Why Magicians Want To Teach Performance and Practice Skills

Why does a magic shop publish a blog just about performing, practicing and developing as a magician?

Why does the blog recommend that you slow down your spending on new magic tricks, and focus on the material you already have?

Why not just post news and reviews about the magic trick products that the magic shop sells?

The answer is so simple that we don’t even need to explain it. You can see why we love running the blog just from comments like this one from a customer to the magic shop:

‘Thanks for the help and advise I’ve received from the team so far.

In September 2012, I performed my first gig at a small wine bar in my local town, and now a year on and some great times performing magic at events, I’m enjoying learning, practicing and performing as a magician!

I couldn’t have done any of it without help from Ben Williams, Dominic Reyes , and the team at the Merchant of magic!! I recommend them for their experience as professional magicians. Their tips and stories help anyone prepare for the scary first gig, or even an unusual performance in difficult circumstances! Thank You!’ – Joel Spaven

It’s not about the magic shop.

Thanks Joel, but the hard work came from YOU. Like many of our customers, and especially the magicians that have personal tuition from us, we only point them in the right direction, suggest magic tricks that are the best for them, and show them where to find out more. Your success moving into performing for the public comes from you taking ACTION! Making a conscious decision to move your magic forward, rather than staying ‘safe’ and not getting out there to perform.

For us, it’s not really about selling in the end. If it was, we wouldn’t choose magic as a product! All the team are working magicians, madly and deeply in love with magic. The shop supports us, feeds our families and allows us to focus on magic full time, but it’s purpose is to push magic forwards, allow beginners to discover magic, push past the casual hobby stage and build a lifelong passion for studying magic and most importantly PERFORMING.

People lose interest in magic.

Over the years, we found out some interesting stats about magic, and peoples interest in it. The average period of interest a beginner has is around 6 months. 63% of beginners drop out of practice after 6 months dabbling in developing the skills of a magician. After that, a second ‘drop out’ period occurs at 2 years. One of the biggest factors for continuing learning magic past the 2 year period is PERFORMING. If a beginner starts performing during that initial 2 year period, they are highly likely to continue their interest in learning magic for many years to come.

The mission.

It’s these statistics that motivate the team. We want to find a way to push people past those ‘drop out’ danger zones. Give them motivation to practice, and gently encourage them to start showing people the magic tricks they have spend so long practicing. That’s what a real magic dealer should contribute to the magic community, and it’s the mission statement of the merchant of magic team.

Learning Sleight of Hand Tricks – How to Add Structure to Your Practice

by Merchant of Magic 3 Comments

By Dominic Reyes

How do you start to learn sleight of hand tricks in a structured and focused way? That's a question that gets overlooked by many beginners as they race from magic trick to magic trick, soaking in as many new techniques as they can.

The key to focused practice is to choose a group of core techniques that you plan to work on, then create a structured practice schedule.

Let's look at the process:

Step 1: Choosing the technique

Start by creating a list of core moves that you would like to develop. This should be quite short, as each move will be the subject of a long period of focused work. Scale your list down to 5 or 6 key techniques that you REALLY want to master. For example:

The Double Lift
The Elmsley Count
The Cull
The Double Under Cut
The Classic Palm

These will be the foundation for your practice over the next 6 months of magic training.

Once you have a core list pick one of the techniques to start your training.

Step 2 : Creating a Timetable

Now we have selected a sleight, we can build an effective program to give structure and a pace to our training.

At this point, it's easy to rush in and start practicing every moment you can. For some people this works fine, but it can lead to 'burn out' from boredom or impatience to move on to something new. If you find that you struggle to commit to serious practice, and skip from technique to technique without mastering anything, you may find that a structured practice schedule will greatly help you.

We recommend daily practice, in short sessions.

10 minutes practice in the morning

10 minutes practice in the evening.

Choose the first technique that you will work on, and focus on only that move for the next 2 weeks. Drill the move SLOWLY for 10 minutes every morning and 10 minutes every evening. Practice slowly, just focusing on performing the move accuratly and smoothly.

Speed

Your practice should be SLOW. The goal is on perfect technique rather than speed. If you rush the moves, assuming that faster is better, you will be making small errors, which become reinforced by repetition.

Speed is a side effect of good technique, not part of the technique itself.

Why short practice sessions

This allows you time for consolidation of the information you have learned, and the muscle memory to become embedded.

British “memory champion” Ed Cooke ( who can memorise a full deck of playing cards in under 2 minutes) agree's that short practice sessions are more effective:
Learning in short bursts, testing yourself on the technique over several weeks, and making sure that there are sufficient intervals between each practice session.

"The best thing to do is break up your studying of a subject – 10 minutes, test yourself, then again on day two, then day seven and day 14. The biggest mistake you can make is just to keep practicing it over and over to yourself.”

Step 3: Assessment

After 2 weeks, video your performance of the technique and watch it back. Have a critical eye and make note of:

Mistakes in your technique.
Hesitation.
Unconciouse 'tells' that you might not have been aware of.
How the flow of your actions look natural.

If you are completely happy with the technique, you can now move on to put it in action. If not, repeat the drill program for another week.

Step 4: Application and rehearsal

Once a technique has been practiced, you can't rest there. You need to keep it fresh and familiar over time.

Any move you learn is a waste of time, if you don't have an application for it. You need a magic trick that you WANT to perform that uses the technique. As you start rehearsing the full trick, you also reinforce your performance of the techniques within it. This keeps your skills active over time. Repeat the practice drill for the WHOLE magic trick, repeating it a few times each day.

Once you are happy with your progress through rehearsal, you are ready to start again at step 1 with the next technique you wish to master.

This 4 step training makes up part of foundation process that The Merchant of Magic uses for personal tuition sessions. It's also part of the training system within The Sleight of Hand for Beginners 3 month course. The process aims to slow down the learning process, focus the student on a few core techniques and progress learning through a drill program. Once a techinique is mastered, it is set to work within the context of several magic tricks that use the move, giving the student a range of tricks, that entertain, and reinforce their new skills at the same time.

How to Make a Magicians Close Up Mirror

by Merchant of Magic 4 Comments

By Dominic Reyes

Using a three panel close up mirror can be a valuable tool for magicians.

However, most three section mirrors have a problem: they tend to be housed in a frame, so the mirror doesn’t go right down to the table surface. This can get in the way when performing directly on the table surface or close up mat, especially with coin magic routines.
The good news is that it’s easy to make a perfect close up magic mirror, that packs flat, covers all the angles and gives you a full view right to the table surface. Here’s what you need:

3 x square bathroom mirror tiles. These are available very cheaply from most DIY stores. Here’s a couple of links:

Ikea Mirror Tiles

Cut to order mirror panels

Simply take three mirror wall tiles and tape them together with black duct tape. The tape is flexible, so if you leave a small 3mm gap between each tile as you tape down their edge, they will be able to fold up flat to go in your travel case or car.

The mirror looks clean, clear and gives you the most mirror surface possible, right down to your close up mat. OK, it doesn’t look like a piece of furniture, but your close up mirror is a private thing, it’s not really for show, but rather for your own private serious practice.
Practicing regularly with a close up mirror can dramatically improve your performance. However, there are some dangers associated with using a close up mirror.