performing for the public Archives

Performing Magic Tricks For Money

By Dominic Reyes

You have been practicing your magic tricks, building up your knowledge and performing for your family and friends. What now? Magic is a great hobby and most people are happy to enjoy performing as a recreational activity. But what if you want to take the next step and perform your magic tricks for money to the paying public.

Where are you going to perform?

What are you going to charge?

How will you approach venues?

The answers to these questions are critical to your success as a working close up magician, yet they never seem to be covered in the instructions that come with the magic tricks you purchase.

It’s a catch 22 situation. The working magicians have gradually built up their knowledge of the business side of magic. There is no motivation to train fellow magicians in these techniques, sometimes as a result of fear that it will result in more competition in their working area. The more a magician learns about this side of the business, the less likely they will be to willingly teach others and lose their competitive edge.

However, lack of this knowledge can cause beginners to pitch to clients in a very unprofessional way.

Here are four quick tips:

1) Don’t just cold call a restaurant or venue, dressed in your performing outfit and insist on showing the manager your magic tricks.

Chances are the events manager is very busy and to have to stop everything to watch your audition is the last thing they need. Make contact first by letter, then follow up with a telephone call to make an appointment.

2) Check if a magician is already working at the venue.

If you undercut a magician already working at the venue, it may make you look cheap and create a bad name for you in your area amongst the working professionals. Magic has its own network and news of bad practice like this spreads very fast. Many agents and venues have long term relationships with their performers, and a bad word about you, will destroy trust, and you may lose work in the long term.

3) Don’t work for free.

It may be tempting to take on bookings for free of a token payment, as you feel you don’t have the experience. Once you start this process, it’s almost impossible to persuade the client to begin paying you a normal rate. After all, they know there are magicians out there happy to work for nothing. Instead, show the client how you can build value for their business with a tester booking (at your normal rate) with a promise of a reduction, should they wish to give you regular work.

4) Assume they will not remember you.

Magic has a strange effect on people. A magician can totally amaze a group of spectators, show them the magic that makes their jaw drop and blows them away. Then 30 minutes later, none of the group will remember the performer’s name! There are several psychological theories to explain this phenomenon, but the practical implications for the magician mean you need to remind them who you were AFTER the performance. The cure is very easy: Give out business cards as much as possible!

Those are a few common mistakes, but what’s the right way to get gigs and market your magic skills? We asked one of the busiest full time professional magician’s we work with, Sean Heydon to provide a step by step guide to setting up your magic business and starting to perform magic tricks for money. It covers a huge range of practical steps, templates and tips to get you up and running as a working magician. After all, what is all the practice you have been doing for, if you don’t take it to the next level?

Overcoming Nervousness – Techniques for Magicians

by Merchant of Magic 17 Comments

By Ben Williams & Dominic Reyes

First of all before we begin looking at techniques for overcoming nervousness, I would like you to read this and really think about what it means:

“There is nothing to fear but fear itself”
– Inspirational words used in the inaugural address of Franklin D Roosevelt

When fully understood and appreciated this saying can be a hugely positive force on your performance. Nervousness when performing is a perfectly natural thing to experience, a certain amount of nervousness is good, it can keep you on your toes and shows you care about your performance, the problem arises when you allow that nervousness to become fear. Fear can seriously hinder your performance, people skills and can also destroy the impression that you are a master of your craft in a blink of an eye. If you find yourself getting nervous just at the prospect of showing some magic tricks there are many ways to help combat this and stop it becoming a flaw in your performance.

When I began performing magic to friends and family I found that even though I had practiced my magic tricks behind closed doors I could immediately feel my heart rate increase and hands begin to tremble. This feeling would overcome me like a crippling illness almost making me freeze with fear; my mind would go blank and you could clearly see my hands shaking as I offered spectators cards. This can be very common when putting yourself in the limelight, it is a form of stage fright that is perfectly natural, the problem only really occurs when overcoming nervousness is difficult and you begin to let it take control of you.

I have put together here my top tips for beating stage fright to help you enjoy every performance that comes your way.

Be Prepared

When I say be prepared, I don’t just mean practice your tricks in front of a mirror. I mean practice everything, practice making sure you have everything set out in your correct pockets, practice your patter, practice any jokes or funny lines you add into your performance to create misdirection. I practice my whole magic routines from start to finish so I can understand how they flow into each other and I can see what happens to my pocket management along the way.

I also write a list of the tricks I am prepared to perform. For me a visual aid that I can reference back to in my mind really helps. If you find your memory works better with audio, record yourself listing the tricks you want to perform and play it back to yourself a few times before you go out to freak out your spectators.

Start with very easy tricks

It can help to start with an easy trick, maybe not a self worker (although it could be) as this will help you gauge what sort of audience you have. Do they love magic, react well, or are they quiet yet appreciative. Because you chose an easy trick, you don’t have to worry if you have controlled the playing cards correctly or whether they saw your pass etc. I begin with Chicago Opener as it is a great two phase card routine that the first phase is almost self working, (no controls needed) and the second phase implies you have got something wrong and then smacks them between the eyes with a surprise finish. This routine quickly establishes my skill level with some quick and visual magic and it also allows me to make sure I am concentrating on making sure they like me and are having a good time.

Get as much experience as you can

Perform whenever you can, the more you perform the better you will be at overcoming nervousness, period. And I don’t mean perform in front of a mirror or to a webcam, I mean perform for real people. Everyone has experienced that annoying feeling when you practice something and get it looking really good in front of a mirror to then go and show someone and it goes wrong and that polished move you were doing so well now looks like you haven’t practiced at all. The reason this happens is that when you perform in front of a camera or mirror it is an introverted performance, you are performing in your head critiquing things as you go along and even though it feels like you are doing things ‘real time’ there are pauses and you repeat things when they don’t look smooth without realizing you are repeating the moves. When you step up in front of a real person the performance needs to be outgoing and extroverted, you are no longer looking at your hands, you have to look at someone’s face and talk to them as well!

When you practice you never get the feeling that the mirror has just seen something and figured it out. When performing for real people they may look at your hands when you make a move and you may immediately feel exposed. This will cause you to speed up and get more nervous, which is a very bad thing. Experience will tell you that most people (even if they are looking in the wrong place at the wrong time) will not be able to tell what is going on, they have their own inner monologue to deal with and their methods may be completely wrong. Go slowly and deliberately and this will help create larger moments of misdirection which will give you breathing space vital for overcoming nervousness.

Breathing Techniques

This is one of the best tips I can give any performer and it is the tip that helped me the most in overcoming nervousness.

Breath properly and deliberately.

I cannot stress how much this will help you when you perform your magic. When you next become nervous, stop and take a moment to think about how you are breathing. I will bet you are hardly breathing at all, of course you are breathing or else you would die, but you are not breathing properly. Your breath’s become shallow and few and far between, you’ll have the tendency to hold your breaths longer than you should.

This is REALLY BAD for overcoming nervousness.

Breathing is directly linked to your heart rate, the less you breath the more your heart desperately pumps the blood around your body to maximize its withdrawal of oxygen from your blood supply. This in turn increases the heart rate and gives an overpowering feeling that you are unsettled, not good for overcoming nervousness! The heart beat increasing will also add to the shakes which can present itself with a vicious circle:

You don’t want to perform because you feel nervous…
The more nervous you get, the more you want to hide…
The more you hide away the less you perform…
The less you perform, the more intense the nervousness can get…

It is important to tackle this feeling head on and try your best to push it from your mind. Before performing I give myself a couple of minutes where I breath deeply and slowly, I just empty my mind and focus on the feeling inside my body. If my heart rate is high I breath deeply and concentrate on it lowering, I simply imagine my heart rate getting slower and more relaxed, as long as you are breathing deeply this is exactly what will happen. Once I am centered I know I am ready to perform, everything else will flow naturally.

Please read this saying again and apply it to your thought process.

“There is nothing to fear but fear itself”

Be the confident performer you want to be. You have practiced your magic, you have practiced your patter, and you know your moves are slick so there is nothing to worry about. Go out and have fun with people and they will have fun in turn. Remember people’s lives are not at risk, your life’s savings are not on the line, you won’t cause a major catastrophe if anything goes wrong so what is there really to worry about?

Magic Lessons from Dynamo Magician Impossible

by Merchant of Magic 58 Comments

Every magician should study these magic lessons from Dynamo. Steven Frayne AKA Dynamo has risen from the ranks of amateur magicians to become a household name in a very short time. How did he do it? We look at what we can learn from one of the most influential stars of the UK magic scene.

1) The biggest magic lessons from Dynamo

Steven started magic as a kid, and worked hard at his technique for many years. He started practicing while growing up in Bradford’s deprived Delph Hill Estate and took the opportunity to perform his magic tricks wherever he could. For Dynamo, there was no sudden rise to fame, it was a slow journey of learning the skills, getting out, performing and building up his knowledge and reputation. During the early days Dynamo consumed as much information about magic that he could, attended magic conventions and built a relationship with his favorite magic dealers. This way, Dynamo developed a keen eye for what was possible in magic, and what was missing in the market, for his style and persona.

• Initial Footwork: Dynamo is without question a ‘grafter’. Nothing was handed to him on a platter. The kid puts himself out there as much as possible, talking to the magic shop, asking for feedback with other magicians and immersing himself in as much of the world of magic as possible. This gave Dynamo an excellent foundation for developing his techniques and for spotting the freshest, powerful tricks to build into his working magic routines.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Practice and learn as much as possible, and let your favourite magic shop know what you specifically like to learn, they can work with you to suggest new magic tricks that would be right for you. Although you may not be able to book magic lessons from dynamo himself, you can get the exact same advice he was given..

• Reputation: Dynamo understood that to make it as a magician: You need to be seen. He wasn’t going to be taken seriously by agents unless he had a reputation that preceded him. So where could he get that? Dynamo looked at his other interests, namely his love for hip-hop, and found a door he could knock on. The festival and music scene became his playground. Attending as many events as possible. Performing magic gave him access to the celebrity areas. This young kid in a baseball cap, doing amazing magic was extremely popular and soon he was networking with both celebrities and the media industry.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Get out and perform. Go to festivals, charity events and anywhere that people can see your magic and your reputation can build. We now live in a world where everyone has a video recorder on their phones. By being out there performing, your skills will get shared and talked about!

2) He understands that people want more than magic when watching Dynamo Magician Impossible

Dynamo picked a target market for his magic. He understood that the quality of the magic tricks is second place to how an audience relates to the performer. His market was the young urban music fan, the student, and the celebrity watcher. Targeting his magic at this audience gave his magic a brand and a style that wasn’t being catered for in the UK.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Look at yourself and your personal style, what market do you closely match, show can you create a persona that fits that, that you can establish as your ‘brand’

3) Dynamo teamed up with excellent management.

Dynamo has an excellent manager. Because of this, he has reached a huge market and is guided through the jungle that is entertainment media. His management team opens up new possibilities for him, and allows him to focus on developing great new magic, without being swamped by the day to day demands of marketing and business.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Send your magic CV to agents and build a relationship with the ones you trust and work well with. Build your reputation and move to being fully managed if that becomes right for you, once you are in a position to benefit from it.

4) Dynamo understands where the attention should be.

Some magicians are critical of how Dynamo presents his magic tricks. They argue that he lacks a unique personality and doesn’t ‘perform’ with much showmanship. However, others would point out that this is one of his strong points. Learning from David Blaine’s huge success, Dynamo puts all the focus on the spectator rather than himself. His character is unassuming. The trick and the spectator’s reaction are the most important elements of the presentation. He increases the power of this, by performing to celebrities that are a good fit to his target audience. Each time Dynamo performs for a film star or musician, it’s just as exciting for the fans of that celebrity to see them ‘freak out’ as it is for them to be fooled themselves.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Be seen in the right locations for your target audience. When you are photographed performing magic, make sure the camera is capturing the audience going wild and having a great time, not just you standing in a group ‘doing something’ This is one of the powerful magic lessons from Dynamo: Be the background to the reaction you create.

5) Dynamo left his ego at home.

Dynamo Magician impossible is all about Dynamo. But as we discussed above, he is not fighting for attention. This is exactly the same as when you meet him in person. He is polite, funny and unassuming. Dynamo shows real interest in other magicians and loves to discuss magic with them. That’s why you often find him at many of the more serious magic conventions and he is a member of The Magic Circle. There is no ego about him, and this makes him a very likable guy.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Join in with magic communities and go to lectures and conventions. Become friends with other magicians and don’t try to come across as more successful than them. Share idea’s and help other magicians improve their technique as they help you do the same.

6) Dynamo understands social media.

Did you know you can follow Dynamo on Twitter? His twitter name is @dynamomagician. You can also join his YouTube Channel and website Dynamo World. Right from the start he engaged social media to help create his brand. He didn’t post videos of him doing magic in his bedroom or magic lessons from Dynamo revealing tricks.. Instead, he had spectators film him while performing and then upload the footage. He tweets regularly so fans can interact with him.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Get as much footage of real world performing as possible and create a channel to show this off. Suggest spectators can film you and share the footage. Use Twitter to reach out to your audience and make sure your twitter name is on your business cards

7) Dynamo Magician Impossible makes people care about him as a performer with a back story.

This is one of the most valuable magic lessons from Dynamo to take away.. The format for Dynamo Magician impossible focuses on his back story, how he grew up and the people in his life. The messages contained in the series include themes such as how he loves his family, he understands how lucky he is. Sometimes fame is hard to deal with, he still hangs out with his old friends. His family is important to him. This insight into his character help to make audiences identify with him as a person.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Read this article on making people care about your magic tricks.

I hope you found these magic lessons from Dynamo useful. The Merchant of Magic can help you develop and put into action any of the suggestions above. The team gives help and advice to magicians on all aspects of improving their magic. Email or call the team

There are also dedicated sections featuring new magic tricks to learn that fit the urban performer in the Dynamo Magic Tricks Section

Useful Posts:
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