How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

The 3 Types of Magic Tricks Magicians Use at a Wedding

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Performing Magic tricks at a wedding - Best Tricks to UseMore and more people are looking to hire a magician for a wedding. That’s understandable as weddings are a perfect venue for magic to be presented.

Unlike many events, weddings have a traditional structure which dictates the course of events far more so than parties or corporate events. As a wedding magician, it’s important to understand the format of a wedding, and how it can influence the types of magic tricks you will need to use. In this post,  we look at the 3 main situations magicians experience at a wedding, and the types of magic that suit each situation.


 
Dominic Reyes talks about the three types of tricks he performs at weddings.

Dominic Reyes talks about the three types of tricks he performs at weddings.

 

The Drinks Reception.

The wedding guests have arrived after a formal ceremony, and this is their first chance to meet and catch up with each other. Drinks are being ordered, and people form into small groups which break off into new groups as people meet and greet each other. At the same time, photographs are being taken, and people are being called away to join the photographer.

Your job as a magician, is to ‘break the ice’. You mix with the guests, performing to small groups. The magic tricks that work well in this situation tend to be:

  • Short.
  • Easy to follow.
  • Create a magical event early in the trick.
  • Can be abridged if a group is called away.
  • Has multiple points where new spectators can join and still understand the plot.

Guests will be joining the group, waiters will be passing around canapes, and guests will be called away to join a photograph group. The goal is to entertain, encourage guests in small groups to join into a larger group to watch the magic and in doing so, get an introduction to each other.

Ideally, props should be kept to a minimum. A deck of cards, some coins, some magicians business cards, and a sharpie should give you everything you need to work the room.

The drinks reception is the ‘opener’ performance for the magician. You establish your skills, show that you are fun and entertaining and leave the guests wanting more.

This is a great time to assess the guests, noting which groups are the most responsive. You can use that information to great effect when you meet them again at the tables.

The Wedding Breakfast.

Some clients like their magician to perform for the guests that have made it through the wedding line and are seated. Others prefer for the magic to start once the bride and groom have made their formal entrance and been applauded. Find this information out ahead of time so you know in advance when to approach the tables. Your magic tricks for the wedding breakfast can have a longer plot and be more demanding on the spectators. The table is your stage and the audience are seated, ready to watch your magic in the 4 or 5 minutes you are with them between a course.

The goal at their tables is to involve everyone. Present to the whole table, not just the guests on the side you are standing. Ask questions, address people around the whole table, and choose a spot that is the most visible for everyone seated.

This is the part of your performance where you can really shine. Present the magic you are most proud of, and build to an applause cue.

The Evening Reception.

The evening reception turns back into strolling magic. New guests arrive, and those groups can be shown material that you performed during the drinks reception. New guests gravitate to the bar area, so spending some time there, will allow you to meet most of the new guests very quickly.

The ‘all day guests’ may stay at their tables, go off to get changed or move to the bar or outside grounds. Travel around the venue as much as possible, revisiting the most responsive guests, the bridal group and the new arrivals.

You will be competing with loud music, low lighting and alcohol fueled guests, so pick magic tricks that are easy to follow, interruptible, and don’t require the spectators to remember too many things. Add in a set of tricks that don’t require verbal instructions or patter. These tricks are tools you can pull out when you perform to a group near the DJ or dance floor.

A Backup

Sometimes things will be a little different. The format of the day changes, the guests all form one large group or you are asked to do extra time. Keep a few tricks back as ‘reserve back up’ These can be pulled out if you find you burn through your material and then get suddenly asked to return to a group at the end of the night, or need to do another sweep of rooms for 30 minutes at the end. Always make sure you have something none of the guests have seen, ready as a backup trick.

DO THIS: Make a note of the three performing situations at weddings. List your working material and group them into these 3 types. If you find one list is longer than the other, what could you do to modify or adapt some of the tricks to build in the qualities needed for a different situation?

Why People Are Not Interested in Your Magic Tricks – 6 Common Mistakes

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Do you find that sometimes people don’t seem interested in your magic tricks? We received a question from a magician that is having that problem:

Shaun Asks:
‘When performing I sometimes find it hard to keep the audience fully engaged at all times, I was just wondering whether you had any tips that you could give me?’

This is a common problem, but there are a few tips we can give to maximise your chances of retaining everyone’s concentration on your magic tricks.

Firstly you must identify why they are switching off, there could be many reasons, I will list some and some ways to overcome these issues, by no means saying you fall into all these pitfalls, but these are some problems many magicians experience.

Reasons why they may switch off during your magic tricks:

1) You have not introduced yourself properly.

Make sure the first thing you do when you approach a group is to introduce yourself and ask for the names of the people, shake hands and ask them some questions. If it is a meal, was the food good? A wedding, how was the ceremony? If they have an accent ask where they are from and if they have travelled far… Be personable, once you have greeted everyone properly with a hand shake make sure you don’t forget their names, this is important, people LOVE it when you remember their name. A hand shake is a form of contract that you are entering into with the spectators, once you shake hands it is a form of acceptance, this is SO important to making sure they give you respect.

2) They cannot see your magic.

Try to be aware of what magic you are performing and in what spaces. If you are performing to a table of 12 people, then your magic should be presented up by your chest as much as possible. Card magic tricks are OK as long as the magical phases of the tricks are occurring off of the deck. Reveals on top the deck will only be seen and cared about by the people immediately next to you, the spectators over the other side of the table will not be able to see and will switch off. Think card to pocket and wallet, instead of ambitious card…

Ask the people over the other side of the table or at the back of the group whether they can see, make sure you care about them and they will care about you.

