practice Archives

Steve Shufton Interview – Naturalness, Practice of your Magic Trick

Steve Shufton is a highly respected inventor and manufacturer of high quality magic tricks and props for professional magicians. Known for his own distinctive creative style, Steve’s inventions are used by magicians worldwide. X-Ray is one of the MoM teams favourite tricks.

Dominic Reyes caught up with him, to ask a simple question. Steve’s experience in magic is formed by years of performance, not just to the public, but also to a much harder crowd to please: Magicians!They provide valuable advice for magicians at any stage in their career:

Dominic Reyes:If you could go back to the start of your career what three things would you do differently?”

Steve Shufton: This is certainly an interesting question, especially since it is difficult for me to define precisely when the start of my magic career was.

Dominic:So it’s hard for you to locate an exact moment that your career started?

Steve: In a way, yes. Was it when I was bitten by the bug? Was it when I gave my first performance as a child? Was it when I started to earn a substantial part of my living from magic?

Dominic: Your saying that a magic career isn’t necessarily defined by professional performance?

Steve:I knew, the very first time I attempted to learn how do a magic trick, that this would remain a curiosity for life – I was bitten, and had it bad. Where did the coin go? How can I learn to do that? So, this certainly must have been the start. After all, some of the very best magicians in the world are “amateurs,” who have also embarked on a magical career, although an unpaid one. Why should they be excluded from the conversation? Yes – although I make the greater part of my income from magic, I do not earn my money from performance – I earn it from inventing and manufacturing. I have to fool professionals – never mind the lay audience. And yes – I make my money this way. But since I do not earn the bulk of my income specifically through performance, I am little different in that regard than an amateur.

Dominic: But, you agree that there is a difference between you as professional or amateur?

Steve: If there is a difference, I would say it would have to be 50 years of practice and performance experience, although in close quarters, thereby qualifying me to offer my opinion on this matter unashamedly.

Dominic: So, looking back, what would you do differently?

Steve: As a child I remember being so eager to “present” each new trick, it frequently happened on the same day I read it or purchased it. The word “present” is in quotes, because this was not a presentation at all! To properly present any effect, certain phases of learning the effect must first occur.

Dominic: Can you explain this process, in more detail to us?
Steve: First, you must study the effect with your mind – with your inner eye. You are to convince an audience that you have done something, using only magic as a possible explanation. Therefore, understanding what an audience will perceive is of highest importance! Is fumbling, stuttering and rocking back and forth as one tries to recall the steps in achieving a goal magical? The answer is self-evident. I wish, as a small child, someone had held me back from demonstrating any effect until I fully understood the effect myself. If I could go back to my first experiences with magic, I would take much more time only contemplating the effect.

Secondly, the working of an effect must be second nature. A pianist (I happen to be one) must practice music until it is deep in the soul. It must proceed from within, without any thought process intervening with the outflow of music.

Dominic: Why is that important?

Steve: Because, otherwise, it remains an intellectual exercise and will never come across as something natural and beautiful. Dai Vernon, when he offered the advice, “Be natural,” was offering the most profound advice for the performance of excellent magic. In order to be natural with your magic, you must practice it until it transcends the intellect – transcends thought. It must flow out of you as if you have been doing it your entire life – just like walking.

Dominic:That makes a lot of sense. We receive a lot of questions from magicians, who resist the practice of rehearsal, through fear that their performance will sound too ‘staged’. We recommend that their practice should continue WAY past that point, until a naturalness develops from the total familiarity with the ‘lines’. What’s the final stage?

Steve: Finally, it would be a good idea to learn as soon as possible that the trick is not the entertainment. You are. The effect is simply a vehicle for entertainment. Many beginners think that by showing a spectator what arrived in a box this morning, they are providing entertainment.

Dominic: And that’s not the case?

Steve: If that were, we wouldn’t need magicians at all – only boxes of stuff. The solution is to have a presentation. This far outweighs needing a trick! The difference between a good trick and a bad trick is often the presentation. If you are just showing them something, you are not doing your job as a magician. You are the show – the tricks will always be secondary to that.

Dominic: So what practical steps can magicians take to prevent that?

Steve: Find some way to make the effect yours. Imitators will never be as great as originals. Develop rapport with your audience. Take the time to develop a worthy presentation. Practice it as much as you practice the effect – until it becomes second nature and your delivery is natural. Lose your ego and let your audience into your world. Learn from your mistakes. Accept criticism. Have fun!

The Merchant of Magic would like to thank Steve Shufton for taking the time to give us this interview.

You can check out the Shufton range of magic here

Also check out the DVD set: wrinkles on the table, it’s a supurb collection of original moves and magical thinking from over 40 years of performing experience.

Merchant of Magic Podcast – Episode 2

by Merchant of Magic 1 Comment

It’s been a while since we recorded our first podcast at the magic shop, as all the team were on full Christmas delivery mode, sorry about that!

Episode 2 features the same staggeringly high production values of episode 1, but now with a little extra added background hiss, awkward pauses, and pointless ramblings thrown in. Basically, it’s 3 magicians (Dominic Reyes, Ben Williams, and Paul Knight) sat in the magic shop chatting about practicing, performing and marketing for close-up magicians.

This episode, we discuss:

How to approach restaurants to get residency gigs.
How to use social media and your website to promote yourself.
How to create more time in your day for practice.

