showmanship Archives

How To Create Magicians Patter – What To Say When Performing A Magic Trick

Emma writes: ‘The thing I struggle with the most is my patter, it takes me awhile to figure out what words and phrases I should use in different situations. I don’t like most hack lines as they generally make fun of the spectator, some advice I got was to defuse whatever heckling situation I am in with humour.

Do you have any input or advice for me, I’d really find it helpful.’ Thanks. – Emma

Hi Emma,

Yep.. How to create magicians patter that works well and suits you as a performer is 90% of the work that working magicians focus on once they have their act set and the effects within it up to performance standard. Much of what will make you a great entertainer is how you relate and interact with your spectators and win over your audience.

Close Up Magician have it hard..

I completely agree that humour wins out most times, but I always try to avoid any put downs or one liner heckler stoppers. They are tacky and basically you’re sinking as low as the heckler or troll. Brushing off everything with a smile or laugh is much more professional. If it’s too much, you can always politely end as soon as possible and move on. Never get in a challenge ‘heckler stopper’ situation. It might work on stage, but it’s far more dangerous close up.

Scripting Vs Freestyle Patter

Performers tend to fall into two camps. Those that script and plan their presentations, and those that prefer a type of ‘jazz’ freestyle presentation’. Which you choose will depend on your nature. However, if you have to think about it.. Chances are you would be better planning and scripting your presentations.

Using a plan or the magic script method doesn’t mean you will come across as wooden or inflexible. Through the use of rehearsal a good scripted presentation can seem, natural, organic and impromptu. Watch lots of stand up comedians and see how they present their act in a way that almost looks like they are coming up with the jokes on the spot. They even stop and laugh with the audience as it’s new to them too. It’s not. They have rehearsed their act to be like that. You can do the same when you create magicians patter for each effect you do.

Here’s some more posts that relate to this question that might help you.

Why Magicians Hate Scripts

Create Magicians Petter Without These Words

Make Sure You Do This Before You Perform

Creating Non-Awkward Patter for Your Tricks

How to Create Magicians Patter That Deals With Hecklers

Best wishes and good luck with your magic

Dominic Reyes

First Ever Magic Gig and You’re Told You Were Rubbish….

by Dominic Reyes 2 Comments

Received this question from a beginner who did his first ever magic gig:

“A neighbouring table saw me doing tricks and wanted to see one so I went over and did my colour monte lego card routine
An audience member bluntly and honestly said it was bad, she could see what I was doing, and it was rubbish. (Although she was tricked by it as she did not predict the final card reveal)

I had done card tricks all night and everyone loved them (or at least said they did) but that one bad review has not left my mind since.

Do you ever get difficult / harsh / rude audiences? How do you deal with it?”

I’m sorry to hear this has happened to you on your first ever magic gig, but what counts is how you let it affect you.

Everyone who deals with the public gets to deal with rude, ignorant people sometimes.. that’s why you see signs in stores warning about staff not having to accept it. Add in alcohol, then throw in the social pressure to ‘be the centre of attention’ and that’s why ALL close up magicians come face to face with people like this. You just have to politely shrug it off and move to another group.

Just last week I was performing at a gig full of characters right out of made in Essex. I finished a routine with some sponge balls and when the lady opened her hand and was surprised by the trick, all was well and good. Then a moment later she just threw both sponge balls over her shoulder and shouted ‘Give us a fag’ to her partner… I was completely taken aback.. That was one of the rudest things I’ve come across… What did I do? Nothing. Her attitude isn’t really my problem… I’m not there as a guest, I’m there working.. creating the event.. I just left the group that instant and recovered the sponge balls. I then moved on to another group. I did not react, I didn’t even raise an eyebrow… Why create a scene? Why even take it personally.. Just move on to another group. The rest of the guests were lovely and I received the usual feedback.. So there was no need to let one single rude person be the measure of the evening or your skill as a performer.

Heres some situations that could happen on your first ever magic gig:

Lets say you perform your first trick and everyone in the group is hostile. In that case, don’t react, just smile and move away and approach another group. Don’t judge the whole event by one single group.

Maybe you are working a group and everyone is loving it except one person. You can choose to be polite and ignore the heckler, or simply remove yourself from the group. Many experienced magicians with a quick wit, magicians jokes, and the presence can fire back funny comebacks, but that’s a specific SKILL. If you have that, you probably don’t need to be reading this anyway…

So at the start hecklers are going to ‘knock you off’ a little bit. The key is to move on.. You have no duty to perform for someone who does not want to play along. What you are doing is close up theatre as much as it is a trick.. Move on to another table or part of the room so you gain as much positive experience as you can, over time, you will find being challenged like that less distressing and can come up with funny ways to deal with the challenges.

The good news is that this happens very rarely and on the whole you will love performing.

I wish you the best with your magic

Dominic Reyes

I asked a few magicians to give you their advice when a magician gets heckled on their first ever magic gig:

David Joch : There will always be anyone, who don’t like you or what you do because of different reasons.

If at least one liked what you do and asked for more, then you’re doing it right – nobody is able to do it right for everyone..

HOWEVER, don’t “unhear” the “bad” comments, because maybe you’ll find a weak point in your routine that you can change it to make it even stronger. Don’t let the comment bring you down, you don’t know the reason for it, maybe it was just bad manners without any reason so then it is not your fault!

Dani Marko : You can’t make everyone happy all the time, you are not pizza

Brett Sirrell : It’s your first ever magic gig, don’t worry. You are several steps ahead of the person that has just had bulls!t “great” feedback.

You now understand what to work on. Experience comes from hours of performing to real people, learning to naturally know lines of sight, how to misdirect get a laugh when you need a misdirect or reaction.

It also takes time to learn what an audience likes and doesn’t. Again Magicians love packet tricks and colour changes etc but actually it takes experience to learn what an audience loves. There’s no such thing as failure just feedback.

Jennifer Meyers : Don’t let this get you down. Audiences can be brutally honest. Take this review as a lesson that you need to practice more. Use video from every angle. Work your magic until you can perform it flawlessly. Have lots of fun!! If you are not having fun than your audience isn’t having fun either. Hang in there!!

NEXT:

How people catch out a magician

How to perform magic to different groups that are close together

Which magic tricks should all professional magicians use?

How People Catch Out a Magician – Removing Challenge From Magic Tricks

by Dominic Reyes 4 Comments

Do you find that your spectators seem to over scrutinize your magic performance? Do they insist on examining your props? Does your audience view your magic as a puzzle more than a piece of theatre?

That doesn’t happen to every magician.. And it probably doesn’t happen to you during EVERY effect you perform. Why is that?

Catch me if you can

Some magicians specifically build their persona around the challenge to catch out a magician. Slydini would warn his audience with the words “I’m a gun a fool you..” Then, with a wink and a smile, right under their eyes, he did just that.. He built his whole style around that persona and had the skills to back it up. If that’s what you want.. Great.. It’s a fun style and very entertaining. However, if you find you seem to get a lot of ‘heat’ unintentionally.. Perhaps you unwittingly ask for it.

You need to make sure you are not giving off signals that

their role as a spectator is to try to ‘catch you out’.

Have you ever recorded your performance on video? You should.. Every magician should.. You’ll learn so much from that effort. One of the benefits is finding out if you are giving off the impression that you are challenging the audience to challenge you, that’s going to be the main reason for the level of scrutiny you receive.

It’s not a quiz

I do my coins across routine around 10-20 times a night, I often hear some very strange explanations as to how I am making the coins vanish and appear. I’ve heard people say the coins are ‘magnetic’, that I use a stooge, or that I must have some sort of mechanical arm installed on myself! These theories are often quite serious.. But how should I react?

Here’s what I would never do: Go along with their invitation to prove them right or wrong.

The magic I perform is a show, not a quiz

Should I stop the show (It’s close up magic, but it’s still a show with all the structure that assumes) and strip off in a wild attempt to try to prove to them that this is not the answer to the puzzle?

I manage the audience and move things along. I stay on track.. Smiling and maybe saying something tongue in cheek like.’ You just need to believe..” With a big smile and then move right on to the next part of the SHOW. Remember.. It’s a piece of theatre.. Control the flow. Keep it moving and use your audience management. Stay in control and start a new presentation. By doing that, the audience has to move on with you..

An example of how I use a presentation to create audience management

I do a 100 dollar bill switch. A spectator gives me a 10 bank note in the hope I will turn it into whatever note they want.. The 10 bank note is transformed into a 5 bank note. The transformation is very magicial, but I don’t linger on it. I don’t want to make this a puzzle.. So I move it on handing the smaller note to the spectator, apologizing.. Then asking is anyone else has a 10 bank note I can try it with..

I have created a moment of very visual magic, and handed the note to a spectator. At that moment, I could just wait and let the spectator examine the smaller note, and try to ‘work out the puzzle’ but that’s not theatre… So I move it on with a small gag that I want someone else to give me a note, even though they now know what a mistake that would be.. The focus of attention is no longer the PUZZLE, it’s the situation and what will happen next.

Keep your audience’s attention on what will happen NEXT, not lingering on what just happened.

Do This:

Look at the magic tricks you are currently performing and try to identify if there are ‘challenge points’ in the presentation. Are you presenting your magic tricks as puzzles or theatre? How could you introduce some story arc, or presentation to move that along and remove the focus on your method or prop. How can you give your audience something better to do in that moment?

I hope this helps you in some way.

Best wishes and good luck with your magic

Dominic Reyes

Do you find that your spectators seem set on trying to catch out a magician? How do you deal with audiences taking over the show to challenge you? Let me know in the comments section below.