3) They cannot hear you.

This is a common problem. Events are LOUD! Sometimes there is music that is louder than you would want, sometimes just the cacophony of the room is enough to drop out a voice. Make sure you project your voice to the furthest person from you to keep them interested. Again, if you are performing to a table of spectators then address the person furthest away from you, ask them if they can hear OK. You can also borrow something from them and then return to the other side of the table, this will make sure he or she gets a great head on look at your magic tricks, and you will have that side of the table’s attention.

4) They do not like magic tricks.

It is estimated that when a group of people are targeted by pretty much anything, the rule of thumb would be that one third are interested, one third are on the fence, and one third are most likely not interested.

Now this hopefully is not the case and certainly isn’t the case the whole time when performing but when booked to perform you have to go up to a group and show them magic regardless. If someone doesn’t like magic tricks you’ll be able to tell straight away, and you can be brief with your performance. Maybe tell the group you will come back later (if there are people who love magic as well) this way when you return you can time it, so the person who was uninterested has moved on to speak with some others. You can’t win all the time, and you have to be able to accept the rejection if you do meet a group like this, it is not a reflection on you, more on them so don’t sweat it.

5) You have not fully gained their attention in the first place.

If you have not introduced yourself properly to everyone when you begin, maybe it is because you have not got everyone’s attention when you ‘appeared’. A quick tip to make sure that everyone pays attention to you is to be bold, confident and DO NOT HESITATE when you approach the group. If it is your job to perform professionally then this is what you must do, just like a waiter will address a table without a second thought, you must too. You can also greatly increase the odds of you getting attention from everyone by making eye contact and making them interested and saying things like:

‘How is everyone today?’ 

Slightly stress the word everyone, people will hear this and their brain will say, ‘I heard the word everyone, this includes me’ and they will look up and pay attention. You can also walk around the table and ask questions if I am borrowing money I will ask the table to nominate the most generous person at the table, this will get everyone’s attention and usually lead to some fun banter.

6) You are performing and addressing only the person that has assisted you.

Make sure you address everyone when you perform, keep the eye contact with the whole group and keep mentioning people’s names, get them involved, ask them what they think the spectator should do if they are given an option during your magic tricks, create bigger circles with your performance.

Focusing on one person when you perform will often lead to you not noticing that all of a sudden, people cannot see the magic tricks you are performing, and they cannot hear the magic because you are focusing on one person or area. Have people all help out, maybe you borrow some money from someone and you then have someone else note the serial number, then have someone else hold your wallet and another hold your wrist when you go to vanish the note, again you are drawing bigger circles when you perform.

So there you have it, some of my top tips to help make sure you gain and retain everyone’s attention when you perform your magic tricks to groups of spectators.

Easy Card Tricks – For The Magician Or The Spectators?

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I am going to recommend a few easy card tricks for you. Before I do so, I want to give you a warning:

The magic shop often gets asked to suggest easy card tricks for a customer to learn. Surprisingly, the request doesn’t always come from complete beginners. Many professional magicians are searching for quick and easy card tricks they can add to their working sets, in a hurry. There are three problems with this question:

1) What makes card tricks easy?

2) Is the magician looking for something easy for the themselves or for their spectators?

3) Why is the magician putting that criteria above everything else?

Why label them easy card tricks?

No magic trick is really easy. Yes, many tricks can have basic methods, but the performance of any magic trick is far from easy. We have all seen seemingly easy to work magic tricks performed terribly. The power of a magic trick is in its delivery and performance. As Rene Lavand teaches us in the quotation above; A trick is created, refined by many. However, it’s quality is totally dependent on each and every performance of it. It doesn’t matter how well designed the method may be, or how many variations and modifications have perfected it over time. A thousand magicians may have worked on improving it’s method. All that work falls away the moment YOU, at the end of the process, begin to perform it. Your practice, commitment, and effort to make it entertaining is the quality it will be judged on, by the audience.

Easy card tricks for you or them?

One reason even experienced magicians look for easy card tricks, is that they want tricks to allow them to forget about the sleight of hand. They like tricks that are ‘safe’. There isn’t anything wrong with magic tricks that avoid technical skill. The value of a magic trick is in the reaction it creates for the magicians audience. As a magician, the spectators are your customers. A straightforward method allows you to give more work and attention to your presentation, which is where the real magic is created.

A basic magic trick can often be easier for your spectators to follow and understand, especially if you are freed from the binds of technique to become an actor during the magic tricks performance. Many master magicians can present a spellbinding performance, whilst doing the hardest sleight of hand, but technical ability is not a prerequisite of expertise in magic. Acting is just as valuable as sleight of hand for the expert. If your motivation to search for easy card tricks is for the benefit of the spectators rather than a shortcut for yourself, it’s not a foolish quest.

Why is ‘easy’ so valuable to you?

‘Easy’ isn’t a terrible thing. However, it needs to be lower down your list of requirements. If you genuinely intend to perform the magic you choose to learn, make the presentation the most significant factor in its selection. Choose magic tricks that amaze and inspire you. Magic tricks that blow you away when you watch them performed.

Forget about the work or effort required to learn them, that’s only an indication of how much time and effort you will need to put in. If you begin your search intending to only put in the minimum amount of effort possible, you probably won’t be prepared to give the right amount of time to the presentation, to make ANY trick worth learning.

An ‘easy’ list.

OK, I’ve given you my warning, here’s a short list of a few quite easy card tricks you can start learning right away:

Invisible Deck

3 Card Monte By Michael Skinner

White Star

Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks

BIGGER Finish – Jay Sankey

 

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