Okay anyway i was just trying out some tricks on my parents. But even performing for them my hands are trembling away. And it was so bad that i could hardly get a DL properly executed not even mentioning a pass.

Some might say practice more but when im doing it infront of the mirror everything is smooth flowing ? Plus i have doing magic for quite some time ? At least 6 months ( excluding the period where i stopped for awhile)

So any suggestions on how to not be so nervous ? :mellow:

Its not that easy unless you perform alot.

So in short, you have to keep doing it, and perform it. Not keep performing to the public and expose everything you got.

The mindset is to keep practising, until your fingers will automatic do the work without you thinking that much. So when its time for the real stuff, when you keeps talking, your mind wont be on the deck itself and the tension will be lessen. Its because we worried too much of the control itself that cause the stiffness and shake.

So just have to keep your mind off the deck, and practise more. By the way, 6 months is not alot. :) Some of us practise for 1 or 2 years and the condition is just not that bad only. :)

Ya thats why i perform to parents. But perform till they very "SIAN" already.

And secondly. If i go perform at those charity events that you people have , later i accidentally expose a trick then die liao. So i dont know practice to who the best.

Get a magic friend and practice the routine and patter with first. This way both of you can spot each other's flaws. After you get used with the effect, start to perform for close friends, relatives, girlfriend (the worst heckler in your magician's career, much more worst than an alpha male). Slowly you work your way performing for strangers.

Try to build and master a short routine first, rather than a bunch of effects all thrown together with no theme around it. (I have to thanks llamalamer for this advice)
It doesn't matter if your routine are made up of beginner's stuffs, it's the presentation that counts.

All the best and Xin Nian Kuai Le ^_^

But apparently i got no magic friends ... Haha but yea i will constantly practice ... But i still find it hard over-coming my nerves ... Its just the moment you perform infront of someone you just start trembling uncontrollably.

A suggestion: why don't you try performing tricks that doesn't require any sleights, or what might be called "self-working" tricks? That way, you don't have to worry too much. You can throw in a few sleights after getting comfortable with the experience of performing.

Btw, about your nerves, does it only happen when performing magic? Because I think your case must be quite serious. Personally, I don't really have a lot of nerves, but I have never manage to mangle a DL, but may be you are using a difficult one?

Hey! I totally know how you feel. When i started out performing for friends i was like trembling and worse still, i sort of choke when i speak too. Haha..

Totally agree with Icy. Use those self-working effects to build up your confidence and experience in handling your audience, not to mention presentational skills. I must say that those self-workers really help me out a lot.

You might wanna try out key card tricks(e.g. "mind reading") and the one behind principle trick(the one where audience and you picks the cards called out.) They're really easy to do and can get good reactions by just beefing the presentation up.

Good luck and have fun! Keep in mind that you want to entertain your audience and don't worry too much.

Okay thanks for all the advice. But one thing i realised it kind of depends on the trick ? Like certain tricks i am not as nervous. But as for self-working tricks , i don't think thats quite possible to remove a DL from your trick is it ? And what i was trying to do is the get a break underneath one card while i was holding another ... but i just couldn't do it . Usually i can but when i was doing the trick i just couldnt.

Apparently no magic friends? Steady la. i got just the solution for that. We have a gathering coming up after chinese new year. Check the meetings section. It's your chance to meet some magician friends...

ZiAn

Yup im going for that but i would probably tremble so much i can't even start of the trick. Im very shy you know ... I got problem performing for anyone not blood-related to me. Any help as to how to start of a trick when u approach someone ? And i still don't know how to get over my nerves.

Oh my sounds serious! Firstly, ive to agree with bigbadwolf, girlfriends are the most difficult people to fool!

What helped me from my early days in performing for friends till now, is to do some routine finger excercises to make them feel more "loose". Helps me calm my nerves, maybe itd work for you too! Pull your fingers, crack knuckles and shake them in the air!

And maybe before you come up to someone to perform, get in the right mindset by telling yourself that you CAN and you WILL fool them. You are THE magician and they are just laymen. Get yourself to believe in your own skills and definitely everything'll fly just fine. Mind over matter dude! =)

Good luck man!
Faiz

We all will get nervous (or excited) when we perform, even some of the pros. Just perform more... forget about the fear of making mistakes because we are all bound to make some.

By the way, I'm a smoker, I smoke to calm my nerves but I don't recommend that of course.

We all tremble. It is not easy to say that when you do a trick or effect and you are totally confident about it. I must say that even some of the best professional magicians also tremble.

But, in all honesty, we learn from the mistakes that we all make. Even if we practice alot, we are still bound to tremble. Sad to say this, but a vast majority of us tend to practise in the comforts of our rooms and probably in front of the mirrors only. There is totally zero or no interaction with other people as well as other forms of activity that is going around us. Thus, there is also nobody else to tell you that they can see all those nasty angles that you want to avoid.

I guess it is that "Magician Guilty Feeling" that also betrays you, because your audience truly belives everything that you say or do, you often tend to feel guilty about doing your "dirty"move. So, I belive, that a strong sense of the confidence while performing helps.

So my suggestion is come and join us during the upcoming CNY athering and we will be more than helpful to help. HAHA.

Hope the above helps!!

dry_gin

P.S. We are NOT the best but we will definitely try. PLEASE do not quote us. IF ever in doubt, just seek help from ADRIANLEE. He is one of the best we can offer!!

