Ok, just feel like contributing some of my views here.

I remember when i just started, I was very reluctant to show it to my friends, because I always had this fear that they will somehow see through my techniques. This fear would play in my mind and as a result making my hands trembled during performance, not to mention my voice too. So you can imagine how my DL looked with a pair of trembling hands.

But after gaining some experience performing in front of people, I realized a lot of people really can't see and never suspect what's going on. It also made me appreciate the saying "techniques doesn't make the effect." Misdirection and patter, sometimes, are more important and vital to a effect.

Trembling with fear during effects?

Start performing self working card tricks first to gain confidence. Build confidence as well as amaze audiences. After that, slowy move on to tricks that require not many sleights and so forth.

Trembling is caused by lack of confidence in oneself. Perform more, and the trembling will cure up.

As long as you don't worry, nothing will happen. Most effects screw up because the magician is too sensitive to their own shortcomings.

I do agree with the Trembling thing, i used to perform most of the time, after that i simply just concentrate on practicing and theory stuff.

I found out that 6 months of NO-PERFORMANCE, causes me to tremble a little.

Well, trembling is due to "you are afraid of getting caught" and "lack of confidence"

Somehow Screwing up of an effect is not only due to shortcoming but sometime if you are too over-confidence, you will tend to screw up.

Performing to more people increase your confidence and experience.

Do the old actors trick. Simply just shake your hands before performance. I tend to tremble do to nervousness too!

Frankly. No offense.

It doesn't matter how much of a personality you are. If you're technically incompetent, I'd stay away fom performing to begin with. Laymen are smarter than many give them credit for. And many are too happy with their sleights to think otherwise.

Sub-standard performances educate as well as entertain. Then we wonder why are the lay public getting smarter?

Nique, its because of the exposure of magic in DVD, internet, TV. That educate ppl that magic is no longer magic. So there bound to be 2 side story, ppl that appreciate magic more, because of the hardwork that magician put in to make it look mystic, and also ppl that wants to screw the magician and say he knows how it was done.

Esp to frenz, it always happen, because u never show power in front of them 2 years ago, then suddenly u can change card, vanish a coin, so it occurs to them that it doesnt exist, its you that do all the work.

So good and bad, i think its up to yourself to do what u think its right. Learn from mistake, there are over 3 billion all over the world, 3 million in singapore. even if ur sleight is exposed during one performance, dun stop, learn from it, why u expose it, whats wrong. And from there, u learn how to react when the effect dun turn out well.

Ppl learn from mistake, baby learn to fall before he start to learn to walk, eventually, there you are, running. :) So like i say, it takes hard work. If you from the starting wanted to amaze ppl without trying, then u shouldnt be magician, magician works towards amazing himself before amazing others.

My thoughts

performance confidence has to be built up. you can have the best techniques MASTERED, but without performing, you will never know how well you do with them. blunders often occur with fear.

assuming that you have already got a well concealed move, i.e practicing in front of the mirror, move on with performing in front of your siblings or your parents. after that, move on to your best friends and join the jamming sessions the regulars arrange.

i myself haven't been to any of the jam sessions, being a new member and stuff. but i have met up with some of the other newbies in school. we exchange ideas as well as discuss angles. we only discuss about sleights and give some insights on moves that we both know. this way, tricks that he know, i won't know, and vice versa. but tricks we both know, we improve on it together.

personally, i started with my mum. she was my very first audience. then i ask her if she could see what i was doing or not. and worked on from there etc.

how the laymen manage to see through the tricks or too smart to be fooled and stuff, is not only because of the way the magician has failed. it also depends on more than just exposure videos and failure.

there are some audiences, who keep their eyes intent on the deck in your hands. no amount of patter can divert their attention. this way, false shuffles or palms are exposed immediately.

next, some people just want to create trouble, they want to see the magician in a tight spot. indirectly exposing him, or causing his trick to fail by putting the card in another place instead of where u want the card to be. i.e you want him to put the card on top, he puts in the middle of the deck etc. being a magician, if u reject the performer while performing, u would give that kind of stage presence that you're doing something fishy or incompetant, in other words, a hoax.

these kind of people exist especially in our times. they lack the respect or appreciation of the art. there's nothing we can do. we can have the perfect performer as well as all exposure videos taken off. but if the magician doesn't go out and experience all these and learn how to manage them, he will forever be incompetant. experience cannot be taught. it can be shared. but it must be felt, to gain the best of it.

so to end,

you can have perfect technique of a move, but you must be flexibile and knowledgeable to be able to switch to anther trick or be able to control your props well.

fear and trembling can never be corrected by perfecting your technique. it has to be overcomed and the best way is by performing, especially in front of audiences you don't know.

have a back up plan when your trick fails. i always have a way to identify my card in case i drop the deck, be it delibrate or accidentally, or if someone else grabs my deck and shufles it. that is a way to avoid trouble makers. a good skill to learn. as well as conceal your mistakes.

some techniques on performing i use, is to maintain a casual and relaxed atmosphere. don't force tricks down your audience. make sure they don't get a feeling that you're trying to show off.

lastly, don't be discouraged by failures or whatever we say. the purpose of magic is very broad. but if u entertained your audience, and that is your objective, you have succeeded. whether you flunk a hundred tricks and only succeed one, keep in mind of what you want, and achieve it in your performance.


these are just my thoughts and what i do. so don't flame me off if they don't work.

p.s there is no such thing as perfection, because its flaw lies in having no flaws - jemarcus


regards,
marcus.

