Improving Your Magical Performance

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Learn to present magic effects & routines to get the maximum repsonse . Good presentation is essential.

Ask questions about performance here.

Do not expose any effects or sleights on this site.

Members: 11
Latest Activity: Mar 14

I recently watched a DVD made by a very good magic company and the presenter is known as a good magician with year and years of experience.

Sitting down, excited at the prospect of being entertained and learn something new. What a let down. The footage was great quality, the performance appauling. The theme was restaurant magic. The magicians effects were great his technique was flawless and he had put a lot of thought into tweeking some effects to improve his performance. He turned his magic performance into a series of tricks/puzzles.

At each climax of an effect he came out with phrases like "That was just to warm you up." surrounding this with a strange chuckle. His patter let him down and if he had put as much effort into that he would have been great.

Anyway that is the end of a rant. Do you ever stop and think "What effect am I having on my audience.

Am I.....

Boring then,
frustrating then,
annoying them,
creating a disjointed series of effects that leave your audience wondering Why or how did he do that.
Are they amazed by the magical journey you have taken them on.

When creating a routine I have a system I try and use.

1. I try and choose a group of effects that compliment each other and have a similar theme, story or can link together.

2. Choose a theme for the routine. This and part one are inter changeable and overlap a lot.

3. each effect has a story or narrative to run through them with a beginning middle and end.

4. Develop a narrative that can be used to link from one effect to the other.

This seem easy on the surface, in reality it is one of the most difficult aspects of magical performances. If you iinteract this with the rest of your performance you will take your audience on a magical journey. There will be no need to say "That was just to warm you up", "If you liked that you will love this" or even "Would you like to see another one"

There is a question you can ask your self when developing a routine and writting patter. "Why?" "Why am I doing......?" At everystange of an effect you should begiving your audience reasons for why things are happening and why you are ding something. You don't needto go into great detail, just planting seeds so that their imagination does the rest, will create as much to create the right enviroment.

Getting the right balance when developing patter is another difficult element of developing a great routine. Remember what you are doing is going to challenge the beliefs or perception of reality of your audience. Every member of your audience has different beliefs and peceptions of the world. So what is best at creating the best enviroment for them to enjoy your entertainment? You or themselves, their imagination.

You can influence them by your actions and your words. This is a massive field and in my opinion fascinating. Some magicians look at it and say it is Mentalism or for mentalists. The truth is it is for all entertainers and used correctly will stimulate your audience with all there senses.

What ever you want to know about presentation and communication you will find here. If it is not here now and We will answer all you queations about this topic.

Discussion Forum

Why are you performing? 1 Reply

Last night I visited a relatives to have something to eat and drink with family and friends. After the food I ended up performing some magic which led on to an interesting conversation. One person…Continue

Tags: hand, trickd, of, sleight, performing

Started by Nic Castle. Last reply by Bob Renwick Feb 7.

Neglect at your peril

I heard someone on another forum say learning sleights and secrets is easy. Performance and presentation are so important. Neglect them at your peril. Once you have learned your effect you then start…Continue

Started by Paul Jones Mar 18, 2011.

What Am I Saying?

We often put a lot of effort and time into learning new sleights and new effects. When we are doing this it is important to understand misdirection. Saddly it is often highlighted that misdirection…Continue

Tags: up, stage, patter, close, street

Started by Nic Castle Feb 13, 2011.

Ask and you will recieve.

Yes it is true. We are here to help you learn how to perform your magic to the best of you ability. Knowing what to say and do at the right time can make or break a magic presentation. So if you need…Continue

Started by Nic Castle Jan 16, 2011.

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Comment by James Anthony on February 8, 2011 at 19:57: Fantastic advice there Nic.. I cannot believe that more people haven't joined this room yet.. I'll post some advice here myself very soon

:)

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