Download Podcast

Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes

What would you like to see us discuss in the merchant of magic podcast? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below and we will do our best to cover the areas of magic that have the most interest for our listeners.

If you enjoyed this episode of the merchant of magic podcast, please take a moment to give us a review on iTunes, It really helps the podcast to reach new listeners.

How To Start Learning Magic Tricks With Coins

by Merchant of Magic 8 Comments

By Dominic Reyes

Colin writes:

‘Coin magic really interests me from an “immediate and no set up” perspective, and I have Bobo’s book (from you) but those primary conceals, etc, are a nightmare to learn – any ideas?’

It’s a sad fact that so many magic beginners are put off from trying to learn coin magic. They find the learning curve at the beginning far too hard. Most magic coin tricks that don’t rely on gimmicked coins force you to face up to a big scary monster called ‘sleight of hand’. With so many magic tricks available that have special devices (called: gimmicks), It’s never been easier to bury your head in the sand and pretend that sleight of hand doesn’t exist.

What’s wrong with that? Well, it means you have to be a consumer of other people magic.
Mastering at least some of those core moves is an incredibly valuable way to use your practice time. Being able to perform a few killer tricks, just with the coins in your pocket means:

Freedom from being dependent on expensive props and gimmicks.
You can perform at a moments notice, wherever you are.
The ability to borrow objects (the coins) from a spectator and create magic with them.
You gain a set of utility moves that allow you to create your own unique routines.
You gain balance within your act.

Here are a few quick tips that will help you speed up the learning process:

Choose the right coins.

If you are in the UK, then a good coin to start with, is the UK 2p coin. It is easy to palm. The small and sharply defined edge makes it easy to grip. For a larger coin, go for the UK £2 coin as it has a good size and edge. The down side with the £2 coin is it’s thickness and weight, which can slow down progress. The 2 Euro coin is also a good choice, and for magicians in the US, the half dollar is the most popular choice.

Commit to practice everywhere.

One of the best features of coin magic is that it can be performed just about anywhere. In fact, you can practice moving a coin in and out of a range of palms and concealments, without even having to take your hand out of your jacket or coat pocket.

Start right away with the Classic Palm.

It’s one of the hardest to master, but it’s also the king of all coin moves. The sooner you start work on the Classic palm the better. Dan Watkins has produced a great free guide to a good classic palm here.

Palm – Pass- Vanish.

The ideal first set of sleights to focus on would be one from each of the categories of coin magic. We suggest choosing the classic palm, then a good pass, such as the shuttle pass, and finally a decent vanish like the retention of vision vanish. By choosing just one move from each of these categories of sleights, you work on just three sleights at a time. Because each is from a different category of sleights, you can combine them together to create a number of full routines.

Transfers and Transitions.

It’s also important to work on how you get into and out of each move. Once a coin has been vanished, you will want to move it over to another concealment, and this transfer needs to be undetectable. In the example of the retention of vision vanish, the coin will be in a specific position after the vanish has taken place. Practice how you go into classic palm from that position.

Use a cyclical one coin routine for practice.

There are several cyclical one coin routines in print that use the core moves and run through a series of productions and vanishes. David Roth teaches some excellent one coin work in his books and DVD’s. Once you have a few moves, choose a routine that you can drill and practice it every day. The routine repeats endlessly, so there is no sense of a start or ending. These routines tend to cause people to practice much more as there is an automatic flow into running through it ‘just one more time’

Slow motion as you go through the moves.

Fast is not deceptive in sleight of hand. It’s confusing and suspicious. IN practice, it’s also the quickest way to make very little progress. Your goal is to teach your fingers the movements and touch needed for each move.

The slower you go, when running through the moves, the more you can check that each movement is perfect. Don’t make any deliberate effort to speed up. Speed will happen over time on its own.

When to use a mirror and when not to.

Mirror work in coin magic IS needed to check that your angles are correct and that a placement is exactly where it should be. However, once you have that move perfected in front of a mirror, you will need to start practicing without one. There is a danger that you will become dependent on the visual feedback the mirror gives you, and will not have confidence that a sleight looked correct unless you are able to see the move happen yourself. Make sure you practice in front of a mirror at first. Once you have the placement and angles, it’s time to practice it ‘blind’.

Don’t hide the action.

Most coin work requires you to hold a coin at the fingertips and manipulate it. A common mistake that beginners face, it that they tend to put too many fingers in the way. The fingers that are not holding the coin could hide all the actions. This might look fine from their viewpoint (behind the trick), but for the spectators, it’s confusing and suspicious. Any unused fingers need to be out the way of the action. If your hands are palm down, whenever possible, the palms should be visible to show there is nothing hiding in your hands. Your fingers should be just a little apart. A hand that looks as if it could conceal something is often thought to BE concealing something, even though you may know it’s totally innocent.

Watch your eyes are not giving it away.

It’s so hard to stop the truth from showing in your eyes. Especially if, you are used to only practicing in front of a mirror. Many beginners find that they half close their eyes when performing a sleight. It’s almost as if they don’t want to see that the move has happened. That, if they can’t see it, the spectators won’t be able to see it either. Moving away from mirror practice to rehearsal will help remove this tendency.

Image courtesy of Jin Thai