magic practice. A goal is a conscious decision to make something YOU want happen. Without goals, it’s easy to work hard, yet end up making nothing happen at all. Lack of direction may lead you to be forever jumping from one unfinished magic trick to the next, endlessly failing to commit to true mastery of any magic skills until all you experience is a sense of disappointment, failure, and loss of interest in the practice.

The good news is that it is easy to avoid this situation. To avoid feeling like you are not making the progress you deserve, let's look at some easy steps for setting — and most importantly achieving your goals as a magician.

Just little steps at first.

I highly recommend that you start off with a small goal. Choosing something too big can make it seem impossible and unrealistic. Feeling that you have set an impossible goal for yourself can lead to you giving up way before you reach it. Even a journey of a thousands miles starts with just a single step. I know it’s tempting to say something like “I’m going to master sleight of hand with cards!” Just remember that a card expert is made one trick at a time. Instead, why not start with a smaller goal, like mastering the Elmsley count, or building a working three shells and a pea routine, and then add to it once you have achieved it?

Don’t over complicate the issue.

Be careful you don’t confuse the issue by only looking at the distant future. There are actually two main kinds of goals: short term and long term.

Long term goals are the bigger picture. It may be something that you want to achieve in a few years time. Long term goals can often be broken down into a series of short term goals that eventually complete the long term goal. The secret of success is to define a long term goal, then break it into a series of short term goals that will lead you to the long term win. That way, you don’t over complicate the path to achieving what you want. For example, a long term goal might be : Master sleight of hand with playing cards. That’s a very complex goal as it has so many parts needed to achieve it. Keep your magic practice simple, and take things in stages. "My first goal is to master a convincing double lift technique" As soon as that goal has been done, move on to the next short term goal: "I will learn to classic palm playing cards"

Choose a long term goal, and write it on a piece of paper. Now start listing the short term goals that are needed to complete the long term goal.

Be Realistic.

Pay attention to your own strengths as a magician, and face your limitations at the same time. If you are a very serious person, a long term goal of becoming a comedy magician, may not be realistic. You may find it much easier to be successful as a serious mentalist or card cheating expert. It’s great to dream, but be realistic in the dreams that you decide to put into practice. Understanding your own natural abilities, and finding goals that compliment them is an important part of the development process.

Don’t be a dog that chases parked cars.

Are you picking goals based upon what you want, or what other people think you should do? Make sure that the goal you decide to work towards is really what you want to make happen. I studied to become a Clinical Psychologist. Everyone told me I would be great at it. I went to university and began working towards that goal. It was only after several years training that I came to realize that it wasn’t MY choice of the future I wanted. I loved magic, and wanted that to be my life. I made the commitment to find work as a magician and build a magic business. By selecting my dreams — and not those of my friends and family — I achieved that goal, and feel so lucky to wake up each day to do something I love.

Remind yourself regularly.

Setting a goal is just the beginning. It’s easy to spend an evening making lists of your short term goals, then putting that list away forever. Once you have defined and set a goal, make sure that you find ways to remind yourself regularly about it. Carry a list of your short term goals in your wallet or bag, make it your screen saver, the home screen of your smartphone, even write it on your bedroom wall! Make sure you are reminded of your goal every single day. Some magicians write their goals on a playing card and keep that in their pocket wherever they go. Each evening and morning when they unload their pockets, they find the playing card and get reminded of their goals.

Keep the list moving.

Short term goals often come together to form a long term goal. Make a list of your goals, and group them together. Break your long term goals into achievable short term goals and place them in order that you can work on them to complete the larger objective. The long term goal may be to learn the cups and balls to a performance standard. The short term goals would be the individual steps needed to make that happen, including buying a cups and balls set, mastering loading and stealing, mastering the misdirection, perfecting an interesting presentation, developing the timing etc etc.

Make it happen when it needs to do so.

It doesn’t matter how many goals you set, where you write them down, or how often you think about them. Unless you pick ONE short term goal and start working on it, it’s all for nothing. Look at your list of goals and decide which is the most important to you. Remember that the longer a goal stays unactioned on your list, the more time it will take to achieve it.

Setting a goal is really about setting a deadline. Without a time limit, there is no motivation to work on the steps needed to achieve your goal.

Get Help by asking the right questions.

Nobody can do everything themselves. Find help from people that can move you closer to your goals. By defining each step as a goal, it becomes easy to know exactly which questions to get answered, or what form of help you need. I often get asked “Which magic trick should I learn next?” That question is not very useful because it has no goal attached to it. Asking “I want to be known as a mind reader, which trick should I work on next?” allows me to understand the goal behind the question, and the advice I give is much more valuable because it has a direction towards the goal behind it.

One year from now.

I maintain that taking the time to sit down and list your goals, is one of the most positive steps you can make to becoming a successful magician. It applies to all aspects of magic, from learning new tricks, right through to marketing your services. As you put this into practice, and see the result is having on your focus, and the speed of your progress, you will never look back!

Which magic goal would you like to set for your magic? What would you like to have achieved in magic one year from now?