How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

How to Prevent Magic Burnout

by Dominic Reyes 3 Comments

Magicians Magic Burnout

We’ve all seen it happen…

You introduce a friend to the fascinating world of magic tricks, and they get HOOKED. Suddenly, they’re pulling out a deck of cards everywhere you go. They’re practicing their double lifts on the bus, perfecting their coin vanishes at work, and busting out their favourite tricks on everyone they meet.

‘There’s no rush,’ you tell them. ‘You’ll burn out!’

But they don’t seem to notice. They carry on practicing magic fanatically… Until a few months down the line, they quit.

This is a common—and worrying—occurrence that happens ALL the time.

Magic BurnoutPeople are introduced to the hobby and fall in love at first sight. They stock up on all the equipment they need, and get going. But it all becomes too much for them, and life gets in the way.

In fact, statistics from our research at the Merchant of Magic have shown that almost 70% of total beginners drift away from learning magic within 6 months of ordering their first proper magic trick, book or DVD. The remaining magicians tend to stay studying magic long term (5 years+).

So the question becomes: how do we keep ourselves interested in magic for the first 6 months and beyond without getting ‘burnt out’?

Here are four of the most common mistakes that lead to this problem, and the steps you can take to prevent them from happening to you (or someone you know).

Mistake No.1: Getting too caught up in the big picture

magic burn out grand canyonSomething that can be overwhelming for new magicians (and cause them to quit) is becoming too obsessed with perfecting their sleight of hand. They might watch a performance by a great card mechanic like Richard Turner, and allow themselves to think ‘I’ll never be that good’.

Some magicians are SO good at what they do that it can be intimidating for new magicians; they’re struggling to make ONE card vanish while other magicians are making TWENTY cards vanish.

I know that this is something I personally found difficult; I would look at all the complex sleights and moves and get frustrated that I was still stuck on more basic ones. Your brain tempts you into thinking you’ll never be good enough—so you should just give up.

The key to avoiding this magic burnout is taking it one step at a time.

If you want to be able to vanish ten cards at once, don’t make that your initial goal. Make your initial goal vanishing ONE card—something much more achievable. Once you’ve got one card down, bump your goal up to TWO cards. Then, make your next goal THREE cards, and so on until you hit your goal of ten.

Breaking your goals down into manageable steps is a great practice for not only magic, but life as a whole. It will help you avoid becoming overwhelmed by the ‘bigger picture’ and focus on making incremental progress.

Mistake No.2: Learning too many magic tricks without perfecting the ones you know

Junping from trick to trickThis is another HUGE mistake, and the solution will not only prevent you getting burnt out, but save you a whole bunch of money on magic too.

You see, when somebody first gets into magic, they might learn a simple card trick. Once they’ve finished learning it, they try another one. And another one.

Before you know it, they start buying tricks. They see something that looks cool, so they buy it. Before it’s even arrived in the mail, they buy another one.

They learn tricks after trick, but they don’t ever stop to PERFECT theme. So eventually they end up with a whole pile of magic tricks they don’t really know how to do. They have so much magic that they forget how each trick works. Guess how this makes them feel?

Overwhelmed.

Yep, that key word again. It leads to magic burnout every time..

It can be really tempting to buy trick after trick, but the best thing to do would be to focus on ONE trick at a time and master each one. Once (and only once) you’ve truly mastered each trick can you move onto the next. This will stop you getting swamped with tricks you don’t actually need.

Another way to combat this mistake is make sure that you incorporate these tricks into routines that you perform consistently. The more you perform a group of tricks, the more natural they will feel, and you’ll master them much faster. Plus, you’ll be WAY less likely to forget them.

Mistake No.3: Practice ‘binges’

Here’s another common mistake we see beginner magicians make a lot. When they discover a new technique or trick, they think they need to master it straight away. So they might spend a few hours at a time JUST practicing one single sleight.

This is basically asking for magic burnout to hit you!

If you practice in ‘binges’ you’ll eventually get tired of doing so, and you’ll gradually drift away from magic as a result.

The simple solution is to break your practice sessions up into ‘little and often’ — maybe 30 minutes a day as a starting point.

Mistake No.4: Performing to the same audience… Day in, day out

There’s no quicker way to get bored of performing magic than performing to the same crowd EVERY time you do magic. It’s going to take the excitement out of magic for both you and the audience.

This is unavoidable when you start out learning magic and you only have close friends and family to try your material out on, but as you progress—you really need to start mixing up your audiences.

Performing for new audiences is going to help keep you feeling excited and motivated about your magic as you never know what’s in store or the reactions you might get. Each night is a new night to impress and amaze—you get to experience that ‘WOW’ moment a spectator has when they see great magic for the first time. And that’s a great feeling.

