Hi,

Here are some of my thoughts on impromptu performances:

The ‘amateur magician’… that describes about 94% of the magicians in any magic community. That does not mean that the amateur is no good. In fact, many competent magicians readily agree that some amateurs are much better than the ‘pros’, magic-wise at least.

Being an ‘amateur magician’ is just a name tagged onto someone who does not make magic his living but manages to show magic to his friends, family, clients, associates, sometimes complete strangers and of course, other magicians.

This post is specifically written for the amateur in mind, the weekend magician who enjoys performing informally for friends, family and anyone else who will watch.

Most of the magic that amateurs do is confined to impromptu close-up. At least, that is what the conditions seem to be. But good close up magicians are hardy stuck in an impromptu situation because they always have something on them that can create good magic. I am not saying that you must carry a hand chopper or set of cups and balls with you, but a TT and a couple of right sized coins can do wonders.

Here are some guidelines for the amateur performer that I feel will improve your performance immediately if you take the trouble to apply them!

- Be prepared
- Be disciplined
- Choose the most conducive performing environment. (location, sound, lighting)
- Your Act


Be Prepared

This is the Boy Scouts motto. An impromptu act is actually not impromptu. This may seem contradicting but actually your magic is not impromptu. It is the setting that appears impromptu. E.g. At a party, your friend asks you to perform some magic for his/her friends. To your friend’s friends, the performance seems off the cuff, but actually you have a well-rehearsed act all ready to perform.

The first thing to do is to choose items that seem impromptu. Cards, coins, notes, paper, rubber bands, handkerchiefs, pens, rope etc. are fine to work by. Please do not take out something that looks like a magicians prop, like a dove pan or square circle production box. Some say that even a deck of cards seem like going too far but I feel that it is natural for a magician to carry a small deck of cards in his pocket and furthermore, most people’s house would have a deck available.

As a start, about four to eight routines would be ideal. You can work your way up when you are more experienced and confident. Definitely, three routines would be the very least. Choose your effects, adding as much variety as possible and practice them well. Always practise them as a set so that you will get a smooth flow from each routine to the other.


Be Disciplined

“Most magicians when they perform close-up magic simply improvise as they go along. One trick follows another as they think of it. Sometimes the initial show builds to a climax. More usually the last trick is the least impressive of all, and is the last because it happens to be the last trick the performer thinks of.” ~ Milbourne Christopher

This seems to be the hardest rule for any one to follow. This is because we sometimes get carried away or our ego gets the better of us. Being disciplined means knowing when to stop. If you have only a four routine act, stop after you four routines are over.

DO NOT try to improvise on the spot. Chances are, you are going mess up and spoil the brilliant image you have built up for yourself over the last 15 minutes. Trust me, many good magicians have ‘gone down’ this way.
Often, as practicing magicians, we constantly have one or two effects that we are good at and about a dozen that we are currently experimenting with. When someone asks to see some magic, we will naturally do the routines that we are most familiar with. The problem arises when we have exhausted our ‘repertoire’ of well-rehearsed tricks and are asked to do more. Our mind then searches for tricks that we have tried out before but never mastered, the result, usually not too good.


Choose the Most Conducive Performing Environment

A lot of you are probably thinking that you have no control over the place you perform. That is technically untrue. You just have to learn how to exploit the environment to your fullest advantage. Here are a few things to look out for:

- Try not to perform with a mirror behind you. Besides just eliminating any chances for ‘flashes’, a mirror can actually be very distracting for the audience. E.g. people may actually try to look through the mirror to watch and see if you ‘flash’ even if your act is angle proof. Reflections from light can also be disturbing to the eyes.

- As far as possible, have a table available as this will allow you a wider range of magic to perform. It can also serve as a barrier against the audience. If you feel that your right side is ‘unprotected’ from certain moves, a table may be able to shield the sleight.

- Perform in a corner or at least against a wall. This automatically shields you from hazardous angles without directly asking audiences to shift to the front. Never tell someone that you cannot perform with them behind you, this will lower your image of being a great magician.

- If the room is two noisy, such as a stereo blasting in the background, see if you can have it turned down or move to another room.


Your Act

Here are a few pointers for structuring your impromptu act:

- Have a suitable opener, closer and encore item. It is advisable to make your first routine short and snappy (about 1 min long) in order to get the attention and interest of your audience.

- Make sure that each routine is stronger and more entertaining than the preceding one. It does not necessarily have to be more difficult technically but the effect and entertainment value should be greater.

- Prepare items suitable for table work as well as standing/in the hands type of magic. It would be ideal it your items can be performed either way.


If you follow the above guidelines and apply them in your next ‘impromptu’ performance, there will be a marked improvement. Not because you spent more time practising your sleight of hand but because you applied proper techniques.


Best,

J C Sum

Well, this post cannot come any more timely than this. B)

I am certain there are many, many, MANY of us who will be performing a thing or 2 over the next 2 days to friends, family, or that cute girl that a friend of a friend bought to the 1,001 parties that's happening all over the country. ;)

Great post! B)

Wow. That was a well written post with really good tips. B)

Thanks for the tip!

Very well written, I'm enlightened.

Good advice.

Thanx for the excellent advice JC SUM!
Good wakeup call for people like me.

Btw...Ure really J C SUM?? :!!: Cool!

Thnx! That was great help,never knew how i should put a routine together.