I totally know what you're getting at man. Ask any of the mods who've asked me to show a trick every now and again. my hands shake like i'm... ok never mind that haha... my hands shake alot not so bad now la but still abit... i just try concentrating on sth else like my patter (this really helps and it's good practice too btw) or sometimes just clearing my mind to help myself calm down. I use Axl's technique too... smoking but i strongly discourage that hahaha... Just keep working at it la and i guess with sufficient experience you'll grow accustomed to it...

regards
Bryan

Hi angkiki,

Truly understand what you are going through. I'm new to magic myself (1 year) and when i started out, the main trick i always perform is called the 'shaking human hands'. Sorry lame cold joke but i digress.

My 2 cents of advice is to not overextend yourself. For myself, i don't do any effects that are 'sleighty' when i started. I did self-working and F***e card/ mentalism type of effects to build up my confidence and presentation. Basically, something that is not too knuckle busting.

When practicing moves i always think to myself, can i pull this off even when i am shaking? If there's even ANY sense of self-doubt, it means that move or trick is not ready for the public yet.

Practice practice practice!

Good luck.

Okay thanks for all the good advices ! I will keep in mind the good ones ! No bad ones though except for smoking :o . Okay so anyway i will try out what you all advice me and see if my i can overcome my nerves. But sometimes your hands just tremble uncontrollably if you get what i mean.

Try performing in slightly darker environments. Such as in pubs. It's dark and everyone's drunk, so you get away with things easily. When i started, i shake alot too, but i realised that i shake alot less when it's dark.

But actually, everyone has their remedy to this problem. Some smoke, some avoid caffeine, some mentally psych themselves up. At the end of the day you have to work out what works for you.

But Uncle Bob will always tell us to slow down and take a deep breath when we get nervous. And it works!

ZiAn

hey.

I tremble too but heres my philosophy. i quote irshaad manji, "Courage is not the absence of fear but the recognition that there are more important things". Neat and it has served me well.

Get out of your comfort zone and try consciously to perform in those situations where you will tremble. And make a joke out of it, doesnt help the trembling but distracts people from it.

Any questions?

Chinmaya

I don't know if its with my routine or what , but sometimes i just start stuttering and just cant carry on with my magic.

I would advise you to come up with a script along your routine. That way, you won't wonder off and start thinking what to say next. But of course, be flexible and think of all possible situations, you might need to change your script according to the situation. You will need to know what to say next even before beginning the next sentence.

I cannot agree more.

The best way to eliminate the shakes is to have confidence in your material. The best way to have confidence in your material is to know it inside out.

I quote Doug Henning: "Practice until the hard becomes habit, the habit becomes easy, and the easy becomes beautiful."

Perhaps you can try hypnosis to get rid of your fear of performing in front of people. I know this sounds crazy but it worked for me, so maybe it may work for you too. Basically, the hypnosis trick is to get yourself to imagine yourself doing the trick in front of a lot of people again and again and again. Then u will become desensitised.

I think that it is very important to have a magician friend to help you along. I know this has been mentioned by another forummer before. It is good because it is good practise for you. And your friend can aid you in the presentation. Tell you your mistakes. Also, you won't be afraid of making mistakes as even if you screw up, the other party is also a magician. Exposing one trick accidentally to a magician is not as bad as exposing one trick to a man on the street. Think positively!

I guess it happens to all of us. Sometimes it's just the adrenaline
rush that comes with performing. It may be good to admit to your
audience that you are nervous, that would help to take the pressure
away. You can do that in a joking way like, "wow, the way you are
burning my hands make me nervous" or " I'm a bit nervous today".
And proceed to perform, trembling hands and all. What makes it
worse is you are nervous and trying very hard not to be nervous
and at the same time remembering all the sequence of the routine,
that will really put you into a mess.

Deliberately slow down the routine because when you are nervous
you tend to rush and try to get it over as soon as possible which
will make it worse, and above all ENJOY, you take up magic because
you enjoy it, right?

I actually get stress when performing for magicians.

Yea. Me too. It's because he knows all the tricks/sleights/misdirection. But it would still be entertaining for him to watch as my style of performing may be different. However, if you can perform for a magician, and endure the added stress of performing for someone who knows magic too, you should be able to perform for a layman who doesn't know anything about magic.

I said that exposing a trick due to nervousness or inadequacy to a magician is not so bad for another reason too! It is to encourage fellow amateur magicians to come forward to perform more often. To have the courage to screw up. Besides family members and close friends, fellow magicians would be great "spectators". Of course, performing for experience should not be an excuse for lack of practise.

No point practising for yourself for years in your room or in front of your mirror and no one gets entertained in the end. Nobody should be a closet magician.

In my opinion it's okay to expose a few secrets to people if you're a newbie. Trust me, spectators just can't remember the details of which parts you exposed. The thing is, we're constantly afraid of accidentally exposing the secret and in the end due to our fears, we just shake so much that it happens. Try not to think about it... (expose so what?.. once, twice, third time you'll be fine already) After that you'll be fine.

I dont think its OKAY to flash and hence exposing some techniques.

It is not. But I think its fine if you have practised to a point you are really sure of what you are doing and against all odds, you flashed, I think thats okay, and you cant be too hard on your self.


So, we should all aim for perfection first before performance rather than being mediorce.

What I'm trying to say is that like it or not, people who have nerves WILL flash the first few times whether they like it or not. Performing magic is about having fun and not constantly giving yourself too much pressure. I'm not suggesting that you flash on purpose but just don't try to give yourself too much pressure just because you're afraid to perform the first few times. It'll only make things worse.