Why Magicians Names Are So Hard to Remember

I recently read a post by professional magician Jon Armstrong, talking about something that happened to him after appearing on the TV show 'Fool Us with Penn and Teller'. John performed Tiny Plunger on the show and it went down really well.

Shortly afterwards, he was at a gig when a spectator asked:

"Have you seen those magicians on the Penn and Teller Show? We love that show, do you know the guy that did the trick with the little plunger?"

Jon took out a plunger from his pocket and showed it to the spectator, who then replied:

"Wow, you know that guy!"

Jon laughted this off, but it happens all the time to magicians. People see the magic and love it, but they fail to remember details about the performer, especially their name. How can magicians combat this?

Audiences failing to remember the performer happens to everyone. It's a symptom of Amygdala Activity in the brain. The Amygdala is associated with the successful encoding of events, But not the source information when a stimuli is emotional.

A magician shows someone something amazing and they freaked out. How often does that happen in the spectators experience? The next day, they remember what happened to them, but not the performer… It's how memory of events work. The 'details' being overshadowed by the more emotional significance of the events. The event doesn't even have to be that emotionally significant, just more meaningful than the performer. Entertainers that link themselves to the emotional event rather than present it, don't suffer from that as much. Look at Penn and Tellar or Copperfield. They are VERY good at using this to their advantage.

The same effect has been used for evil ends too. Years ago there was a man who attacked women in Oxford, England. He didn't use a disguise, but his victims could never remember details about him. The reason was he had written a very offensive swear word about what he intended to do to his victims, in large letters on his forehead. That's all his victims could recall about his face. The emotional stimuli blocked out all the other source information.

How to make magicians names easier to recall

If you use a backdrop, it's a good idea to have your name clearly on show. For walk around magicians, the key take home for performers is to hand out those business cards and bookend your act with your name. Paul Daniels told spectators to 'say yes Paul' often in his act for the same purpose.

How Magicians do it: Working the Room

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

How Magicians do it: Working around a room performing close-up magic.

By Dominic Reyes

Dale writes: 'Do you have any tips on how to go around a room when performing? Should I start at one end and work across the room, or is there a better approach?'

Every magician is different, so I can only tell you what works best for me. The approach I use depends on the performing situation. Here's a short video describing each approach:

During walk-around, your guests are changing groups and coming and going so it's hard to keep track of everyone you have visited. A systematic approach to moving through the room will give you the best coverage of guests in the time permitted. I work around the outside of the room clockwise, before moving in towards the centre.

When performing at tables it's much easier to remember where you have been, so it's practical to pick an choose the order of tables to visit. I tend to start from a position as far away from the bar or DJ's as possible as those tables have beter sound conditions. I'll work through the room, making sure I visit every table at least once.

Magic Tricks That Need No Explanation

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

Magic Tricks That Need No Explanation

Have a quick look at this, it is a great street magic video, featuring very good magic tricks, well produced, and Hezi Dean clearly is a great, confident magician. Click on the video below, but turn the sound off. Then come back to us for a chat:

If you haven’t watched the video and are still reading, STOP! Go back and watch it, it is definitely worth a watch.

So… I take it you have watched it now. If not don’t worry, this blog post still puts the point across just not as nicely!

The whole point of this blog post is not to show you magic tricks that are so obvious they do not need explaining. It is more on the topic of how good magic tricks transcend the language barrier and need no explaining. I bet you watched the video and sank into his presentation watching every move, If you turned the sound off, the point will be very clear, even if you didn't, Hezi was speaking in Israeli but it did not confuse the issue if you didn't understand him. Hezi's presentation speaks for itself. This video is a great example of how good magic tricks need no words to be appreciated. Thank you, Hezi Dean!

Does this sort of universal communication come across in the magic tricks you perform?

Could you perform your close up act in conditions where your spectators can't hear you?

What small tweaks to your presentation would make each of your magic tricks easier to understand without patter?