I have a friend who's idea of watching a magic trick is to expose it.
And sometimes he can be quite sharp, but because of him I learn
to modify some moves and watch some angles. Never mind if you
get caught because we are not professional magicians, just laugh
it off. But the hardest part to get over with is nerves like what most
of you encountered, performance anxiety is my problem even among
close friends. Any advice on this from our seasoned pros..will be most
welcome. Thanks.

I hope all the babies learn to fall in magic in private.
I don't mean to sound mean here... seriously.
I just want the best for magic.
Doing very little of it nowadays; and just hope it continues to grow properly.
I'm all for learning from mistakes. But for me mistakes during performance should be of non-technical nature.

err, no offence bro.

don't mind rephrase your sentences? i can't really understand.

in addition, do define technical and non technical so we can discuss with the same assumptions.

thanks.

haha you can say i'm in the trembling stage right now.. So i've decided to aim kids as my audience for now. They are easier to misdirect. I guess i need to improve my patter too. A little more practice and i think i'll be able to proceed teens WITHOUT shaking i think.

I had the same problem too, doing alone seems like a pro, but when came to performing to frens for the first time, hand will start shaking and u cant control the card properly, lol, but now i've overcome it, but still sometimes shake abit maybe coz of hard moves or smtG? :)

As much as I agree with you (I'd hate to see a performance from someone with sub-par skills because of lack of practice) I still think that there are some problems or "situations" that you can only realise and learn from by actually performing to an audience.

Let's just say that the mirror will never throw you a curve ball and demand to shuffle your cards while you're doing your ACR. ;)

I remember seeing Darwin Ortiz perform in public several years ago. It was a relatively small group, about 30 people, and I was the only magician in the room. In the middle of his performance my girlfriend commented on how badly his hands were shaking. Nerves happen to everyone.

Common too is the problem of finding a place to be bad so that you can get better, if not good. Charity events are one great option and this group seems very committed to that avenue.

It is also true, and especially when you are relatively new to magic, that effects will evolve as you perform them. They will never be just right the first time.

You need to perform for people for you and your routines to improve. However, like niquetan suggested last May, be conscious of your skills and try not to stretch too much in public.

Yeah....i think that's why Nique meant when he says that "mistakes during performance should be of non-technical nature", i.e. the "curve balls".

:ph43r:

My bad... Today's an "off" day for me. Cheers for the heads-up... :)

Sorry for digging this thread up again, I have a couple of questions maybe you guys can help answer. First, if they keep their eyes on the cards as I misdirect i tend to falter a bit. Any idea how to get their attention on me? Secondly, I have no self confidence to carry out my trick. I only perform tricks to my friends occasionally. Any advice on how to be confident in myself?

Well, if you are talking to them, you could pause and wait for them to look up at you.
It is basic courtesy to look at a person in the eye when talking to him/her so you could use this to your advantage.
Hope this helps. :)
A.

Thanks! :lol: I'll try that next time i go out with my friends. If they're rude then it won't work haha.

A couple things come to mind. The first is advice typically given when asked when to do a pass. The answer, "You should wait until the spectators aren't looking and wait as long as that takes." Perhaps a more practical approach :) is to ask a question. In particual ask a question that is a bit out of context. "Do you think it will rain tonight?" "Does my tie go with my earing?" For that one they have to look up and my may want to be wearing both. You get the idea. If you happen to know the name of the person who is looking the hardest it is even more powerful.

BTW, the hardest group to perform for, after 13 year old boys, are friends. (If your friends are 13 year old boys you really have problems) Friends feel comfortable doing things that "normal" spectators never would. OTOH, once you feel comfortable performing for them you can do anything.

precisely. your friends will try to nitpick at your sleights and what-nots because they cannot accept the fact that the Darry they knew from school's doing all these things now. and i agree with mgshn, if you can blow them out of the water, you can probably do better with someone else. :!!:

Lol. This is so true, Friends! One of the most hardest spectators in showing my magic. But Overcome that, Overcome glory.

In fact, they are 13! And some are 14.. :wacko: thanks for all the advice people. ^_^ Really has helped me in a big way

shaking hands before the trick may be a good idea, but not for me. i get sweaty palms when really nervous. in fact, sometimes the finish of a deck makes my hand feel very sweaty too. ^_^

Yeah, self working tricks can build up that lacking confidence in you.

OR just go in front of a mirror, tell yourself that you can do it and keep repeating until you feel this surge of energy flow up, like Qi. ^_^ works, at times. :D

if their eyes are stuck on the cards, spring it into their eyes. :g: haha nay, just look clear your throat, forcing them to look back into your hypnotic eyes. :rolleyes:

actually, performing for 13 and 14 year olds are okay. you just have to relate to them (example:fan their raging hormones). :) Nay, my friends don't usually grap the deck when i'm performing. they're curious of what will happen and will not do anything to break the flow of the effect. Only after the effect, then they start grabbing the deck and i have to grab it back. :wacko:

Aaron