A Decade of Buying Magic Tricks but Getting Nowhere

I’ve been buying magic tricks and practicing for over a decade but I’m getting nowhere.

Suhail writes:

Hey Dominic,

First of all a huge thanks to what you are doing for the community. Your e-books are very helpful and I am following the 20 minute practice session every morning and evening. Now I’ll get to the main problems that I face in magic and I hope you will be able to help me out on that. I started dabbling in magic since the age of 14. I am 23 now and still am ashamed to say I am an amateur who does a couple of card tricks. Now I have a huge collection of magic tricks which I had amassed along the way. But whenever I start practising a magic trick a new and better version comes along the way and I lose track of the one which I started practising on.

You’re welcome Suhail. What you mention is very common. It’s what holds back 90% of people that want to explore performing. Here’s the REAL problem:

Buying magic tricks for almost a decade, but getting nowhere because you don’t have an end in sight.

It’s totally fine to simply play with magic your whole life as a hobby. Don’t be swept up in the hype that you HAVE to perform to enjoy magic. It’s only a waste is if you WANT to perform but you have not reached that goal. You see… the secret is having a GOAL. You have to have an end point to all the buying of magic and practice. Hardly anyone sets goals. Most people prefer to keep on acquiring more and more magic with no purpose other than the fun of it.

Here’s the single biggest piece of advice anyone in magic can give you:

The key really is to set a GOAL

You HAVE to decide ‘what ‘done’ looks like’

I tell every magician that I personally coach the exact same thing. STOP BUYING MAGIC until you have set yourself some goals. It’s so hard to work towards something if you haven’t really thought about what the finished job will look like. Your GOAL is the end point of all the stages you need to complete to get to the finish line of where you want to be with your magic.

You need two types of goals. An overall long term goal and several short term goals. Your overall LONG TERM GOAL could be: Performing magic commercially for the public.

Once you have a long term goal, you know what ‘done’ looks like.

Ask yourself: what short term goals do you need to make the long term goal happen? Here’s 3:

Build a working act
Market yourself as a magician
Perform for the public

Your short term goals work towards making the long term goal happen. Once you define a few short term goals, don’t do ANYTHING other than work on each of those in term. Goal number 1 is to plan an act. So start looking at magic that would fit into a set together. Put those tricks together and work on them JUST DO THAT. Any other stuff is a distraction. Stop browsing magic forums, buying tricks just because they are the latest releases, or collecting playing cards and magic accessories.. JUST WORK ON YOUR GOAL.

The Magic Butterfly

That’s really the answer for you Suhail. The route cause of your lack of progress is that you don’t have a plan to reach a goal, and that is turning you into a magic butterfly.. That’s when magicians jump endlessly from one trick to the next without ever mastering anything. Why should they, they are not working towards any finish line, so there can never be an end to it.. Just like a butterfly goes endlessly from flower to flower..

I hope this helps you in your magic

Dominic Reyes

If you would like more information about setting goals for your magic, check out this free ebook:

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3 Questions to Ask When Choosing Magic tricks

by Dominic Reyes 2 Comments

By Dominic Reyes

I'm going to let you into a little secret. This is a technique professional magicians use when they wade through all the new magic releases, to pick out the gems.

When selecting magic tricks to perform to the public, there are several factors that will guarantee you great reactions. Three of these factors are:

Will the trick produce a strong visual image?

Does the trick cause an emotional reaction?

Can the magic happen in the spectator's hands?

We all collect magic tricks that we like to learn and perform, but that's not the same as the much harder process of picking a small selection of tricks worthy of a position in your 'working set' Asking yourself questions like this when choosing magic tricks can help you identify the 'workers' from the tricks designed to entertain only magicians.

To give you an example of tricks that fit these three essential components. I recommend you watch these performances for Changeling and Wishbone. Seriously, I strongly recommend that you take a moment to watch these performances. take a few moments RIGHT NOW to check out the videos.

Changeling is a perfect example of visual magic happening in the spectators own hands. When the UK bank note transforms to another note all by itself, you get a huge reaction from spectators. That's magnified several times over when it happens in their own hands.

Wishbone is the latest release from Paul Harris Presents and it's a lovely effect that uses everyday objects, happens in the spectators hands, but it also creates an emotional connection between two spectators. I recorded a video a while back about asking spectators to hold hands whenever you can. Wishbone takes this principle and builds it into the trick itself, creating a shared momento that highlights the connection between two spectators and all that could lead on too..

The Dangers of Learning New Magic Tricks

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

Are you spending too much of your 'practice time' learning new magic tricks?

By Dominic Reyes

Ragedy Writes: 'I have a question. I've spent lots of money on books and marketed effects. What should I do with them all ? Should I ignore them? Can I make time to play with the tricks I've bought and read all the books I have, or is this all a waste of time? Is it ok to just show something for the fun of it and keep some tricks for the serious practice time. Some of the things I have are just fun and I like showing my close friends these effects. There are some though I feel fit my persona more and these are the effects I practice hard at. What do think? Am I on the right track?'

Yes, it's fine to spend some of your time learning new magic tricks. But I think you should set a goal to choose a range of magic tricks that you will build into a performing act. That should be your focus. Watch the DVD's and read the books. Play with magic and learn all you can, but do it with focus towards a GOAL.

Spend 50% of your time researching and learning new magic tricks. Spend the other 50% developing your core set of tricks and practicing their performance.

Learning new magic tricks is not 'practice', it's just research. It needs to be done, so you can build a strong act, but it's not something that should take up more than half of your magic time. Equally, it'sfine to have a range of fun tricks you perform. However, make sure that you are building a core set of effects that will make up a performing act. Hope this helps. Dominic Reyes