Robert asks: 'As a professional magician do you always stick to your staple material or keep learning new magic tricks, and create new acts out of them all of the time? Also, if you do stick to your staple material, what do you do if you keep on getting repeat bookings as you cannot show the same magic tricks from your acts twice.'

Every professional magician is different, and I can only answer this queston from the point of view of a close up magician. Stage and Children's show magicians may have different ways of doing things.

On the whole most magicians will agree that they have a staple set of routines that they do over and over again at each booking. The magic tricks are built into 'sets'. Each set consisting of 3-5 magic tricks that fit well together. Some of the sets are built for walk-around and others are designed to be performed at guests tables. At most gigs, I have 6 of these sets that I rotate. I don't show the same tricks to groups of people near each other.

Core tricks

I've used many of the core tricks within my sets for the past 20 years. I know these core tricks deeply. I know they work, suit my character, and get great reactions. I've performed them so many times that I have all the little details and subtleties ironed out. I have entertaining responses for just about any question or reaction that may be given by the spectators. This only comes from repetition and live performance, so these core effects are very valuable to me. The other tricks within each set come and go over time. I'm always keeping an eye out for something new to swap into one of the sets. That keep things fresh, and my interest going.

Adding new magic tricks

Adding a new magic trick into my working material is a hard process. A professional magician doesn't add new tricks into their repertoire just because they like the trick themsleves.

Professional magicians choose tricks for the audience rather than their own personal entertainment.

I may love a trick, but I won't add it to a set, because it doesn't suit the other material, the flow of the set, my style, or the audience that will watch it. Giving up on a trick that you love it hard to accept, but it doesn't mean you can't won't perform it for family and friends, it just means it's not in your working act. I play with magic all the time. In fact, that's part of my job as the owner of The Merchant of Magic, so I always have a deck of cards or a coin in my hand. But that is very different to 'building an act'. The whole key to professional magic is narrowing down your material to a select group of tricks that you will perform over and over again to different people. It's hard to find 'space for a new trick' within my sets, as I know they work well already. Sometimes I may take a new trick with me to many gig's but it never get's performed. My 'sets' work, and when it comes to performing, I follow the pattern I know gives a good product.

When it's the same audience

Like all working magicians, I get a lot of repeat bookings. However, the client is the same but the audience rarely is. I may do an award ceremony for a company every year, but the guests change all the time. If I do have people in a group that I have seen before, I still have 6 sets to choose from, so I've always got some magic they haven't seen before. It only becomes and issue if I've performed to the same people 6 events in a row, and if that happens, I'll show those people a few core effects and then something outside of my working sets that I reserve for family and friends. That sort of situation is very rare for me bacuse I have mainly have repeat clients that have different guests attending events.

Bispoke magic

I often offer clients bispoke magic as part of my service. It's usually corporate clients that want bispoke effects presented to their guests. For these bookings, I will create a few effects that take on a theme for the event, a products USP features, or a message the client wants to highlight to their guests. Again, I have a bank of general effects that can easily be adapted to these presentations. It's a small group of tricks, that can be changed to give infinite variations.

Summery

So that's my working material: 24 tricks

Each of these tricks have been 'mastered'. I know them TOTALLY and they are performed for the public over and over again. The tricks are grouped into small sets and rotated. I learn new trick all the time, but they are not part of my working material. Some may find their way in, but the majority don't. That's enough material to cover most repeat bookings.

Every magician is different. I've worked with many that change their tricks all the time and are constantly trying out new styles and material. Each person has their own way, but from experience, I think that most professional magicians work the same way that I have just described.

What do you do?:

How did you choose your working material? How many tricks make up your core working material? Do you plan which tricks you will perform? How do you deal with repeat bookings? Please share your advice in the comments section below:

Where to Keep Your Magicians Case at a Magic Gig

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

By Dominic Reyes

Where's the best place to store your magician's case?

Michael asks: 'Where do you store your equipment when you are doing walk-around magic? Should I keep everything with me, or have an area that I use as a base?'

It would be lovely if magicians only performed material that allows them to carry everything they need with them at a magic gig. Working without a bag or case is a great position to be in, as it allows you to just turn up and start performing. However, in reality, that's just too limiting. Unless you are performing only mentalism or card magic, chances are you will need to take a wide range of items with you to most gigs. Take a look at this post about essential items to keep in your magicians case.

Here's a short video I recorded at a recent gig that talks about something I highly recommend you start doing when you take magic bookings:

Ask for a private room

Whenever possible, either myself or my agent will ask the client for a private room or area to be put aside for me to set up. It's worth taking a moment to ask for this, as it's often easily provided. Most venues do have small side rooms that could be put aside for the magician, or they will be happy to set aside a screened off area for your use. Don't assume that this will be an issue, as almost all venues are used to this request. You may also find that either the venue or the client will provide some refreshments in that area for you. There is never any harm in asking…

Finding your own place to store your magicians case

Most of the time, you will need to turn up at a gig, have a look around, and choose a place that will be best to store your magician's case. You need to pick an area with the following 2 features:

1) Easy access

You will need to return to your magician's case several times through the event, so it's important to make sure you will be able to gain access easily when required. At the same time you need to find an area where the case won't be in the way. It's a balancing act between accessibility and consideration for the guests and event staff.

2) Security

A lot of magicians have had their magician's case stolen over the years. That's really not a nice feeling! Pick somewhere that is quite hidden, so your case it not in view to people passing by. Keep items like your wallet or car keys with you if possible.

Put your business card on your magicians case.

Leave one of your business cards on the case when you are away from it. If a staff member or security find the case when you are away, they will know who it belongs too and why it's there. Your business card as a 'marker' will also stop them moving the case to reception or a cloakroom.

3 Mistakes Magicians Make Building Magic Trick Routines

by Dominic Reyes 2 Comments

Gideon contacted the Merchant of Magic because he is having problems routining his magic tricks

Gideon writes:

'I have my first performance in a month (I do mostly close-up magic) and I'm struggling with how to put together a cohesive routine.

Also, I'm having trouble with making my classic pass undetectable. Can you help?'

We can certainly help! There are 3 common mistakes that magicians make when trying to build their magic tricks into a cohesive routine or act.

1) Forgetting about pocket managment

When creating your routines, it's important that you think about pocket management. This is one of the most common mistakes magicians make. It's nice to have routines that all have an underlying theme, but for general close-up magic it is not so important. Make sure your tricks flow and and that you notice how much attention you pay to your spectators as opposed to yourself and your props.

Have you tried practicing your routines fully in whatever you will wear when you perform? Are you planning where every prop will go for the beginning of your routines, but failing to think about where you will ditch them or put them back when you have finished? If you are mid-performance and searching or fidgeting for props in your pocket, this can cause confusion and make you lose the flow of the routine. It is these moments that can knock you the most when you perform.

When practicing, wear you suit jacket or whatever outfit you will perform in. Run through three or four routines, and make a note of where you put things back at the end of the routine. Try to pay attention to keeping your props organised. This way, when you approach the next group you are not fidgeting around looking for a sharpie or a coin, or worse still an important gimmick like a coin bender!

2) Failing to remember that the tricks must compliment each other

Try to look at things that will compliment each other without cluttering up your pockets. Add a little variety, it can be boring to do three transposition magic tricks in a row. For a magician, it can seem interesting if tricks get gradually more impossible or use a different method each time. Unless you convey this point to the spectators, it won't translate.

3) Picking tricks that are secretly identical

Sometimes a magic trick can seem different to us because we know the method, but the spectators may see it as the same effect. For example, you could have one playing card in your wallet that your spectators somehow name. This is the same sort of trick as having your spectator name a playing card, and you then show it to be the only one reversed in a deck of cards.

Performing a perfect pass

With regards to sleight of hand moves such as the Pass. The pass, when it was first originally taught, was never meant to be seen. It was regarded as invisible because performers used it with the correct misdirection. Sleights like this were never meant to be invisible to a watching eye. On more than one occasion, I've stood still and paused (before needing to do a move with cards) when everyone was looking at my hands. I couldn't do the move without pointing it out. So I just sat there; relaxed, and said with a chuckle:

“Well, I'm not gonna do anything if you look that close!”

That's kind of a funny thing to say, but it can give you ample time to do a move under the laughs and misdirection.

Do not sweat the invisible-ness of your pass just make sure you are more engaging and entertaining to look at than your cards, and you will be fine. If you can perform a competent pass without looking or and fidgeting with the cards, then that will suffice. You can always use you body to cover actions such as the pass. Turn from side to side as you perform it. Sometimes when I am at tables, I will crouch down to the table edge, so I am more on their eye line, and it is when I crouch down that I perform the move. Think about this as well, if you've seen some videos on YouTube or the internet, of people doing really invisible passes. Imagine if there was more than one camera set up on them. You only see one angle. If you had 8 or 9 of those cameras chances were, you would see a massive flash of what's going on.

I hope this helps Gideon, great work on getting out there, just make sure you have fun. If you do simple things and have fun it will be better than you doing complicated tricks and being nervous or unsettled throughout your performance.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you and let us know how the gig went!