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.

I’m Shy Doing Magic Tricks For Friends

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

I asked Scott: What are you struggling with right now?

Here’s how he replied:

I’m an older guy, but a beginner magician. In my professional life, I present material in front of crowds and run meetings all day long – and fearlessly. But, when it comes to debuting my new little magic trick to friends I am uncharacteristically shy – I can’t bring myself to do it.

This failure to perform is affecting my practice, since it’s non-motivating to spend hours on a trick no one will see. This lack of confidence also leads me to over-thinking – is the patter right, what other tricks should I link it to, etc.

Just spelling out the problem gives me stuff to think about, but I was touched by your request and thought I’d make myself respond.

Thank you for any thoughts you have, Scott

Scott talks in front of a crowd professionally, and runs meetings all day long… But in those situations he is a different person. He are in a professional role, playing a ‘part’.

Many of us become shy doing magic tricks for friends, because they see us differently. We are seen and treated differently by different groups of people… Our friends see through the magician BS.. We are laid bare.

Your friends know you don’t really have powers.. They feel comfortable heckling you. Why shouldn’t they? There’s no need for them to play by the same rules that your audience or meeting members have too. Their social norms are different..

All this can throw magicians off their game, and it’s usually why beginners struggle.. The toughest audience is our family and friends. Ironically, that’s the very audience most beginners face first of all.

If you can relate to this is your own life and find you become shy doing magic tricks for your friends or family, read this free ebook as its full strategies that will help

The Pitfall of Performing to Family and Friends – by Dominic Reyes

I hope this helps you

Dominic Reyes

How to Get Reactions Like Dynamo

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

So, you want to learn how to get reactions like Dynamo? Doesn’t everybody?!!?

By Ben Williams

Below is a question we were asked through our customer support email. If you have any questions you would like answered to help you become a better magician please do not hesitate to get in contact

Hey, What makes Dynamo’s magic, so unbelievable? The reactions he gets are different to a normal magician, they literally go mad. Is it the way he does the trick or is it the trick itself? I have no intentions of being like him, but I just would love some tips on how to get reactions like Dynamo..

In order to get great reactions there are a few things you must be aware of first. These have nothing to do with magic or magic tricks, this advice is purely about you, it will help you in all walks of life, with anything that requires meeting other people.

Presentation of yourself

First and foremost, are you presentable? We don’t mean: are you in a suit and tie?, It’s more basic than that. Have you showered? Are your fingernails a mess? Have you styled or brushed your hair? Have you cleaned your teeth and have fresh breath? Personal hygiene is something that nearly everyone judges straight away. Make sure you aren’t judged negatively before you have a chance to show them what you can do. Be completely honest with yourself here, would you like to be approached by someone who looked like you? Whether you like it or not, first impressions count, it is in human nature to make a snap analysis of whoever you meet. This is set into our genes, it is part of our survival instincts, you cannot avoid it. If you cannot avoid something and it stands in your way, you have to learn to understand it so you can work with it.

Secondly, make sure you look like someone people want to be around. Smile, be pleasant, polite and always thankful to people you meet. Use common courtesy and manners, after all, these things are free and go a long way. If you are courteous to people and polite then they are more likely to open up to you. If someone will not open up to you then you will never get a great reaction from them. You must break down any social barriers before they will open up and give you that moment you are searching for.

The presentation of your magic tricks.

Magic tricks aren’t what will give you that great reaction, they can help for sure, but it’s more than that… A good, well presented, and thought through magic trick is obviously better than a poor magic trick that is not well thought out. However, even an average magic trick performed well, is better than a great magic trick performed poorly. Presentation, patter and timing; all of these things go into making a strong performance, which will in turn get you better reactions.

Make sure you know how you are going to present your magic. The problem with a basic, ‘just watch’ presentation is that the execution must be perfect, and you will most likely open yourself up to a whole pile of questions and queries after your performance. This is not good, and it will quickly diminish any reaction you have. Dynamo has the opportunity to walk away after he performs, this is great for him and for his show, but will not work for most performing situations. Dynamo has a film crew staying with the spectators and recording reactions.. If you walked away, you wouldn’t know how they reacted!

Present the ‘moment’

When using minimal patter, what you are presenting is a ‘moment’, not an experience. When you patter and hook people into what you are saying you are making their brain work so you have more opportunity to get them to focus so you will be able to build your routine and build their anticipation before the final moment when the magic happens. They will be so caught up in your presentation so you will have a much better chance of getting a great reaction.

Non verbal communication.

The human race speaks to each other in many ways other than talking. Body language can go a long way.. Learn to be confident and open with your gestures, you may see lots of people use a gesture with their arms spread open when they finish a routine, this is called an applause cue, you are secretly cuing them to give you a round of applause. You can also act shocked and be animated to raise the energy in the performance. By moving quicker (or slower if your routine is that way inclined) you can control your spectator’s energy levels, if you present yourself well initially, you will have built some rapport with the spectators, so they will follow along subconsciously and their energy levels will increase too. Build energy and at the moment of magic, you will have a much greater chance of them reacting in a wilder way than they would usually.

Eye contact is your friend, you can definitely unnerve people and make them feel like something strange is occurring just by using eye contact. Stare at your spectators and let the stare linger for a split second more than what is comfortable, you will get used to this. Do not stare intently at them for a long time, think mysterious just a moment longer than usual. It is way too easy to come across as either flirty or over the top weird.. be aware of that.

The final last resort.

There is yet another way to get louder reactions. Simply ask for it. If you do this in a jokey fashion, for example, you say to your spectators,

‘Last time I did this, someone fainted and someone else ran away and changed religion.. Everyone else simply screamed! If you can all do that for me then I would appreciate it! Also, it’ll make that group of people over there freak out and wonder what is going on!’

This is a cheeky method, but done right it is cheeky and not cheesy. You are obviously being satirical with your comment as it is over the top, but if you ask for an 8 reaction, you may get a 7 or 6, so why not ask for an 11 and you may just get a 9! If you are going to do this, it works better if done a bit tongue in cheek. Don’t be too serious on them, the key is a cheeky playful attitude..

So there you go! Sadly, there is not ‘a trick’ or ‘a secret’ to getting great reactions, it certainly does not have a formula, but these are some of the things that work for many professional magicians . I hope they work for you too.

Image Source Nightmares Fear Factory