A handshake is the recognised and official physical contact that magicians can use when they meet a new spectator or client.

Like it or not, people WILL judge you on the quality of your handshake. Performing magic for the public is business. Everyone involved in business should be able to shake hands with confidence. Here's a quick guide to giving a good handshake.

The perfect handshake for magicians.

Make sure your fingers are kept together with your thumb up and open.
Place your hand into the other persons so that the other person's web of skin between thumb and first finger touches yours.
Squeeze firmly, but not in a vice grip. The aim is not to hurt the other person, just to have a firm stable grip.
Make eye contact and smile as you shake hands.
The handshake should last for approximatly 3 seconds.
Movement should come from the elbow rather than the wrist.
Released after one or two shakes, even if the introduction conversation is still happening.

When magicians should shake hands.

Meeting a spectator for the first time.
Meeting a person that you haven't seen for a while.
Meeting a client to discuss a show.
Saying good-bye to people after a show.
If someone else reaches out to shake your hand.

Avoid this when shaking hands.

Make sure your hands are not clammy, spray them with antiperspirant before a gig if you often have sweaty hands.

Make sure your hand is not cold and wet. If you hold a drink, make sure it is with your left hand, if you know you will be shaking hands often.

Sometimes you will get a bad handshake that is lose, limp, or only holding your fingers. Resist the temptation to comment on it. Just smile and shake hands with the person. Meeting a client or spectator is NOT a game of wills, or the time to try to assert your alpha status over the person, that's just ego. Your job as a magician is to entertain them and make them feel good. Commenting publicly that their handshake was not great, or that you would like to attempt the handshake again is bad form and insulting to the person meeting you. Forcing someone to shake your hand again becase you didn't like their handshake, justs puts their 'back up'. It communicates that you are not submissive and are there to challage their alpha role in the group or interaction. Your cleint IS the alpha participant in the communication most of the time, and challenging then on this is not a great way to start your relationship as their entertainer.

The Magicians Secret Room – Performing Magic Tricks to Small Groups

by Dominic Reyes 2 Comments

By Dominic Reyes

Professional London magician Alan Hudson recently published a great presentation idea for working magicians: The Secret Room.

Close up magicians don't tend to like very small parties. Most walk around magicians have a small range of working magic tricks that have been carefully built into well crafted and paced 'sets'. The magician mixes with the guests and works through a set with each small group. This works well for table magic, or strolling through a large number of people that are gathered together in groups. However, it's a different story when a walk-around magician needs to work with a small party. Here's a few problems that often occur with small guest counts:

All the guests may be together in one large circle, or banquet table.
There are so few guests that everyone sees the magic at the same time.
The guests mix groups continually, so each group contains people that have already seen you perform.
The event has a lot of interruptions, awards, speeches or games planned to run through the whole event.
This new way of presenting your magic is a great way to fix many of the issues that small groups throw at close up magicians.

What is a Magicians Secret Room?

The Secret room is a great way to offer something unique to a client hosting a small party that has less than 100 guests. A private room is allocated as The Secret Room. Alternatively, a special small marquee is set up as The Secret Room. Throughout the event, small groups of guests are invited to enter The Secret Room and discover it's secret. Either the client picks people through the event, or everyone gets a ticket with their allocated time to enter.

The guests are not told what they will find in the Secret Room. This builds excitement, anticipation and curiosity, three things that really help create a buzz, and talking point.

Inside The Secret Room.

At their allocated time, a small group of guests (Between 4-12 depending on the size of the guest list) enter the Secret Room and discover a magician waiting for them inside.

They then receive a 10-15 minute close up magic show just for them. This would be an expanded set that the magician would normally perform during close up walk around magic. However, due to the controlled conditions and lack of interruption, the set can contain magic tricks that would not normally be ideal to perform strolling. The magic is performed in a perfect setting, free from interruptions, noise, and distraction. The experience is much more exciting for the spectators and liberating for the magician. It's like a mini magic theatre set up in the party venue.

After the show, the guests are asked to keep the secret, and not tell anyone about what they found inside the room. That's great fun for the guests, creates a buzz and a surprise for the rest of the guests.

Why The Secret Room works so well.

The guests receive a private and unique show.
All the guests take part, so everyone gets to see the magic.
The magician has control of the situation and can perform magic tricks without the restrictions of pocket space, lighting, sound levels and large group dynamics.
The magic doesn't get interrupted by guests suddenly joining or leaving the group.
The client can build a buzz about the feature event. A secret room pushes the magician as the feature event of the evening.

Building magic packages.

Alan Hudson's idea of the Secret Room is an excellent example of thinking outside the box about the way you present your magic commercially. The Secret room can be marketed to cleints that might otherwise struggle to build magic into their event. The room can be a conference room at a hotel, the dinning room in a private house, or even a custom tent supplied by the magician. It can be a bolt on service supplied by an agent, or a feature marketing package for independent magicians. Most magicians constantly search for magic tricks that will fit their working conditions, rather than looking at ways to change the conditions instead. Alan has taken all of the disadvantages of walk-around close up magic and found a way to remove them. He has an entertaining way of defining his own working conditions for his magic tricks. The Secret Room combines mix and mingle magic with a parlor show, in a package that can be marketed to almost any event. It's a great example of the ingenuity magicians mainly apply to creating magic tricks, being turned onto the commercial presentation of magic to the public.

Do This.

Make a list of all the 'problems' you face when you perform magic to the public. What aspects of performance in the real world do you dislike, or feel could be improved? Think about ways to present the magic in new formats that would solve those issues. Could these new ways of presenting magic be appealing commercially? By changing how you present your magic, could you solve problems that both yourself as a performer, and your client face together?

About Alan Hudson

Alan Hudson is one of the UK's leading close magicians for both corporate and private events. As well as close up magic, he offers a great stand up comedy cabaret show featuring mind reading, magic and stand up comedy. Find out more about Alan and read his excellent blog here

Question – Can Close Up Magicians Create a Character Persona?

by Merchant of Magic 2 Comments

Posted by Dominic Reyes

I've got a question for you: Can Close Up Magicians perform in a character persona, or should they always be themselves?

The Merchant of Magic always advises magicians to be themselves when they perform close up magic. However, what should you do if you play a character that is very different? Is it possible to convincingly adopt a fake persona when performing magic off the stage. Magic in a 'show' has a different dynamic to close up magic. A magic show is a controlled presentation, compared to walk-around close up magic. The walk around magician needs to create a personal relationship with the group they are performing for. Can that be successful whilst maintaining a fake character?

Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below: