How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

How to Approach People in the Street to Show Them Magic

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Where to do street magicPaul Writes:

‘I need advice on approaching people in the street, as I lack confidence and fear they won’t like me or my magic tricks’

Paul loves his magic and wants to get out and start performing it to the public. Like many people in recent years, he may have seen TV shows where a magician stops people in the streets and blows their mind with magic. However, if you have ever tried doing that yourself, you will understand that it’s not that simple.

What you don’t see on those magic TV shows.
The camera is on the magician approaching an unsuspecting member of the public and asking them to check out his magic trick. The spectators love it and the camera films their reactions, before moving on to the next scene. There is a LOT more going on than this!

Street magic TV shows show the audience at home, exactly watch the director and producers feel will be the most entertaining footage to watch. The reality of stopping people on the streets to show them something is very, very different. If you went out now, to your local high street and started stopping people you will hit these problems:

People are busy and don’t know you.
Normally, people watch magic because they choose to do so. They may be at a party or dinner, or even have gone to see a show. Entertainment is the primary activity of the evening. Compare that to a busy high street, and you can see why performing magic on the street is not easy. You become a distraction and a nuisance. Stopping people in the street can be very different to putting on a magic show like a street performer. They are attracting a crowd, who stop to watch by choice. The spectators made their own minds up to watch some magic. If you intend to stop people from going about their business and ask them to watch you instead, you need to be ready for a lot of..

Rejection. 
A great experience for magicians thinking of performing on the streets, is to try their hand at high street market research. It’s a very quick way to grow a thick skin as you deal with constantly being rejected. It’s likely that you will experience this as well when you try to stop people on the streets to show them magic. This is one of the aspects of filming a TV show that doesn’t get shown. Even famous magicians with an exciting film crew set up get rejected over and over again as they stop people. If you are new to performing, we usually warn against street magic, until a good level of confidence has been built up, as the rejection can be very depressing and demotivating for beginners.

You may need a license to perform.
Street magicians can sometimes require a license.

You can find out more about needing a license to perform street magic here.

You need public liability Insurance.
It’s also important that you have sufficient insurance if they are going to perform to the public.

You can find out about the right insurance cover for you here.

How to approach people to perform street magic 
If you intend to stop people in the street and ask them to watch some magic, we recommend the following:

1) Make it very clear who you are.
Make sure you are dressed appropriately. If you are wearing normal street clothes, some people will think you are approaching them to cause trouble. Make sure it’s clear you are an entertainer. Carry your playing cards or a prop and have some signs that you are not about to mug them.

2) Look official
An idea that a few magicians use with success is to wear an ID pass on a ribbon around your neck. The pass can just have a photo of you on it, your contact details and that you are a street magician. People are less worried when approached by someone, who looks like they have an official reason for stopping them.

3) Smile and be friendly. The person may well be the 20th you have asked to show a trick, but it’s vital you don’t look cross, bored or resigned to rejection. A warm smile and a polite question will really help you.

4) Have someone filming. It’s a great opportunity when you do get a person happy to stop and watch, so make sure it’s on film. This will also look more official and fun for many spectators. Make sure you get permission to film from the spectator as well as the venue.

5) Remember, it’s a numbers game. The more people you ask if you can show them some magic, the more will stop and watch. Don’t be put off if it takes ages to get a taker. Just keep on going.

6) Be polite to people that say no. Remember that it’s their choice to watch your magic. Just because you are going to the effort to be there and perform doesn’t mean they have to watch. As people ignore you and walk past as you ask them a question, don’t take it as an insult. It really isn’t. They are busy and don’t want to engage with you. It’s their right to choose. Just smile and wish them a good day.

Being confident approaching people to show them magic.
Gaining confidence in your performance and how people will react to it, develops slowly. Everyone will be nervous at first. The best way to overcome this is to just go out and do it. Performing to the public takes guts at first. It’s going to be terrifying the first few times you do it. But very quickly, you will learn it’s not as bad as your fears build it up to be.

Read these posts:

how to overcome your nervousness as you take on the role of a magician.

If street magic worth doing? 
Yes and no. It’s a good way to gain experience of approaching people. After all, you will be doing that all day and being rejected. It can toughen you up very quickly. However, we would suggest there are better venues to start when you first begin to perform for the public. Seek out local events and charity fundraisers, where you can perform for people who are expecting to be entertained. That’s much easier and can build up your confidence.