So, in conclusion:

  • –  Don’t stress about perfecting your magic right away. Break your goals down into manageable steps and tackle them one by one.
  • –  Focus on choosing ONE trick and mastering it before you move onto the next one.
  • –  Practice ‘little and often’ rather than in huge chunks.
  • –  Vary your audiences to keep things exciting. I hope you learnt something in this blog post! Feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.

NEXT:

The 4 Core Magic Tricks You Should Master

Am I Too Old To Start Learning Magic?

 

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Filed Under: how to do magic tricks Tagged With: life, magic, Motivation, practice

First Steps to Become a Professional Magician – The Plan

by Dominic Reyes 3 Comments

Becoming a professional magician

The very first step to become a professional magician is to plan how you will achieve it. You need a plan!

You have been practicing your magic, learning new material and performing magic casually for your family and friends, but deep down you are still not satisfied.. You want to become a professional magician! If that sounds like you.. Then you need to plan your approach.

Ask yourself a series of questions to see if you want to become a professional magician:

Do you want to perform magic with a public audience for a fee?

Would you like to generate a full time income, or just earn some extra money to supplement the lifestyle you want?

What do you hope to achieve by becoming a professional?

Are you happy to work alone, or would you prefer to team up with a partner?

Where would you like to perform? Locally, or will you choose a specific area or location that has a market for entertainment?

How much would you like to earn.. How much do you actually NEED to earn?

How often are you prepared to work? Can you work every weekend or every evening..?

What type of show would you like to present?

 

Do you have a backup plan if you fail to generate the income you need for your current commitments? Can you adjust those commitments to allow you time to build up an income stream?

That’s just a few of the questions you should ask yourself right now.. The sooner you start thinking about the REAL STEPS involved in working as a professional magician, rather than focusing on collecting more magic tricks and techniques, the sooner you can start putting actions into place to achieve your goal.

Create a plan by setting goals.

Take a moment RIGHT NOW to write down where you would like to be on one, two, and five years time. The people that set short term and long term goals are much more likely to achieve them compared to people that bumble along, hoping that their dreams will just ‘happen’ one day. Unless you define exactly what you want (by writing it down as an affirmation/goal) you will find it very hard to achieve anything other than by chance. Your future does NOT need to be left to chance…

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Filed Under: how to do magic tricks Tagged With: Goals, Motivation, Professional magician

How to be the Best Magician at School

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

Who's the best magician at school?

By Ben Williams

Matthew asks: How do I prove I am the best magician in school?

We recently had this question come in from one of our customers and it raised a great point for us. Due to the increase in the popularity of magic, students are likely to encounter other people at school that also study the art of magic. What should you do if this situation arises?

I think it is very important to consider why you are asking this question. There really is no way to prove you are the best. However:

 

Your thoughts shouldn't be about how you can be the best magician,

it should be on how to give the best possible experience to someone else.

 

If you concentrate on making sure you are personable, friendly, non egotistical, and you also practice hard, everything will fall into place. It will become known that you are skilled in all aspects of performing, and presenting magic. You will be able to give your spectators the best experience, and as a result, you won't have to feel like you have something to prove.

School can be competitive. Try not to get sucked into the 'I'm better than you game'. Rise above comments like this. Concentrate on what you are doing, and what you love. It doesn't matter what they think, just keep giving, and respect will fall your way.

Everyone is different.

It is up to the audience to decide whom they like, and people's opinions are different. Some people like chalk, and some people like cheese, it is the way of the world. You cannot please everyone, so even if someone prefers another magician at school over you it doesn't matter. There are billions of people in the world, so there are many more you can please!

What to say.

I understand that this can be a tough situation, but the best thing you can do for you and your magic, is to not get bogged down with it. If someone says they are better than you, simply say, 'ok, that's good!' if it doesn't rattle you, or bother you, then there is no ammo for them anymore . They will realise they are not in a race or competition with you.

If someone says 'so and so is better than you' just say, 'that's cool, they practice lots, I'll keep going though!' Statements like that pop their bubble and there is nowhere for them to go. People only make statements like that to get a reaction, and if it doesn't bother you then they realise they cannot affect you. They may even respect you more for remaining kind about the other person.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to stay true to yourself. Keep practicing your magic. Focus on what you love (even if it isn't magic), and don't worry about other people and what they are doing. Build a magic act with magic tricks that work well together, and focus on your own development. You will soon see that it really doesn't matter who is the best magician.

 

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Filed Under: beginners, best magic tricks, magic advice, performing for the public, practice, Questions and Answers Tagged With: magic advice, Motivation, practice, problems, School

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