How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

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 is the Dynamo Phone in Bottle Trick Culturally Significant?

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How Dynamo does the phone in bottle trick

By Dominic Reyes

I was recently interviewed about how:

 Secular magic maintains cultural significance through technology and contemporary modes of thinking. 
It’s an interesting topic, and one that I’m sure every magician contemplates before each and every practice session.

However, it relates very well to what we can learn from the dynamo phone in bottle trick. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Would you say tricks that involve contemporary technologies and thinking such as mobile phones have become more popular than other traditional forms of close magic?

Dominic Reyes: Although contemporary technologies have grown in popularity over the last few years, it’s still a very small niche within magic. Their main use still tends to be in the field of mentalism as that is often more information and communication focused. Sleight of hand still retains it’s core importance in most magicians acts.

However, in recent years, tricks with spectators mobile phones have become popular with ‘street magicians’ spurred on by the magic tricks of TV magicians such as Dynamo. The dominant market for tech items remains the high end working professionals that will order specific equipment for a trick. The tech is not explicit, but used as part of the method rather than a presentation or story telling tool.

Would you say their appeal is down to their ability to culturally engage with current modes of thinking in society?

Dominic Reyes: To some extend, yes. The performance of magic, or rather the good performance of magic is just as much about connecting with people as the tricks themselves. The method used is second to the effect produced and observed by the spectators. Technology gives a performer a short cut in the method, but does not help with the social element of the performance. The interaction with the spectator, the emotional context of the trick or how the spectator relates to the impossible events that are presented to them.
Within a magic trick, there are two levels of action occurring. The evident actions (The magic the spectator see’s) and the non evident actions (The secret method of the trick). Current technology is mainly used in the non evident actions of the trick, and as such, is kept secret from the spectators.

An exception to this, are tricks that use a spectators own devices. Twisting a spectators mobile phone or transforming it into another object. The device tends to be used as an object for transformation. In that sense, the magician aims to culturally engage the spectator by using an everyday object of importance to that person. It’s interesting to note that using a spectators smart phone is VERY engaging. This may suggest that the item is regarded by them as an extension of their identity.

There are some tricks that directly use the spectators device, such as making a card value appear on the screen or being able to mind read their lock pin. However, data from The Merchant of Magic suggests they are most popular with magic hobbyists rather than working professionals. Possibly this may be due to the growing understanding within spectators of the possibilities to manipulate these devices. Magicians often disregard tricks like that, as they tend to subconsciously infer the magical abilities are coming from the device rather than the magician.

 

In a world now increasingly mediated through the machine – our phones, the Internet etc. To what extent would you say that tricks that involve such technologies aim to play with our hopes, dreams and fears of these devices?

Dominic Reyes: People understand that tech can be manipulated and this knowledge will increase over time. A greater value for a magician is in the perceived value of the item to the owner, their reliance on it and its use as a form of communication with their social group. The most popular tricks will involve playing with those feelings, by vanishing or transforming the item that has a personal meaning to the spectator.

A good example of this is the most famous TV dynamo phone in bottle trick – Dynamo – Magician Impossible putting  a borrowed phone inside a bottle. The trick is psychologically powerful.  You have transformation into an impossible object as the dominant visual effect, but there is another context and meaning being expressed. The phone and by implication, the spectators contact with their social group, is removed from them, locked inside a glass bottle. Its use has been restricted by the magician using magic. Locking another persons phone in a glass bottle, could also communicate the fear of being removed from your place in society and your social group. Social exclusion a primary fear for humans, and although only expressed on a subconscious level, it’s a powerful psychological force. Dynamo increased this feeling (on purpose) during the presentation, but causing the phone to ring. The phone calls out to be answered, but the owner is powerless to answer the call. That conditioned response to your phone ringing heightens the effect. Viewers can identify with that feeling expressed in the dynamo phone in bottle trick on a subconscious level. Magic tricks that take a primal fear or desire, and manipulate it, get great reactions. Magicians can use this knowledge in many of the tricks they have already performed. A tweak to the presentation, can dramatically change the impact of the trick.

You could also argue that smart phones, can be used as a social aid for a performer. A popular trend at the moment is for close-up magicians to ask spectators to pull out their phones and video the magic he or she is showing. This often gets posted to YouTube and is great publicity for the magician. In this way the magician is using the social power of the device and the spectators social network.

 

Do you think tricks that involve cutting edge technology that suspend belief and unsettle ones general understanding of the real help society define an understanding of the boundaries of the reality?

Dominic Reyes: There are many sources for this in popular culture. Since the stone age, man has used storytelling to challenge what people believe to be the boundaries of reality. Technology is really just another word for tools that are new. The cave men had their own technology, in the form of 2 dimensional drawings and the use of pigments in cave paintings. The latest tech became the written word, now we use film and video. It’s all group communication, wrapped up in the trappings of the times. Magic is simply another form of story telling. Just like the special effects of a movie or a theatre play, but presented as reality. I think by the time people watch a magic performance, they have already been socialized in many respects. TV and bedtime stories have already tackled that role during childhood development.

However, it may be interesting to research studies performed on first contact tribes in Africa, and their experiences with photography and radios. There are some very interesting results..

 

What do you think the future holds for magic and magicians particularly in relation to how they might adapt to create tricks that reflect this change in society? Whats next after mobile phone tricks?

Dominic Reyes: In magic, the same tricks repeat over and over again through the centuries, the props used to dress them up change and adapt, but the magic remains constant. Magicians will simply adapt the same effects to suit the objects their spectators find commonplace yet value greatly.

The dynamo phone in bottle trick will soon become obsolete. I would say that mobile phones already have their writing on the wall. As we move towards technologies such AR and VR, the concept of a personal phone as a distinct object, will be regarded as historical. Technology is always becoming smaller and smaller, and as it does this, it seems to be moving closer to the skin. One reason for this, is the slow merge of function away from individual devices.

My watch, camera, PDA, walkman and phone all become one item. The goal seems to be to reduce the need to switch attention between multiple devices as much as possible. The natural progression of this is, in my opinion, moving access to data directly to the eye. Google glass may only be a transition device, but I think a technology like it, will be the next step and presents magicians with a great opportunity. Augmented reality = controllable perception, a magicians dream come true!

In magic, the same tricks repeat over and over again through the centuries, the props used to dress them up change and adapt, but the magic remains constant. Magicians will simply adapt the same effects to suit the objects their spectators value and find commonplace.

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How to Connect with Your Audience When You Perform Magic

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Comnnect with your audienceRapport is essentially one of the biggest things that will distinguish between a great, memorable performer, and a person who does a few magic tricks. It’s about learning how to connect with your audience. Think of a couple of your favorite magicians. Odds are that they have great people skills, the ability to draw the audience in. How many magicians can you think of that lack this skill? Personally, I can’t remember any. And why can’t I remember them? Because there was no human or emotional connection. It’s not really surprising though, as we have been brought up never to talk to strangers. How do we break this and why is it important?

Emotional connection.
When we talk about emotional connection, it is immediately assumed too often that we are referring to the art of attraction, or upset. Emotional connection covers all areas of humanity, and the secret to gaining a connection with your audience is actually easier than you may think. Essentially, you need the audience to like you. Fortunately, you are already half way there as the audience wants to like you. People naturally want to be relaxed. So, smile!

Happy, smiley people.
The first step to establishing rapport is a simple smile. A smile travels miles. And as a bonus, they are free and require very little practice. A person smiling shows confidence, positivity and requires no words. It is universal and inviting. It shows you are relaxed, and in turn this gives the audience confidence in you, so smile as much and as often as you like. You’ll be surprised how many smiles you receive in return. I find it really helps before I start to have a glass of water at the bar, and strike up a chat with the bar staff, then crack a silly joke. They may not find it funny, but it makes me smile, which is a great head start for your first audience.

Maintain eye contact.
Picture yourself sat in an audience, and the performer glances across the audience, and then makes eye contact directly with you. How do you feel? One thing for sure, you will feel more involved in the act than you did moments before. Now imagine your seated at a table, and a magician approaches the table and begins his act. He spends most of his time looking at his hands, and when he does look up, he looks at everyone at the table other than you. How do you feel? Isolated and uninvolved.

Here, are 3 simple ways to ensure your eye contact is drawing the spectators in:

  1. Every time you are speaking make sure you are making eye contact.
  2. Mentally take turns with who you look at. I personally begin making eye contact with the person furthest away from me, opposite side of the table. This then involves the whole table. Then I mentally take turns as to whom to look towards next time.
  3. Talk to the people, not your props. Your props are purely that, props. You are the magic, not the props.

React and respond.
I think it’s important to ask the audience questions, as soon as possible. Involve them. 

“Hello there. How are you all this evening?”

They have to respond. If there is music playing, or they have had a meal, ask them how it was. Let them know you are not there purely showing  magic. You are a person, part of the entire event, and you want to hear about their evening. They are investing their time in you. Invest some of your time with them. It will be appreciated. If they like you, they will like what you do. But first they need to know that you like them. Also, react and respond not only to the audience, but your surroundings. If something occurs in the background, for example, a waiter drops a plate, comment on it. Involve the surroundings. Turn these possible disruptions into advantages. This will convey to the audience that you are not scripted, you are human.

Be emotional.
Reveal your humanity with emotions. You need to reveal a part of you, and you do that by letting us glimpse your innards, your emotions.  To show a passion for something is to show humanity. To show humanity makes you instantly likeable and encourages connectivity, which is a natural, human desire in all of us. So, show emotions, be as surprised as the audience, be as disappointed you didn’t find that playing card as the audience is. And should any mistakes occur, mock it with the spectators! Share the emotions of your act.

Leave them wanting more.
Always leave the audience with a smile and a laugh. It’s true that if you leave them smiling and laughing this will be the lasting memory of you. This is also the ideal time to remind them who you are.

“Thank you so much for your time. I’ve had such a great time. Have a few more drinks and I will pop back and show you the same tricks again. I have been (insert name here). Have a lovely evening all.”

Smile, make eye contact, and shake their hands.

Follow these simple guidelines on how to connect with your audience, and you will find your reactions to be much stronger, and most importantly, the audience will enjoy you and your time ten times more, which in turn means they will remember you as a person.