Question: Have you been out on the streets and tried your hand at close-up street magic? How did it go and what did you learn from the experience? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

 

How Many Magic Tricks Should I Do in My Act?

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How many Magic tricks Should I dDo?Andreas writes:

I perform mentalism/mental magic, and I’d like to know how many tricks should an act contain? What is the right duration for a parlor performance among friends?

If you are preparing a parlour/stand up performance, there is no problem with preparing multiple acts of varying length. It is highly recomended that the core magic tricks can stay the same, but you can lengthen a performance with a more in depth script or simply add more tricks in-between your core routines.

I  suggest taking the approach of leaving them wanting more rather than saturating them with a great lengthy performance. Most magicians that provide a stand up or parlor act will be able to perform for 20mins, 30mins or 45mins. They have an act planned for each of the timings, so they know exactly what they will perform for each time setting. For example, a 20 minute performance of mentalism may consist of  3 or 4 well rehearsed and scripted tricks. The set should build, have a start, a middle, and an end and really be your powerhouse routines, there is no time for filler in a performance like this. You need to control the audiences attention immediately and turn up the intensity throughout the performance ending with a strong revelation of some sort. The middle routine should be some sort of performance piece that can be lengthened with script if necessary, this should reflect your character and be engaged for the audience, think of it as a journey that you are taking them on.

Here, is an example of some routines you could use:

Opening Effect.
– Bank Night routine – Bank night routines are great to start with as they involve the audience directly and they also have the bonus of using winning money as a hook

– Guess Which Hand – Some sort of guess which hand trick where you challenge a spectator to hide a small object in their hand, and you guess correctly 3 or 4 times in a row which hand they are holding the object. This is also great as it is involving the audience (you can ask everyone which hand they think the object is in) and can also be presented as a bet where if you lose the spectator wins some money, making it instantly appeal to the whole audience.

Middle Effect.
– PK touches – This is a great performance piece routine. You can really hit home with the idea of people being connected if you choose a couple it makes this stronger still. Psychokinetic touches is a great example of this type of trick.

– Book Test – To divine a word selected from thousands of words in a book is both baffling and entertaining. This type of routine allows you to  play on the factor that there are hundreds of pages each with hundreds of words meaning there are literally thousands of choices the spectator could have had. This scripting within a book routine can really amp up your performance building the intensity for your finale.

End Effect.
– Drawing Duplications – Something as simple as a drawing duplications have a great impact on an audience. The routine is simple to understand and follow the audience knows what is coming yet when you reveal your drawings to be the same the audience all gasp at once. You can really frame this type of routine with theatrical factors like maybe having two chairs back to back, make sure the pad you use is large so when you reveal the images it is instantly clear.

– Triple Prediction – It is a simple routine again method wise and very simple again to understand, but it really hammers home your talent and allows you to have a multi phase routine that gives you a punch of three hits one after the other, a great way to end your show.

This is an example of how you can routine a mentalism performance that will last about 20 minutes. Remember to make it fun, engaging and also build it throughout the performance to your finale.

The 30 minute Act.
If you wish to make it a 30 minute show, you should think about filling these routines out with some quotes or interesting facts surrounding the phenomena.,  For example, if you are performing an ESP routine you could mention the background to the ESP symbols and research Karl Zener.,

Maybe think about scripting an audience participation game where you can whittle down the spectators to the one spectator or 5 spectators that you will use in your first routine. If you watch any live Derren Brown performance he has great fun audience interaction at the beginning of each of his shows, this gets everyone involved, is entertaining but also opens up the audiences eyes to something. The audience begins to realize that mostly everyone does actually follow a pattern and individuality does not necessarily mean you will each behave individually when presented with a certain situation, you can really play on this throughout your performance.

It is not too hard to lengthen a 20 minute performance into a 30 minute performance by using these techniques, without having to add another full routine.

The 45 minute Act.
Some clients will want to book a 45 minute act for after dinner performances or other situations like this. 45 minutes are about as long as I would want to perform for in these situations, it can be tempting to offer an hour, and it wouldn’t be too hard to make it last an hour, but unless an audience member has bought a ticket to  be entertained by magic all night an hour can be a lot to sit through. The last thing you want is your audience getting antsy and fidgety towards the end of the performance when they should be the most captivated. Remember, we all love magic and similar forms of entertainment, not everyone who you may meet at an event like this does.