No, it's actually David Copperfield pretending to be JC Sum on SMC :lol: Ya lah... it's him. Unless it's an intelligent monkey at his keyboard logged into SMC... I'm just joking!!! :ph43r: :ph43r: :ph43r:

Anyways! Yes, I totally enjoyed this article. Full of wisdom and gems, much insight too from someone who's 'been there, done that' ;) Thanks for sharing this with us on the forums, JC!

ning

Gee, thanks JC for all the tips and advice.

Thank you very much,inteligent ninja monkey:ph43r: !

When i first started magic a year ago, i focused on card magic, refusing to do anything else. now, a year later i decided that that was a stupid move, and after 4 months of no magic, i decided to start again, but now with other kinds of magic. this wonderful post has enlightend me to start impromtu magic.

I repeat, Thanks very much you beautiful monkey you! :wub:

Cheers, Rishi

thanks for the post. enjoyed reading it. and it certainly helped me too.


thanks again! ^_^


stuart

wow it actually help me a lot . Thank your for your good advice

Wow, thanks man. Totally enjoyed reading it.

that's good tips for impromptu tricks...
i've beneffited from it!!! =)

Another sincere thanks jcsum for taking the time to share.
I would definitely take it into account when scheduling any acts

Wow, every word is gold up there! Thank you so much, JC Sum!!! I want to thank you so much for spending the time to write that article for amateur magicians like us!

I've found that a table is also useful as a "centre of focus". Especially when you have laid the deck down on the table and are talking for a while, it seems absolutely fair as if nothing has happened even though you might have just done something.

I sometimes let it plateau for a while then put in a kicker. Has anyone tried that before?

Has anyone had any issues with attracting attention before the routine? If you are at youre friends, you might be competing against people conversing etc for attention and sometimes people do not really come out of it. Any advice?

Thanks
CSJ

I only recently discovered this post by JC through a link from a post in MMF. Golden advice not only for beginners but also really applicable to seasoned 'pros' and anyone in between

Great tips. I think this post really helped me improve since I last read it. ^_^

Hiya

Is it too late to say thanks ???

Thanks

Lordjim

Good advice


[SIZE=1]Mod: Please do not give one liners. You have been warned.[/SIZE]

Great tips! I will become better if i apply those

Wah, this thread is almost a year old! Let's hope the author comes back to see you praise him.

Zi An

Thanks!

Best impromptu advice I ever heard.

Never imagine impromptu magic is so complicated.

Great tips

-blue_mode_1

Is this truely your thoughts on impromptu magic? This is an excellant write-up except the part where you find yourself a corner to perform.

My opinion is such that wall corners are a bonus but should not be taken for granted.

Bryan!

Erm i guess its even later for me to say thanks.

Totally i was enlighten by the first post, will act on it from now on :D As i find most if not all of it true :g:

Once again thanks :!!:

Hi

I got a question here, you did mention that one needs to know when to stop, after exhausting all your routines, as in well practice once, however what if the audience keeps on wanting to see more. As in i was in a few situations where by i exhausted all my well practice tricks but the audience was still very interested. When i turned them down, the atmosphere became slightly awkward and i have no idea what to do then. What should i do then?

Thanks

To Haruhi:

There are a few options open to you:

1) Hurl your props at someone and fake an epileptic seizure.
2) Say "I'll now make a man disappear." Then walk away.
3) Start a new trick and mess it up then say in a horrified manner while staring at your hands, "Is it midnight already?!"
4) Play impromptu russian roulette with knives and fail.
5) Ask for a $5 note from everyone. Then declare that you were just collecting payment for the tricks they just saw and if they want more, they'll have to pay another $5.
6) Or you can just hold back a couple of effects all the time and when they request more, just protest a bit before you say, "Alright, alright... One last one." And end with a bang.

6 is what I do too.

Don't exhaust my repertoire, chances are, if your spectators are interested and you performed successfully, they will ask you to show them another effect.

Leave the best for the last.

The fourth option is really the best. It never fails to get attention and reactions from your audience. =P Trust you to think of that Maddened.

Jokes aside.

Haruhi, the question is not what you should do then but what you should have done before.

Rather than performing one trick after another, routine a few tricks together into a set and perform the set. This means you will have to think through your entire routine and ensure that when you perform your closer, you have made it clear to the audience that you are finishing off with that last one trick.

You could say something along the lines of "For the next trick, it's a very special one and it's also going to be my last one for today, etc." (Just an example.)

After you have finished the last trick, conclude by thanking everyone for their attention and hope that they have enjoyed your performance. This brings closure to your entire performance and you will avoid the awkwardness of your situation.

Hmm... actually I would choose option 1. :P

Anyway, for people to keep wanting more, you must have been DAMN GOOD. If that is the case, your prestige would have been sky-high with your audience, and you could easily tell them politley but with authority that "that's all for the night and maybe next time... good things are worth the wait."

Any reasonable human being would not be that bad to keep heckling you to perform and the danger is actually to give in to their request, thus devaluing yourself. :D

Hey thanks for the replies.

Just wondering though how does one actually craft a routine, i mean yea it is a couple of tricks strung together but are these tricks under the same theme, or just strung together just because they are convenient. I mean i have seen people stringing card tricks and rubber ban tricks for no apparent reason together and that makes no sense even in the flow

Thanks

Cheers
Haruhi

Hi Haruhi,

Do a search in the forums. This topic has been covered a few times I believe. You will be able to find good advice or recommendations to sources that will help you.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hello haruhi!

I think crafting of routines takes time and for me, I feel I must be completely comfortable with it. If you have a close group of friends, you could try them out and seek for feedback, which is what I did, and thats useful for me so far.

And if you have a mentor, that will be great as you can look to him for advice :)