For a 45 minute act, I would again use the core routines that you have in the 20 minute performance and the structure of the 30 minute performance for these effects. However, you should think about adding a few effects in-between these routines. It is important to vary your performances. For example, if you are performing a mentalism act it wouldn’t be great to perform a Bank Night routine (a one in 5 chance effect) with another routine such as ESP card divination routines (another one in 5 chance effect).

Some great routines that can be used to fill in between the bigger routines could be as simple as a well scripted routine using the Invisible Deck. You could also perform divination routines such as Emotional Intelligence by Luke Jermay (a great routine worth checking out) or something like Free Will where you predict the out come of a selection of choices that the spectator makes freely. All of these routines can hammer home the fact that you really are a student of influence or reading people’s body language and expressions.

If you present yourself as someone who can cold read people or read expressions it would be a very interesting premise to perform something that is real and true.,  For example, you could ask for someone to provide you with a piece of handwriting you could analyze or there is a great book called Draw me a Tree where you analyze a spectator by studying a drawing of a tree they have made. With this type of performance thrown into your act you genuinely are demonstrating a skill and talent that can really help validate your character as genuine.

So these are some tips to creating a parlor or stand up routine that hopefully should help you out should you be planning to take your close up performances up a level. It is always great to have a performance like this ready should you need it, after all these situations do arise  I was once booked for an hour of magic, it wasn’t until I reached the venue I was told that there was only 25 people, and they wanted an hour of stand up magic if you ask any working magician it’s likely that he or she will have a similar experience they can share with you. Be prepared, after all that is a very important part of being a performer especially of the magical variety!

How to do the Muscle Pass – 9 Quick Tips

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How to do Muscle PassScott writes:

‘One thing I am having trouble with at the moment is the muscle pass. I have tried to learn it to make my coin magic more interesting, however, I can’t get the hang of it. I can palm the coin OK and make it ‘pop’ only very slightly. How would you recommend I go about mastering this technique, as it’s something I think would look really awesome as part of a routine.’

 

Scott, you have to keep going with this move. Don’t quit. It is commonly regarded as the most difficult sleight of hand coin move to master, taking around 1-2 years to master completely. However, you will start to see some results after just a few weeks work. The real secret of how to do the muscle pass is not to give up.

 

A few tips for how to do the muscle pass more effectively.

The muscle pass was originally known as the anti-gravity coin. It involves shooting a coin up from your palm anywhere from a few inches to over two feet. Lets look at how to do the muscle pass easily.

1) Which coin to use.
Start practicing with a poker chip at first. It’s lighter than a coin and has well defined edges.
Large coins are easier than small ones. A UK 50 or £2 coin makes good practice coins, or a US Dollar coin. The aim is to develop your hand, so the larger coin will help to speed this up.

2) Practice.
The key to this move is to practice every day, as you need to build up the muscle tone in your hand. Committing to 10-15 minutes a day will bring on very fast progress. Remember to stop if your hand starts to hurt, as you want to avoid straining your hand. Short, frequent practice sessions are what you should aim for.

3) Stages of development.

  • Stage 1: A redness forms when you have the coin in position and are trying to make it “pop” up.
  • Stage 2: You may find that the coin just flops out of your grip. Keep going..
  • Stage 3: You notice the coin pop out of your grip and simply flip over 180 degrees.
  • Stage 4: Over time the calluses and muscle ache will go and you’ll find you don’t need to grip as hard as you thought in order to make the coin jump.

4) Popping to the left.  
At first,  the coin will start to slide to the left. That’s a good sign you are on the right track. Keep at it. Over time you will be able to make the coin flip over, again a good sign. As the muscles in your hand develop, you will start to be able to make the coin jump a little as you move out of the flipping stage of practice.

5) Callous
Over time you will slowly develop a small callous on the edge of your thumb muscle. This makes a huge difference to the move and reaching a good height. Because this takes a while to develop, many magicians give up, assuming that they will never be able to ‘pop’ the coin move than a few inches.

6) Go horizontal.
Many magicians find performing the pass horizontally rather than vertically easier at first. Making the coin jump from one hand to the other.

7) Clean and Dry.
Ensure that your hands are clean and dry. Moisture will make the coin to slide out of the palm grip and it will be much harder to make the coin jump.

8) The little finger
Remember not to allow your little finger to move. The only point of force should be from your thumb muscle.

9) What you are aiming for.
Your goal should be to reach a height of around a foot from your palm. At this point your other hand can be in a position to catch the coin at the top of its assent.

We recommend the following DVDs for a complete guide on how to do the muscle pass the correct way:

Muscle Pass by Jay Noblezada